This review contains spoilers
I gave this game a clean 10/10 in the past but I feel a 9.5 is close to the truth, and while the game is truly an incredible piece of artistry a lot of problems happened at least for me in the third act of the game towards the final battle.
Ragnarock is being teased the past game and even this game as this grand, battle of the gods end of times huge climax. And it does feel when you actually get to that part that it's just a watered down sequence, or maybe my expectations were too high. I expected so much more especially that the boss battle in the last game felt so unique and breathtaking with the giant in the background but in GOW: Ragnarock battling with Odin felt as a massive downgrade from its predecessor. This whole war chapter feels a little too rushed and it feels like the whole game loses a lot of it's impact from this rushness.
Imagine how great it would be this Odin fight to be just a fake call battle and Kratos having to fight the literal Ragnarock which would be a good addition to the whole "battling fate" thing and also a nostalgic wink to the Greek saga at the same time. And the whole point of Freyr's sacrifice felt so out of place and even though every character post games tries to tell you how much that sacrifice should mean to you it still feels a little too uninteresting.
Other than that, Ragnarock was amazing, it works especially well because its story fells and is a continuation for the one in 2018. Playing this game and upon finishing it was one of those rare "I feel dead inside now" feeling after experiencing a great video-game - I didn't want it to be over, I gazed endlessly at the landscapes and environments, mesmerized of the characters, lore and how fluid and real the combat system felt - and the stories of the characters are so nicely chosen with intertwining arcs with each other about grief love and forgiveness it was sooo gooooood especially in the way that Santa Monica uses Norse mythology lore to make these characters belonging to the universe of GOW; their design is on point and their stories are universally intimate, recognizable and cathartic, each character has a "shadow" which builds the plot destroys it and then rebuilds it again. Its nice.
I can't wait in which direction this whole franchise go. We already see a swift in how the Tear is being teased as a narrative device and how other mythologies are being teased too but what I appeciated more about this game is how much evolution the whole franchise got, especially Kratos.
It was a journey indeed, and a nice path to walk on.
Ragnarock is being teased the past game and even this game as this grand, battle of the gods end of times huge climax. And it does feel when you actually get to that part that it's just a watered down sequence, or maybe my expectations were too high. I expected so much more especially that the boss battle in the last game felt so unique and breathtaking with the giant in the background but in GOW: Ragnarock battling with Odin felt as a massive downgrade from its predecessor. This whole war chapter feels a little too rushed and it feels like the whole game loses a lot of it's impact from this rushness.
Imagine how great it would be this Odin fight to be just a fake call battle and Kratos having to fight the literal Ragnarock which would be a good addition to the whole "battling fate" thing and also a nostalgic wink to the Greek saga at the same time. And the whole point of Freyr's sacrifice felt so out of place and even though every character post games tries to tell you how much that sacrifice should mean to you it still feels a little too uninteresting.
Other than that, Ragnarock was amazing, it works especially well because its story fells and is a continuation for the one in 2018. Playing this game and upon finishing it was one of those rare "I feel dead inside now" feeling after experiencing a great video-game - I didn't want it to be over, I gazed endlessly at the landscapes and environments, mesmerized of the characters, lore and how fluid and real the combat system felt - and the stories of the characters are so nicely chosen with intertwining arcs with each other about grief love and forgiveness it was sooo gooooood especially in the way that Santa Monica uses Norse mythology lore to make these characters belonging to the universe of GOW; their design is on point and their stories are universally intimate, recognizable and cathartic, each character has a "shadow" which builds the plot destroys it and then rebuilds it again. Its nice.
I can't wait in which direction this whole franchise go. We already see a swift in how the Tear is being teased as a narrative device and how other mythologies are being teased too but what I appeciated more about this game is how much evolution the whole franchise got, especially Kratos.
It was a journey indeed, and a nice path to walk on.