This review contains spoilers
God of War: Ragnarok finishes the Norse duology that was beautifully set up in the 2018 entry with a bang.
It does absolutely everything you want from a sequel. Providing you with more of the same - the "one-take" camera style, the narrative heavy gameplay and tight combat utilising a variety of weapons, which now happen to include parts of the environment too.
This time around the secondary characters have way more of a focus on the story, with Atreus being swapped out for Freya and occasionally Brok/Sindri - as well as now allowing you to actually play as Atreus as he has his own part to play in Ragnarok.
The side quests also have had a revamp - rarely now are they 'go to this cave and seek out x/y/z and take out a reskinned troll while you're there' - but actually have some heartfelt character development to them. Providing that further lore and making them almost a requirement to see full character journeys in the game.
With all nine realms now available the game becomes surprisingly large, with each - unlike in the first installment - being decently sized and having one or two large 'open' areas similar to Midgard in the first.
I'm a little disappointed that one of Atreus' story threads is never fully told in the game - we see the giant's marbles being set up and explained but, it ends with him going off on this quest alone - and I really had wished this was a part of the game itself.
I don't think there has been another game this year - at least triple A entries - that have pact this amount of emotional heft behind them, and I think anything upcoming will struggle to top it.
It does absolutely everything you want from a sequel. Providing you with more of the same - the "one-take" camera style, the narrative heavy gameplay and tight combat utilising a variety of weapons, which now happen to include parts of the environment too.
This time around the secondary characters have way more of a focus on the story, with Atreus being swapped out for Freya and occasionally Brok/Sindri - as well as now allowing you to actually play as Atreus as he has his own part to play in Ragnarok.
The side quests also have had a revamp - rarely now are they 'go to this cave and seek out x/y/z and take out a reskinned troll while you're there' - but actually have some heartfelt character development to them. Providing that further lore and making them almost a requirement to see full character journeys in the game.
With all nine realms now available the game becomes surprisingly large, with each - unlike in the first installment - being decently sized and having one or two large 'open' areas similar to Midgard in the first.
I'm a little disappointed that one of Atreus' story threads is never fully told in the game - we see the giant's marbles being set up and explained but, it ends with him going off on this quest alone - and I really had wished this was a part of the game itself.
I don't think there has been another game this year - at least triple A entries - that have pact this amount of emotional heft behind them, and I think anything upcoming will struggle to top it.