Seems this years god of war ragnarok is Spider-Man 2. Chatty NPCs that you have to listen to all the time alongside gameplay that is excellent, the improvements are great such as the web lines which you can shoot almost anywhere. Like many open world games, SPM2 does overdo it with the amount of side missions and activities however paced it with the story, won’t open up some of them until you make enough campaign progress - which is the point after all. However will you make as much straightforward progress without leveling up with rewards you get from these side missions? Likely not. It’s a great game in short bursts.

But overall, take your time - maybe pick it up when you’ve got like 30 minutes. Why? Because that’s how it’s built. It’s not trying to be entertaining enough to sit there for 3-4 hours straight playing this.