I'm not a big fan of the rogue lite/like genre, but I have to admit that this surprisingly works pretty well! I enjoyed the experience and I think it takes the biggest strenght of the core game (the combat system) and brings it in a very different context, but it still doesn't feel forced at all.
The thing I was most interested in though was the story, and even if it didn't deliver the ending to Ragnarok i would have hoped for, it still brought a satisfying sense of conclusion to Kratos' story and struggles. I appreciated it a lot, but I think this will hit much harder for those who have played the og games.
Most impressive thing is they decided to give this DLC for free; it feels criminal to play this without paying for it

I know this won't mean much since almost noone reads my reviews, but I really enjoy writing them and thinking about what I like and what I don't like in the games I play, so I put quite some effort in it. God of war ragnarok was the first game in a while that made me completely forget about reviews, and I think this means something.

Despite being a cross gen title I was pretty surprised about how well it runs on old hardwares, but it has some problems with textures taking a while to load, and the game starting brief loading screens a bit randomly (also the teleport takes 5 years each time you use it). Aside from technical problems which comes from the platform it plays on being a bit old nowdays, I think GowR is what a modern AAA game should be. There is so much care put in everything, starting from ambient sounds, environmental details and character design. Usually after a while of playing a game I'd just start to listen to other stuff while playing, but here I never got tired of the sounds of nature, machines and people. The music is once again beautiful, with a couple of tracks that really stand out, even if it's very similar to its predecessor's. Despite it being a revamped 8th generation game, on a graphical standpoint I think it's still incredible, expanding on what Gow 2018 did, and giving its best in larger and fuller environments, like some parts of Svartalfheim or Vanheim.

I really, really liked the gameplay of Gow 2018, and I'm really glad there was an effort to expand it further. The biggest crime of the game is probably not having a combo meter or something like that, because the combat system is so weighty and satisfying that it never gets boring, even though it shows its weaker side when there are a lot of enemies. The rpg elements are still boring but fortunately very limited, the crafting is just ok but the skill trees were a lot of fun to complete and really do improve your enjoyment of the game. Even though Atreus' parts of the game may not be the best in term of gameplay, i think it's a nice addition for variety and differentiating it from its predecessor, as is the new weapon for Kratos, that doesn't break the game in any way but it makes it more diverse and let's you be more creative with combos. GoWR fixes a lot of the main issues I had with the previous game: it has a lot more enemy variety, it has a lot more minibosses and boss battles without exchanging them for quality and epicness (some of these are just fantastic and almost each one has something unique), and it has a lot more subquests, with a lot of these being really fun and interesting side content that adds a lot to the main game, but also a lot of fetch quests and generic stuff. I started playing in hard but after a while I switched back to normal, not because I'm a little bitch, but because while the main game isn't really hard, the side stuff is soo much harder in comparison that it doesn't make any sense (not that I don't like a challenge but jesus it's like a complete 180°).

Now me along with a lot of other people have gotten a bit tired of the Sony AAA formula, with the over the shoulder camera and a high emphasis on story and graphics, but when it works it works. It doesn't mean that the story here is the best thing ever nor some gamechanging stuff, but it's still a solid story that mainly plays on a very interesting and well constructed cast of characters who interact in a very natural and fun way between them. Almost every single one has a defined personality which is still dynamic throughout the events and this makes them feel like human beings; the development of a couple of characters expecially really got me (starting with Kratos himself, and also unexpectedly Sindri). Admittedly some of the dialogues have a bit of a dumb aura around them which doesn't always fit the game, but I didn't mind them too much. I loved listening to all the interactions on the boats or the dialogues between fights. They make you feel like part of the group and often do really expand on each character's intentions, histories or beliefs. The game has a bit of a pacing problem, and I felt it since this is a big ass game, but I think that the biggest problem on a narrative point of view is the ending. I still haven't played Valhalla, so I don't know if I'll be satisfied with that as a new finale, but the last battle is soo hyped that it falls short almost right away. It's underwhealming in the last assault and even the last bossfights, which aren't bad perse but they pale in comparison with Baldur's last fight. Seeing how strongly the game started, with the encounter with Thor and Odin in Kratos' house, it's a bit of a pity how it ends. Aside from the final battles there are also some story points that don't work at all, like Ragnarok himself, some secondary characters behaviour and some other plot armor, which is fine I guess, but not what I expect from a game of this caliber.

In the end Gow Ragnarock is a massive game, big enough to be split in two, and it's easy to tell when you look at its shortcomings. It's everything the previous game was but bigger, Which is great in some aspects, but not as good in others (the story is more complex, but it has a lot more problems). I truly believe this is one of the best games released in the last generation of consoles (since it's hard to consider it as a pure 9th gen game), but I also believe that it could have been some of the best ever, given some more attention in certain aspects.