Ragnarök is Over.
God of War (2018) was not only the first game I got on my PlayStation 4, but also my introduction to the God of War series. I patiently waited for God of War Ragnarök to come out ever since I finished the first game the year it got released, and now after having played both games, sadly I have some mixed feelings.
Ragnarök isn't necessarily bigger and better than the previous game in my opinion, it's just bigger and more of the same, and it does some things better while other things worse.
The game starts off very strong with a lot of action and some very cool set-pieces.
Kratos' development shines in this game, he's a surprisingly complex character and I appreciate him more than ever before, and as for Atreus, he gets a lot of development as well, in a way he genuinely feels like the actual protagonist of the game, and I really like how he slowly grows and matures throughout the story.
To be completely honest, at first I was slightly worried because the gameplay felt similar to the previous game, but as you unlock more gear and progress through the game, the gameplay gets deeper. It really is a fun game, the new quality of life improvements and the enviromental mechanics help a lot, using the blades as grappling hooks or jumping from a ledge to smash enemies with the axe feels very satisfying.
What I enjoyed the most is definitely the exploration, there's an insane amount of stuff to do, so many side quests and countless side stories, I loved it and I wanted to explore more and more. As for the realms, they're bigger and better than before, every realm has something different to offer, overall this is a very big game full of content.
A decent amount of enemy variety too, instead of simple trolls and draugrs, there are actually new enemies with unique movesets and animations, also the boss fights are impressive and there are many of them, definitely an improvement over the previous game.
Unfortunately though, God of War Ragnarök is a game that ultimately disappointed me, and my biggest issue with it is the story, it's directionless and lacks focus, there is no clear goal and it feels like you are running around doing random fetch quests for the most part. The characters make so many weird and nonsensical decisions it's honestly frustrating, sometimes Kratos acts like a side character, in fact why is Kratos even part of the story if he disagrees with everything the other characters do, why does he help Atreus with starting a war if he doesn't want a war... why, why, whyyy... that's exactly how I felt throughout the entirety of the game, why are we doing this, why are we here, why are we focusing on random things that are very unnecessary to the plot instead of the actual Ragnarök.
Speaking of Ragnarök, the finale felt so rushed and anticlimactic, for something so important to the plot, something that I've been waiting to see for so long, I expected Ragnarök to last way longer and have a bigger scale, so much wasted potential, way to set the wrong expectations.
Another issue I have with the game is that the overall gameplay isn't an improvement from the previous game in my opinion, in fact it's a bit of a step-down, some new additions felt completely unnecessary, and the things that got removed were fun, such as the bare handed combat, or some runic attacks.
Also I wanna point out that some of the dialogue was more humorous and goofy for my liking, in a way, the game has a bit too much humor sometimes, which ruined the tone the previous game tried to set for the series.
In the end, God of War Ragnarök is a game I enjoyed even though it failed to meet my expectations, which is unfortunate. What we got here is still an exceptional videogame experience, albeit a disappointing sequel in my opinion.
Final Rating: "Good" ~ 7/10.
God of War (2018) was not only the first game I got on my PlayStation 4, but also my introduction to the God of War series. I patiently waited for God of War Ragnarök to come out ever since I finished the first game the year it got released, and now after having played both games, sadly I have some mixed feelings.
Ragnarök isn't necessarily bigger and better than the previous game in my opinion, it's just bigger and more of the same, and it does some things better while other things worse.
The game starts off very strong with a lot of action and some very cool set-pieces.
Kratos' development shines in this game, he's a surprisingly complex character and I appreciate him more than ever before, and as for Atreus, he gets a lot of development as well, in a way he genuinely feels like the actual protagonist of the game, and I really like how he slowly grows and matures throughout the story.
To be completely honest, at first I was slightly worried because the gameplay felt similar to the previous game, but as you unlock more gear and progress through the game, the gameplay gets deeper. It really is a fun game, the new quality of life improvements and the enviromental mechanics help a lot, using the blades as grappling hooks or jumping from a ledge to smash enemies with the axe feels very satisfying.
What I enjoyed the most is definitely the exploration, there's an insane amount of stuff to do, so many side quests and countless side stories, I loved it and I wanted to explore more and more. As for the realms, they're bigger and better than before, every realm has something different to offer, overall this is a very big game full of content.
A decent amount of enemy variety too, instead of simple trolls and draugrs, there are actually new enemies with unique movesets and animations, also the boss fights are impressive and there are many of them, definitely an improvement over the previous game.
Unfortunately though, God of War Ragnarök is a game that ultimately disappointed me, and my biggest issue with it is the story, it's directionless and lacks focus, there is no clear goal and it feels like you are running around doing random fetch quests for the most part. The characters make so many weird and nonsensical decisions it's honestly frustrating, sometimes Kratos acts like a side character, in fact why is Kratos even part of the story if he disagrees with everything the other characters do, why does he help Atreus with starting a war if he doesn't want a war... why, why, whyyy... that's exactly how I felt throughout the entirety of the game, why are we doing this, why are we here, why are we focusing on random things that are very unnecessary to the plot instead of the actual Ragnarök.
Speaking of Ragnarök, the finale felt so rushed and anticlimactic, for something so important to the plot, something that I've been waiting to see for so long, I expected Ragnarök to last way longer and have a bigger scale, so much wasted potential, way to set the wrong expectations.
Another issue I have with the game is that the overall gameplay isn't an improvement from the previous game in my opinion, in fact it's a bit of a step-down, some new additions felt completely unnecessary, and the things that got removed were fun, such as the bare handed combat, or some runic attacks.
Also I wanna point out that some of the dialogue was more humorous and goofy for my liking, in a way, the game has a bit too much humor sometimes, which ruined the tone the previous game tried to set for the series.
In the end, God of War Ragnarök is a game I enjoyed even though it failed to meet my expectations, which is unfortunate. What we got here is still an exceptional videogame experience, albeit a disappointing sequel in my opinion.
Final Rating: "Good" ~ 7/10.