This review contains spoilers
I'll do my best to avoid specifics but there will be spoilers in here
In almost every way this game manages to improve upon the first. Despite the few issues I had with 2018 I thought it would be hard to top it, but Santa Monica managed to do it.
Starting with combat, this is simply an improved version of the first game. The axe and blades of chaos are almost identical, except for a few new skill and mechanics. One weird thing is that this game decided to do the Metroid sequel thing of having you lose all your abilities from the first game, even though Kratos apparently spent all the time in between preparing and training. Weird but not a huge issue. The combat feels just as great as it did in the first god of war.
One major change is the inclusion of a third weapon. While it wasn't what I was expecting, it actually fits Kratos perfectly as pretty much the first weapon in the series that is truly his own (the blades of chaos I don't consider to be his own) while fitting with where he came from. It's also incredibly fun to use and has some great unique mechanics around it.
Another major change is that there are now sections where you play as Atreus. While not as fun Kratos in my opinion, he did offer a unique playstyle more suited to ranged combat. And seeing things from his perspective I think helped with the story.
The combat helper system with atreus also returns and its also great like the last one as their assistance is helpful and you rarely ever have to worry about them in combat.
My major complaint from the first game, being a lack of enemy and especially boss variety, has been more than addressed. There are a large range of enemy archetypes in the game, with multiple types within them. they also aren't just reskins either and have unique attacks, strategies and status effects. This kept the game from feeling boring or that it was too long, and later encounters would still keep introducing new difficult enemy types. There is also a strong variety of bosses and minibosses to be fought. Most of them were great bosses and good spectacles, although a couple felt straight up unfair to fight, either because the combat system didn't feel like it was designed for that kind of fight, or because one particular boss barely telegraphed their attacks and would change attack patterns (At least on give me no mercy, which I played the game on) you pretty much had to die a couple of times to learn how to fight them.
This is a massive game, with a ton of side content. As was hoped for after the first game, all 9 realms are accessible, and 7 of them freely explorable, though some more than others. They are well varied and tend to have unique enemy types and hazards. A few of these have large open areas to explore with side quests that have better stories than the ones in the first game and feel more unique and worthwhile. Of course these also provide ample opportunity to listen to the conversations with Mimir, which are just as delightful as they were in the first game. These open areas individually werent too big, and felt very dense in terms of activities and secrets to find. The other good thing is this felt like like a Ubisoft open world tick box game like how Horizon and Ghost of Tsushima felt. One thing I particularly enjoyed was how completing some side quests actually made changes to the environment, giving the feeling like you're doing something that matters to the world. I will say I prefer the Valkyries from 2018 a lot more to the Berserkers in this one.
When it comes to the story itself, I'm still unsure of whether I like this better than the first game or not, however I find myself leaning towards liking it better than the first. The first game had a lot of "your princess is in another castle" moments, where you progress to where you think you need to go, then learn you were wrong and have to go elsewhere or you find yourself blocked then go somewhere else to get something then backtrack and come back later. In Ragnarok it felt more like you accomplish goals you set out to do and that the story is actually advancing more than it did in the first one.
It's still amazing to see Kratos evolve from this shitty one note character (who admittedly was rather tragic and earned all that rage) to one of the best characters in videogames. His relationship with Atreus felt fully realized and believable here, and there were many emotional moments that almost got me (it succeeded at the very end). Atreus himself has vastly improved as a character from the first game, sure he was a kid and that's how kids act, but it was still annoying, and his arc was resolved a little too quickly for my taste, however here he is struggling with the knowledge of Kratos' impending death, and combined with secrets he learns and is forced to keep concerning the Giants, we see a believable internal struggle.
We also see the Norse mythology aspects more realized here, seeing all the 9 realms, Vanir, Aesir and giant characters. As with the first its great to see how GoW subverts mythology, and I think this is done largely well here. While Thor is what I expected based on the descriptions in the first game for the most part, I think his character is done really well here. Odin was a very surprising portrayal, but the idea of this Gaslighting mob boss kind of character grew on me. It also helps that every performance in this game is excellent, the dwarfs, Freya, the Aesir, Kratos and Atreus are all amazing. The game also does the "one take" gimmick which is also very well done here, and has some creative transitions.
I think where I was let down was two points in the story. Atreus's time in Ironwood, while cool, felt very weirdly paced to me, like it took a lot longer than it should have. Although Angrboda was a very fun character and I really liked her chemistry with Atreus
The other point was the final battle of Ragnarok. It felt rather underwhelming to me, like I was expecting this grand battle but all we really got to see was us running through narrow pathways largely fighting enemies on our own. I also wasn't much of a fan how the things we worked towards were almost instantly shut down, like the realm towers instantly getting destroyed and us losing our reinforcements, and when the Ragnarok beast shows up we decide not to use it (makes it feel like wasted time and effort). however the boss fights and character interactions in this section very much helped make up for it.
The ending of the game was very well done and emotional in my opinion, and made for a strong conclusion to the Norse saga. It leaves the future wide open for this franchise if they choose to continue it.
There's a strong post game as well, with new world events to do and side quests, including the proper final ending to the game which was also fairly emotional, and a great payoff to what felt like a random throwaway moment earlier in the game. There are also very challenging (and sometimes unfair) optional bosses and the opportunity to find and talk to characters after the end of the game for some unique dialogue, including a surprise character I wont spoil.
Overall this is an excellent game that anyone with a playstation needs to play and experience for themselves. Few things here and there keep it from being perfect but they're still far outweighed by the good.
In almost every way this game manages to improve upon the first. Despite the few issues I had with 2018 I thought it would be hard to top it, but Santa Monica managed to do it.
Starting with combat, this is simply an improved version of the first game. The axe and blades of chaos are almost identical, except for a few new skill and mechanics. One weird thing is that this game decided to do the Metroid sequel thing of having you lose all your abilities from the first game, even though Kratos apparently spent all the time in between preparing and training. Weird but not a huge issue. The combat feels just as great as it did in the first god of war.
One major change is the inclusion of a third weapon. While it wasn't what I was expecting, it actually fits Kratos perfectly as pretty much the first weapon in the series that is truly his own (the blades of chaos I don't consider to be his own) while fitting with where he came from. It's also incredibly fun to use and has some great unique mechanics around it.
Another major change is that there are now sections where you play as Atreus. While not as fun Kratos in my opinion, he did offer a unique playstyle more suited to ranged combat. And seeing things from his perspective I think helped with the story.
The combat helper system with atreus also returns and its also great like the last one as their assistance is helpful and you rarely ever have to worry about them in combat.
My major complaint from the first game, being a lack of enemy and especially boss variety, has been more than addressed. There are a large range of enemy archetypes in the game, with multiple types within them. they also aren't just reskins either and have unique attacks, strategies and status effects. This kept the game from feeling boring or that it was too long, and later encounters would still keep introducing new difficult enemy types. There is also a strong variety of bosses and minibosses to be fought. Most of them were great bosses and good spectacles, although a couple felt straight up unfair to fight, either because the combat system didn't feel like it was designed for that kind of fight, or because one particular boss barely telegraphed their attacks and would change attack patterns (At least on give me no mercy, which I played the game on) you pretty much had to die a couple of times to learn how to fight them.
This is a massive game, with a ton of side content. As was hoped for after the first game, all 9 realms are accessible, and 7 of them freely explorable, though some more than others. They are well varied and tend to have unique enemy types and hazards. A few of these have large open areas to explore with side quests that have better stories than the ones in the first game and feel more unique and worthwhile. Of course these also provide ample opportunity to listen to the conversations with Mimir, which are just as delightful as they were in the first game. These open areas individually werent too big, and felt very dense in terms of activities and secrets to find. The other good thing is this felt like like a Ubisoft open world tick box game like how Horizon and Ghost of Tsushima felt. One thing I particularly enjoyed was how completing some side quests actually made changes to the environment, giving the feeling like you're doing something that matters to the world. I will say I prefer the Valkyries from 2018 a lot more to the Berserkers in this one.
When it comes to the story itself, I'm still unsure of whether I like this better than the first game or not, however I find myself leaning towards liking it better than the first. The first game had a lot of "your princess is in another castle" moments, where you progress to where you think you need to go, then learn you were wrong and have to go elsewhere or you find yourself blocked then go somewhere else to get something then backtrack and come back later. In Ragnarok it felt more like you accomplish goals you set out to do and that the story is actually advancing more than it did in the first one.
It's still amazing to see Kratos evolve from this shitty one note character (who admittedly was rather tragic and earned all that rage) to one of the best characters in videogames. His relationship with Atreus felt fully realized and believable here, and there were many emotional moments that almost got me (it succeeded at the very end). Atreus himself has vastly improved as a character from the first game, sure he was a kid and that's how kids act, but it was still annoying, and his arc was resolved a little too quickly for my taste, however here he is struggling with the knowledge of Kratos' impending death, and combined with secrets he learns and is forced to keep concerning the Giants, we see a believable internal struggle.
We also see the Norse mythology aspects more realized here, seeing all the 9 realms, Vanir, Aesir and giant characters. As with the first its great to see how GoW subverts mythology, and I think this is done largely well here. While Thor is what I expected based on the descriptions in the first game for the most part, I think his character is done really well here. Odin was a very surprising portrayal, but the idea of this Gaslighting mob boss kind of character grew on me. It also helps that every performance in this game is excellent, the dwarfs, Freya, the Aesir, Kratos and Atreus are all amazing. The game also does the "one take" gimmick which is also very well done here, and has some creative transitions.
I think where I was let down was two points in the story. Atreus's time in Ironwood, while cool, felt very weirdly paced to me, like it took a lot longer than it should have. Although Angrboda was a very fun character and I really liked her chemistry with Atreus
The other point was the final battle of Ragnarok. It felt rather underwhelming to me, like I was expecting this grand battle but all we really got to see was us running through narrow pathways largely fighting enemies on our own. I also wasn't much of a fan how the things we worked towards were almost instantly shut down, like the realm towers instantly getting destroyed and us losing our reinforcements, and when the Ragnarok beast shows up we decide not to use it (makes it feel like wasted time and effort). however the boss fights and character interactions in this section very much helped make up for it.
The ending of the game was very well done and emotional in my opinion, and made for a strong conclusion to the Norse saga. It leaves the future wide open for this franchise if they choose to continue it.
There's a strong post game as well, with new world events to do and side quests, including the proper final ending to the game which was also fairly emotional, and a great payoff to what felt like a random throwaway moment earlier in the game. There are also very challenging (and sometimes unfair) optional bosses and the opportunity to find and talk to characters after the end of the game for some unique dialogue, including a surprise character I wont spoil.
Overall this is an excellent game that anyone with a playstation needs to play and experience for themselves. Few things here and there keep it from being perfect but they're still far outweighed by the good.