This review contains spoilers
When it comes to production value, I don't think many games can touch this. Between the high-caliber voice acting, animations, music, art design, and cinematography, there are few products in this medium that could even aspire to this level of accomplishment. However, I found God of War: Ragnarok's plot to be overly-long and the emotional content inconsistent. I got severely tired of the combat, the sidequests, the equipment upgrading, the puzzle-solving, and the exploration. So, I am left in a very weird place where I had an emotional connection that made me contemplate how I feel about others and myself, but I wasn't really having fun playing. By the end, I felt like I had participated in a high-tier Marvel movie. Moments of greatness, but a lot of bombastic action sequences, an annoying amount of immersion-breaking jokey-jokes, and an imbalance of emotional achievement and mediocrity.
As I said, few games are as gorgeous as this, visually or sonically. It's clear that a tremendous amount of effort went into the building of this world. Sound and set design are next level. However, I found exploring and traversing the areas cumbersome and tedious. Long, boring canoe rides, endless Uncharted-style climbing, and a post-game that I could not be bothered with are all aspects I can't ignore. The puzzle-solving was similar. I honestly hope I never fire another Runic Arrow as long as I live. Lining up those goofy orbs took forever and I hated it every single time.
Examining the themes of burgeoning adulthood and parenting said child, resolving your past and facing your future, grief, and forgiveness was a monumental task and I feel the writers were successful. Kratos' and Freya's reconciliation, the acceptance of Atreus as both his son and his own entity, Loki, and the death of familiar characters were all done with a sensible touch and didn't feel exploitative or manipulative. Nothing was bound up nicely with a bow and, as in real life, the characters carry the shards of their experiences with them and it continues to inform who they are after the story thread is complete. On the other hand, whenever there was a story that didn't involve Kratos or Atreus or Freya or Sindri, I could not care at all. It went from being touching and evocative to being fluff out of the MCU. There wasn't a single side character I found remotely interesting besides the ones I mentioned. Tyr, Ratatoskr, Freyr, Durlin, ALL of the Asgardians, and, God, I hated Angrboda's levels. They kept piling these characters on and expecting me to give a shit. Most of them are actively irritating and, in my eyes, do little to progress or improve the narrative. The absolute bloat and fatigue I felt by the end of this could have been mitigated by removing all of these characters. During the admittedly exciting and climactic Ragnarok, most of them arrive in some Avengers: Endgame-style rally and it hardly felt worth the amount of hours I plugged into their tiresome subplots.
Combat was impressively built, but I didn't enjoy the execution. There are plenty of ways to build Kratos to your liking, but I never found one that felt cohesive enough for me. I constantly felt frustrated with subpar perks on weapons and pommels and the damage I was doing. I felt like I took a lot of unfair hits and took unfair damage. I acknowledge this could be a skill issue, but I play a lot of Souls games and got 100% on the last God of War, so I'm not entirely comfortable taking ALL the blame here.
After completing the main story, I embarked on the arduous journey to platinum the game by cleaning up all the sidequests and pickups I neglected along the way. I realized fairly quickly I couldn't be bothered. Besides having to make long treks to barely-accessible areas, the dread I felt, and I had been dreading it the entire time, of having to chase around yet another stupid raven with the axe or fight some imbalanced Berserker boss put me off of finishing it fully. I just do not have the patience for it after the first one.
In summation, we have something here of structural integrity built by masterful architects, but the weight of it all collapsed sections that should have been culled.
As I said, few games are as gorgeous as this, visually or sonically. It's clear that a tremendous amount of effort went into the building of this world. Sound and set design are next level. However, I found exploring and traversing the areas cumbersome and tedious. Long, boring canoe rides, endless Uncharted-style climbing, and a post-game that I could not be bothered with are all aspects I can't ignore. The puzzle-solving was similar. I honestly hope I never fire another Runic Arrow as long as I live. Lining up those goofy orbs took forever and I hated it every single time.
Examining the themes of burgeoning adulthood and parenting said child, resolving your past and facing your future, grief, and forgiveness was a monumental task and I feel the writers were successful. Kratos' and Freya's reconciliation, the acceptance of Atreus as both his son and his own entity, Loki, and the death of familiar characters were all done with a sensible touch and didn't feel exploitative or manipulative. Nothing was bound up nicely with a bow and, as in real life, the characters carry the shards of their experiences with them and it continues to inform who they are after the story thread is complete. On the other hand, whenever there was a story that didn't involve Kratos or Atreus or Freya or Sindri, I could not care at all. It went from being touching and evocative to being fluff out of the MCU. There wasn't a single side character I found remotely interesting besides the ones I mentioned. Tyr, Ratatoskr, Freyr, Durlin, ALL of the Asgardians, and, God, I hated Angrboda's levels. They kept piling these characters on and expecting me to give a shit. Most of them are actively irritating and, in my eyes, do little to progress or improve the narrative. The absolute bloat and fatigue I felt by the end of this could have been mitigated by removing all of these characters. During the admittedly exciting and climactic Ragnarok, most of them arrive in some Avengers: Endgame-style rally and it hardly felt worth the amount of hours I plugged into their tiresome subplots.
Combat was impressively built, but I didn't enjoy the execution. There are plenty of ways to build Kratos to your liking, but I never found one that felt cohesive enough for me. I constantly felt frustrated with subpar perks on weapons and pommels and the damage I was doing. I felt like I took a lot of unfair hits and took unfair damage. I acknowledge this could be a skill issue, but I play a lot of Souls games and got 100% on the last God of War, so I'm not entirely comfortable taking ALL the blame here.
After completing the main story, I embarked on the arduous journey to platinum the game by cleaning up all the sidequests and pickups I neglected along the way. I realized fairly quickly I couldn't be bothered. Besides having to make long treks to barely-accessible areas, the dread I felt, and I had been dreading it the entire time, of having to chase around yet another stupid raven with the axe or fight some imbalanced Berserker boss put me off of finishing it fully. I just do not have the patience for it after the first one.
In summation, we have something here of structural integrity built by masterful architects, but the weight of it all collapsed sections that should have been culled.
3 Comments
@Laires
I appreciate that, thank you. I succumbed to the post-game tedium last time, but I actually did really enjoy the first one. I even liked this one, but my expectations were much higher because my favorite youtubers sang its praises. It's still a quality game, but I cant imagine itd be your thing if you didnt like 2018. Does narrative play a big role in what you look for in a game?
I appreciate that, thank you. I succumbed to the post-game tedium last time, but I actually did really enjoy the first one. I even liked this one, but my expectations were much higher because my favorite youtubers sang its praises. It's still a quality game, but I cant imagine itd be your thing if you didnt like 2018. Does narrative play a big role in what you look for in a game?
Oh, I liked the first one. It's amazingly done but it's too long and, well, the characters are not my cup of tea, especially Kratos.
I believe it's a matter of taste, as well, because I remember being bored of the quests in this game. I always had to go on really long breaks in order to play it.
I believe it's a matter of taste, as well, because I remember being bored of the quests in this game. I always had to go on really long breaks in order to play it.
Laires
1 month ago
Personally I thought the same of the first game (the 2018 one) and that was the reason why I was not excited about Ragnarok when it came out. It simply didn't push me to play it. Interesting to see that this sequel might have the same problems of the first, yet it's all subjective.