God of War launched in April, and it’s still making jaws drop across the internet. A recent Reddit post got smacked with upvotes today as one player shared a brief action sequence that showcases the game’s incredible particle effects, which continue to amaze and dazzle us. Check it out:
Videos by ComicBook.com
There’s nothing particularly special about the fight scene being shown here. It’s not a big boss fight or one of the many impressive set-pieces you’ll encounter while playing the game. This is just one player highlighting something that most players will probably take for granted or miss altogether when playing through God of War for the first time. The ice, the sparks, the splatters, the debris… It’s everywhere, and it’s mesmerizing.
When we think of visually-impressive games, or games with “good graphics,” it’s easy to lean on incredible textures, insanely-high polygon counts, and high numbers of characters or enemies on-screen. All of those things can be incredibly taxing on a GPU, and at times, we see all of those things in God of War. The GPU-accelerated particle effects are simultaneously more subtle and more impressive than any of those things, in my opinion, because they’re implemented to excess with no perceivable hit on performance.
And we’re not the only ones blown away by God of War‘s particle effects. Shortly after the game launched, Eurogamer’s tech-analysis arm Digital Foundry pointed out just how central to the game’s presentation the particle effects can be:
“Particles are another impressive feature – GPU-accelerated particles are used in abundance throughout the game,” Digital Foundry’s John Linneman remarked. “Everything from the ashes and sparks during combat to the performing of a door opening ritual results in a gorgeous shower of GPU accelerated particles. It’s something that was a big deal early in the generation but has been toned down in more recent games – the fantasy setting of God of War is a perfect place to showcase such effects.”
Have you played through God of War yet, and if you did, what impressed you most about the presentation? Did Santa Monica’s signature boss fights surprise you as much this time as they did in God of War 3? Did you notice all of the particle effects as your fought and slashed your way through foes? Did the environments blow you away? Let us know in the comments below!
