Four other patches are also required, but once applied the game works with Windows 7/8/8.1.
God of War is only officially supported to run on Windows 10 and Windows 11, but an unofficial patch has allowed Sony’s game to be played on Windows 7,8, and 8.1. As Gameguru Mania reports, the patch was created by NexusMods user okt04175. It modifies the OS detection behavior in the game, which unlocks it for Microsoft’s older operating systems. However, four other patches are also required to ensure it works, including doitsujin’s DXVK, HansKristian-Work’s vkd3d-proton, Sporif’s DXVK-Async Patch, and marco-calautti’s DeltaPatcher.