Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Every Friday Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them. Every Thursday GTA 6 O'clock Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts. Every Friday Knowledge From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon. Every Thursday The Setup Every Wednesday Switch 2 Spotlight Every Saturday The Watchlist Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! God of War Sons of Sparta has found itself under fire by folks unimpressed by the big, final announcement of PlayStation's February State of Play being a 2D Metroidvania, but fans say we should be encouraging releases like this rather than bringing them down. At the time of writing, Sons of Sparta doesn't have that many critic reviews logged on Metacritic, but it currently sits with a slightly mixed score of 73. Not awful by any means, but a fair number of players have been dunking on the game online. Criticisms have included its visuals, with some calling it "ugly," while others simply aren't jazzed about the genre, saying: "We have plenty of generic indie side scrollers, please make it stop." Others, however, think that folks shouldn't be so critical, since Sons of Sparta represents a couple of different things that many have been begging for for some time. For a start, it offers some variation from the number of third-person action adventures that make up a large chunk of PlayStation's modern first-party library (its God of War reboot games included). God of War Sons of Sparta review: "Retro-style Metroidvania Kratos struggles to stand out" A new God of War game just shadow dropped: see Kratos as a Spartan warrior in surprise 2D action game Sons of Sparta 10 Games like God of War Ragnarok you should play next "Do you know how often we see people complain here that PlayStation ONLY makes the cinematic 3rd person action adventure games??? We get something slightly different, and now we have this," one fan writes, sharing a tweet poking fun at the game. "'Give us something new.' Gives them something new. 'This sucks, give us what we want.' Gives them something they want. 'This sucks, AAA just recycles games. You have no innovation. Indie is better,'" another says, listing examples of common complaints that we've heard time and time again, including when it comes to the PS5's library of games. "I hate that appreciation of games has just become lost," says another, calling out people who "just want to see ultra-realistic graphics." They add: "Games are ultimately about the gameplay and/or the story. Some of the best games in history are side-scrollers." Others have pointed out how many people have been calling out the state of AAA development and its increasingly expensive budgets for being unsustainable, but yet aren't embracing something like this and its $30 price tag. "It's kinda sad this game is getting poked fun at cause PlayStation would benefit a lot from more games like this. Smaller scale projects with conservative budgets is what a lot of companies need right now instead of $300 million for countable nose hairs," one writes. "Honestly, Sony should be producing more of these in between their big budget AAA releases as a means of not only keeping their fans playing something new, but also to help offset the cost of said AAA games. Nintendo should not be the only Publisher doing this," comments another. Obviously, it's still only early days for God of War Sons of Sparta, so it remains to be seen exactly how well it'll sell, and namely if it'll be enough to encourage Sony to take more risks like this. For now, though, it seems like most of the God of War hype is centered around the newly announced Greek trilogy remake, even if it's probably still a long way off. For now, you can also check out our list of games like God of War Ragnarok for more titles similar to Sony Santa Monica's rebooted action adventures.