Aw man. I finished God of War: Ragnarök and sheesh. There are moments that are going to stick with me for a while. Little nuggets of wisdom slipped into sometimes poignant but oftentimes innocuous interchanges between these beautifully crafted characters.
I gush more about that in my video review, which you should check out. But there are a couple of other things I will touch upon here in writing.
I genuinely believe this is a great sequel. Since it’s not another reinvention of a beloved title like the last game was, don’t expect the same nostalgic magic that swamped you as you play. It may never reach the heights you will expect of it, but it is definitely something great.
Every little detail seems to come back to the main themes of the game. The expectations of lost loved ones, father figures, prophecy, of what we wanted our future to be. Even little bits of the combat hint to this. But in a more practical sense combat is still as satisfying as it was.
If melee combat is not your thing, I would still recommend you check this game out. A lot of thought went into the accessibility of the game, not just for those who physically find playing games difficult, but also for those who aren’t accustomed to the genre. There are five different difficulty options ranging from a story-focused playthrough and the slightly more challenging Give Me Grace mode, up to Give Me God of War. A very intimidating title.
These difficulty levels aren’t just moving sliders, changing health bars etc, but are little things like more powerful ranged attacks in the easier difficulties – for those who might be more used to shooters – and making fight patterns more unpredictable in the harder ones.
I did find the beginning of the game was a massive plot dump. It was still interesting, and the game balanced out the cutscene-to-game ratio with plenty of big epic fights (which also made sense to the story and drive plot forward, so it’s pretty well done). I didn’t mind so much, but I did think that gamers who might not care so much for story would find themselves itching to actually do something. Although, if you’re only playing God of War for the combat then you surely wouldn’t be able to recognise a good story even if it stabbed you in the face. *gestures to God of War*
Right, well, as I said in the video review, Ragnarök is definitely your cup of tea if you enjoyed the first game. I recommend grabbing it when you can.