This review contains spoilers
Imagine that you're playing God of War Ragnarök. You've just discovered a new area and find yourself in a room with a locked door and complex machinery. A puzzle lies before you, obviously, one that you're excited to spend a few moments figuring out and completing. And you would do just that, if it weren't for the fact that before you can even begin to take in this room in detail, you're bombarded with an assault of:
"Father, try hitting this with your ax"
"Oh look, brother, the switch for the gate is to the left!"
"Freeze the water right here Kratos"
"Hold L2 to aim at the target and finish the puzzle already idiot"
This is a scenario that occurs in essentially every new area without fail, and to it I say this: hey, game? Shut the fuck up! Please? Let me get my bearings for two seconds and solve something on my own without you rushing me along. This is a symptomatic issue in too many AAA games; they have Cinematic and Epic stories and the devs want you to know it, so everything must be in service to it, including these puzzles that must be narrated to Hel and back.
Make no mistake, Cinematic and Epic is definitely what Santa Monica intend this game to be. And while the first game is presented in a similar manner, the 2018 GOW ultimately prevails because it is, at its heart, a simple story of a father and son walking up a mountain. Ragnarök, on the other hand, wants to be so much more, too much, to the point where the actual goal of the story is lost in its grand scale. Too often I found myself wondering what these characters actually want. Are we stopping Ragnarök or causing it? Are we killing Heimdall or ignoring him? Do we hate Thor or are we helping him with his addiction and trying to heal his broken family? Wait, what was that last one?
It doesn't help that Kratos and Atreus kind of suck as protagonists. Great performances that earn ten minute acceptance speeches at the Game Awards are wasted on dudes who are as passive as possible in this story until the final act. That passiveness leads to some shockingly dull sequences where you follow around characters with actual goals that at best make you want to play as them or at worst make you feel like it just will never end (it's Ironwood I'm talking about Ironwood). Kratos never wants to do anything in this game, which I suppose is in character, but it should not be the dispostion of the avatar of the player, who naturally wants to do everything. And Atreus is obsessed with finding answers, both to the meaning of prophecy and the secrets surrounding his identity, but having just completed this game I can't tell you if he actually figures out either.
Speaking of prophecy, whatever they were trying to explore in this game doesn't seem to land. The shadow cast over this story is that Kratos will die, and as more and more events line up exactly as predicted, Kratos... just doesn't (yes I know that technically his heart stops during the fight with Thor at the beginning of the game but if that's Santa Monica's workaround to painting themselves into a corner it's stupid and doesn't count). The game really tries to hit this point home in the final sequence, even giving you and your companions unique sets of armor called "Fate Breaker," but considering everything else plays out exactly the same, it does not feel earned at all. Hell, one of the early game twists is that the Giants predicted we would win Ragnarök anyway, so what fate are we even breaking? Coupling this with the fact that this is a completely linear game where you make zero branching choices¹, the whole theme of forging your own destiny falls pretty flat. (There's one brief moment during the Norn mission where the devs seemed to be using the level design to make a meta point, but considering how subtle it seemed I doubt it really meant much and won't go into it.)
Now all this may give the impression that I did not enjoy this game, and while the narrative aspect of it left me pretty underwhelmed, I can't say I didn't have fun here. The combat is as great as ever; staggering enemies and timing parries and choosing the perfect window to use runic abilities, it's all a blast. I've seen some hate thrown at the new weapon, but honestly I liked the addition of the spear. I felt it added just enough variety to the game, and having more choices for approachs to combat is always a boon. Do the weapons all play essentially the same? Sort of, but sometimes you just wanna poke a guy with a big stick. Pulling off a string of attacks and perfect parries feels super rewarding, especially when using the high-risk, high-reward shield options. Almost makes fighting some of the bullshit challenge bosses worth it.
And bosses, man are there a lot of them. To replace the Valkyries from 2018, Ragnarök introduces a new set of scary Power Rangers to track down across the realms, the Berserkers. While I was Gamer enough to work my way up all the way to Valkyrie Queen Sigrun in the previous game and defeat her after a long fight, I don't think I'll be able to say the same for this entry, both because the Berserkers are ludicrously difficult and because a friend lent me this game and probably wants it back. But even if this were mine to keep, the challenge presented by these guys is through the roof and I just don't think they're for me right now. For people who love that sort of thing though, they'll have something to shoot for.
Besides bosses, there's still so much to do in this game. I was prepared to finish it the other day when the story seemed to be nearing completion, only to be caught off guard by a massive secret area brimming with new objectives. That the game can pull something like that nearly 40 hours in and I still feel the urge to venture into it is a testament to its design. That urge is helped in no small part by some truly beatiful visuals that draw you way in. Yeah yeah, it's AAA of course it's gonna look good but MAN does it look good. There's one location that hosts a dual boss fight towards the end that is so stunning I just had to sit there and take it all in. Even on my poor little 2014 PS4 it was simply breathtaking.
There really is a lot that I just loved in this game, but it's love in bite-sized chunks, moments that were fun or maybe a bit moving that really only supply brief talking points. And that means, dear reader, that you've arrived at the section of the review where I get lazy and resort to bullet points. Hooray!
• Joked about it earlier, but the performances here are all on point. To paraphrase Christopher Judge, Christopher Judge is a motherfucking beast.
• Those Playstation easter egg books are so silly but I like em. Spent an embarassingly long time trying to figure out "Large Society Ground Orb, The Performance"
• As a former shithead Mythology Kid who just ate up stuff like Percy Jackson, seeing dumb but fun reinterpretations of myth tickles me to no end. The stories go that Loki and Angrboda become the parents of Fenrir and Jormungandr. How does this game handle this? In a dumb and fun way!
• Ratatoskr good. Squirrel funny.
• The resistance characters are fun but underutilized. Except Lúnda. Don't like Lúnda.
• Atreus trying to copy his dad and smash open a chest only to hurt himself is exactly what I thought would happen and it was still hilarious.
• For as pointless as their inclusion ended up being, Ragnarök the person looked cool.
So that's my review of God of War Ragnarök. I guess my final product here was a little long-winded, definitely petered out towards the end. And despite it all, landed pretty much right down the middle of everything. Pretty much just like the game then.
¹There is exactly one Telltale-style option at one point where you can choose whether or not to throw a snowball at a certain character, and honestly if that had some kind of impact on that character's motivations at some point in the endgame I would bump this score up but as far as I can tell nothing changes.
"Father, try hitting this with your ax"
"Oh look, brother, the switch for the gate is to the left!"
"Freeze the water right here Kratos"
"Hold L2 to aim at the target and finish the puzzle already idiot"
This is a scenario that occurs in essentially every new area without fail, and to it I say this: hey, game? Shut the fuck up! Please? Let me get my bearings for two seconds and solve something on my own without you rushing me along. This is a symptomatic issue in too many AAA games; they have Cinematic and Epic stories and the devs want you to know it, so everything must be in service to it, including these puzzles that must be narrated to Hel and back.
Make no mistake, Cinematic and Epic is definitely what Santa Monica intend this game to be. And while the first game is presented in a similar manner, the 2018 GOW ultimately prevails because it is, at its heart, a simple story of a father and son walking up a mountain. Ragnarök, on the other hand, wants to be so much more, too much, to the point where the actual goal of the story is lost in its grand scale. Too often I found myself wondering what these characters actually want. Are we stopping Ragnarök or causing it? Are we killing Heimdall or ignoring him? Do we hate Thor or are we helping him with his addiction and trying to heal his broken family? Wait, what was that last one?
It doesn't help that Kratos and Atreus kind of suck as protagonists. Great performances that earn ten minute acceptance speeches at the Game Awards are wasted on dudes who are as passive as possible in this story until the final act. That passiveness leads to some shockingly dull sequences where you follow around characters with actual goals that at best make you want to play as them or at worst make you feel like it just will never end (it's Ironwood I'm talking about Ironwood). Kratos never wants to do anything in this game, which I suppose is in character, but it should not be the dispostion of the avatar of the player, who naturally wants to do everything. And Atreus is obsessed with finding answers, both to the meaning of prophecy and the secrets surrounding his identity, but having just completed this game I can't tell you if he actually figures out either.
Speaking of prophecy, whatever they were trying to explore in this game doesn't seem to land. The shadow cast over this story is that Kratos will die, and as more and more events line up exactly as predicted, Kratos... just doesn't (yes I know that technically his heart stops during the fight with Thor at the beginning of the game but if that's Santa Monica's workaround to painting themselves into a corner it's stupid and doesn't count). The game really tries to hit this point home in the final sequence, even giving you and your companions unique sets of armor called "Fate Breaker," but considering everything else plays out exactly the same, it does not feel earned at all. Hell, one of the early game twists is that the Giants predicted we would win Ragnarök anyway, so what fate are we even breaking? Coupling this with the fact that this is a completely linear game where you make zero branching choices¹, the whole theme of forging your own destiny falls pretty flat. (There's one brief moment during the Norn mission where the devs seemed to be using the level design to make a meta point, but considering how subtle it seemed I doubt it really meant much and won't go into it.)
Now all this may give the impression that I did not enjoy this game, and while the narrative aspect of it left me pretty underwhelmed, I can't say I didn't have fun here. The combat is as great as ever; staggering enemies and timing parries and choosing the perfect window to use runic abilities, it's all a blast. I've seen some hate thrown at the new weapon, but honestly I liked the addition of the spear. I felt it added just enough variety to the game, and having more choices for approachs to combat is always a boon. Do the weapons all play essentially the same? Sort of, but sometimes you just wanna poke a guy with a big stick. Pulling off a string of attacks and perfect parries feels super rewarding, especially when using the high-risk, high-reward shield options. Almost makes fighting some of the bullshit challenge bosses worth it.
And bosses, man are there a lot of them. To replace the Valkyries from 2018, Ragnarök introduces a new set of scary Power Rangers to track down across the realms, the Berserkers. While I was Gamer enough to work my way up all the way to Valkyrie Queen Sigrun in the previous game and defeat her after a long fight, I don't think I'll be able to say the same for this entry, both because the Berserkers are ludicrously difficult and because a friend lent me this game and probably wants it back. But even if this were mine to keep, the challenge presented by these guys is through the roof and I just don't think they're for me right now. For people who love that sort of thing though, they'll have something to shoot for.
Besides bosses, there's still so much to do in this game. I was prepared to finish it the other day when the story seemed to be nearing completion, only to be caught off guard by a massive secret area brimming with new objectives. That the game can pull something like that nearly 40 hours in and I still feel the urge to venture into it is a testament to its design. That urge is helped in no small part by some truly beatiful visuals that draw you way in. Yeah yeah, it's AAA of course it's gonna look good but MAN does it look good. There's one location that hosts a dual boss fight towards the end that is so stunning I just had to sit there and take it all in. Even on my poor little 2014 PS4 it was simply breathtaking.
There really is a lot that I just loved in this game, but it's love in bite-sized chunks, moments that were fun or maybe a bit moving that really only supply brief talking points. And that means, dear reader, that you've arrived at the section of the review where I get lazy and resort to bullet points. Hooray!
• Joked about it earlier, but the performances here are all on point. To paraphrase Christopher Judge, Christopher Judge is a motherfucking beast.
• Those Playstation easter egg books are so silly but I like em. Spent an embarassingly long time trying to figure out "Large Society Ground Orb, The Performance"
• As a former shithead Mythology Kid who just ate up stuff like Percy Jackson, seeing dumb but fun reinterpretations of myth tickles me to no end. The stories go that Loki and Angrboda become the parents of Fenrir and Jormungandr. How does this game handle this? In a dumb and fun way!
• Ratatoskr good. Squirrel funny.
• The resistance characters are fun but underutilized. Except Lúnda. Don't like Lúnda.
• Atreus trying to copy his dad and smash open a chest only to hurt himself is exactly what I thought would happen and it was still hilarious.
• For as pointless as their inclusion ended up being, Ragnarök the person looked cool.
So that's my review of God of War Ragnarök. I guess my final product here was a little long-winded, definitely petered out towards the end. And despite it all, landed pretty much right down the middle of everything. Pretty much just like the game then.
¹There is exactly one Telltale-style option at one point where you can choose whether or not to throw a snowball at a certain character, and honestly if that had some kind of impact on that character's motivations at some point in the endgame I would bump this score up but as far as I can tell nothing changes.