God of War. Side by side with gods

God of War is a rather old franchise and will be celebrating its 20-year anniversary in two years. These days it is extremely popular again thanks to the excellent work of Sony Santa Monica Studio. After 5 years they were able to create a new chapter of Kratos’ story for the next generation consoles, which boasted detailed graphics and a new look at classic characters. And since today single fathers are becoming more common… We have an opportunity to look at Kratos through the eyes of his son instead of the developers’point of view in The Art of God of War.

In Atreus’ footsteps

Rick Barba was able to create an unorthodox artbook that can interest the readers in young Atreus’ perspective on things. It is much more novel to read about something happening “very long ago” (because that’s how the kid imagines it) and that the only vulnerability of a certain enemy is “frost and Father’s fury”. However, this approach has both pros and cons.

So everyone will have to decide for themselves if it will be worth to read about things that have happened during the game’s story.

About Mom, the journey and the beasts…

The book has 5 chapters and each of them talks about a topic Atreus is interested in:

1. “Mom’s Teachings” tells us about Atreus’ life with his mother up until her death. We can learn about their conversations, prayers and exciting legends.

2. “The Journey” is about all the places and sights Kratos and Atreus had visited on their journey to the highest mountain in all the worlds.

3. “The Great Winter” details what happened after scattering the ashes up unto the end of the game (extremely pleasant to read in Ukrainian!).

4. “Tales of the North” are Mimir’s stories (about different gods and events), tales of the Giants and Atreus’ personal chronicles of the North (since long past until today).

5. “The Bestiary” is all about different types of enemies we meet in the game with their strengths and weaknesses and some interesting additions from the legends. It’s important to understand that all this information is directly from the game so this is useful for those who don’t have access to it or just want a nice book for their bookshelf.

So is it worth buying?

This is, without a doubt, a wonderful addition to Mal’opus’ collection of artbooks. Every page is unique and beautiful visually and the imitation of a notebook-like style is a not often seen approach. Although you probably won’t learn anything new from it.

Please continue supporting both us and Mal’opus Publisihing to get even more enjoyable quality work in Ukrainian about video game universes!

More on the project here.

by Bohdana Vozniuk

translated by Yurii Bisyk

June 26, 2023

And some more beautiful photos for those who read all through to the end.