God of War Sons of Sparta Review

Revealed during Sony’s first State of Play for 2026, Santa Monica Studio has partnered with Mega Cat Studios to create a spin-off for the God of War series that sees you playing the youngest version of Kratos yet. It’s also a genre change up with God of War Sons of Sparta being a 2.5D Metroidvania which looks to combine the combat the series is known for alongside the many tools and equipment Kratos usually gets everygame, suiting the Metroidvania formulla very well; Mega Cat Studios have crafted a perfectyl fine entry, but one that might leave some missing the screaming and angered Kratos we’re used to seeing in the games.

Playing as a teenage Kratos who’s been honoured with an Eiren’s pass, which allows him and his brother alongside him to venture outside the walls of Sparta and explore and hunt “for the glory of Sparta!” The game’s main questline is a relatively simple one compared to the other games, and its epic scale, but it works within the confines it’s placed in. An older Kratos is actually telling this story to his daughter, Caliope, before the events of the original God of War. The mission both Kratos and brother, Deimos, set themselves upon is finding a missing Spartan, against all orders, but because it’s the right thing to do.

Kratos is shown as a teenager, a sort of army brat. He’s a proud Spartan, he’s honour bound, and for the most part, wants to do what he’s told to rise in the ranks and become one of Spartan’s strongest warriors. He is also shown to be family-bound and loving to his brother Deimos, which adds some interesting layers, knowing what Kratos and his brother will go through together some ten years later.

The mission to find the missing Spartan boy, Vasilis, leads them to many different locations, from poisonous swamps to snowy mountains to an occult-led village. There’s also plenty of room for different enemy varieties along the way, and of course, boss fights that take the form of giant snakes to daemons.

Combat starts very simply for the first five or more hours of God of War Sons of Sparta, which is where other Metroidvan’s succeed in making combat more interesting in the early hours. Kratos only has one weapon the whole game, his Spartan spear. He does get a shield to block with, and can change up gear in a similar fashion as you would in God of War Ragnarok. Once you unlock some magical weapons, things get a bit more interesting. You can use magic attacks to release health orbs you’ll need, especially in boss fights, and then normal attacks will build up your magic metre again, encouraging you to use all forms of your attacks, including special weapon attacks, which drain your stamina. If you spend the time to venture off and do some side quests and get some collectables, you’ll be able to upgrade these weapons/tools so they can do some massive AOE damage, and also upgrade your health and magic bars. Both of which are needed, because the game has some sharp difficulty spikes towards the back-end, with some boss fights requiring a lot more effort and lock-in than the one that came before it.

I finished the game around 15-16 hours. However, I’ve spent a bit over twenty now post-game as there were still some uncovered areas on the map, and side-quests to look into. With a bunch of collectables left, I’d assume it’s around 25 hours to do everything the game has to offer, which is a much larger experience than what you may think in the early hours of the adventure.

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There’s a co-op mode that opens up after you finish the game as well, where you and a friend can play as Kratos and Deimos together in some arena combat. I don’t know why this is locked until you finish the game, but it’s there.

Some of the boss creature designs, as well as the environments, are well done, and there’s a great variety across the different areas, making adventuring feel different, but I did feel that the actual character models themselves, Kratos included, are rather bland. Pair that with voice performances that feel rushed and don’t add much to the narrative, and it’s a bit of a mixed bag in terms of production. The voice acting was rather bland, which annoyed me, as I was genuinely enjoying seeing Kratos and Deimos interact as kids before their lives were turned upside down.

It feels like Mega Cat Studios set out to make a genuinely more old-school Metroidvania, rather than one inspired by the older games, which leaves it slower and less exciting than other, more recent entries in the genre. I still had a good time with the game; however, its narrative, even if small, feels important to who Kratos would become later in life.

(Review code provided to Explosion Network.
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