God of War Ragnarok review: Unmatched action

Says everything you need to know about god of war ragnarok that you can go from listening to the captivating tales of Norse mythology, told by your best friends as you gently float through dense riverbanks of lush jungle and along placid lakes surrounded by snow-capped mountains, to crushing giant flying eyeballs with your own hands. in the space of about 90 seconds.

Neither feels out of place or jarring, but the flying eyeballs probably won’t agree.

Though it starts off remarkably similar to God of War 2018 both mechanically and graphically, God of War Ragnarok gradually becomes a significant evolution for the series, expanding the game’s scope both stealthily and overtly, while delivering a tense, twisting story that twists and turns. legend around its characters in exciting and endlessly interesting ways.

God of War Ragnarok takes place in the nine realms of Norse cosmology, as Odin, king and father of the Aesir gods, literally moves heaven and earth to try and avert the doomsday that is prophesied to bring about his destruction. At the end of the last game, Kratos and Atreus learned their unwitting part in the prophecy, and God of War Ragnarok deals with the ramifications of this new knowledge and the consequences of the events that led to acquiring it.

It’s a very direct sequel and, perhaps due to being a few years away and seeing embellished PC port footage in between, starting Ragnarok almost felt like starting the last game and playing from where it left off.

In Sony’s own pantheon, despite the upgrade in hardware, Ragnarok feels much more like the jump between Uncharted 2 and Uncharted 3, rather than the more recent example of The Last of Us Parts 1 and 2. This obviously makes sense. given both the development time between the rebooted God of War and Ragnarok (which would have been only a couple of years without a lengthy delay), as well as its cross-gen availability.

It looks and feels great, with detailed environments and distant landscapes in every realm, but there aren’t any huge technical or graphical feats that jump off the screen right away. And that could make for a disappointing first impression if you’re expecting something that will make your PS5 run like a jet engine, like it does your PS4.

That’s not to say that God of War Ragnarok is a complete retread, or that it doesn’t do anything to move things forward. What’s familiar grows throughout the game, whether it’s combat styles, partner abilities, traversal, or puzzle solving, to the point where you realize later in the whole experience just how much it’s different and new.

The first few hours, then, feel pretty close to what you’ve already played, and if Sony Santa Monica tried to introduce a lot of this more quickly, just for difference’s sake, it might have been overwhelming or disparate, so ultimately instance. is the right choice for the game as a whole. Even if, at times, you’re cheering for everything to speed up a bit.

However, you have plenty of time to explore the mechanical nuances once they start to appear. Where the console masterpiece action-spectacle genre used to be a 6-hour linear firework, God of War Ragnarok is as thick as Kratos’ own bicep, and it took me just over 40 hours to complete the main story. (with about 75% of the sub stories). , collectibles and extra goodies too) on normal difficulty.

At the end of a main story branch, you almost always have the option to split into a relatively compact, but very dense, open exploration area filled with environmental puzzles, mini-bosses, and fetch quests. Diving into these slots is highly recommended not only because of the world and character building feats (the main “favors” in each area are generally good), but because they offer a lot of the best stuff and upgrades, making them pretty vital. if I want to progress smoothly in the next chapter.

These areas are also not disposable. More activities appear constantly as the state of the world changes throughout the main quest and even after the credits roll, giving you a continual incentive to keep the family road trip from one realm to another. But persistent detours can also be a bit distracting, both in exploration areas and along the main trail.

There’s something hiding in almost every corner, and sniffing it out can take you out of the moment a bit. If you’re a magpie, like me, you’ll be thinking more about the collectible you need to smash into the corner while a cutscene is playing than what’s actually going on. Those with short attention spans, be warned.

but if you know that you really can’t miss anything Y you can always go back and get things you miss – which you already know, because I’m telling you – I hope most people can get over that completionist itch.

I wrote in my first impressions preview that the beginning of God of War Ragnarok’s story had me a bit worried because it was based on emotional moves thicker than the skin of the world serpent, Jormungandr. From the moment you hit “New Game,” it’s all heavy hearts, long sighs, and somber silences that threaten to turn maudlin, and at this point, that feels like a Sony studio party trick.

However, the motivations of the characters are quickly reset to make everything feel more deserved, and from there, Ragnarok never misses its big moments. An early showdown between the game’s core players is filled with threats and an intense atmosphere, and the unexpected and intricate characterizations of many of Ragnarok’s antagonists are almost as groundbreaking as Kratos’ renewed character depth in God of War 2018.

These moments are more frequent, more intense, as the game approaches its climax. Then, from the summation of the last full arc of the kingdom to the end of the blockbuster, it’s one gigantic, catastrophic scenario after another, exerting the full weight of everything that’s been built up to this point to ensnare you as aggressively and wrathfully as characters. fighting on the screen.

It’s not just about the mesmerizingly spectacular, but also about the quieter parts. Resorting to themes of responsibility, loss and, above all, the uncertainty about the changing stages of life gives us an emotional boost and makes the edge of the action cut that much more. Whether the story reflects on growing up, parenthood, or death, it does so thoughtfully and consciously. And it always makes you care.

The only quibble I have with all of this is that the characters tend to basically lay out the insinuations of a scene; saying the quiet part out loud when it was already well earned and clear from the context and the performances. I wouldn’t say it undermines anything too important, because when the truly emotional moments hit the ground, they land like a swan on water.

But it seems there was undue concern that people would not “get it”. This is particularly felt at the end of the main Favors in each area, which often end with a conversation that sounds a bit like a plenary session at the end of a school lesson or the coda at the end of a sitcom: “So, we did?” everyone learn today?

But all of that is overshadowed by the action, anyway. Once you get used to the touch-tight camera angle (which can make it seem like things outside your peripheral vision are tricking you before you get the hang of the audio and visual cues), the arsenal of weapons, combos, and abilities in its layout feels incredibly flexible, with add-on items to tweak just about every option available to you.

So much information is communicated to you so naturally through subtle things – the clang of a limp attack against an armored enemy, or the faint flicker of a fully charged blow – that finding your own style within the skill set is instinctive. And that’s without the jarring stops and slowdowns that give every hit a knuckle-blow and throw yourself on every shot, like a football coach kicking every ball for his team on the bench.

You get the most sense of this in the many passionately fierce boss fights that punctuate the game. They do a great job of incorporating unique mechanics without seeming cheap or overly simple. And really, these boss fights are emblematic of what makes God of War Ragnarok great: they’re hugely successful fusions of an immersive story and brutal action that not only produce a riveting and absorbing spectacle, but a passionate investment in the game. result. also.

God of War Ragnarok releases on November 9, 2022. Reviewed on PS5, code provided by publisher.