God of War: Ragnarök is not a perfect game. There are small frustrations, little ways it probably could have been tweaked or adjusted. Small excesses here and sparsenesses there. But it did something one of these games hasn't done for me in a really long time. It surprised me. Over and over again.

My experience with most games on the scale of God of War: Ragnarök — which is to say massive, first-party tentpoles built over half-decades by massive teams — has most frequently been one of exhaustion. There's a sacrifice that comes with their kind of exacting, focus-tested vastness: a lack of interesting friction, a lack of intimacy with their characters, a lack of texture to their worlds, and a lack of the creative strangeness that would otherwise make them memorable. More often than not, they end up being empty spectacle, body without soul. But not this one.

Ragnarök is an exceedingly well-written game. It expands on the foundation laid by 2018's God of War, the prototypical Sad Dad Game, and spins a series of threads about parenthood, grief, and loss — no longer just Kratos and Atreus, but other fathers and mothers and daughters and sons, all caught in a web of one particular antagonist's insatiable quest for knowledge. Every criticism levied at GOW 2018 for being myopic, for Kratos's redemption arc being forced, or especially for the way it treated its women characters, is not just addressed here, but addressed so fully that it almost recasts those absences as setup. There's a surprising amount of courage in the way Ragnarök paces its plot reveals; it's a slow-burn at parts, but never one I found to slow to enjoy, and when its characters have their schisms and reconciliations, they always feel fully earned. This is mature storytelling, put to work in a way recent games like The Last of Us II have tried and failed to grasp. And beyond that, Ragnarök takes advantage of its source material — the cold, melancholic Icelandic Sagas, built around petty familial tragedies and hauntings — better than I ever expected it to. It may not be the highest bar, but it really is the best that writing in a game like this has ever been.

Beyond that, every other element works in concert with the story to weave a consistently engaging, often thrilling and joyful experience. The combat here is just as good as God of War 2018's was, with some additions that add a satisfying level of depth and complexity to the late game. The world design is immaculate, fusing together open-world games, metroidvanias, and soulslikes into a spellbinding and often stunningly beautiful rendition of the Nine Realms. Its controls are weighty and rewarding. Its soundtrack is a perfect blend of environmental ambiance and appropriate bombast. Its voice acting is stellar, with Christopher Judge and Co. putting in incredible work. It is, all around, a testament to what a game like this can be — even if they rarely ever are.

Another good addition to God of War that added variety and made the game feel refreshing. I was really excited for this game and played it when it came out and just gave my all to it. I loved the growing relationship between Kratos and Artreus and the addition of new villains was exciting. The Valhalla DLC was also so cool and it felt like it shouldn't have been free. I think the DLC was very exciting for old fans of God of War because of its references to prior games. But I felt even as a new fan I could appreciate it and also become excited. I also did appreciate the new weapon addition to keep combat interesting.

Well, I don’t know, I want to joke about the dlc, but this game should have been instead of the first part, but the god of war franchise was blown away by this game, it simply can’t produce something epic after all the parts it had. The God of War is dead and this is his personal choice.

Ну не знаю, хочу пошутить про dlc, но такой игра и должна была быть вместо первой части, но франшиза god of war сдулась на этой игре, ей просто уже не выдать что-то эпичное после всех частей которые у нее были. Бог войны мертв и это его личный выбор.

Story, characters and dialogue were a noticeable step down from the first game. But the improvements in combat, variety, side content, exploration, and level design were enough to offset the story downgrade (which for the record, is still quite good, just not nearly as tight or consistent as the writing of the first game, which I consider one of the better stories in AAA gaming). The new Valhalla DLC (which is completely free) really tied this game up nicely for me, offering a more satisfying ending than the somewhat flabby and rushed final act of the base game, and managed to adapt the game's excellent combat framework into a genuinely fun and replayable roguelite mode that can easily last you 10+ hours.

Overall, if you ask me if 2018 or Ragnarok was better? I don't know, 2018's excellent storytelling and direction probably made it more memorable, and it probably would have been my answer if you asked me a year ago. But after playing the DLC I'm basically split 50/50 now.

God of War Ragnarök is slop for gluttonous consumer pigs.

The game treats you like a child that can't think for itself to ensure the widest possible audience and maximum profits.
The story features well known characters and elements from mythology, so you can clap your hands and point at the screen and go "Hey, I know that guy he's so cool and strong I have also seen him in one of my 50 mind-numbingly shallow marvel movies!!" To Sony, it must feel like jingling keys in front of a baby.
And to put the cherry on top of the most pop culture cake you have ever tasted, every filler dialogue has to be written in a quippy "well this is awkward he's right behind me isn't he? 😜😜" type of way, desperately trying to get you to chuckle, because god forbid a player doesn't have dopamine shooting through his brain for 30 seconds! He might engage with the media beyond the surface level then!

Or atleast that was what I thought my opinion about God Of War Ragnarök would be. Fortunately, this game owned my hating ass. Because even though the game truly does end up feeling somewhat patronizing in its effort to accomodate every possible gamer and non-gamer demographic, and the dialogue truly being quite cringy and forced sometimes, the things this game does really well more than make up for it. There are two elements that really stuck out for me.

The first one is the gameplay, which is sick as hell. There are 3 and a half weapons with dozens of combos and special attacks aswell as - of course - parrying, blocking and dodging, and you'll have to employ all of these mechanics in attunement to a large and diverse cast of enemies. It took some time to get used to all of this complexity, but once I did, fighting turned into an action-packed and well-tuned remix of various offensive and defensive moves that felt incredibly satisfying when I pulled it off smoothly.
There are also two bossfights here that are on par with the best FromSoft-Bosses, which is a compliment I certainly do not give lightly.

The second is Kratos & Atreus's relationship. It is ironic that I likened people being entertained by well-known pop culture characters appearing to jingling keys infront of a baby, when I apparently can't help but get my shit rocked emotionally by every parent-child dynamic I see. For me, Kratos & Atreus's dynamic specifically excels in being quite relateable, with Kratos being a harsh and cold father figure who, while wanting the best for his child and truly loving it, is completely unable or unwilling to ever communicate that feeling. It made me think a lot about my own father and about the father I want to be.
The overarching story meanwhile is engaging from beginning to end, although the plot sometimes moves too fast for the characters to keep up with it, leading to questionable character decisions and some moments not really having the payoff they probably should have.

Lastly, the Valhalla DLC is a pretty cool addition to the game. The fact that it's free gets a fat wholesome updoot from me

Santa Monica not wanting to make the Norse saga a trilogy is definitely felt in this game. It suffers from some pretty glaring pacing issues story wise, and your companion refusing to shut the fuck up when doing a puzzle are probably the only two issues I had with this game.

I prefer 2018 over this due to the tightness and clear end goal set up right from the beginning of that game but this is still a great sequel to a nearly perfect game. The added enemy types greatly improve upon the combat and I do love Kratos redemption arc started in the previous game coming full circle. The environments and openness to combat arenas are great and Kratos becoming more of an outspoken Hero feels like one of the most well written character arcs in gaming. I love this game so much and the Valhalla DLC (which i'll probably review separately) takes all of the great parts of Ragnarok and trims out the fat. Santa Monica has a fan in me for life.

Graphics - 10/10
The graphics have once again gotten better from GOW 2018 thanks to the added power of the PS5. The insane level of detail immerses me so much.

Performance - 10/10
Game ran at a steady 60fps the entire time on PS5 as far as I could tell.

Story - 10/10
Once again the story had me hooked from start to finish.

Gameplay - 8/10
Gameplay suffers from the same problems that plagued GOW 2018 with some slow areas that seem to go on for too long that I just get fed up with after a while.