The God of War games came out in that sort of "dark, gritty, super violence" period of gaming, [@Dynamo Frokane]. Around the era of Gears of War and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. While the action itself was nothing ground breaking within its own genre of action and adventure, it was that you [i]could[/i] be and [i]were[/i] encouraged to be as absolutely brutal as possible just for the sake of it. It rewarded that excess and encouraged the ideology of it as a game mechanic. The quick time event issues hadn't become cliché yet either in that era, where people now roll their eyes, groan or complain about them en masse because they have been so abused. 

In essence, the entire series was an excuse to murder things, violently, in a setting people had never really seen before while pushing the boundaries of what was allowed in a game. It also falls in the tail end timeline for that generation of players no less, many of whom just wanted to [i]do[/i] things rather than do another collectathon, a type of game play that is now considered archaic all its own. I wouldn't be surprised if in a few years from now, sandbox style games are considered "dated" and over.

And now for my question.

What is the appeal of "hyper fantasy", wherein magic is just everywhere and essentially combines with or replaces technology? I mean this in the sense of, what is the point? I have noted a strong leaning of persons towards this mentality, where fantasy elements are just common place and everywhere; people see these really unusual, fantastic and impossible things without any reaction or reflection on them. Why even make it "fantasy" at that point when everyone can do it and the world has no great unknowns? You've bottled the genie already, more or less.