God of War Ragnarök was one of my highest anticipated games for PlayStation 5 this year and it had big shoes to fill. I consider the 2018 God of War one of my all-time favorite games so I couldn’t wait to explore the world of Ragnarök. After spending a couple of days with it, I must say this is one of the best sequels ever created.
A direct sequel
Before we jump deeper into the game itself, it’s important to point out that this is a direct sequel to the events of 2018. If you didn’t play the previous game before, you could watch a short recap before playing Ragnarök but in all honesty, I wouldn’t recommend doing it like that. God of War Ragnarök is filled with characters and lore that builds on the foundations of the previous game. The story of Ragnarök is a direct sequel and involves enemies that you made in the 2018 version. So, before you start your adventures in this new game, it’s advised to finish the 2018 entry first. If you play Ragnarök as a new entry point, the recap will give you an idea of what’s going on. Still, you’ll miss a lot of the developing story in the dialogues and you won’t recognize all the characters, making it a lot harder to get invested in the story.
That being said, this sequel kicks right off and although the opening hours serve as a re-introduction of the main cast, it’s clear that the stakes are a lot higher this time. When you start your adventure, you’re right in the middle of Fimbulwinter, the harsh winter that’s said to lead in Ragnarök. For those unaware Ragnarök is the Norse apocalypse where the gods wage war and wipe out all life on Midgard (Earth). Although I won’t go into spoiler territory for this review, I do want to confirm that the story of Ragnarök is one of the best stories I have ever witnessed. It’s filled with relatable characters, epic twists, and interesting new insights. I love how the story develops while you’re playing and I love all those little details the development team added to create the most epic storyline that ever appeared in the franchise. Throughout the game, you’ll learn a lot more about Kartos, Atreus, and many more. You’ll learn more about their past, fear of the future, and struggles of the past. The story will suck you in from the very first moment and won’t let you go until you’ve reached the very end of your adventures countless hours after the start of your adventure. When it comes to storytelling, there’s simply no other PlayStation game that handled it as perfectly as God of War Ragnarök.
Explore the realms
The story will bring you the nine realms, most of them are returning locations but you’ll also be able to visit The Realm of Asgard, Vanaheim, and Svartalfheim this time. What I like most about these realms is the fact that they all look and feel different the moment you enter them. Even though most of them are returning locations, they don’t look the same as how you probably remember them. Fimbulwinter affects all the realms and it isn’t just adding snow to the realms. Fimbulwinter affects the way the realms look but can also affect the way the creatures of the realms react. This results in some surprises for the returning realms and of course also adds some entirely new locations to explore. Exploration still is a huge part of the game. As you already know from the 2018 entry, this isn’t a linear game. Sure, the story missions will guide you from point A to B but in between those points, there are tons of things to explore and discover. The game is filled with side-quests and secrets and rewards exploration with new gear, better weapons, and some rare items. I’m not the biggest fan of gigantic open-world games but God of War Ragnarök is one of those rare exceptions I do love. Since the nine realms are so different from each other, it always felt like I was exploring an entirely new game over and over again. It’s the variation that keeps things interesting and thrilling to play. Every realm comes with its challenges, its lore, and its monsters. Remember the complaints about God of War (2018) being too repetitive? Well, I never was under the impression that I was doing the same thing over and over again. The more realms I traveled, the more I fell in love with this sequel. I love how the developers managed to create the feeling of true exploration in each of the realms without ever feeling repetitive. The story and different plot twist certainly help but it’s the love and details in all of the realms that set this game apart from its competition. If you want to explore everything, you better prepare to sink in countless hours. This is by far the biggest God of War game to date.
Intense combat
Exploration is just one part of the game, combat once again takes a central role and is even better than ever before. Karto’s trusted weapons like The Leviathan Axe, Blades of Chaos, and the Guardian Shield all make a return but also leave room for some new weapons to experiment with. Combat follows the same formula as the 2018 entry which means you can combine a lot of different attacks into a devastating combo when you time your attack and defense right. The normal fights are high-paced and I love how the game switches between regular combat and a more tactical approach. When you’re attacked by one of the game’s bosses or larger hordes of enemies, it’s crucial to understand their weaknesses. If you’re using the Leviathan Axe, you’ll have a powerful short-range weapon that you can also throw at enemies standing a bit further away from you. A bonus of the Axe is the fact that you can charge up the magic energy to freeze your enemies with a frozen Axe. The Blades of Chaos, on the other hand, offer massive damage and can be used both mid-range, long-range and up close. The iconic chained blades also inflict some added fire damage. Finding out the weaknesses of your enemies and exploiting this by using the correct weapon is a huge part of combat and works satisfactorily well.
Combat can be considered as one big puzzle since you’ll need to learn the pattern of attack, spot the weaknesses and adapt your strategy to survive. This is certainly the case during the game’s boss fights. A God of War game without those epic fights wouldn’t be a God of War game so the team went crazy in the boss department. From gigantic monsters to even gods, you’ll face them all and you better prepare for some challenging gameplay. Defeating the bosses of the game will ask a lot of strategy and persistence, if you’re playing the game on normal difficulty, you’ll often find yourself restarting certain fights. If this is all too overwhelming, the game offers lower levels of difficulty as well as some options to give you some crucial hints during combat or exploration. The team wanted to please as many people as possible so it’s great to see this reflected in the option.
On top of that come different skill trees for both Kratos and Atreus, tons of gear upgrades, different weapons, and more tools to explore both combat and the environments. It might look like the game looks similar to the 2018 release and some even called it a DLC but that’s unfair. On the side of combat alone, the game introduces tons of new things to explore and rest assured, you won’t be fighting the same type of enemies over and over again. Variation is key throughout the entire game and it keeps combat fresh as well.
Conclusion:
God of War Ragnarök is how you should do a sequel. It takes everything we loved from the previous entry and makes it bigger and better. This is the sequel we all wanted and so much more. A must-have for the God of War fans!
