God of War Ragnarök is slop for gluttonous consumer pigs.

The game treats you like a child that can't think for itself to ensure the widest possible audience and maximum profits.
The story features well known characters and elements from mythology, so you can clap your hands and point at the screen and go "Hey, I know that guy he's so cool and strong I have also seen him in one of my 50 mind-numbingly shallow marvel movies!!" To Sony, it must feel like jingling keys in front of a baby.
And to put the cherry on top of the most pop culture cake you have ever tasted, every filler dialogue has to be written in a quippy "well this is awkward he's right behind me isn't he? 😜😜" type of way, desperately trying to get you to chuckle, because god forbid a player doesn't have dopamine shooting through his brain for 30 seconds! He might engage with the media beyond the surface level then!

Or atleast that was what I thought my opinion about God Of War Ragnarök would be. Fortunately, this game owned my hating ass. Because even though the game truly does end up feeling somewhat patronizing in its effort to accomodate every possible gamer and non-gamer demographic, and the dialogue truly being quite cringy and forced sometimes, the things this game does really well more than make up for it. There are two elements that really stuck out for me.

The first one is the gameplay, which is sick as hell. There are 3 and a half weapons with dozens of combos and special attacks aswell as - of course - parrying, blocking and dodging, and you'll have to employ all of these mechanics in attunement to a large and diverse cast of enemies. It took some time to get used to all of this complexity, but once I did, fighting turned into an action-packed and well-tuned remix of various offensive and defensive moves that felt incredibly satisfying when I pulled it off smoothly.
There are also two bossfights here that are on par with the best FromSoft-Bosses, which is a compliment I certainly do not give lightly.

The second is Kratos & Atreus's relationship. It is ironic that I likened people being entertained by well-known pop culture characters appearing to jingling keys infront of a baby, when I apparently can't help but get my shit rocked emotionally by every parent-child dynamic I see. For me, Kratos & Atreus's dynamic specifically excels in being quite relateable, with Kratos being a harsh and cold father figure who, while wanting the best for his child and truly loving it, is completely unable or unwilling to ever communicate that feeling. It made me think a lot about my own father and about the father I want to be.
The overarching story meanwhile is engaging from beginning to end, although the plot sometimes moves too fast for the characters to keep up with it, leading to questionable character decisions and some moments not really having the payoff they probably should have.

Lastly, the Valhalla DLC is a pretty cool addition to the game. The fact that it's free gets a fat wholesome updoot from me

Primarily, this is a game about delivering packages. On the surface, that sounds pretty boring. At least, you may think, there are also some combat encounters that bring some spice into an otherwise bland gameplay loop.
But what if I told you, that those encounters are literally the worst parts of the game? Not awful, but also certainly not great.

So what is it about this game then, that makes so many people hold it in such high regard? It's literally walking from point A to point B with some cargo strapped to your back! Are people stupid?

No. You're the problem. You just don't get it. But that's fine, you haven't played the game yet! And I'm here to hopefully give you an idea about what makes this game so great, even though it has one of the lamest core gameplay ideas ever.

First of all, this game is completely absurd. It has the most original post-apocalyptic setting I've ever seen coupled with a lot of 'immersive' mechanics, that combine to give you truly unique and memorable moments. I'll give you an example which includes minor spoilers:
First of all, in this game, you need to pee. And you also have a stamina bar. Now, if your stamina bar is low enough, due to exhaustion or something (I don't know I'm not a doctor) you will get hematuria, meaning you'll pee blood. Now there are also the so called BT's. Souls of the dead that have failed to move on from the world of the living and are now stuck there. Because the protagonist Sam is a repatriate, meaning he'll get revived once he dies, the BT's react adversely to his blood. You probably see where I'm going with this.
Instead of pulling out your good old blood guns and blood grenades, you can simply whip out your willy and let loose! The BT's will run away in horror! Kojima truly is a genius...

Moments like these are pretty cool, but on their own they are not enough to make a great game. That is achieved by it's core gameplay. I know it sounds stupid, but travelling from point A to point B in this game actually kind of rocks.
In part, this is due to the immaculate atmosphere of the game world.
It looks beautiful, it sounds great, and sometimes, to top it all off, an amazing song kicks in. Being on the home stretch to your destination after a long and tiring journey, with a wonderful song carrying you to safety, nothing like it...
The other part is the online cooperation aspect of this game. Essentially, signs and structures built by other players can show up in other worlds to aid you on your journey. Likewise, the things you build can help other players. You and other players can also share ressources either by outright putting them into public lockers, or donating them to structures, which then can be upgraded. No one delivery man can gather enough resources to build the gadgets, roads and structures necessary for successfully traversing the post-apocalyptic wasteland, but together, everyone can help everyone else make their journies a lot easier. It gives a nice sense of community to an otherwise pretty lonely game.

These two things together make the on the surface pretty boring task of delivering cargo actually enjoyable.

I also think the story is pretty cool and the diverse range of tools, structures and vehicles at your disposal to make deliveries make for engaging gameplay.

Indiana Jones but if it was a videogame and also all the antagonists are braindead bullet sponges and the protagonist is the most athletically undynamic oaf the world has ever seen. Also, the higher the difficulty, the more unbearable these issues become. It is still mostly fine though.

The story is quite fun and the characters are very charming.

Fundamentally, this game has the same structure that every subsequent Naughty Dog game until today would have, meaning linear level design with combat encounters, puzzles, varying companions and cutscenes. Unfortunately, it is not able to realize that structure's full potential.
It is interesting however, to see this lackluster version of the game design philosophy, which would go on to lay the foundation of one of the greatest runs of video game releases a developer studio ever managed pulled off.