What are the differences between God of War's difficulty levels?

God of War has four different levels of difficulty that players can choose from when starting a new game.

The difficulty settings are

• Give Me a Story
• Give Me a Balanced Experience
• Give Me a Challenge
• Give Me God of War

The first is clearly the easiest, with the last being a source of tremendous rage. Each has their own pros and cons, either focusing on the story itself or giving players a challenge in terms of combat. Each one is scaled up in terms of toughness.

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The four difficulty settings of God of War

The four difficulty levels (Image via Sony Interactive Entertainment)

Give Me a Story

Give Me a Story is the "easy mode." This is for players who want to see Kratos and Atreus' journey without worrying about having to restart because of an in-game death.

Enemies will be taken out easily and deal decreased damage. Kratos will be a lot stronger in this and it won't take long to upgrade weapons, obtain all skills, and beat the game.

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Give Me a Balanced Experience

Think of this as the "normal" difficulty setting. Players will need to try a bit when it comes to Give Me a Balanced Experience. The story will be an important aspect, but the opposition are no pushovers.

This level of difficulty is where most players start. From there, they can decide whether they want to simply experience the story or if it is too easy and they want the challenge offered by the next two levels.

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Give Me a Challenge

The most skillful God of War players are the ones taking on Give Me a Challenge. It provides an unforgiving combat experience where enemies do massive damage and resist just about everything thrown at them.

Expect to be defeated a few times throughout the game on this difficulty setting. Enemies are aggressive and do not back down, doing everything they can to defeat Kratos and his son.

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Give Me God of War

If Give Me a Challenge is the game turned all the way up to 10, then this setting is the game cranked to 11. Enemies deal insane damage and inflict statuses that seem to never go away.

On the other hand, it takes quite a bit for Kratos to inflict a status or even deal enough damage of his own to make a dent. This is truly a difficulty level for players who enjoy tormenting themselves.

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