God of War (2018) Novelisation - J M Barlog
SPOILER WARNING
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Normally I’m not a fan of novelisations of other forms of media, I feel like they take away from the magic of the source material, an example of this is the novelisation of The Force Awakens. However, for the most part, Barlog succeeds in making the novelisation of his brothers game additive without going over the top and spoiling some of the mystery left for the players to ponder.
The story is wholly unchanged with tiny exceptions mostly due to changes in pacing for sections of the novel compared to the video game.
The change in pacing is the first topic I’d like to hit on here. Obviously, in a video game, there is an emphasis put on the action set pieces of the game (unless its a Quantic Dream game) an example from God of War is the fight with the Bridge Keeper. In the game, this fight can be a bit of a slog (at least it was for me) however in the novelisation Kratos dispatches the opponent with ease. This doesn’t change the narrative of the source material, but it changed my perception of Kratos, making him feel much more like a highly skilled warrior as opposed to the bumbling representation of one when I controlled him with my DualShock 4.
On the other side of the pacing change, is that the novelisation allows the reader more time to explore the relationship between father and son, which one may miss travelling through the world map. In particular, the stops the pair take on their journey, with conversations between the two and individual thoughts more fleshed out.
The other tweak that I absolutely loved was seeing Atreus’ perspective on the journey. In the video game, we see everything through Kratos’ point of view. It was refreshing to be able to see the journey from the eyes of a child, other than what he would exclaim whilst traversing the game. The moment that this really stuck to me was when Kratos “disappears” in Alfheim, in the video game we only see Kratos persuing Faye and then the aftermath of what we assume is Atreus having slain dozens of dark elves. In the novelisation instead, we get to experience the panic and desperation Aretus feels. Making the entire ordeal even more dramatic.
What a cutie
The final point I’d want to make is one I both liked, but also at times could have done without. This is that there is some context or extra weight to certain lines, that has been added to the can feel a little too much. An example when it is done well is the extra emphasis put on Mímir’s ponderance as to how Jörmungandr has met Atreus and the explanation of Ragnarok. The one place where I really didn’t like the additional context was where Kratos recalls a memory to himself of being dragged to Midgard by wolves (we can speculate could be Fenrir, Sköll and Hati). To me, this feels like too much information and reveals a little too much of the mystery of how Kratos appears in this new realm. Other than that point and a few smaller sections I very much appreciated the added nuggets of content from Barlog.
To wrap up I really do hope video game novelisations continue to be a thing, I am aware other series do this, but none I’ve read have lived to the quality of the source material as God of War has. I sincerely hope that going forward video game novelisations use the example of God of War as their template as to how to bring a unique perspective on a game, without straying too far from what makes the original experience so great.