Published On 22/2/2026
The latest addition to the popular God of War game series, developed by Sony’s Santa Monica studios, has not been as popular as other games in the series.
It is now the lowest-rated game in the series by critics and across game evaluation platforms such as Metacritic and others, according to a report published by TheGamer, an American gaming website.
The game now holds an average rating of 65% from an average of 38 reviews by gaming experts, according to the game page on the Metacritic platform, which collects average game reviews, as well as an average rating of 6.2 from player ratings based on 633 players across the platform.
The report currently confirms that the modern game is the worst game released by Sony in the “God of War” series, after the title went to the “Ascension” part, which the company released in 2013 on the “PlayStation 3” devices.
But why did the game get such a bad rating? Do you really deserve it now?
A different experience than before
Santa Monica Studio chose to follow a different formula this time in God of War: Sons of Sparta. Instead of focusing on fast-paced adventure games that offer combat scenes and some puzzles, the game came with a 2D design from the famous “Metroidvania” category.
The games that follow this category are characterized by a design that mimics the famous “Metroid” or “Castlevania” games, which are two-dimensional puzzle games that rely on jumping in place while presenting monsters and enemies that can be eliminated.
The game follows the story of Kratos and his brother Deimos before his death, and Kratos turned into the “god of war” who eliminated all Greek mythology and later moved to the Scandinavian civilization.
The game also provides a joint multiplayer experience, but it becomes available after completing the game’s main story, according to statements by the developer studio and the American technical website Polygon.
The difference in the game extends to the graphic style it chose. Instead of choosing a graphic style that focuses on realism like the previous parts, the developers preferred to rely on a style closer to oil paintings.
Because the game relies on a completely different perspective than the previous parts, many of the details of the characters and their designs disappear in favor of the background designs or surrounding environments, according to the Polygon website’s review of the game.
Fun experience
The American technical review by Polygon and GamesRadar confirms that the game “Sons of Sparta” is enjoyable in a different way from the previous parts, and both reviews agree that the game is not as genius or unique as the rest of the games in the series, but it is not bad.
The game adheres to the traditional formula presented by the famous “Metroidvania” games, and instead of trying to innovate or redefine the category, it volunteers its story to closely match the gameplay.
The same applies to the reviews on the Metacritic platform, as the majority of reviewers agreed that the game is not impressive or revolutionary, which is frustrating for them and for users.
Why does it exist in the first place?
Perhaps if this game had been released under any other slogan except “God of War,” it would have achieved relatively better success, but the association of the game’s name with the series made it lose a lot, as the review by the American technical website “Meristation” explains, which gave it a score of 50.
The reviews that appeared on the Metacritic platform and the opinions of the players can be summarized in that the game is disappointing and does not live up to their expected level of expectations from the “God of War” series, which has presented many very successful and prominent games.
A review by the British technical site Gamereactor asks why the game exists or is sold in stores, as it is closer to a sub-project that should not be displayed or sold, and it could have been issued for free or bundled with another game.
