God Of War Ragnarök

Me ha encantado la verdad, tiene todo lo del 2018 y soluciona los problemas que tiene. Solo hay una cosa que me habría gustado diferente, por el resto me parece casi perfecto.

(10/10)

Buah, es que top 3 o top 2 mis juegos fav de Playstation.

A melhor forma de descrever esse jogo é que ele é verdadeiramente um jogo com uma ótima proposta que teve MUITAS de suas qualidades ofuscadas em troca de fazer esse jogo ter uma escala gigantesca em eventos, uma história arrastada, um combate que traz inovações mas que por vezes é fraco e quebrado, e é um jogo bastante inconsistente, sendo o tipo de obra que para todos os elogios que eu tenho, eu tenho uma coisa para criticar em troca

God of War Ragnarok é uma obra que a primeiro impressiona DEMAIS, a primeira hora desse jogo é cheia de ação, pontos que mostram a inovação acima do primeiro mas que mantem uma consistência indiscutível e é exatamente aqui onde o jogo te agarra e que com o passar das suas 20~25 horas de campanha vão decaindo e acabou pessoalmente me deixando BASTANTE a desejar, sendo uma campanha que tem momentos extremamente épicos e que são uma verdadeira Tour de Force na franquia mas que em contrapartida tem situações que parecem estar lá só para aumentar o tempo do jogo e acaba dando uma sensação que está se arrastando para no final, acabar de forma extremamente corrida e com uma ideia de crescimento sim, mas zero senso e satisfação de conclusao, em diversas situações senti que meu tempo foi desperdiçado, mesmo que no final por conta dos momentos épicos, eu consiga tirar um saldo positivo desta jogada, não é algo que eu tenho interesse algum de voltar visto a demora e a inconsistencia de DIVERSOS personagens, mas principalmente do Kratos que por vezes esta disposto a perdoar ALGUMAS coisas ruins mas outras não? isso fica bastante claro da metade para o final da história do jogo que TAMBÉM, tenho minhas criticas.

A campanha desse jogo por mais que extensa, conta uma historia legal e com personagens interessantes, porém possui também um pacing extremamente mal feito, a ponto que existam seções de quase 2 horas que são extremamente entediantes a ponto de me fazerem parar de jogar o jogo pelo dia para jogar algo mais animado mas que também guarda suas reviravoltas... algumas imprevisíveis mas outras que sinceramente vão mais te deixar com cara de bunda de tão previsíveis, pessoalmente acho que faltou bastante ousadia nessas reviravoltas, porque elas acabam por não ser nem um pouco impactantes, e até mesmo os personagens desse jogo sendo interessantes e bem produzidos tecnicamente como são, tinham muito potencial para brilhar mais do que terem seus destinos guardados como recompensa por aguentar 20 e tantas horas duma historia confusa, combate problemático e repetitivo que conta com uma variedade imensa inimigos mas que muitos são quase reskins e que alguns você mata em três golpes ou são verdadeiras ESPONJAS de dano, seções de exploração e side quests desinteressantes, e escolhas questionáveis como a bussola lhe guiar por pequenos marcadores ao invés de lhe guiar diretamente para o objetivo

Um aspecto que eu consigo elogiar é a acessibilidade que esse jogo traz consigo, diversas opções de acessibilidade para todos os tipos de público, assistência visual com alertas sonoros, possibilidade de aumento de legendas e tamanho de botões, possibilidade de remapear completamente o controle e diversas outras funções porém uma que pessoalmente me incomodou foi a exposição absurda de puzzles, mal tinha tempo para pensar e os personagens já falavam a resposta para mim, acho que deveria ter uma opção pra aumentar o tempo até falarem ou uma opção para ativar ou desativar isso, mas é uma adição extremamente bem vinda

A sua otimização e seus aspectos técnicos também não deixam nem um pouco a desejar, apresentando gráficos incríveis e ambientações únicas e fantásticas (por mais que extensas mais do que o necessário a ponto de incomodar e confundir de tão grande que algumas são) entre os nove reinos exploráveis, joguei num PS4 PRO e tive uma média de 45~50 FPS estáveis, apenas em cenas EXTREMAMENTE intensas que ele ficou por volta dos 30 frames, e nunca com frame tear, elementos não carregando, texturas demorando a responder nem nada do gênero, sim o tamanho do jogo é imenso, pesando seus 106GB mas que são justificáveis visto a qualidade dos assets, porém dos aspectos técnicos existe um que é difícil de não criticar, que é a quantidade inaceitável de Softlocks que tive durante minha jogatina, tive que reiniciar quatro vezes o checkpoint nesse jogo por conta de quests que não terminavam, NPCs que não aparecia a opção de interagir, locais escaláveis que não me permitiam continuar subindo entre outras situações, felizmente a frustração foi parcialmente evitada visto o sistema robusto de checkpoints que o jogo apresenta, caso contrario isso seria um problema MUITO maior neste jogo, por mais que ainda considere isso inaceitável num jogo desse tamanho e que foi lançado a preço cheio ($60 / R$300)

E bom no fim o que eu posso tirar do jogo? God of War Ragnarok é um jogo que para mim pessoalmente tinha um potencial de ser o meu jogo favorito da plataforma mas que acabou por ser um jogo que me decepcionou bastante, visto seus problemas de cadência, combate repetitivo, história arrastada e seus diversos problemas acabaram por tirar muito da experiência, obvio que ele tem seus momentos nos quais ele brilha tanto que não é por acaso que ele saiu com um saldo positivo nessa análise, mas é um jogo que eu admito que eu esperava muito mais, e não é de forma alguma o jogo perfeito que a grande maioria dos sites de analises vem prometendo, acho que um sete é o lugar correto para o jogo, é um jogo bom e que tem ótimas ideias mas que passa elas de forma bem medíocre e até ruim por vezes

Bom, vou lançar um complemento para essa análise com com spoilers, abaixo está o link para a mesma e (obviamente) recomendo que veja ou jogue o jogo antes de ler a mesma:

https://www.backloggd.com/u/MeninoXepa/review/562447/

Working titles for my review included:

1) "God of Snore" - Reason not used: Taken
2) "God of More" - Reason not used: Could imply the more was positive/good
3) "Teen Angst Simulator" - Reason not used: Everyone was angsty, not just Atreus.

Used Title: "A Series of Unfortunate MacGuffin's"

I bought this game almost entierly out of curiousity, one of my more controversial gaming opinions and reviews is that of the renewed God of War (2018,) which I played because I wanted to get a gauge on the game that defeated Red Dead Redemption 2 come year's end at the Game Awards. In my experience I found GoW to be a mostly bland, monotonous, and unadventerous experience. I didn't get the same buzz or energy others did from the axe-wielding combat, I didn't enjoy the consistent babbling from Mimir and crew, and I certainly did not have a positive takeaway on the MacGuffin nature of the plot. I'd hoped, in playing Ragnarok, that the extremely high acclaim given to the game by critics when review embargo ceased meant that Sony had remdied the issues I had with the previous title. Now, I know that The Game Award should and have zero bearing on my enjoyment of a game, but it's clear that the two frontrunners for the big daddy of them all "Game of the Year Award" will be Elden Ring and God of War Ragnarok. Curiosity killled the cat, and maybe it killed me too. What I found almost immediately in Ragnarok was that I'd be getting the exact same takeaways and experiences that I had in the 2018 game.

Starting it off with combat, which is admittably a little less... boring as it was in 2018 but comes with its own grievances. Gone is going 75% of the game with the same weapon, as you start the game with Kratos' famous Blades of Chaos and pick up a third weapon down the line (redacted for spoilers.) This is nice because it gives you a little variation in terms of visual flavor for the majority of the game but this fell completely flat for me as the enemies, from start to finish are pretty much all just "bullet" sponges for lack of a better term. There's a certian flare to the combo weaving of different weapons and taking advantages of status effects, but at the end of the day you'll have to pump so much time and effort into enemies to kill them, that I abandoned trying to make it look snazzy. Basic enemies aren't too bad but once you get into the special/mini-boss fights it gets real samey, real quick. Monotonous combat was a compaint I had in the 2018 release that really took up a lot of my opinion on the game, and unfortunately it's back in Ragnarok. Not only does Kratos' arsenal not feel very different overall, not enough for me rather, but again the enemy variation and recycled encounters greatly holds this game back just as it did in the predecessor. I recently played Bayonetta 3 which had the enemy arsenal/variety to make this work, but in God of War every gameplay sequence in a realm can be boiled down into such: Shimmy through a tight loading screen corridor -> solved light puzzle that requires throwing axe and using some kind of time magic -> fight same three to five enemies that are dropped into area -> shimmy loading screen -> repeat. These enemies change per location but the cyclical nature of fighting them, their spongey health bars, and responding to their same mechanics got reallllly old real quick.

You switch between Atreus and Kratos in Ragnarok for level sequences and unfortunately the combat doesn't feel very fresh in either when you change between. Atreus' gameplay loop is even more restricted than Kratos in the first game and his equivalent of Spartan Rage, while stronger, is just a swap-in move which doesn't even do the Nero-Dante dynamic that every character action game should do in making playable protagonists FEEL fundamentally different so controlling them comes off as fresh. My ultimate qualm with the combat, which is also backlines my qualm with the game itself, is that it doesn't feel fresh enough. The combat feels the same, the Hollywood-board-room-type dialogue feels the exact same, the light unecessary puzzle solving feels the same, the missions/levels feel the exact same. What's new with God of War that's supposed to push this series from Great to Fantastic? I don't know, I can't answer that question because I surely didn't find it. The narrative that is meant to wrap up Kratos' Nordic saga felt bland and broken at times, leaving me to constantly wonder the where's and why's of my actions. I get there is an over-arching narrative at play leading to Ragnarok itself, given the actions of the previous title, but I think the game could have done a much better job sequencing its filler-story content. Missions just felt like they were happening to give characters exposition, rather than move the narrative forward and do so. Final Fantasy X does a great job at this, giving each character their own arc while actually advancing the stakes and story at hand. Wakka, Kimahri, Auron, Tidus, and Yuna all have their character examined and challenged while keeping the focus on stopping Sin. Ragnarok had me wondering why I was taking Freya, Atreus, Sindi, Brok all on their own respective adventures that didn't really add to the sequencing of the game in a manner that made sense. With each of these characters you'll find either Kratos or Atreus running the same combat-puzzle-loading screen gambit in an attempt to achieve something or retrieve an item that is to help them in their final huzzah. Doing this over and over and over just felt... bland. God of War Ragnarok for much of its runtime didn't feel like an epic adventure across one of the cooler pantheons to exist within dated mythos, but like a buddy cop comedy where the entire exposition was to retrieve MacGufffin's.

This game honestly just reminded me of the MCU, specifically speaking the Avengers film franchise. Avengers is a media phenomenon that took the world by storm, utilizing a carefully crafted pattern to set up a plethora of Marvel heroes/villains to have them culminate in an epic cinematic experience sure to take the world by storm, and it did. Marvel/Disney spent the time and monetary effort setting up this big "Huzzah" that had never been seen before in the world of film. Almost everyone I knew that was a casual movie watcher, thus excluding those who I would call "Movie hipsters" like myself, were jumping at the seams to speak on the magnitude of the avengers and its fiscal achievements. People were completely enamored in what was a fairly basic story. How do you react when so many around you are speaking in praise of something that you view so mediocre? Surely the right thing to do is not speak ill on something in the world of media that others hold high, because a film series like the Avengers is entierly subjective when it comes to taste, but it's reasonable to have the discourse with those that investigate your dissent with the series further. Thus is my issue with God of War 2018 and Ragnarok. Almost everyone I know that has played the game(s) has loved them, critics have been raving over Ragnarok as soon as reviews were allowed to come out. I've had to step back from most discourse because I don't want to be "that guy" but this is a review space and this is my review, so I feel alright stating how I feel. God of War is that Avengers to me, it's something that can only be made possible by having a lot of money to make and afford the resources needed to make it "work." They both are spectatcles, never shying away from thrusting intense CG and big moments at the consumer. They both utilize top tier composition, sound design, and voice acting to create a complete experience, free of any hitch. God of War was a completely polished game, I had only one minor bug, and it ran phenomenally on my computer... but can that alone with a mediocre story and samey combat make the game "good" for me? The answer I found, to be no it cannot.

There are some things God of War Ragnarok does well, but in the theme of things being the "same" to me as 2018, they were the same things that the game before it did. Christopher Judge is a great Kratos, matter of fact the entire cast does an amazing job acting out and making their characters mostly believable (shoutout SungWon Cho,) but it's almost... too AAA. The game itself is beautiful, I played performance mode on my PS5 and it truly was a crisp experience, taking full advantage of the graphical prowess of the console and my 4k monitor. The game was eye candy, but to that point I felt myself let down with these amazing vistas because of the soulless gameplay loop I knew I was about to embark upon. Animation was great, again I had that "wow I remember gaming twenty years ago moment" whenever they panned to Kratos' face and you could see his emotion vividly. I also love how they took full advantage of the Norse pantheon, including smaller characters like the Norns, Sigurn, Angrboða, and many more to the bigwigs like Freya, Fenrir, Tyr, and Surtr. I loved seeing/hearing a character speak and opening up their wikipedia page to remind myself about their lore. I used to love doing that in my youth, and God of War Ragnarok was a great reminder of doing that.

Lesser issues I had with the game include one, the assumption that you as the player did all the sidequesting and optional content from the previous game. It was a little confusing when Kratos/Atreus were referencing things they did like "Hey remember when we did this" or explaining to another character of their actions and I'm sitting there completely confused because no... I never did that and I had no clue what they were talking about. Secondly, the camera was just downright poor in most combat and even in cutscenes. There was quite a lot of forced panning that takes away player agency from experiencing what they want in a game. Maybe this is part of appealing to the most common consumer, but it was more offputting to me because I am overall not a fan of being told how to interpret or take away scenes from a narrative experience. I would be trying to walk through a scene or turn to see the entire environment at large to only be met by a slow moving camera and a locked screen.

Ragnarok largely missed the mark for me, really feeling like a DLC/Expansion of the 2018 game without enough variety/change to rectify the previous mistakes for me. There were new vistas and characters, but it felt like the fundamental same experience for me, and I'm glad I didn't wait four years between these two releases. Odds are, fans of the 2018 game will absolutely love Ragnarok, and dissenters will not. I cannot recommend God of War Ragnarok, especially for $70, unless you're set on the experience and getting the most out of its sidequesting and characters.

English | Español

The second part of Kratos' nordic saga incises even more in the great change the God of war has lived with these two games. It feels much like the last one but it also has a very important new gameplay feature that adds a lot to the core gameplay and narrative. I think this is a better game because of how it develops its characters but it is also a game that I have enjoyed less than its predecessor.

Segunda mitad de la saga nórdica de Kratos que incide aún más en el genial cambio que ha vivido el Dios de la guerra. Continuista aunque con una novedad jugable importantísima, creo que es mejor por cómo desarrolla sus personajes, pero me ha gustado menos

When it comes to story, this is probably one of the best narrative experiences I've ever had with a game, none of the characters feel two dimensional, even those characters that stay in the background for most of the time. All of them have weight, the side plots are interesting to explore and for the most part you don't feel like you're deviating from the main quest because of it.

This was really a trip, the relationships and motivations of each character felt real and well thought out and you just can't help but feel what each character is feeling during the game's runtime. It's also a really heavy game when it comes to the themes it explores: grief, vengeance, the search for meaning, the paths we create throughout our lives, cause and effect and all the consequences that come with each choice we make, Ragnarok really shines as a coming of age story, the same way as a story about the burdens we carry on our backs.
Can't wait to see what Santa Monica Studios comes up with for their next game and just hope that the writing is as good as this.

A very good game on its own, however, I will say that the story at least, in my opinion, feels like a step down from the predecessor. In an attempt to be bigger and more epic the heart of the story becomes a lot messier, setups have lame payoffs and massive payoffs have no setups.

Also while I cannot speak for the PS5 version of the game, the PS4 version did have some frustrating bugs and glitches. Most of them weren't big enough to ruin the experience, but some definitely broke the immersion, and there were some rare cases of game-breaking bugs that forced me to turn off the game and restart.

As a whole I still do love it, the gameplay is improved in every way it could have, and even though I have my issues with the story it still has moments of brilliance, and as I've said most of the bugs weren't too bad, but for me, the biggest appeal of the series is its story and that's the part of the game that I think was most poorly handled, so while I still like it, it doesn't quite live up to the previous game.

Hands down, one of the greatest single-player experiences ever. A beautifully natural continuation from its predecessor that really expands upon its characters, old and new, while retaining that grandeur of Norse mythology. What more is there to say? Like honestly…

The combat? Satisfyingly weighty.
The story? A legend in itself.
The boss fights? Beyond EPIC.
The worlds? Gorgeously designed.
Side favours and collectibles? Plentiful.

The most exciting first and third act ever in a video game. Heck, I could keep gushing at how this is one of the most intimate storytelling experiences in any art form ever. Not only the best PS5 game, but perhaps one of the best of all-time? Yeah, it’s that good.

Holy fuck, dude. Not exactly sure how to comprehend this into words, but this was definitely an astonishing experience.

The first hour instantly hooked me, straight into the action and such a darker feeling in contrast to God of War (2018) that I loved tonally. Afterwards, it started to lose me a bit, but the pay-off was enough to make me want to jump back into this game daily. I would compare it's build-up to the likes of Metal Gear Solid 2 in certain respects as things are presented the way they do not seem to be for most of the story until the climax that presents huge twists piecing details together.

What I loved was the questions the story posed... is Odin right? Can the prophecy be adverted? These sort of things that played in the back of my mind through most of the game made for an interesting experience narratively, not exactly something I see in too many games elsewhere to such an extent as this. You are built up to absolute hate Odin, yet when you first see him... he seems like a pretty likable guy, but always in the back of your mind is the knowledge that he's an evil bastard, yet as we progress the game constantly makes you question whether these accusations hold any truth to them. It's such a cool dynamic and I love that in stories such as this.

I would say in the realm of boss fights, Ragnarok upped its predecessor. Everyone talks about the Thor fight, which was badass in it's own respect, but there were so many other great fights too that deserve recognition (Garm, Heimdall, Odin) and gameplay wise, it is so much more refined, though I abused the spear a fuckton during the last 10 hours of the game.

Personally, this is my Game of the Year for 2022, which goes without saying, I think it's practically a given at this point. I don't want this to be the end of the series, because I would like so much more to see the rest of Atreus' and Kratos' stories, though I doubt we'll be seeing anything anytime soon, so I think for now a lot of extra time will be spent on side quests.

God of War 2018 was the game that really sold me on the series, with my biggest complaint being that I wished there was more of it. After finishing Ragnarok, I feel my biggest takeaway is that I wish there was less of it.

It's a very well put together, beautiful game with combat that remains as good as the first (if maybe a bit to much of the same), enchanting music, and a story that ultimately ends in a very satisfying way. The new weapon is fun, and I enjoyed the alternate gameplay style they added. All of the performances were great, and especially some of the later bits will remain in my mind for a long time to come.

But the journey to get there is some of the most strangely unevenly paced content I have seen in a game recently. I don't mind slow levels focused on worldbuilding and general plot setup, but some of these chapters are not only slow, they simply do not know when to end. Especially in the first half most chapters simply drag on the same simple points for way too long, presumably to hammer in the plot if for some reason you did not get it.

Hell, the main story of this game doesn't trust the player with any sort of adversity. All of the main story encounters are remarkably easy on normal, and the characters CONSTANTLY quip out the solutions to puzzles just as you find them. It is actual insanity how simple most of the puzzles in this game are, but it's doubly insane how often your companion will pipe up with the solution not even 5 seconds after seeing it. Let the player think and experiment if they have to!! Meanwhile, side content literally 10 feet off the main path will beat the bricks off of you just for looking in its direction. The balancing is just so strange.

I feel like I have been pretty negative here, but again, I enjoyed the game enough by the end. I just wish I liked it more than that.

An enthralling sequel and conclusion for better and worse, God of War Ragnarok didn't nearly wow me like 2018s God of War but this final journey into the Norse mythology saga of Kratos & Atreus has some big bumps in the road and I could complain about a lot of this game but in the end I'm left with a mostly satisfying epic, grand adventure and an ending that was surprisingly effective and resonating. If this is the end of God of War (for the time being until Sony reboots or something again) then its been one hell of a journey.