It's odd when a game has clear improvements over its predecessor but I still come away from it feeling like it wasn't as good an experience. That may sound too negative as I still greatly really enjoyed my time with God of War Ragnarök. I really loved the 2018 entry and this game still has a lot of the stuff I liked about it so I very much don't consider it a disappointment.

It has the same crunchy combat as the first game and with some improvements here and there. A lot of the combat takes part in more arena like areas so you're encouraged to move around. With more space and different levels to the arenas, you have a bit more freedom of movement and attacking. There are contextual actions such as jump attacks from a higher level or giant rocks you can throw at enemies. It does make the combat feel a bit more dynamic. One of the major drawbacks of the first game was the lack of variety in enemy types and especially the bosses. Ragnarok fixes this quite soundly. You don't even have to fight one of those different coloured trolls that you see many times throughout the previous game. On top of more variety, they also add a third weapon which is just as fun as the other two and feels distinct. The bosses and set pieces may not reach some of the heights of the Greek games but they are still a lot of fun and there's a decent amount of them. The titular Ragnarok is not as epic as you might want but it still offers some spectacle.

I know a lot of people don't think the character progression and gear management adds much to the game but I still really like it here. Maybe I'm simple and just like it when the numbers go up but the loop is satisfying. A lot of skill tree is gated by the story so the progression there can feel a bit slow but it gives you time you try out the new moves rather then being inundated with them all at once. There's a new mastery system to your skills that gives you a buff after you use it a certain number of times. The actual significance to gameplay that this buff adds is pretty minor but I always appreciate encouragement to use different moves. You also have an option of what buff to apply so it gives you a somewhat personalised way of building your Kratos. The gear options are fun to work through and there isn't an absolute loot vomit so the armour generally feels unique. The way the game doles out upgrade materials may seem limiting but with the different tiers of materials depending on the level of the gear, it made it so I was never unwilling to spend it in the worry of wasting it when I find something better. Plus you can dismantle any gear to get your upgrade materials back which is most welcome. I'm not saying the game has as diverse character building as a good RPG but with the different armour sets, gems, shields, runic attacks and some personalisation in the skill tree, I was able to enjoy focusing in on the playstyle I wanted. I enjoyed going for a status effect build and it really worked for me.

Exploration is still a key part of the game and it is rewarding to go off the beaten track to find various upgrades. It also has the soft Metroidvania angle of being able to discover new things in previously explored areas. There's a decent amount of puzzles to find here which I do enjoy although there was one type of puzzle involving shooting arrows that could get very tedious. Unfortunately, you have very little time to actually solve the puzzle yourself before the NPC's blurt out the solution. This got a little less prevalent as the game goes on but there really is a weird amount of hand holding that you can't toggle off in the menu. It is fortunate that the game has an impressive amount of accessibility options in the menu which I'll always support. You venture into all nine realms this time which all have a distinct visual style. Not all of them are large fully explorable areas but there's at least a little bit of story in all of them rather than two being designated challenge room areas.

The story and the way it is told is will feel pretty familiar if you're used the Sony cinematic game. It is well written with fantastic performances and still has that one take approach to the direction which I still don't think adds that much. I wonder when they decided that this would be the end of the Norse saga because the first game feels like it inched forward in comparison. Perhaps that worked better for that game because we needed something slower to get used to the new Kratos. I'll give Santa Monica credit for sticking to their guns with the new Kratos. It maybe is why the Ragnarok event wasn't as epic as it could be but they want Kratos to not want to just murder everything which makes him more compelling. The main thing I didn't enjoy with the game was the shift to another character. I mostly didn't like that character's moveset when comparing to Kratos but it messes with the pacing of the story and I'm not sure much would be lost if a lot of it was turned into shorter cutscenes. Having completed the game, it doesn't take up that much of the runtime but I was definitely more negative on it earlier on when I thought I was going to spend a lot more time with it.

I clearly really like the game and talked about things I like more than the first one so why do I feel I don't like it as much. Maybe it just as simple as it not feeling as fresh. Still, if you want a game with a good story and fun melee combat, God of War Ragnarök would be one of your better options.