God of War: Technical and Graphics Analysis Reveals the Prettiest GoW to Date

A new, highly-anticipated entry in the legendary God of War series is finally upon us. God of War launches on PS4 on April 20, and this morning our friends at Digital Foundry have released a new video preview to highlight the technology which could elevate this game to assume the throne of "prettiest PS4 exclusive." Right now we think it's safe to assume that Horizon Zero Dawn currently occupies that throne, but after viewing the video above, we think that Santa Monica Studio is going to pull it off.

For anyone interested, or for those of you who are sitting in class or in an office right now, you can read the full report on Eurogamer right here. As you're about to see, the latest God of War breaks from the rest of the series in more ways than one.

Not only are we dealing with a very different Kratos this time around, and different mythological canon, we're also dealing with some very different modes of presentation. The most significant change from Gods of War past is the position of the camera, which follows Kratos closely over the shoulder in a third-person view.

Third-person Kratos is what we've always known and loved, but we're used to the camera being significantly further away, and more dynamic. In the past, this has allowed for the spontaneous introduction of grand, large-scale combat encounters. While we're sure the new God of War will have no shortage of epic fight scenes, we do wonder how they might be tempered or scaled down to accommodate the new camera angle.

When it comes to visuals and performance, there can be no debating that Santa Monica Studio has ascended to new plateaus of technical wizardry. God of War looks amazing, and Digital Foundry was especially pleased by the heavy use of volumetric lighting and particle effects. Layered throughout all of this technical magic is, to put it plainly, great character and world design. Here's a brief snippet from the report:

"Kratos himself is extremely detailed and beautifully shaded, with lots of fine detail across his clothing and accessories. The various characters are similarly detailed and consistent in quality throughout the footage we have. On top of that, the world itself is extremely cohesive with visual elements working together to create something natural yet fantastical. There is clear evidence that we're looking at a full physically-based rendering workflow, as materials do appear highly realistic - but it's also likely that the art has been modified to fit the more stylistic approach embraced by the team."

You guys are very likely to see more video previews emerge as the day wears on, and all of it is looking gorgeous. We can't wait to get our hands on this one; we're willing to bet our shirts (our nice, WWG shirts) that we're looking at a 2018 GOTY contender, here.