Boy…Read this! After 4 months since God of War’s(PS4) release, the much desired New Game Plus update is at last available. The 1.30 update which comes with the free New Game Plus option allows players who beat the game already to keep all of their weapons, skills, items, armor and hacksilver. This is especially good news if you wanna take down all the Valkyries. I gave up last play through after defeating only one. I was playing on the same difficulty level as I am now which is a balanced experience or Medium if you prefer.
The new update also gives Kratos and Atreus some new goodies right out of the gate. The God of War has a new shield called Aegis of Reconciliation which feels meatier than the one last used. The boy has some new armor called Tunic of the Champion which has great stats and much like Kratos’s new shield is classified as perfect which is better than rare. It seems that you can forge new armor in Plus, I’m still early in the new game, so haven’t done that yet.
Also new to the update is enemy attack patterns have changed. I have yet to notice any real differences, but can tell you that the bosses I’ve faced thus far fight the same. The troll was a pushover this go around because of my upgrades and the Stranger although still tough was easier to deal this time with my level 5 Leviathan Axe and level 4 Blades of Chaos. Apparently the Valkyries have different attack patterns, hopefully ones that mean I will beat them all this time.
When starting a New Game Plus game, you can switch to a different difficulty than your previous play through. You can even switch difficulty levels on the fly if you’re getting bored or frustrated with the way the game is going. If you have chosen the give me God of War difficulty in New Game Plus, you can’t go down to a lesser difficulty however. Even being a veteran of the God of War’s, I still would never play god mode unless I really wanted to buy a new dual shock 4 controller every time I got frustrated. Kratos may have the Rage of Sparta, but I have the Rage of the Nerd, far more deadly.
Their is apparently a new piece of chest armor as part of the 1.30 update that creates massive explosions whenever health or rage stones are stomped on. Something I’m definitely going to try if an enemy is stunned and I am in the right position to do it. The new rarity level for armor and other such items is perfect. By obtaining a new resource called Skap Slag, you can now upgrade any gear you have to perfect.
You can also skip any cinematic cut scenes in the game, yet honestly why. I love watching those scenes, but I guess if you’re not in the mood it’s nice just to have the option to skip them. Although in any of the Metal Gear Solid games which contain some very long cinematic cut scenes, I never skipped. Not even MGS 4, and that game had more hours of cut scenes than actual gameplay, yet I loved every minute of them.
In addition to some bug fixes and new armor improvements, New Game Plus is the one thing fans have been waiting for. And even if you haven’t beat the game yet, the other mentioned features should make things more enjoyable. If anyone has beaten all the Valkyries on Give me God of War mode, please share your experience in the comments, and perhaps some helpful advice to myself and other players on they can go emerge victorious over the Valkyrie Queen. Until next time, I’m off to the mountain to scatter Fayes ashes for a second time, wish me luck.
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