My controversial opinion about this game is that it would have been better to go all in on a heavily scripted Uncharted 10-20 hour game. There are two games here: the aforementioned and a post-Zelda style adventure / puzzle game that made up a larger chunk of God of War (2018)'s gameplay. The strange thing is I liked the adventuring in 2018. Here, it did very little for me. I don't think it's because it was more poorly designed (though its possible), but because this games high points are SO high, that when you go back down to average gameplay it feels like utter drudgery.

Sure, if you stripped out so much combat, exploring, collectibles, puzzles, you would have something much closer to a movie than a game. But they created a movie that's far more compelling than the game. There are so many exhilarating memorable moments that made this game a blast to play (or watch), while I'll be remembering very little of the exploring.

It feels strange to say, because the exploring and combat wasn't bad. It wasn't amazing, but it was good. Above average, for sure. Just compared to some of the strongest performances we've ever seen in a game, it feels...dated, trite. Like two separate aspects of the game that are both good in their own right, but when you put them together they drag the entire project down rather than complement each other.

This review seems more negative than it is. God of War Ragnarok is a great game. Everyone knows it. Still, its hard not to notice that its simultaneously the future of AAA games and just more of the same.

Also, I've gotta say, there are some pretty funny moments, but they went a little overboard on the marvel humor.

Reviewed on Dec 02, 2022


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