10 Indie Games with Better Action Than God of War

3 days ago 6

Action Indie Games with Better Combat Than God of War

Published May 22, 2026, 12:30 PM EDT

Ronald is a Staff Writer at DualShockers with more than a decade of experience covering video games. He began writing about games in 2013 through public forums, reviews, news, and opinion pieces, before moving into professional games writing in 2015. His work focuses on games as an artistic medium, combining long-term industry experience with a background in political science, economics, and teaching.

Before joining DualShockers, Ronald contributed in Spanish to GamElegant and AlfaBetaJuega, and he is currently part of Areajugones. He has also worked as a journalist and editor-in-chief, and he is a professor of Political Science at Fermín Toro University in Venezuela. Ronald holds degrees in Political Science and Economics.

God of War is among the series that have given us the most hours of unbridled fun in the industry's history, full of memorable adventures with a Kratos who has always delivered.

Whether in his Greek or Norse incarnation, the Ghost of Sparta is synonymous with spectacular combat, copious amounts of blood, and memorable action sequences, both cinematically and in terms of gameplay.

However, especially in his 2018 appearance, there was a fundamental change that gave considerable importance to the narrative, modifying how we interact with both the protagonist and enemies.

Therefore, Kratos gained personality but lost entertainment value, as demonstrated by these ten indie action games with better combat than God of War.

10 Enter the Gungeon

Unlimited Playable Variety

A key drawback of Kratos' first Norse adventure is the lack of variety in gameplay, particularly regarding our weapons, a stark contrast to Enter the Gungeon.

While God of War only offers the Leviathan Axe, the Blades of Chaos, and your fists, each with a flashy but limited moveset compared to previous installments, Dodge Roll's roguelike provides a virtually endless array of weapons.

Pistols, shotgun shells that fire shotguns, frogs that spit bubbles, AK-47s, crossbows, an “r” that fires the alphabet, a garbage cannon… If it exists and can be transformed into a weapon, it's almost certainly represented in Enter the Gungeon.

Each one completely changes the way you approach each run, demanding a mastery that, in God of War, is often unnecessary because you can reduce everything to the attacks that do the most damage, which is a point of separation between why one becomes repetitive and the other never does.

9 Hyper Light Drifter

A Perfect Combat Loop

Hyper Light Drifter features one of the last decade's most perfectly designed combat feedback loops, with a simple yet effective approach that fully exploits the precision of its controls.

Unlike God of War, where the loss of its hack-and-slash idiosyncrasies made it a much more direct action game, less focused on combos, Heart Machine's indie title places you in a trance-like combat experience where concentration is paramount.

Having to attack to replenish your pistol's ammo is a simple but addictive concept, especially since it heavily rewards positioning and the correct use of dashes according to their cooldowns.

In this process of constant resource management and shifting stances between evasive and offensive, Hyper Light Drifter mesmerizes you with a wonderful flow state, something God of War omits in favor of prioritizing visual spectacle over mechanical depth.

8 Neon White

The Power of Movement

The over-the-shoulder camera constrains Kratos's freedom of movement in combat, imposing slower movements that cover less distance and, consequently, preventing players from experiencing the adrenaline rush of games like Neon White.

Despite the significant differences between the two gameplay styles, Neon White is a master of speed, configuring entire levels around superb movement mechanics that make you feel both powerful and agile.

10 Open-World Games That Could Already Be Better Than GTA 6

For one reason or many, these titles will be tough contenders for Rockstar to beat.

In the grand scheme of things, Neon White functions almost more as a puzzle game than an action game, but it cleverly disguises this with real-time sequences where you must make on-the-fly decisions to maximize the potential of your cards and abilities after discarding them.

In this process, level design takes center stage, providing the perfect canvas to allow for free movement and full enjoyment of the gameplay; an exploitation of player creativity that God of War abandoned and is especially sorely missed when recalling the original trilogy.

7 ULTRAKILL

A Stylized Bloodbath

Hack-and-slash games have always been a constant effort to see who can use the most stylish combos to express supremacy and dominance, a formula that ULTRAKILL took and perfectly adapted to the FPS genre.

As I mentioned with Enter the Gungeon, although using a style meter that scores our performance and allows us to access more content, ULTRAKILL encourages the player to try as many weapons and mechanics as possible to truly unleash the full potential of its glorious gameplay.

Combining weapons, perfecting the parry, killing enemies quickly, using melee attacks, dispatching enemies with more than just bullets… The game's style index is a magnificent incentive not only to try to beat the level but also to do so in increasingly complex and satisfying ways.

In contrast, God of War is based on statistics, just as there are objective and consistently more viable attacks than others, so there's no motivation to master the controls but to explore, find the most powerful modifiers, and continue with the loot dynamic until reaching the endgame, which is considerably less engaging and meaningful.

6 Nine Sols

Mastery Duels

Among the complaints I most often voice regarding my dislike for God of War, the lack of varied bosses that force you to engage with the gameplay more deliberately and diversely is devastating, especially considering how well it works in titles like Nine Sols.

In Red Candle Games' work, each main encounter is a challenge of a different kind, designed to help you hone your skills in one or more aspects of the game's demanding gameplay, which is much more than just good timing.

Parries play a fundamental role, yes, though the main antagonists truly make the most of platforming mechanics, positioning, secondary tools, talisman types, Jade builds, and more, each in their own way and with their unique gimmicks.

With no repeated bosses and a combat system perfected down to the millimeter, Nine Sols demonstrates that the problem is not having a few weapons (in the end, you only use a spectral sword and bow), but not knowing how to vary the rest of the elements so that the limited number of instruments is not seen as a problem but as an advantage.

5 Hades 2

Thrilling and Unstoppable

The power fantasy is among the ultimate expressions of action video games, usually materialized through massive battles that, as in Hades 2, make you feel like a true god.

Having to face numerous enemies, making sure to use the environment effectively, and dodging both projectiles and physical attacks, puts you in a constant state of tension, but also of liberation when you manage to banish them all.

Instead of feeling like earthly one-on-one fights where the power scale is rather close, despite one being a god and the other a common enemy, Hades 2 takes the action to the next level with numerous weapons, transformations, and skills to face enemies with a great number of variations too.

Even if we remove its roguelike elements, Supergiant Games' masterpiece is the epitome of how to create a power fantasy without losing the challenge or the protagonist's might within its mythological context, far surpassing God of War in this regard.

4 Katana ZERO

A One-Hit Marvel

I usually play games on 'normal' because I've always thought that difficulty modes often misunderstand what makes a challenge compelling, yet Katana ZERO understands this perfectly.

Far from superficial and linear interpretations of difficulty, where “more difficult” simply means “it takes a lot more damage and hits much harder”, both you and all the enemies die in one hit, so the concept needs to be managed differently.

10 Video Game Prologues Better Than Most Full Games

These video game prologues were so good, that some full games can't even compete.

Therefore, the challenge lies not in numbers and bars but in pure motor and cognitive skill, forcing you to analyze each level, study the environment, devise a plan, and have the ability to dodge, attack, and move in order to execute it.

The challenge is spontaneous, escalating, and deliberately set, making the action even more exciting as you eliminate any hint of frustration and focus solely on the thrill of defeat and the exhilaration of victory.

3 Sifu

Fighting as an Art Expression

Boasting one of the century's deepest, most entertaining, and most exciting combat systems, Sifu has become a gold standard for how to create a game where melee combat reigns supreme.

It shares many similarities with God of War, being slower, with fewer enemies as active threats, and having a close-up camera, though it demands much more from the player than simply mashing buttons and reacting to enemy patterns.

Sifu's inherent difficulty requires the player to be far more aware of what each encounter entails, knowing when to defend, counterattack, use the environment, disrupt stances, and retreat, with strategies that vary depending on the abilities you've unlocked.

It's not enough to simply know how enemies move and what they'll do, as each fight involves more than just throwing punches. Instead, as you progress, you master the environments and bosses with increasing ease, reaching a point where you never resort to mindlessly spamming punches and kicks.

In a way, Sifu turns you into a martial artist of its universe, guiding you through a spontaneous progression that translates into and enhances the gameplay, maximizing the visceral feel of each fight and avoiding the pitfalls of stats and equipment based on rarity.

2 Furi

The King of Boss Rush

Comparing a boss rush game to a semi-open world game is unfair, I admit, though this article is about titles with the best combat, and very few in history surpass the magnificent Furi.

It's a campaign completely dedicated to its fights, foregoing exploration and worldbuilding to offer exquisite bosses and a concise yet impactful story, making the fights it throws you into simply extraordinary.

Melee combat with superb pacing and demanding reflexes, extensive and colossal bullet hell sections, sword duels from the side where you're constantly losing health and regaining it through parrying, shooting mechanics that allow you to be offensive even when defending… It's pure ecstasy, especially thanks to the magnificent soundtrack that accompanies it.

Since each boss has its own characteristics, you start from a common set of instructions that, nevertheless, must be relearned in each new arena, as everything changes in the environment and the cards enemies play to stop you.

From preventing you from seeing and bouncing your bullets to becoming invisible and floors falling away, Furi makes sure you're never comfortable, no matter how good you get, cementing a near-perfect gameplay experience that you can revisit every year and still find hours of unparalleled fun.

1 Hollow Knight: Silksong

Two-Dimensional Divinity

10 Best Games That Broke The Internet Silksong

If Hollow Knight: Silksong broke the internet and boasts such absurdly high quality that it could easily pass for a AAA title, I think it's no mystery why it appears on a list like this, especially if you've already played it.

However, for those who haven't had the chance to embody Hornet in this divine Metroidvania, we're talking about the 2D game with the most polished combat in the action genre, with such an immeasurable number of possibilities that it's mind-boggling.

You have Crests that completely change your moveset and playstyle, Tools and Skills that offer a wide range of offensive, defensive, and utility options, and movement upgrades that constantly increase the complexity of bosses, all built on a foundation of controls, hitboxes, and audiovisual designs that perfectly illustrate every second of the battles.

With clear patterns, dense and varied bosses, dynamic and ever-changing environments, and controls perfectly tuned for every movement and combat challenge, Silksong starts from such a solid foundation that, even if we removed all the Crests and Tools, it would still surpass the genre's vast majority.

Surpassing what Hollow Knight achieved seemed impossible, but this sequel soared so high that it now makes it seem like a tech demo, reaching levels of refinement of such magnitude that I find it impossible to believe we'll ever see anything like it again.