In 2018, PlayStation and Sony Santa Monica Studios brought Kratos back to star in a new video game simply called God of War. Before the game’s announcement at E3 2016, there were many questions surrounding the future of the franchise. It had been quite a few years since the last mainline game, and no one was quite sure where Kratos could go next.
Having him jump into a Norse mythological world was unexpected, but made so much sense. Add in the new relationship he had with his son, Atreus, and you’ve got a game that revitalized the series.
With that original game and God of War: Ragnarök now behind us, we are back at an unknown point for the series. There’s no word yet on what the future will bring, so if you are striving for more of that God of War action, here are some games you should consider playing.
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The Last of Us Parts I & II
It’s easy to see that a lot of the motivation for the behind-the-back camera angle in God of War came from The Last of Us. Cory Barlog and team just took it a step further and made it never cut away from Kratos or Atreus. The cordyceps apocalypse in The Last of Us is, obviously, a very big departure from Norse mythology, but the series is well-known for its story and the shooter and stealth gameplay don’t take away from the experience.
If you consider yourself a dedicated PlayStation gamer, the odds are that if you played the recent God of War games, you have also played The Last of Us. If you somehow haven’t but did watch the HBO Max series and got intrigued, we recommend giving the Last of Us remasters a try.
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Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
In Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, you play Senua, a woman who deals with a mental illness that causes her to see hallucinations and hear voices in her head constantly. Her lover, Dillion, was killed as part of a sacrifice to the Norse gods, so she is traveling to Helheim to ask Hela, the goddess of death, for his soul back.
Hellblade is quite a surreal experience, especially when play with headphones on. Hearing a group of voices constantly pulling you in different directions puts you in the boots of Senua in a unique way you don’t see in other games. There is combat in the game, which doesn’t nearly reach the God of War levels of intensity and fun, but if you are looking for a unique story that will stick with you, you should give this game a try.
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II (If You Have a PC or Xbox)
When the original Hellblade released, it was a PlayStation exclusive. However, years later, the developer of the series, Ninja Theory, was acquired by Microsoft and became part of the Xbox Games Studios family. In 2024, it released a sequel to Senua’s Sacrifice called Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2. If you have an Xbox or PC, you can play this game to get more of the same experience from the original game, though it is more focused on freeing slaves than traveling into Hell for a soul. The graphical updates and spatial sound is still top of the line, so we highly recommend playing this with headphones on as well. Given Xbox’s willingness to put their games on PlayStation, we wouldn’t be surprised if it made the jump to PS5 soon, but as of this writing, it is not there yet.
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Rise of the Tomb Raider
When it comes to the Tomb Raider reboot series, we highly recommend any of the games, but the second game, Rise of the Tomb Raider, is easily the best in our opinion. Lara Croft has been on all kinds of adventures over the years, but the third-person action adventure games reached new heights with this 2015 game. There are tons of high-paced action with an interesting story backing it up. The climbing mechanics of the original game return, with a lot of focus on combat with various weapons and finding secrets.
Rise of the Tomb Raider was a game that was overlooked by many people when it originally released because the focus was widely on Fallout 4 at the time, and the game started as an Xbox exclusive. With that being said, we highly recommend anyone who didn’t get a chance to play it the first time through to do so now for a different action experience when compared to God of War, but comparable in quality.
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Ghost of Tsushima
Another PlayStation exclusive, Ghost of Tsushima carries on the great third-person action adventure games that PlayStation Studios excels at making. Here, you play as Jin Sakai, a samurai, who is left for dead on a battlefield when the invading Mongols overwhelm an army he was a part of. The game heavily focuses on traveling around the land, finding allies, and defeating enemies through fights with your katana or using stealth.
If you enjoyed the open world aspects of the recent God of War games, Ghost of Tsushima will be something that captures your attention. The landscapes are beautiful and there are plenty of quests to eat away at the hours of the day as you become a mighty samurai striking down the Mongols.
Ghost of Yotei
If you have already played Ghost of Tsushima, we recommend waiting to play Ghost of Yotei. This standalone sequel is set about 300 years after the events of the first game and is supposed to release sometime in 2025, but as of this writing, is not out yet. We don’t know much about the game at the moment, besides it has a new protagonist named Atsu who takes on the Ghost mantle to get revenge on those who murdered her family. Like we said, very little is known about the game yet, but you can expect more of the Ghost of Tsushima formula in play here.
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Assassin’s Creed Odyssey/Valhalla
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Valhalla give you huge maps to get lost in. These are games that will take quite a bit of time to beat as you level up, gather better gear, and complete missions. Ubisoft is well-known for following specific formulas when it comes to its games, and this series is one of the biggest reasons for that.
Odyssey, in particular, is one of our favorite games from the entire series and is focused on Greek mythology during the Peloponnesian War. If you played the original God of War games and love that theme, there’s more of it here. Kassandra is one of the best protagonists from these games, in our opinion, and getting a bunch of abilities themed around the spear of Leonidas is really cool.
Valhalla, on the other hand, is focused on the Norse, with you taking control of Eivor, a viking who helps their clan claim a stake of land in the British Isles. We may prefer the former, but Valhalla is no slouch by any means.
Are the other Assassin’s Creed games like God of War?
If you have already played Odyssey and Valhalla, there are plenty more Assassin’s Creed games you can play to try and get that open world checklist play. Origins and Shadows both follow the giant RPG templates of those games and have cool stories based in Ancient Egypt and the Sengoku period of Japan. We wouldn’t quite compare the other games to God of War, but there are plenty of high-quality adventures to play that include the Ezio Trilogy of Assassin’s Creed II, Brotherhood, and Revelations, or Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, which is pirate-focused.
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DmC: Devil May Cry
DmC: Devil May Cry is an attempted reboot of the Devil May Cry series that never really took off with long-time fans because of Dante’s redesign but has always been considered to have good gameplay. If you don’t have a history with the other games, you may come out of this adventure having a rather fun time shooting up and slicing demons.
If you enjoyed the original days of God of War, you will probably find more enjoyment in Devil May Cry. You’re not going to have as interesting of a story like the one told with Kratos and Atreus, with most of the focus being on action and getting as many combos on enemies as possible.
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Final Fantasy 7 Remake/Rebirth
The original Final Fantasy 7 is one of the most famous PlayStation games of all time. If you happened to play it back in the 90s, you can’t go wrong with playing Final Fantasy 7 Remake or Rebirth. Square Enix took the original story from the famous RPG and expanded on it, with both games being portions of that original game with quite a few changes and twisted elements. The biggest difference is that combat is no longer a turn-based nature, instead being more action-focused.
At the core of it, you’re still playing as Cloud, Tifa, Barrett, and Aerith, who have their strengths and quirks about them in battle, but the voice acting and performances help deliver a much more gripping tale for today’s audience.
