‘God of War Ragnarok’ plays it safe by playing the hits
Warning: This review contains spoilers for the 2018 God of War game as well as some elements of God of War Ragnarok.
Never before have I played a game for which the phrase “if you liked the last one, you’ll like this one” applies as much as it does with God of War Ragnarok.
When Sony rebooted God of War in 2018, the whole conceit seemed comical. You’re telling me Kratos, the most heinously angry man in the history of video game fiction, has now suddenly become an emo dad who regrets killing off the entire Greek pantheon of gods... and I’m supposed to be touched by that?
Shockingly, that approach worked for a lot of people, even if I was less impressed by it myself. God of War 2018 was high on many Game of the Year lists, sold 23 million copies, and is generally regarded as one of the best PlayStation 4 games. And while I never forged an emotional bond with Kratos and his young son Atreus, I was still drawn in by its visual splendor, surprisingly deep combat, and massive set-piece boss battles.
You could copy and paste that last sentence and it would apply to the sequel, out Nov. 8 on PlayStation 4 and 5. Sony’s Santa Monica Studio kind of just made that 2018 game again but more. This is a bigger and largely better game than last time around, but almost entirely in ways you would expect going in.
Is it still inherently silly that the former Greek god of war is burning his way through Norse mythology and pretending to have deep feelings about things? Yeah, pretty much. But if that doesn’t bother you, you'll find this to be a satisfying sequel that also acts as a splendid showcase for that $500 box beside your TV.
Piss off a god and find out
If you played the last God of War game, nothing about the initial setup here will shock you.
A few years have passed since Kratos and Atreus scaled the highest peak in Jötunheim to spread the ashes of the late family matriarch, Faye. As you may recall, they got into some trouble along the way, brutally murdering the progeny of both Freya (Odin’s ex-wife) and Thor (Odin’s son). Not surprisingly, Freya, Thor, and the big dog Odin himself are all pretty pissed about this and want our two heroes to answer for their crimes.
Oh, and Atreus may or may not actually be the mythical figure Loki who, in real-life Norse mythology, turns into a horse and gives birth to another eight-legged horse. (Man, Norse mythology is cool.) Anyway, in the game, he's said to play a massive part in an end-times prophecy. That’s kind of a big deal this time around.
That prophecy manifests as Ragnarok, the fabled Norse apocalypse, forewarned here by a years-long winter that grips all the realms. What was once a low-stakes story about respecting a dead mother’s wishes is now a winding, frost-bitten journey full of pontification about the binding nature of prophecy and the moral cases for and against war. These could be heavy and intriguing themes, but instead they both ring kind of hollow as the story progresses.
There are just too many instances where Kratos and Atreus whine about how they don’t believe in prophecy, only to then voluntarily and knowingly do the exact things they were foretold to do. They'll talk about how they don't want to fight someone they're "supposed" to fight and then fight them anyway because...it's a video game that needs action. All the while, Kratos talks about how undesirable violence is as he rips apart the zombie-like Draugr with his blades.
This hypocrisy is nothing new to video games — the term “ludonarrative dissonance” has been used to describe games that say one thing through the story and then ask players to directly contradict it via gameplay.
Still, I found myself intrigued by the surface-level machinations of the plot and other character interactions within it. Ragnarok strikes a more jovial tone right away thanks to the inclusion of Mimir, a wise-cracking disembodied head who only became a fixture in the back half of the last game. The goofy dwarven blacksmiths Brok and Sindri are also omnipresent throughout the game, humorously bickering with one another the entire time.
I’d also like to give special shout-outs to Freya, Thor, and Odin. Last time we saw Freya, she had been reduced to a shrieking mess thanks to Kratos killing her son, but thankfully, we get a much more nuanced version of the character in Ragnarok. She’s got much more skin in the game than Kratos and Atreus due to a longstanding personal grudge against Odin, and she often feels like the true protagonist of the story. As for Odin and Thor, well, the less said the better, but I’ll tell you that Odin acts like a mafia boss and Thor is like his drunken heavy enforcer. It’s a very funny dynamic.
All of these threads eventually pull together for an explosive, fairly awesome finale and an ending that genuinely left me wondering where this story will go next. It’s thematically a little messy with the dissonance between what Kratos says and what he does, but moderately funny dialogue, interesting characters, and great voice acting sell the story anyway.
Axe throwing is still awesome
As for what you actually do in Ragnarok, well, not much has changed since 2018. This is largely the same game, but with enough little improvements and formula shakeups to breathe some new life into the proceedings.
I’ll start with the biggest change of all: You don’t always control Kratos, and you don’t always have Atreus as your companion. Without spoiling things, there are times when the story changes perspective and gives you different companions with different abilities to play with. While nothing is as fun as the traditional Kratos/Atreus combo, I found myself genuinely a little excited every time the player character shifted.
Combat in Ragnarok still feels like a third-person shooter without guns, with the left stick used for moving and strafing, and the right stick used for aiming. You can bash out melee combos with the frosty Leviathan Axe or the scorching Blades of Chaos, or activate different ranged abilities with either weapon. The axe can be thrown and recalled, which is still super satisfying, while the blades can be thrown at and stuck into enemies with an explosive finish.
There’s also a third weapon I won’t spoil, but it wound up being my favorite of the three. Look forward to that.
You’ll use XP to unlock new skills, some of which can be further modified for increased customization. For example, the Blades of Chaos ranged attack can be upgraded to give Kratos higher defense while he uses it. Gear is also back and just as important as before, as different armor sets grant fun bonuses that let you really go nuts with your builds. I had one build that caused Kratos to stack up poison damage with unarmed attacks and, on top of that, poisoned enemies took increased melee damage.
Things like that can totally change how you approach encounters and it’s just as fun as it was last time. Aside from occasional character-switching, this is still a game about exploring mostly linear levels that are often about as spacious as a corridor, with the occasional open-ended hub full of side quests showing up to change the flow. When you’re not fighting, you’re solving environmental puzzles, none of which are very hard but some of which at least look cool.
All of this is a good time if you dug what the last game offered, but it won’t change any minds. Maybe I felt this way because I was playing it on a deadline, but the main story is also about 20 percent too long. The third act constantly feels like it’s about to wrap up (you’re literally preparing for an impending apocalyptic war), only to introduce some new, sometimes unrelated problem for Kratos to go solve. I was desperate for it to end for the final five to six hours, even if I enjoyed what was in front of me.
Fetching and familiar
Ragnarok’s strict adherence to the conventions of its predecessor extend to the presentation. This game is wickedly gorgeous, with each and every corner of the nine realms bursting with high-resolution detail on PS5. I had fun occasionally just staring at Kratos’ scraggly, disgusting beard because of how lovingly it was rendered. This game also uses the same single-take style as before, meaning there are no hard camera cuts in the entire adventure.
Regarding the camera, this is a gimmick that I think the series can nix going forward. I love Children of Men’s long takes as much as anyone, but camera cuts don’t detract from the art of cinema; they’re essential to it. Conversation scenes in which the camera just kind of slowly swings from one person to another, instead of cutting between them, are awkward, not inventive.
That gripe aside, it’s just fun to take in each and every realm’s resplendent visual glory. From the frozen wastes of Midgard to the sun-drenched jungles of Vanaheim and the peaceful-yet-sinister fields of Asgard, every area provides a breath of fresh air compared to wherever you happened to be before it. I hammered the PS5 screenshot button while playing Ragnarok.
Again, much of what I’ve said here could apply to the last game, too. God of War 2018 was gorgeous, had excellent combat, and was paced and structured in largely the same way. Ragnarok is just a new adventure in the same clothing as before. Its narrative, while inconsistent in its thematic messaging, does enough to pull you in and draw you towards the fireworks at the end.
I’m just never going to buy into this retooled vision of a sad and repentant daddy Kratos — he'll forever be the embodiment of a 12-year-old's video game power fantasy to me.
That said, throwing his axe and recalling it is still a jolly good time. If you felt that way about the last game, go ahead and jump into God of War Ragnarok.
God of War Ragnarok swings its axe onto PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on Nov. 8.
