God of War Ragnarök Has to be Played to be Believed
The game does almost everything right.
I was always a fan of the older God of War games. I definitely had issues with them, but I'm Greek so getting to see my own country's mythology in game form, being able to interact with it, was really really cool. It felt good playing them, despite my problems with them.
Then in 2018, the series made a move both in mythology and tone. Gone was the immense anger of Kratos and the tearing gods heads off with your button prompts, or climbing on titans. Gone was the mini-games for opening chests. Gone was the minigame for fucking (thank the gods). Now Kratos had a new son. He had a wife who died. He had grown as a person and you could really tell the game was made with love and care and with a purpose while the older games were made less with a purpose and more with just cool scale stuff. The sequel God of War Ragnarök came out in 2022 and it was a big hit. Eventually coming to PC last year. I got it on PC last year and played it through in about a week. It was an amazing experience with amazing moment followed by touching moments followed by fantastic combat segments. It was wonderful.
The Premise
God of War Ragnarök takes place after the original 2018 game. Fimbulwinter has arrived, a precursor to Ragnarök, and has put Midgar into eternal night and winter. You play again as Kratos (although also play as Atreus for some missions) and have to deal with both the ramifications of the prior game, and with the future of the coming catastrophe. Atreus has grown and is becoming the god of trickery he was always destined to be, Loki. It starts off with an amazing fight with Freya then pretty quickly goes into an amazing fight with Thor. Kratos and Atreus, after their home no longer being safe, find a new home with Sindri and Brok inbetween realms and you go out to try to find Tyr and generally just figure out if there is a way to either avoid Ragnarök, or at least beat Odin.
The Good
The 2018 God of War was known for completely changing the combat, introducing the Leviathan Axe and moving the camera much closer, as well as taking away, for a time, the Blades of Chaos. It made combat meatier. It made it more personal and it made it harder. Ragnarök evolves on that concept significantly introducing a new weapon and more intricate things you can do with them. As well as introducing more things your partner can do during combat so you can work as a team. It's a very well done evolution that just feel so damn good to play. So damn good.
I hate games where I am forced to walk slowly for long stretches of time (which I’ve talked about in my 1000xResist and Final Fantasy 7 Remake reviews). While it happens occasionally here, it's not that bad. It's not for prolonged periods of time and there were many moments where I thought Id be forced to walk slowly, and I wasn't. Plus the slow walking was often still faster than in Final Fantasy 7 Remake so that's a big win. While I do wish there was no forced slow walk, it's not too bad in Ragnarök and that's a plus for me.
Film nerd time! While this game does have one or two cuts in it, they don't change that the game as a whole is still one shot, a wonderful filmmaking technique. It's an amazing experience because you feel a part of the experience, you feel like you are the one moving around to get the best view, not the camera. This is something that a lot of Directors have done in the film industry, and while not all of them have been amazing, many of them have. An example I particularly like is the episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia called Charlie Work. It's an amazing, largely, one shot episode that makes you feel a part of Charlie's day. Alfred Hitchcock also did this in his movie Rope, or he did something that felt like a one shot movie because the tech didn't exist to actually do one yet. Directors would hide end of takes by concentrating on one object for what seemed like a prolonged period of time because they'd edit it to look like it never stopped filming. That was the beauty of film back in the day, the Directors didn't always have the tech to do something they wanted to do. Sometimes they literally had to make the tech, and sometimes they simply adapted to making it seem like they had it. Ragnarök reminds me of the experience of watching the best one shot movies or moments in television. It makes me love the game because of the film history that exists in it. The filmy nature of the game just elevates the experience to a whole nother level. It's amazing and I adored every little touch to make the one shots work, every little movement that the camera did to give you a better view of the action. This game, and the 2018 God of War, are top tier experiences not just because of all the many other reasons I’m talking about, but because they show how developers and Directors can loop in filmmaking techniques into their games to make them more engaging and more personal. It was wonderful.
Emotion. Depth. Characterization. These are three of the things that are everywhere in Ragnarök. From Kratos simply worrying about Atreus in cutscenes to Kratos talking with Freya about what happened to his family in Greece. The game is an emotional masterpiece. We see Kratos struggle with Atreus growing up and being more independent, we see Freya struggle with not killing Kratos for what he did to Baldur, her son. We see Mimir struggle with his guilt over what he did to those around him in service of Odin. We even see Sindri struggle with his guilt over how he brought Brok back from the dead because he couldn't handle being alone. The game has depth everywhere, has characters that feel alive, that feel like they aren't following some script but are actually going through an experience. 2018 God of War had much of this, but Ragnarök turns it up to 11 with how amazingly detailed the characters are. Even when Kratos goes around collecting books of Poetry Mimir will talk to him about it, eventually discussing how Greece is known for their poetry. Kratos then, next time you pick up a poem, says his favorite Poem is the Odyssey, although he doesn't use that word. Then the next time he picks up a poem, Mimir asks Kratos if he has ever written any poetry, or considered doing so, to which Kratos simply says No. The Emotion also isn't just heard but seen, when Atreus comes back to Sindri's house after spending time in Asgard Kratos has obviously worried about him. Then Atreus hugs him incredibly tightly, we see Kratos struggle to not cry, we see him eventually think the hug is over only for Atreus to not stop and Kratos to resume hugging and not crying, the emotion is seen in the amazing acting and writing here that many games aren't capable of managing. Kratos isn't the god killer he once was, isn't the character of endless rage that we saw in the original trilogy of games. He also isn't quite the same character as the 2018 game, he's become even more caring for his son, and he's starting to accept that they only have a certain amount of time left. Just before the last mission Kratos tells a story to Atreus so he can sleep because it's hard to sleep on the eve of battle, you can really see how Kratos is accepting his role in the story and the sacrifice that is prophesied. The writing and acting in Ragnarök is top notch and I'm only touching on a few moments of character depth that spoke to me, there is so much more here to love.
The story isn't just an amazing experience to go through, seeing the sidequest stories, or Favors as they are called here, also adds so much depth to the world and characters. Helping Mimir fix mistakes he made, helping Kratos discover that Faye fought Thor similar to how he did, these are stories that help us understand that Kratos and the characters we see are not one dimensional, that they are like real people. They also add depth to the world of the game, seeing how people have suffered during Fimbulwinter, The story is of course part of this ability of depth and the main missions provide their own depth so it's not like you are only going to see that depth in the Favors. It's an amazing experience and an amazing story and one I will remember for a long while, far more than prior God of War games. Particularly because of how the world right now feels like it's sitting on the edge of a cliff, the story evokes feelings of what is happening now. It does what all great stories do, it punches out of the screen and into the world.
Of course this depth of story would not matter if the environments did not have some detail and interesting personality. Which, thankfully, they do. Significantly. Each world has such detail in the background and foreground, and it is incredibly enjoyable to see all of them, to explore them, to find new areas, to find chests and solve puzzles. Plus the scale really is to the point of a God of War game. Seeing Giant creatures fighting in the background and messing with your environment in the foreground was something to behold. It's a wonderful environmental creation and I cannot do it justice.
One thing that has always been amazing in God of War is the music. Both in the original trilogy and the 2018 game and Ragnarök. The music hits the right notes but also adds such tension. There's an amazing consistent tune that will seep into your mind, I will have it in my head for a long while. It's just so damn good, I still remember when the 2018 God of War was announced at E3 where Sony had an orchestra playing music for the game as the show opener and that set the tone for both Norse games. The best music in games isn't just good music that is in the background, good music is something that enhances the experience, that adds tension and excitement, Ragnarök does this wonderfully.
The Bad
Okay so this isn't the worst issue I have with the game. It is more something Im just tired of, to a point. I wish there were less things to craft. It feels like crafting is forced into a lot of recent games to the point where it isn't actually needed. So for instance, in Gotham Knights, you could craft your baterang, your suit, and your main weapon. Three things. In Ragnarök, however, you craft your armor for your arms, chest and waist, Atreus' armor, your shield, and grips for your weapons, and some mods for your skills, and an amulet thing, and accessories. So 10 things, and I'm probably missing things. Plus you can upgrade some of those things well up to 9 times and some 5 and some 3. It's exhausting and feels unnecessary. If I had been in the room I would have simplified it with one decision, all the armor is one thing. So instead of having 3 different armor shit to worry about, you have 1 armor set that can be more satisfying to see the difference with. It'd be similar to Gotham Knights, where the armor set would have all the impacts of what all of the three sets of armor had been. This would have cut the crafting down significantly. I also would have decreased the amount of times you can upgrade the stuff you craft. I do get the purpose for all of this, to create builds and allow some customization, but I just. It felt too heavy, too excessive, like it desperately needed someone to say "do we really need all these things to craft in this game?" It doesn't significantly decrease the quality of the game, but it does get just...annoying.
Honestly, I think that's my only problem with the game, it was an amazing experience that was only hindered by the insistence on crafting and upgrading and all that shit.
The Ending
War comes, Kratos blows Gjallarhorn and leads the warriors of all the realms into battle against Asgard. Kratos admits he was wrong about Atreus closing the heart to the suffering of those around him, and Atreus leaves to breach rendezvous with Kratos at the Flaw to break into the city without killing the innocent Midgardians who were taken in by Odin to be used as shields. Thrud ambushes Atreus there where he, and her mother (surprise), convince Thrud that Odin needs to die. Sindri then creates a flaw for Atreus to break open the gates/break down the wall.
Unfortunately, Ragnarök is not whole so is not able to really help them much. Then Kratos fights Thor (he look, a circle since that’s how the game started), but doesn't kill him, because Kratos is trying to be better for Atreus and wants Thor to be better for Thrud. Then Odin kills him anyway. After a cutscene with Freya, Odin destroys the ground and we take control of Atreus with the Mask. Atreus breaks the Mask, cause fuck Odin. Then Atreus, Freya, and Kratos fight Odin in a damn good fight. Then Atreus takes Odins’ soul and puts it into a Marble. Which Sindri grabs and destroys in anger, which is reasonable.
Freyr sacrifices himself while Freya, Atreus, and Kratos escape through the cut between realms made by Fenrir. Then as Atreus goes through a cave and talks to those that survived, we eventually get shown the last prophecy board about Kratos and Atreus and Faye. Atreus then tells Kratos he needs to find the Giants and do it by himself which Kratos is fine with because he trusts Atreus finally (hey look, character progression completes). We also see, another, final prophecy board on the back, but it's Kratos', he is finally being worshiped, something that was brought was brought up earlier with Odin saying he doesn't know what it's really like to be a god. Then Kratos, Freya, and Mimir decide there is much to do, and it ends. Credits roll as you go back down your path and leave the caves.
But also there's a True Ending. Which is just Broks’ funeral. A sad moment but it isn’t anything big or game changing. Once it's over the game fades to black and plays credits again.
The ending of Ragnarök was truly one of the best endings of a game I have played in a while. Specifically because it landed it's final moments so damn well. I think my only note is that I expected to go through the city in Asgard before fighting Odin instead of just getting brought to where you needed to go with a fight with Thor. It's still great, I just wasn't expecting it. Ragnarök does something in it's ending you only really see in Sony games, an emotional experience that actually makes you emotional. It was wonderful.
The Conclusion
God of War Ragnarök is an experience to behold. It takes you on a roller-coaster of emotions filled with lulls for exploration and peaks with anger filled fights. It has amazing mission structure, amazing side quests, amazing emotional moments, amazing acting, an amazingly well done ending and story. It's just hard to overstate how good it is. Despite the crafting bringing it down, it wasn't held back enough to corrupt the experience as a whole. Ragnarök is amazing.
I would highly recommend you play God of War Ragnarök. You should play the 2018 game first, but once you finish it you should definitely play this one. Not only does it conclude the story in an amazingly well crafted fashion, it evolves the combat and character in ways that you won't see coming. Ragnarök is something that needs to be experienced, not just read about. So go get it.
Meow,
Cat