This review contains spoilers
I have a lot of thoughts on this, but I need this to sink in before I express them fully. But for now, I think this has amazing gameplay and writing, but the latter gets clumsy in the third act and sours the story for me.
Earlier this week I watched a video about what makes good combat in video games, and GoW (2018) checked all the boxes. Ragnarok adds a few more boxes and checks them too. The combat is really solid. Sure, it's mostly the same from 2018, but I love the extra polish and how there's more opportunity to switch between weapons. I ended up doing all the side quests, fighting all the side bosses, upgrading all my weapons and armor, finishing all the combat challenges... and I still wasn't bored with the combat. The weight and flow of it is consistently satisfying.
I also can't praise the direction of this game enough. The performances, the direction, the fine details are phenomenal. All of it raises the bar for the future AAA games.
I think the main thing is stopping this from being perfect is the story. I feel as if the writers had a sense of what they were going for in the first 2/3 of the game, but the last act is just incredibly rushed and unpolished.
Here's a list of gripes I had with the story (and especially the pacing):
- things just feel too rushed. There's a point where Freya goes back to Vanaheim and we follow her, and suddenly her brother is kidnapped? Now we have to find the moon and save her brother within like 5 mins of things having been okay?
- After we rescue Freya's brother, there's a scene on a flying boat. Everything is chill and suddenly dragons attack. Now we see this guy sacrificing himself. There's music playing and its supposed to be emotional, and I'm sitting there thinking... "who the fuck was that guy? was I supposed to know him?". It's just some NPC that we never really interact with. Why have him there, and why give him such a big sendoff if we've never talked to him?
- We never fully understand the World Serpent's story. It's just "implied" that he went back in time after Ragnarok. Wtf? It's such a big thing that they kept teasing in 2018 but now its an afterthought.
- So many new characters are introduced (specifically Thrud and her family, Freyr, that Midgardian kid)... and they never feel fleshed out. Their storylines aren't explored enough, and they all kind of pop in in the last act and just leave. They all feel poorly written as a result of it.
- We never explore what happened to Sindri after Brok's death. He's angry, helps in the war, and then what? Brok's death is such a huge moment but we don't get to see anything about how Sindri was impacted and how he's doing.
- Throughout the game, Kratos says he doesn't want war. And then in the third act, he wants war and works to make it happen. Then 5 minutes into the war, he doesn't want it anymore and wants to go after Odin alone? What the fuck happened?
- Surtr says he can't help. Then a minute later he's like "jk, actually I can"
- There is no army to wage war with. Characters go to raise an army offscreen. We see none of it. Then we step into Asgard and suddenly there's already a war happening. Everything is so rushed!!!
- After the war is over, Atreus wakes up, sees his dad and the first thing he wants to talk about is how he is leaving. They hug and he leaves. What? They literally just killed Odin and lost 2 friends in the last 24 hours. The writing here just felt so unrealistic. Either Atreus is a sociopath who only cares about himself and his adventures, or the writers just forgot what these characters have been through in the last day
- Faye is brought up a lot in this game, and with every occurrence Kratos is reminded that she held back information from him throughout their relationship. They keep hinting that they will receive some information, some missing puzzle piece, that will make Kratos understand why she did this. But they never do.
- A big focus for this story is prophecy. The characters are constantly following what a prophecy says they will do... but then suddenly they tell themselves that prophecy is all bullshit... and then none of it matters. It just feels like there was more here that we didn't get to see. They just change prophecy by saying "we make our own path"? What is this, Narnia?
Idk, I guess its really clear that I had a big issue with the pacing and the writing in the 3rd act of the game. The first 2 acts are solid, really a masterclass in video game writing. But the last act left such a sour taste in my mouth. My theory right now is that this very clearly needed an extra game. They needed to flesh out the new characters, give more insight into the story, let the "prophecy" and "war" plot simmer a bit more.
Right now, I'm leaving towards a 4/5 for this game. Despite all these issues I had with the third act, I can't deny that the rest of the game is pretty incredible.
Earlier this week I watched a video about what makes good combat in video games, and GoW (2018) checked all the boxes. Ragnarok adds a few more boxes and checks them too. The combat is really solid. Sure, it's mostly the same from 2018, but I love the extra polish and how there's more opportunity to switch between weapons. I ended up doing all the side quests, fighting all the side bosses, upgrading all my weapons and armor, finishing all the combat challenges... and I still wasn't bored with the combat. The weight and flow of it is consistently satisfying.
I also can't praise the direction of this game enough. The performances, the direction, the fine details are phenomenal. All of it raises the bar for the future AAA games.
I think the main thing is stopping this from being perfect is the story. I feel as if the writers had a sense of what they were going for in the first 2/3 of the game, but the last act is just incredibly rushed and unpolished.
Here's a list of gripes I had with the story (and especially the pacing):
- things just feel too rushed. There's a point where Freya goes back to Vanaheim and we follow her, and suddenly her brother is kidnapped? Now we have to find the moon and save her brother within like 5 mins of things having been okay?
- After we rescue Freya's brother, there's a scene on a flying boat. Everything is chill and suddenly dragons attack. Now we see this guy sacrificing himself. There's music playing and its supposed to be emotional, and I'm sitting there thinking... "who the fuck was that guy? was I supposed to know him?". It's just some NPC that we never really interact with. Why have him there, and why give him such a big sendoff if we've never talked to him?
- We never fully understand the World Serpent's story. It's just "implied" that he went back in time after Ragnarok. Wtf? It's such a big thing that they kept teasing in 2018 but now its an afterthought.
- So many new characters are introduced (specifically Thrud and her family, Freyr, that Midgardian kid)... and they never feel fleshed out. Their storylines aren't explored enough, and they all kind of pop in in the last act and just leave. They all feel poorly written as a result of it.
- We never explore what happened to Sindri after Brok's death. He's angry, helps in the war, and then what? Brok's death is such a huge moment but we don't get to see anything about how Sindri was impacted and how he's doing.
- Throughout the game, Kratos says he doesn't want war. And then in the third act, he wants war and works to make it happen. Then 5 minutes into the war, he doesn't want it anymore and wants to go after Odin alone? What the fuck happened?
- Surtr says he can't help. Then a minute later he's like "jk, actually I can"
- There is no army to wage war with. Characters go to raise an army offscreen. We see none of it. Then we step into Asgard and suddenly there's already a war happening. Everything is so rushed!!!
- After the war is over, Atreus wakes up, sees his dad and the first thing he wants to talk about is how he is leaving. They hug and he leaves. What? They literally just killed Odin and lost 2 friends in the last 24 hours. The writing here just felt so unrealistic. Either Atreus is a sociopath who only cares about himself and his adventures, or the writers just forgot what these characters have been through in the last day
- Faye is brought up a lot in this game, and with every occurrence Kratos is reminded that she held back information from him throughout their relationship. They keep hinting that they will receive some information, some missing puzzle piece, that will make Kratos understand why she did this. But they never do.
- A big focus for this story is prophecy. The characters are constantly following what a prophecy says they will do... but then suddenly they tell themselves that prophecy is all bullshit... and then none of it matters. It just feels like there was more here that we didn't get to see. They just change prophecy by saying "we make our own path"? What is this, Narnia?
Idk, I guess its really clear that I had a big issue with the pacing and the writing in the 3rd act of the game. The first 2 acts are solid, really a masterclass in video game writing. But the last act left such a sour taste in my mouth. My theory right now is that this very clearly needed an extra game. They needed to flesh out the new characters, give more insight into the story, let the "prophecy" and "war" plot simmer a bit more.
Right now, I'm leaving towards a 4/5 for this game. Despite all these issues I had with the third act, I can't deny that the rest of the game is pretty incredible.
Reviewed on Nov 14, 2022