Very solid DLC that gives you a reason to come back to this game, has some excellent story (better than the main game), but doesn't quite explore combat in the way I would want a roguelike to.
The gameplay and enemies are, for the most part, directly from the main game. This is a roguelike sort of mode, with some random affixes you collect on each run that usually amount to a certain style of play being more powerful. This worked ok for me, but never felt like it had too much of an impact run over run. For the most part this encourages you to focus on a particular weapon and never really felt like it changes things any more than using that weapon does in the first place, which is a bit of a bummer.
The combat is still very fun and engaging, even in these randomly strung together environments and I never really missed the puzzle solving that the main game has so much of.
The story this DLC is telling is very well done. Valhalla is sort of a stand in for a therapist and Kratos is here to come to terms with his past and figure out his future. It works surprisingly well, and some revisitation of past events and characters is contextualized and accepted in a way that feels powerful. I like this introspective look at a character with a very juvenile and fairly irredeemable initial concept and how that can fit into the current world and story they are trying to tell. The ending is powerful and feels like a real step forward for the franchise without just erasing everything from its past.
This is miles better than anything the base game provides.
I had a good time with this DLC. The gameplay is more Ragnarok with a couple of small twists that can be engaging, but don't do too much to keep things interesting for long. The draw here is absolutely the narrative. This is a powerful part of Kratos' personal journey that is told well and worth experiencing, especially if you have played the previous versions of God of War.
The gameplay and enemies are, for the most part, directly from the main game. This is a roguelike sort of mode, with some random affixes you collect on each run that usually amount to a certain style of play being more powerful. This worked ok for me, but never felt like it had too much of an impact run over run. For the most part this encourages you to focus on a particular weapon and never really felt like it changes things any more than using that weapon does in the first place, which is a bit of a bummer.
The combat is still very fun and engaging, even in these randomly strung together environments and I never really missed the puzzle solving that the main game has so much of.
The story this DLC is telling is very well done. Valhalla is sort of a stand in for a therapist and Kratos is here to come to terms with his past and figure out his future. It works surprisingly well, and some revisitation of past events and characters is contextualized and accepted in a way that feels powerful. I like this introspective look at a character with a very juvenile and fairly irredeemable initial concept and how that can fit into the current world and story they are trying to tell. The ending is powerful and feels like a real step forward for the franchise without just erasing everything from its past.
This is miles better than anything the base game provides.
I had a good time with this DLC. The gameplay is more Ragnarok with a couple of small twists that can be engaging, but don't do too much to keep things interesting for long. The draw here is absolutely the narrative. This is a powerful part of Kratos' personal journey that is told well and worth experiencing, especially if you have played the previous versions of God of War.