God of War's Leviathan Axe is a Mechanical Marvel

After seven titles with the Blades of Chaos wrapped around his wrists, Kratos has been given a brand new weapon in the recently-released God of War: the Leviathan Axe. Boy, is it fantastic.

The axe is ever-present throughout Kratos’ journey across the nine realms of Norse mythology. From the very first scene, in which Kratos uses it to cut through an ancient tree, the Leviathan Axe is your companion. Crafted by Brokk and Sindri, the dwarves from Norse myth who forged Thor’s famous hammer Mjollnir, it’s a totally new form of combat for Kratos.

While the Blades of Chaos had their own effectiveness, they always felt like quite lightweight weapons, swinging and slashing across the screen effortlessly. Fighting with the Leviathan Axe is almost the polar opposite: every single strike has enormous weight to it, whether you’re cleaving a draugr in two or or slicing and dicing a group of Nemeses.

Santa Monica Studio has obviously put a fistful of work into making the axe an extension of Kratos’ body. He moves in tune with the weapon, grimacing with every heavy strike and shuddering at each crushing impact. The game’s sound design weaves its way beautifully through these set pieces, with weighty thuds and cracks signifying a successful blow.

Much like Mjollnir, the Leviathan Axe can be thrown and recalled at will. It's this mechanic that opens up God of War’s stunning combat and turns it from a satisfying experience to a genre-defining one. The axe can be thrown lightly and quickly, or with real gusto, and will spiral away from Kratos’s hands whistling as it goes.

Throwing the axe allows Kratos to get down and dirty using his fists and expanding shield. It’s a badass moment that demonstrates the character’s milieu - every time I advance on an enemy, axe twirling away to decapitate a distant foe and Kratos bunches his fists I can’t help but think oh it’s on, now.

At any moment in time, Kratos can recall the axe, holding out his hand for it to thump back into place with a satisfying thud. Any enemies in between him and the axe are swiftly treated to magical weaponry slamming into their bodies. It’s as if the developers watched Marvel’s Thor films, saw how fun Mjollnir looked to use, and opted to include it wholesale. If you happen to leave your axe behind while puzzling or exploring, and encounter a new enemy, the recall will last just that little longer. Kratos will hold his arm out and you’ll be treated to the sound of the axe bouncing it’s way back across the map.

Throwing, recalling and fist-fighting all blend together into one incredible flow, and create some almost cinematic moments in nearly every single encounter in the game. All three have their own upgrade trees, allowing for customisation and a tailoring of the combat to your liking. When you add Atreus bouncing around in the background, firing arrows and somersaulting over enemies, it creates a dynamic unseen in any videogame I’ve ever played.

The Leviathan Axe can be upgraded in a variety of ways with light and heavy “Runic” (magic) attacks and fitted with new handles to imbue it with extra traits like health regeneration or barrier creation. It creates a sense of player freedom, as they choose whether they want to stun, deal damage or freeze enemies. Players can craft an axe of their liking. The weapon also gets a shiny new coat the further you progress into the game - though I won’t be mentioning that here to avoid spoilers.

In going back to basics and working from the ground up, Santa Monica Studio has created a game which is currently blowing away all expectations for narrative single-player gaming. Every piece in God of War fits together so tightly and cohesively that even something as simple as the Leviathan becomes a key part of the player’s story. The game trusts you to discover your own way of using the weapon, and thus it becomes not just Kratos’s treasured axe, but the player’s, too.