Buy God of War: Ragnarok

God of War was undoubtedly an outstanding achievement that still stands tall as one of the greatest releases of the previous console generation. The problem with outstanding achievements is that you've set the bar incredibly high for a potential sequel. God of War Ragnarök has big shoes to fill while being constrained by the same last-gen console tech. The beginning hours are very similar to 2018's God of War in all but the story setup, and even that feels similar. After all, how often can you expect a franchise to reinvent itself? It's easy to dismiss God of War Ragnarök as a minor improvement over the original, but then the story throws you for a loop. When it does, Ragnarök outshines its origin story in variety, story, and gameplay across the board.

Ragnarök profits from the time that players have already invested in its main character ensemble in the first game, establishing a rich character foundation for the sequel. A brief recap video aside, if you haven't played the first God of War at least once, a lot of the story beats in Ragnarök will feel far less impactful. It wastes no time in throwing you back into the action, just a few years after the previous game concluded. Kratos and Atreus, stuck in the unforgiving cold of Fimbulwinter, are diligently preparing for Ragnarök and a prophecy that has Atreus as a key figure of the world-ending event and Kratos with his impending death.

It isn't until some Norse Gods come knocking at their cabin door that the father-son duo takes a more proactive approach. Reunited with the Dwarf siblings Brok and Sindri, they go to Svartalfheim, the land of the Dwarfs, to seek the former Norse god of war Tyr ahead of impending Ragnarök. From here, events take unexpected turns, keep you guessing, and move the goal posts several times. It's a delight to experience since it never gives away what's next, even when you think you know where things are heading.

More than that, it's a story that takes its ensemble of characters and fleshes them out to add several unfamiliar faces to the cast. The overarching topic of this little epic is still family relationships. While Kratos struggles to give his son Atreus any kind of freedom out of fear he could get harmed, Atreus is looking for his place in the world, eager to act rather than train. The decidedly bigger family under Odin provides many more ways to look at family themes, like dependency, loyalty, manipulation and trust. Each god and side character has strengths and weaknesses that make each interaction interesting, whether it's in a side-quest, major cut scene, or collectible lore.

The gods portrayed in Ragnarök are almost mundanely human in many aspects,  especially their relationships, and the game finds a lot of interesting ways to highlight and contrast these different family dynamics, all while wrapping everything in a big and spectacular finale that easily goes beyond the first game's comparatively compact story. Ragnarök is long, and toward the end, the story can get unfocused and sluggish while heading toward its the big and inevitable finale.

That said, the great writing and quality performances carry the adventure on their own. Ragnarök's story improves in almost every regard, which also comes down to the fantastic performances of its cast, led once again by impressive performances from Christopher Judge and Sunny Suljic, both of whom have since received well-deserved Game Award nominations.

Ragnarök is a meaty game, with the story alone taking 20 hours or more to complete, plus a plethora of side activities. There are some intense optional boss fights akin to the Valkyries that we had to dispose of last time. What sets apart Ragnarök from most other games is its dedication to lore-building and storytelling. Everything you do is contextualized within Santa Monica Studios' interpretation of Norse mythology or furthers a character arc. The last game excelled at telling side stories when traveling around the world, but Ragnarök blows it out of the water. There are side-quests that explore the past of some major side characters or errands that promise a nugget of info about the past deeds of Kratos' dead wife or other events.

In other words, everything in Ragnarök is a storytelling device. It builds out extensive relationships and side stories that you can ignore without missing major plot points, but if you pay attention and complete the side activities, it feels like you're making substantial progress in the narrative, even though you're not advancing the main story.

Such careful and curated storytelling has its price in linearity. Ragnarök is very similar to the first GoW in that it usually leads you through linear corridor stages, with some areas opening up to reveal a semi-open location that is free to explore, like Midgard in the first entry. This enables Santa Monica Studios to showcase highly detailed areas while allowing for exploration in select sections. It follows the established formula of the first game closely, with a lot of added variety. This time around, all nine realms are present in the game, but not all of them have a major part in the story. They all have a unique look and feel, like the lush forest of Vanaheim, the volcanic tapestry of Svartalfheim, or the lake of the nine in Midgard that has since frozen over. The latter is especially interesting, since the player gets to revisit some realms from the first game, sometimes with an entirely different context.

Each area is multi-layered, with many nooks and crannies that contain valuable loot to upgrade your armor and abilities, many of which remain out of reach until we gain certain upgrades. In most cases, you'll engage in a variety of combat encounters or puzzle sections, such as bouncing your weapon off of special surfaces, creating chain reactions with runes, freezing water pipes to move waterwheels, or burning down bushes to reveal hidden goodies. There's a lot to do, and the game keeps things interesting while layering additional mechanics on top of its excellent exploration mechanics. Kratos' Blades of Chaos have seen a significant upgrade to scale tall obstacles or swing over wide gaps, which makes a lot of the movement feel more fluid and vertical, especially in combat.

If you want to break away from the main narrative, Ragnarök strikes a good balance of linear sections with exciting set pieces and small breaks in the story that enable some resource collecting and side-quest hustling. I'd love to go into further details, but that would spoil some of my favorite aspects of the game that people should experience for themselves. In the most abstract terms, Ragnarök tricked me into believing it would just be a minor upgrade to the first entry with a very similar setup. The game introduces new situations, a few twists, and exciting new gameplay possibilities that kept me entertained and surprised throughout the lengthy adventure. It's a game that is aware that it had struck gold with the prior release, but there were indeed legitimate critique points, like combat depth, enemy variety, a thin cast of Norse personalities, and the overall scale of the adventure. Ragnarök completely negates those points.

If you're not watching a cut scene or traversing the world, you're likely slicing up enemies by the dozen. Combat was always the centerpiece of a God of War game, and Ragnarök merges the old and the new in some satisfying ways. This title is much more brutal, especially the boss fights, which are reminiscent of the much more unforgiving Kratos we experienced in the Greek trilogy (although not quite as unhinged). There's a myriad of new and painful finishers, unique to each weapon and dependent on the enemy. Be prepared to send limbs and torsos flying throughout the adventure, but that's nothing but a satisfying visual layer on top of a much beefier combat system. Combat is also much deeper and nuanced, and it feels incredibly powerful. If you didn't like combat in the last game, this entry won't sway you. If you did, this will make the last game feel sluggish and shallow in comparison, which is the biggest compliment I can give.

Ragnarök's combat is generally more varied and deep than its predecessor. The basics are still very much the same, but the game benefits from Kratos having both his ax and the blades available from the get-to, with the ability to switch back and forth while in combat. Combat is also much more vertical, with the aforementioned blades allowing Kratos to get around the battlefield much quicker and utilizing new moves to attack enemies from the air or closing the gaps to distant enemies.

Once you've completed all available skill trees, there's a variety of new abilities at your disposal to punish your enemies. It never outgrows the original game's combat but fleshes it out. For example, shields are now something you can equip and upgrade, and there are shields for different play styles. Your rage meter enables you to trigger select abilities, such as incredible strength or replenishing your health. In addition to the variety of equipment we can find, forge and upgrade, there's a decent variety of available character builds that can further augment your preferred play style, depending on whether you'd like to focus on damage, defense, runic attacks, or stun.

Atreus is still a huge part of combat encounters, and this game is as much his as it is Kratos'. The child we knew is becoming an adult, and that is reflected in the gameplay. Atreus still fires off arrows at enemies on our command, but he is way more proactive and hands-on when fighting beside you. You'll sometimes see him take down enemies on his own and assist you.

The other side of the combat equation is enemy variety. In the last God of War, Kratos and Atreus faced the same repeating cast of enemies and minibosses. The same enemies and bosses are present here, but they feel like a cameo inclusion among the myriad of additions, such as smaller opponents that attack from behind, enemies that conjure shields to protect their friends, and magical shields that are only destroyed with a shield bash. Each enemy requires a different strategy, especially when you're tackling the adventure in one of its two harder difficulties. Some may have elemental resistances, and others may have an additional health bar that requires certain elemental damage to be broken.  

Some of the boss fights in Ragnarök are insane, and the game keeps on giving in that regard well after the credits have rolled. It's filled to the brim with challenging and mind-blowing encounters against gods, dragons and other creatures, all supported by its excellent combat system and the amount of equipment you can craft and equip. There are the usual armor pieces and weapon handles that improve different stats, runes that stack further improvements, two runic attacks for each weapon, and new bows for Atreus. It's the reward for your time spent collecting resources in the world, and it largely functions similar to the last game, including  what I'd consider a different but equally confusing menu for your equipment. There's so many sub-categories and upgradeable parts that it's tough to keep track and organize yourself. I appreciate the ability to auto-equip gear based on a certain focus, like strength or defense, but stumbling through the cumbersome menus is easily my least favorite time spent in Ragnarök.

Ragnarök simply looks gorgeous; the entire presentation is polished and high budget from start to finish, with no exceptions. The first title already excelled at particle effects, and they look gorgeous in Ragnarök in the snow or ice effects during special attacks. The game begins in the bleak winter of Midgard, but it eventually becomes one of the more colorful games I've played in recent times — because of its fantastical environments and the use of great colorful effects. Facial animations and cut scenes look amazing, further adding to the immersion. The signature "one-shot" with no camera cuts is back, and it's used in interesting ways, such as to portray visions or flashbacks. Similarly, the sound design is excellent. The voice acting and Bear McCreary's epic soundtrack carry the experience on its vibrating, bass-heavy undertones.

By all accounts, God of War Ragnarök is an epic game. It manages to bring Kratos' Norse saga to a satisfying end without being predictable, and it puts a greater emphasis on both father and son throughout their complicated journey toward Ragnarök. While it's not going overboard with innovation, it improves where it counts to provide better and more varied combat encounters within a stunning presentation that is the best you can find in the action-adventure genre today. For some, Ragnarök might play it too safe, but this game is still a hell of a good time.

Score: 9.3/10