God of War Sons of Sparta reviews show why shadow-drops are bad

Would the lowest-rated God of War ever have benefitted from some buzz?

On Feb. 12, during Sony’s first State of Play showcase of the year, PlayStation announced and immediately released God of War Sons of Sparta, a side-scrolling prequel to the series of angry dad action games. Its reveal and subsequent release was a surprise to many. But now that reviewers have had ample time with the game, one thing has become clear: shadow-drops are annoying for everyone involved.

A week after its release, God of War Sons of Sparta is sitting at a 66 on Metacritic, based on 32 reviews (as of publication). This makes it the lowest-reviewed God of War game in series history — including the PlayStation Portable spin-offs and that other prequel we don’t like to talk about. Its user score is about the same: 6.4, with a bit more than 500 reviews. If nothing else, Sons of Sparta has accomplished the rare feat of uniting the Gamers with the Reviewers.

For a 7.5 out of 10 review at PlayStation Universe, John-Paul Jones called Sons of Sparta “well-crafted if unambitious.” In a 6 out of 10 review for IGN, Jarrett Green said Sons of Sparta offers a “pleasant character rehabilitation” of its churlish main character but is otherwise a “pretty mediocre metroidvania.” Over at GamesRadar, in a three-star review, Oscar Taylor-Kent said that Sons of Sparta’s combat is “dull and lifeless” and that the game falls short of highwater marks set by both the Metroidvania it draws from and the God of War canon it’s part of.

Normally, I don’t think it’s helpful to discuss a game’s price when evaluating its merit; I can’t tell you what a dollar means to you, and that line of thought widely contributes to the misguided notion that games are products of technology, not works of art. But the fact remains: Sons of Sparta came out. It costs money to play. People spent a fraction of a week’s paycheck to try it. And in many cases, they did not know what they were spending money on. It’s no stretch to imagine some people picked it up purely on the pedigree of the God of War name and got, well, that above paragraph of lukewarm adjectives. A platform like Steam might let you return a game if you play it for less than two hours. PlayStation does not. Is a shadow-drop fair to those fans?

Shadow-dropping doesn’t always pan out for developers, either. Like it or not, the marketing and hype cycle is a critical part of releasing a game in the modern era. Shadow-dropping a game narrows its immediate audience only to the most plugged-in segment of the audience, to those who regularly read gaming sites (hi, glad you’re here) or tune into PlayStation. And when the strategy doesn’t work, the results can be dire.

During a January 2023 showcase, Xbox surprise-released Tango Gameworks’ rhythm action game Hi-Fi Rush, by almost all accounts a universally terrific game that apparently didn’t find its audience quickly enough. A year after release, Microsoft closed the studio. (In August 2024, Krafton acquired Tango Gameworks. “We’re back, baby!” Hi-Fi Rush director John Johanas said on social media at the time.) For every shadow-drop success story like Apex Legends, there’s another like Super Kirby Clash. A megawatt outlier like Oblivion: Remastered rode to its heights on the back of a rumor cycle so fierce, the announcement might as well have plastered on every billboard in Times Square. (Being a remake of one of the most beloved games in history likely didn’t hurt.)

The solution seems clear to me: Publishers need to be up front about what a game is, includes, and offers, whether that message is conveyed through press, influencers, or more traditional means of marketing. Maybe let people try an hour of it before laying down cold hard cash. To quote a line often attributed to Lancaster Caramel Company founder and Titanic ticket-canceler Milton S. Hershey: “Give them quality. That’s the best kind of advertising.”

But at the end of the day, Sony isn’t incentivized to change its approach; the diehard fans seem bound to show up regardless. As of this writing, Sons of Sparta has been reviewed by players more than 6,000 times on the PlayStation Store. It’s currently sitting at a 4.5 out of 5.