god of war ragnarok is one of the most anticipated games of 2022 and has people around the world hyped, as the kids say. But it’s only coming to PlayStation consoles. Well don’t worry Xbox players, someone has spent at least 20 minutes developing an Xbox version of God of War. Except it uh…sucks, looks terrible, and is likely unauthorized by Sony.
As spotted by Eurogamer, there’s a new and fairly cheap action game available on Xbox that seems to star Kratos. The game has the not-at-all-clunky title of War Gods Zeus of Child and is available for $US4.09 ($6) in the US. Seems like a deal, until you see the game in action…
The game has no sound effects or music, limited animations that are easily broken, and there’s no real depth to it. It’s just waves of the same enemy attacking Kratos over and over as he flails about, killing them and earning a point for each one vanquished. Nearly everything in the game looks to be an asset ripped from somewhere else, including the enemies, which seem to be a monster from a resident Evil game. Also, the title screen for the game has a different name, “God of Warning.”
Here’s the description of the game from its actual store page, which looks worryingly identical to any other game on the Xbox store:
War Gods Zeus of Child is a great war game. Destroy all enemies and creatures with the Zeus War Gods of challenge [sic]. Kill them all with your gun. Launch attacks with various combos. Reach the highest monster kills without dying. Feel the power of the warning god.
Kotaku contacted Microsoft about this clear knock-off and asked the company how it prevents these types of games from appearing in the store.
It appears this game, which was made in Unity and released on July 26, is part of the Xbox Creators Program. The idea is to let smaller teams and solo devs use their consoles as dev equipment, making it easier for people to make games and sell them across Xbox and PC. In theory, this is a cool idea that reminds me of a lot of the Xbox Indie program from the 360 era.
But it also has the potential to be abused by naughty devs looking to flip a few assets to make a quick buck, especially if the vetting of games isn’t thorough enough. And while this God of War clone is more a terrible joke than a big problem, I’d be nervous about what else is being allowed to slide onto the Xbox store with what appears to be little oversight.