Is God of War Sons of Sparta worth it at $29.99?
The short answer
At $29.99, God of War Sons of Sparta is a 20+ hour canon God of War story with a 4/10 platinum and zero missable trophies — and it is also a Metroidvania that critics judged shallow. Metacritic sits at 64/100 from 79 reviews and OpenCritic at 29% recommended from 86. Both of those are true at the same time.
So the useful answer is not a score, it is a filter:
| If you are… | Buy it | Because |
|---|---|---|
| A God of War fan who wants the canon gap filled | Yes | It is the earliest story in the series and it is canon |
| A Metroidvania fan looking for the next Hollow Knight | No, at this price | The genre layer is what reviewers found thinnest |
| A trophy hunter | Yes | 4/10, 20+ hours, nothing missable, no NG+ needed |
| Someone who wants a short, cheap, complete game | Yes | $29.99, ~15 hour story, no live service |
| Someone who bounced off the Norse games' length | Yes | This is a different, much smaller thing |
What the mixed reception actually says
The criticism is remarkably consistent, and it is about one thing: depth of the Metroidvania design, not the story.
- Game Informer (6.5/10) — every Metroidvania element is present but only at a base level or lower.
- IGN (6/10) — it does not meet the standard of others in the genre, though combat is "the most reliably compelling thing going on".
- GamesRadar+ (3/5) — the experience is unsatisfying.
- Eurogamer.de (3/5) — the exploration is "genuinely fun" and "solid genre work", just not outstanding.
Notice that the two stars of the positive side of that list are the same things: exploration is fun, combat is reliable. The negative is that neither goes far enough to compete with the genre's best.
What the story is, and why it matters more than the score
Sons of Sparta is the tenth game in the series and the first chronologically, set before Ascension and before the flashbacks in Ghost of Sparta. It is written by the team behind God of War (2018), Ragnarök and Valhalla, and it is explicitly a canon story: Kratos at thirteen, at the Agoge, with his brother Deimos, searching for a missing comrade.
That is a real answer to a real gap. Deimos is a character the series has referenced for fifteen years, and this is the first game that puts him on screen as a person rather than a backstory event.
If that is the thing you want from a God of War game, a 64 on Metacritic is not a reason to skip it. Reviewers were judging a Metroidvania; you may be buying a piece of canon.
The counter-argument, honestly
If you are buying it as a Metroidvania — for the map, the ability gates, the sequence-breaking, the satisfaction of the genre at its best — the reviews are telling you something specific and consistent. Multiple critics independently landed on "the elements are there, the depth is not".
That is not a taste disagreement, it is the consensus finding. A $29.99 price does not fix it, because the complaint is not about value for money, it is about how the game feels to play for 20 hours.
Value, in hours per dollar
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Price | $29.99 |
| Story length | ~15 hours |
| Platinum length | 20+ hours |
| Cost per story hour | ~$2 |
| Cost per platinum hour | ~$1.50 |
By that metric it is cheap. Whether cheap matters depends on whether you finish games — a $30 game you abandon at hour three is worse value than a $70 game you play for sixty hours.
The patch changes one thing
On 16 November 2026 the game gets Hermes Mode (speedrun timer and scoreboard) and Erebus Mode (one hit kills both ways), free, on both consoles. For anyone who has already finished it, that is a genuine reason to return: Erebus is a completely different read of the same map.
For a new buyer it changes less. Neither mode makes the Metroidvania layer deeper, and Hermes is a measurement tool for people who know the route.
What the score does not measure
Three things a Metacritic number cannot tell you, and which are the actual decision:
- Whether you care about the canon gap. No aggregate score measures that. If Deimos' story is why you are here, the reviews are answering a question you did not ask.
- Whether 2D God of War is the thing you want. The combat is the part reviewers agree works. If the pitch "God of War combat in 2D" excites you, that part delivers.
- Whether you will actually finish it. 20 hours is short enough that the "shallow" criticism lands less hard — you are not asked to endure 60 hours of it.
What this page is not
It is not a recommendation that overrides the aggregate. A 64 from 79 reviews is a real signal and this site is not going to pretend otherwise. What it can do is tell you what the number is measuring — genre depth — and what it is not measuring, which is whether the story is worth your 15 hours.
Hermes Mode: rules, unlock code and split routingErebus Mode: surviving when every hit killsAll 594 collectibles, ranked by regionPlatinum roadmap: 36 trophies, one playthroughEvery boss, in the order you meet themSpear, shield and how attachments actually upgradeThree skill trees, one orb budgetGifts of Olympus and what each family doesAll 20 guides →