God of War: Ragnarök casts Odin as a mob boss in a deft blend of The Last of Us and Skyrim

God of War: Ragnarök brings an end to Kratos’ era of Norse mythology, but not before spending a good 40-50 hours being one of Sony’s best third-person shooters to date – something that moves the genre forward in terms of art and technological magic, but also in how its characters are portrayed.

As a drama, it runs the gamut from HBO’s prestige drama to Wrestlemania, and is packed with some of the best action spectacle the series has ever offered (which is quite an achievement, given that the entire series begins with Kratos jumping). across a shipwrecked fleet to kill a hydra), but also plenty of quiet, thoughtful moments that allow the beat to breathe.

It also provides a wonderfully unique insight into the gods themselves. In this portrayal, Odin appears as the head of a crime family, somewhat akin to Tony Soprano or Vito Corleone: powerful, yet fearful. Jealously guarding his status, willing to make great sacrifices to protect his wealth, but ultimately ill-equipped to withstand the changing times. He’s in stark contrast to the benevolent, heroic alien version of the character we’ve seen in things like Marvel’s MCU. But, dare I say it, it’s probably much closer to the source material: the old gods were hard to please.

God of War installments often feel like a barometer of industry trends, typifying and exemplifying what video games are in their year of release. It’s fascinating that this (as in 2018, but more so this time) can be described as a middle ground between The Last of Us and Skyrim. It’s linear and character-focused, but full of open-ended exploration. It’s anchored with gritty realism, while also being an epic fantasy show of light and magic. The best of AAA can be found right here in this great PlayStation exclusive Greatest Hits bundle.

The fact that this is still a next-gen game at its core (albeit one that plays best on PS5) suggests that, perhaps, we’ve reached an impasse here: video games are conceivably as good as ever. be, and the improved technology to build and run them just won’t produce the kind of revolutionary breakthrough we’ve grown accustomed to during the first few decades of this medium’s relatively short life to date. But this doesn’t mean they can’t be exciting or groundbreaking: it just means we’ve reached a point where the merit of the painting is decoupled from the quality of the brushstrokes.

If the latest best-in-class AAA game is running on hardware from a decade ago, we may have reached the point where our beloved medium is driven by imagination rather than technology. As barometer readings go, I’d take that to mean there’s sunshine ahead.