It’s a good old-fashioned prison break for gaming’s favourite angry Spartan as the God of War series fills in the story’s early blank pages with this super-fighty prequel.

But it’s not just any prison. This is a penitentiary cobbled from the giant form of its first inhabitant, the barely pronounceable, multiple-limbed leviathan Hecatonchires, and it makes for a brutally impressive opening gambit.

The seventh GoW title is a solid, visually pounding hack-and-slash beastie, but Kratos isn’t anywhere near as miffed as he appears in earlier software. This makes perfect sense in the GoW timeline, but old Painty Face is far more fun to play when he’s stomping about purple with rage.

Comparatively, he’s more Kevin the Teenager than Bruce Banner.
Sparty Pants also dips his chains in a multiplayer puddle for the first time, with some larks to be had, particularly in the survival-mode Trial of the Gods, but nothing with an original hat on.

So we’re on solid GoW ground here, which is comforting, but it’s a pity we couldn’t push the envelope and try something wildly different with the series.

Still, better comfortable than suffering the eye scalpel of disappointment.