There’s a moment where, early on, you get to control him and he comes across his first treasure chest. He’s more capable by himself, and also vastly over-confident in his own abilities. He talks back to daddy Kratos (much more than he did last time). Kratos’ boy, Atreus (who, from the last game we know is actually Loki, which should give you a hint about what’s on the horizon through this game) has hit his difficult teens this time around. Naturally, I can’t give away any of it because of spoilers concerns – and this review is spoiler-free – but you can run through the key plot moments like a series of bullet points, and while they can be incredibly dramatic and even emotional, it’s the lack of insight that is disappointing. Given that Ragnarök is, effectively, a narrative-driven experience, there is a lot of game for something this shallow.
The fact that God of War, being a 30-odd-hour game, could be summarised in about five minutes speaks to my opinion of that game’s narrative pretty well, and while Ragnarök is around double the size, the biggest single problem with it is the narrative can be described in about the same length of time. It’s probably a fair call on the part of the developers that anyone that was going to be remotely interested in Ragnarök would have played the 2018 “original”, but if you are an outlier there is a recap available that walks you through the key events and gets you caught up. Ragnarök is a direct sequel to the previous God of War, and you do need to be familiar with the predecessor’s story, as this one immediately begins referencing prior events. However, it’s also a true game, in that you’ll spend a bunch of time being entertained by it, and that’s the extent of the value you’ll get out of it. People are going to love it because this is a massive, visually stunning, and viscerally entertaining game. Whether it deserves them, though, is another matter entirely.
Polish off those game of the year trophies, because God of War: Ragnarök is almost certainly going to win a bunch of them.
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