Pretty incredible, all told. Definitely worth playing if you enjoyed 2018.

I didn't personally find the ending setpiece all that great, and I didn't understand the ending itself (I had to go online to look up what the details happening meant). Maybe I'm dumb and missed the subtle hints? But I could've done with about two lines of dialogue, at least giving me a hint as to what I should've been focusing on.

Still, now that I understand, it's a great game. Slightly better gameplay than 2018, slightly worse story (in my opinion), definitely worth a second playthrough in a couple of years.

Die Geschichte von God of War Ragnarök hat nochmal eine Schippe auf die super Story vom Vorgänge gelegt! Sehr viel Action und so viel mehr zu erkunden, beinahe schon mit Metroidvania-Ansätzen!

Größter Kritikpunkt in meinen Augen wieder mal das Kampfsystem. Teilweise wird man gestunlocked oder man kann die Kamera nicht schnell genug dahin bewegen, wo sie gebraucht wird. Auch ist Kratos oft wirklich träge.

Alles in allem aber ein gelungener Nachfolger!

Before this came out, I remember telling my friend that I was less excited than I expected to play it. I LOVED the last one and I'm super invested in Sony Santa Monica's decision to transform Kratos from a stacked himbo that violently slaughters mythological monsters and has QTE shag sessions with Greek maidens to a vulnerable daddy figuring out how to communicate healthily with his teenage son. But with my guide work ramping up and my patience for the Christmas slate wearing thin, I just couldn't bring myself to 100% buy into Ragnarok.

Then I opened the game, that belter of a score erupted, some of the best cutscenes I've ever watched started playing and, after an hour of incredible set pieces, I experienced one of the best boss battles I've played in years. In just 60 minutes Kratos had me wrapped around his muscley little finger again.

And that's mainly because Sony Santa Monica just fundamentally understands the cinematic action blockbuster. God of War: Ragnarok (if you ask me) isn't a "perfect game". The menus are cumbersome, the combat grows repetitive after long stints, and (please don't attack me with pitchforks) its story, while phenomenal at capturing grounded, distinctly human character moments, is a little too clean-cut and easy at points, often failing to satisfyingly resolve its biggest narrative threads or mysteries.

But everything that didn't work for me was counterbalanced by just how well Santa Monica nails what it needs to nail to make this a bombastic epic. The writing is second to none, making you mill around already-explored areas for minutes just to hear Kratos and Atreus ramble on about a Norse legend or previous adventure. The boss battles are some of the best I've ever experienced in a video game; just frantic clashes that seamlessly weave intense, reaction-based combat with superb cutscenes and interactive moments. And then there's just the overall presentation of the game; the beautiful visuals, the world-class performances, the top-notch sound design.

But at the centre of it all, what makes the game really hit is how unafraid it is to get intimate with its main players. Sony Santa Monica really just understands this new take on Kratos so well: what he fears, why he fights, what he regrets. I ugly cried more times than I care to count during the final moments of Ragnarok due to how much time is dedicated to exploring Kratos and Atreus' characters. Both are so well-realised and are given so much time to breathe, despite the game focusing on such a spectacle-heavy cataclysmic event.

In the end, it's that beautiful synergy between personal character growth and epic spectacle that ultimately makes Ragnarok such a special game. The original was an introspective dissection of Kratos as a character more than it was a real dive into Norse mythology, while this sequel feels like it manages to highlight more of the fantastical Norse elements (one of the main side characters is literally a talking squirrel) alongside continuing to forge a new direction for Kratos' character.

It makes Ragnarok a wonderful partner piece to its predecessor. It feels more like a "Volume 2" for GoW 2018 than it does a full-fledged new entry in the series, and honestly, I prefer that. Both games are interconnected and essential to one another, and seeing as we were all obsessed with 2018, that means a meaningful continuation of the action and story we came to love.

There are a million things you can talk about with Ragnarok; it's a shockingly big game with a lot of moving pieces, surprising moments and unexpected ideas that I don't want to spoil. All I can say is I can't wait to see what's next, and that's assuming there is something next. Of course, this game just went ahead and made some cold hard smackeroos, so Sony will undoubtedly be knocking on Santa Monica's door every other day to ask for a sequel, but there's also part of me that thinks they could end it here and it would be a fitting conclusion to the franchise's nearly two-decade-long stint.

But rather self-entitledly, I don't want it to end here. Ragnarok might not only be one of the best blockbuster video games I've ever played, but one of the best blockbusters I've ever experienced in any medium. It goes against every belief I have about storytelling or franchise fatigue, but I don't care. I'll keep playing God of War games until every mythology has been exhausted and Kratos is throwing hands with Slender Man if it means we can keep watching the God of War and Boy chatting shit with a talking head in a row boat.

* Comentários feitos após a minha 2° playthrough.

God of War Ragnarok é um jogo espetacular.
Uma sequência competente e que dá um belo upgrade na gameplay em relação ao 2018.
A adição de gameplay com o Atreus para mim foi algo muito bem vindo, apesar de que merecia mais atenção.
Um dos combates que eu mais gosto dos videogames.

É um jogo de qualidade e nível técnico bem alto.
Direção de arte belíssima.
O design de áudio é ótimo.
A dublagem (BR) é excelente, com escolhas certeiras como Carlos Campanile (Odin), Gabriel Noya (Thor) e toda a galera do God of War de 2018 (R. Juarez, Lipe, Beatriz Villa, Milton Levy, M. Salsicha e Mauro Castro).

A história para mim é incrível, poderosa, emocionante e grandiosa.
Foram 50 horas (26hrs de campanha) muito bem jogadas, o ritmo do jogo para mim foi muito bem equilibrada, apesar de eu ter uma ressalva sobre isso.
Essa ressalva se trata do seguimento Bosque de Ferro e a parte final do jogo, onde um deles (Bosque) possui mais destaque e atenção do que a outra (parte final) que se trata de algo mais importante.

God of War Ragnarok é um jogo espetacular, uma sequência competente e sem sombra de dúvidas um dos maiores títulos da história da PlayStation.

What a sequel should be. Masterful character work, and some great boss fights. Improvements on the first game in terms of gameplay and enemies, but I play games for the stories and man... elite. I finished the game on a binge which was so cinematic. Christopher Judge as Kratos is a defining role in fiction. The entire Norse Pantheon of characters that come into play here are rich and deep characters. Atreus is fun and a welcome addition to gameplay. I love it.

Something about these games that still bugs me, which is so nitpicky but I can't get over it, is that bro can't jump. I may be able to fight Odin himself, but Valhalla forbid I need to hurdle over a stone to explore a little bit.

Gameplay is certainly improved compared to it's predecessor, both the blades and axe feel better than ever and the system itself features more depth. But unfortunately the developers deemed it necessary to stuff the game chock-full of some of the most irritating enemies you could possibly hope for.

On top of that, the fine men and women of the writing room decided that the best way to structure the story was repeat trials of "go find this thing at this place and come back with new information" until you're nearly dead of boredom. At which point they will attempt an emotional scene that is hardly ever earned and often falls flat on its face.

Why was this nominated for game of the year?

PROS:
- Compelling entry and ending to the "Norse Saga" of the series. Pushes to make the relationship between Kratos and Atreus one of the best parent/child dynamics in gaming, if not, fiction.
- Gameplay is levelled up from the previous entry. More enemy types ans more ways to be versatile and free with molly whoppin'.
- Side content such as challenges and side quests make the world feel alive and ups the anti when it comes to gameplay.
- Top notch performances ALL 'ROUND.
CONS:
- The "Endgame" feel and threat looming over the plot line makes it feel lesser than the previous entry's more intimate and emotional story.
- Minor storylines are pushed to the side and are rushed for a grand scale plot.
- Insistence on having a PS4 release held it back, technical-wise.

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.