What happened to Kratos’ wings after God of War III?

Solution 1:

The gap between God of War 3 and God of War 2018 is long. In excess of 10 years. Additionally, he has travelled very far; from Greece to Norway. And on top of all of this, Kratos was never really a person that kept a lot of possessions. His house in GoW 2018 is very bare. The only item that he has kept from his past (hidden beneath the floorboards) are the Chaos Blades - which are tied directly to him; in more than just a physical way. For this reason, the wings have either degraded and become useless, or he never really kept them to begin with.

Outside of any lore explanation for this, the style of the game has changed very much, from a platformer-style hack-n-slash adventure game, to an open-world free roaming game. Kratos has also been toned down a lot from a high-testosterone rage monster, to an old man that just wants to go back to sleep. The game interaction has become much more "realistic", and in this setting, the idea of him whipping a pair of wings out of nowhere and flapping manically to float a short distance just doesn't match up with the environment, the character, or the feel of the game.