God of War‘s New Game Plus to Bring New Armor and Upgrades This Month

The new God of War game reinvents the series for an intimate adventure with Kratos and his son, Atreus. If there is one thing that gamers have craved since completing the game’s great single-player campaign, it’s a reason to jump back in. Well, they will have that chance soon, as the much-requested New Game Plus mode is coming to God of War on Aug. 20, according to developer Santa Monica Studio.

The new mode allows players to jump back into God of War from the beginning of the game. The appeal of New Game Plus is that players get to do so with all of their items earned from their previous playthrough of the game. That means you start with all of the armor, enchantments, talismans, resources and abilities you collected the first time around.

For God of War, New Game Plus also means a few other additions as well, including:

– Test your skills against higher level enemies; some of which might even have a few new tricks up their sleeves!
– Unique to New Game+ is a brand new rarity level of equipment to craft and upgrade! Collect ‘Skap Slag’, a new resource to upgrade your gear to the best of the best from our finest blacksmiths.
– Play the game in a whole new way by exploring new customization options with extremely powerful new armor sets and enchantments.
– Finally, get right back into the action with the newly added ability to skip through cinematics in both normal and New Game+ modes once a full playthrough has been completed.

Players are also able to choose the difficulty on which they want to play New Game Plus. This easily the most worthwhile update the game has received since launch. God of War received critical praise for reinventing the series’ trademark gameplay and giving the story a more personal touch. Here at Paste, we enjoyed exploring the game’s nine realms but ultimately felt the game tries to humanize an irredeemable character—more on that here.

The God of War update will be free for everyone when it launches on Aug. 20.