I actually just finished the 2018 game and am of the mind that his character didnt really change THAT much, maybe towards the end arguably.
Did this dick weed forget that the original god of war games back in the day killed themselves through player exhaustion and that the reboot was wildly successful for being different.
After god of war 1-3, ascension and the psp games people literally didn't want any more of old kratos and old kratos gameplay, it was so bad that anything being like god of war was shit on like dantes inferno.
Personally I much prefer the rebooted series. The originals were fun but pretty shallow and generally boiled down to mash button and sometimes big enemy with qte and angry man go AAARRGGG.