God of War: Ragnarök Review
God of War: Ragnarök—the much-anticipated sequel to Santa Monica Studio’s 2018 God of War—shows us how a big budget and much collaboration can create a complex, developing narrative filled with diverse characters and interspersed with challenging combat, visually stunning environments, and more items than you can possibly care about.
Starting Off
I’ve been looking forward to playing God of War: Ragnarök since the conclusion of the last left a bunch of open questions; I quite enjoyed playing that one, so surely the next one will be great, right? At the very least, I’m looking forward to more witty banter between Kratos, Mimir, and Brok. So, let’s dive in.
The first few hours of the game are essentially a movie where you relearn the basic controls: constant cinematics, occasional combat, and complete linearity. Despite picking up from the end of the last game, Kratos and Atreus have mysteriously lost any semblance of good gear, and you’ll need to start from scratch; no surprise there.
God of War: Ragnarök takes place in the same nordic setting as the last game and follows the story of “Loki”—the prophesied name for Kratos’ son, Atreus—and the events leading up to Ragnarök. We learn more about Atreus’ mom, see Kratos struggle to survive his biggest challenge—parenting—and find out whether Atreus turns into a psychopath who brings doomsday to all the realm.
Ragnarök
I mean, it has to happen, right? They’ve got to have a Ragnarök; it’s in the title. Indeed, the main story focuses on the uncertainty around the fabled end of the world which no one wants; even the nordic God of War, Tyr. The only thing everyone seems to agree on is that Odin is a world-class asshole. The plot twists and turns weave through all nine realms this time, including Asgard and Jötunheim. Wait, come to think of it, didn’t we already see most of the realms last time; what more is there to see?
This time around, the nine realms have been splashed with a fresh coat of Fimblwinter—the first sign of Ragnarök; climate changes in the realms and new locations within each realm keep the game feeling fresh. The level design is visually stunning and diverse throughout the game, and the special effects are grand and seamless, as one may expect with nine different studios working on this thing. My biggest complaint about the level design is that Kratos can vault up ledges twice his size and scale mountains, but he can’t step over a foot-high rock, and his path can be blocked by a single fern frond; walking boundaries are sometimes 10 feet from the actual wall!
Speaking of scaling mountains, there’s a part in the game where Kratos’ son scales an insurmountable wall, reaches the top, and doesn’t get thrown off... I’m disappointed. Anyone who played the original 2005 God of War remembers Kratos climbed Atlas for days, struggled through a labyrinth of puzzles and monsters, drug a heavy-ass chest all the way out the front… and was then fatally impaled while harpies carry off the chest. I half-expected Atreus to at least be thrown off the Asgard wall and need to claw his way back out of a Fimblwinter-strewn Helheim or something. A missed opportunity indeed.
Companions
Atreus is a playable character this time around which may sound fairly exciting; however, it’s probably not what you expect—unless, of course, you’re expecting to be underwhelmed. His abilities aren’t exactly amazing, but I imagine that’s the whole point. There is a rather-intense battle where you play Atreus at the beginning, then Kratos jumps in, and control passes to him; the ability difference between two is a stark contrast—Kratos is a beast, comparitively.
The side conversations in this game are legendary; the companions are constantly telling stories to break up any dull moments you spend traveling. You could honestly listen to them banter and tell stories for hours—pausing when you stop traveling, and picking up where they left off. The speed at which hints are given out is a bit ridiculous, though; if I haven’t solved a puzzle in 10 seconds, the companion starts pointing out that—obviously—I need to shoot the big glowy thing over there… I’m trying to loot all the useless crap after entering the room, give me a minute!
Thoughts
Speaking of useless crap, the items and equipment in the game are all fairly useless. Each time I pick up a piece of gear, I just toss it onto the pile of things I’ll never touch again; a definite effort was made to create customizable playstyles, but if you can’t dodge and parry, you’re just screwed, and if you can dodge and parry, then the items don’t make a difference. Does it deal more damage? Equip it.
Is God of War: Ragnarök difficult? It varies; the Balance difficulty leans easy through the main story quests and fairly hard for some of the optional content, like berserkers. Difficulty settings can also be changed at will to make play easier or harder.
Conclusion
Overall, I rather enjoyed God of War: Ragnarök and played through the end. It was honestly hard to find much to complain about; it’s a solid experience. As one might expect, it’s well designed and well polished: story, combat, visuals, difficulty, banter, and character development are all top notch.
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