I know I am super behind on this game, as most people have probably already finished the game at this point. I still feel like it will be nice to have a conversation with others about how I feel about the game in chunks. Of course, there will be spoilers moving forward.
//Spoilers Ahead//
Ragnarok starts off with a time jump. It is now 3 years after the ending events of God of War (2018) and feels like absolutely nothing has happened in that time frame. Atreus is older and owns some dire wolves, which is rad. Progress into trying to figure out who or what Loki is, how it fits into, well, everything, doesn’t seem like it has moved forward whatsoever. It just feels like they’ve been training, exploring a little bit, and trying not to get their asses killed by Freya for 3 years. It’s weird, but I guess they kind of makeup for it by just saying Atreus has been out doing stuff solo without Kratos and learning some new stuff. I find it hard to believe that Kratos would be so oblivious as to where Atreus is at and what he is doing, but I guess ignorance is bliss, or whatever.
After 8 hours of Ragnarok, so far I still have not found that narrative hook to make me want to see what the big picture is. At this point, I have rescued Tyr but he doesn’t want to fight Odin or anyone anymore. I’m still confused why Kratos and Atreus did not take Odin up on the offer of the Gods leaving them alone if they stopped searching for Tyr. Tyr has not really been useful at all after he has been rescued. I’m hoping something changes to make Tyr a more compelling character, but so far it just feels like maybe they were wasting their time with him. Even after the entire Elves realm that I went through, still doesn’t feel like I did anything even remotely important. The story is absolutely taking its time to give me a reason to care, but at least I like most of the characters so far.
The characters are all still good. Kratos is still a grumpy dad, but seemingly less so in this game. Atreus is significantly less annoying but still has his moments. I think I understand his frustration with Kratos though. It’s been 3 years and Kratos has done absolutely nothing to help him figure out his destiny, or whatever. Training has taken priority, which is good to have, but stumbling in the dark is terrible.
The supporting cast is also solid. Mimir still feels like the only one who had his head right the entire time. Like Kratos’s own personal angel on his hip. Sindri and Brok are still around and I have not gotten annoyed with them yet. Even the tiny slice of Odin and Thor were excellent setups for introducing their characters. Freya hating them still kind of throws me off. I get that they killed her son in the first game, but it was to save her! Just feels like an unnecessary enemy they have been having to deal with, but it’s fine.
Combat is still very much the same as in the previous game. Lot’s of combos you can use, but I feel like for myself I don’t really use any of them. It’s pretty straightforward for the most part, and Atreus is still very useful to have while fighting a bunch of enemies. Speaking of Atreus, this game does introduce him as a playable character. It was cool to be able to switch up the gameplay a bit. I enjoy shooting off his bow and smacking people around a bit. So far his section hasn’t entirely amounted to anything yet, but the word Ironwood does make an appearance later on, so I guess it’s something. As well as seeing a more tame side of Freya.
Ragnarok for me seems less open than the first game so far. Which I don’t mind. It gives you the area to go explore, and then hey, this is the way to go for the main story when you’re done with that side stuff. I did find myself getting bored of exploring after a bit though. I don’t think this game needs the level-up system or the exploration at all. If it was just a straight-forward, linear path, it would make more sense. Plus, I would probably be a lot further along in the story now.
On the topic of people getting annoyed with Atreus or Mimir talking about how to solve puzzles so quickly before you get a chance to even look at it themselves, I think it’s a little blow out of proportion. These puzzles are incredibly simple anyways. It’s super easy to kind of tune out those dialogue bits from those characters anyways. If no one is telling a story or giving useful information, I’m ignoring it the entire time. I don’t think it ruins the game whatsoever and I really have no problem with it overall.
Ragnarok still looks and runs beautifully on the PS5. It’s a damn shame that the photo mode has not been released yet. I have been taking screenshots with the Dualsense controller button to grab all the shots that are in this post. It’s pretty difficult timing them all correctly, and I have had a ton that just did not turn out well enough, but the ones I did get I think are pretty solid!
I plan on continuing my time with Ragnarok. I know I will end up beating it, and overall I have been enjoying it. I really hope there’s that story beat that gets me wanting to learn more about what’s going on. It feels like I’m currently on autopilot though, which is a damn shame since I really enjoyed the 2018 game. Hopefully in the next update at around 16 hours I will be in a better spot with the game.
How have you guys felt about the game so far? Have you already beaten it? Give me a rating if you have one!
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The Tired Obsidian 
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