God of War: Ragnarok is a Action-Adventure game was released in 2022 for PS5 and PS4, and it was later ported to PC in 2024.
It was developed by Santa Monica Studio and published by SONY Interactive Entertainment, and it is a sequel to 2018's original game titled as God of War.
Before I begin reviewing this game, I wanted to discuss my past experience and nostalgia on how I got started to get into with the SONY's landmark franchise.
At the beginning of summer 2011 when I had the PS3 as my very first SONY's gaming console on my birthday along with the bunch of PS3 games to play that will be my first time to experience the HD gaming.
After owning my PS3 and the games that I've obtained, I also continued to search for more libaries of PS3 games that I'm interested to buy it one from online store, so I've found God of War HD Collection which is a video game compliation packed with two titles such as God of War (2005) and God of War 2 (2007) as a HD remastered of these PS2 classics featuring fully-HD graphics with 720p resolution and 60 FPS, and of course the GOW 2's bonus materials previously featured on PS2's 2-disc release are now included in this HD collection.
I've been playing those games for a whole 2 weeks to see how it really goes and oh boy...I am incredibly satisfied with the results turned out to be such a masterpiece.
The game set in ancient greek mythology, the brutal battles takes place in ancient city of Athens, and of course you have a badass warrior went on hunting down many Olympian gods for bloody vengence is something that I've appericated the most thanks to epic storyline, unstoppable protagonist, button-mashing combat, has QTE and puzzles going on, appealing visuals and sound design, and of course the solid replayability that made these games quite memorable especially on HD collection are also welcoming for the series newcomers.
I also enjoyed the third and also the final title of the ancient greek era with the God of War 3 which I've descibed it as another fantastic sequel had give the series a justice in terms of story, visuals, and gameplay action makes it a worthy play.
Then moving to the Norse mythology era with the 2018's PS4 masterpiece titled as God of War which completely taking into the new direction of game's presentation settings, storylines, characters, and of course the gameplay design and environmental visuals are completely giving a newer approach that are different from the series previous installiment.
I say it's another best title in the series, next to 2005-07's first twos original games, thanks to powerful storyline between father and son, well-builted gameplay design with solid combat system and many quests to explore, quality looking visuals showcasing PS4's powerhouse are strikingly beautiful, and has stronger casting roles delivering an amazing performance throughout the story campaign is something that made me appreciate the series even more.
Then finally the 2022's sequel for the PS5 console which is God of War: Ragnarok, a game that I'm ready to look forward playing another epic adventures of Kratos and BOY!!!! I mean his son Atreus you know I'm saying.
As I previously enjoyed the 2018's original game which I concidered it as outstanding, you might be thinking this 2022's sequel may be just as good, right? well...almost but not quite on the same level as the predecessor which is why I am here to review this title to explain how was the story campaign going and does the combat and exploration doing the game's justice.
So without go further do, let's start the review.
Presentation
The game set in the events after the 2018's original game, as it follows the journey of Kratos and his son Atreus went on their quest is to prevent a prophecy of their deaths and the end of the world, leading to a massive war against the Norse gods.
The story also involves Atreus seeking for his answers to find out his true identity as well as finding his way to stop Ragnarok from the apocalypse despite Kratos trying to protect his son from putting in dangerous risk, then you have Freya goes on battle for her revenge against them, then you have Odin and Thor arrive to threaten Kratos if the deal are rejected, and then finally traveling across all 9 realms to find recruiting alies like Tyr hoping he can help them way to lead the army against the Odin.
The story in the game is somewhat decent depending on what story chapters whether you like it or not, so I say the journey between father and son relationship are remained strong that keeps the story narrative going forward and I also liked the concept of having to go on their quest to find the way of saving the world from the creation of mass destruction like Ragnarok is something that I'm more interested on these storylines, where as I finding the paceing on Atreus's story quest are kinda mixed bag despite being a fine secondary protagonist which I had no problem, but on his story quest it's not simply quite the best is because I find the segments like Angraboda section and his quest in Asgard are kinda felt rushed out and scripted as opposed to Kratos story quest are slightly has the better segments in comparsion, so I wish they could have made Atreus's story quest done the job properly rather than falling flat.
The game has few of good characters which is mostly Kratos as an primary protagonist in the whole game which he still remains as an unstoppable fighter while he cares about his son safety to made sure to keep Atreus out of trouble.
Then you have everyone favourite BOY!!!! well I mean't Atreus which is now grown up as a teenage young lad who became a secondary character in the game, so even though he is portrayed as a douchebag throughout the story segment but he will eventually reduce his stubborness in later part is because what do you know it's Atreus being an Atreus which is a whole point of the game, so cut him some slack guys.
The game also shares with some of the supporting cast of characters that are half good and some others are kinda forgetable, so you have the returning casts such as Freya the witch goddess, twin brothers Brok and Sindri, and talking headless Mimir are the only good ones that are remained likable in the game's story, where as the new character cast such as Angraboda and Thrud are kinda lackluster in comparsion is because I don't find them interesting throughout the story section which I described them as bland and also boring, and then you have Tyr is just basically a generic looking tall-giant dude which is nothing special about the character.
Lastly you have cast of villains that are incredibly decent like Odin the All-Father is absolute menacing antagonist with his act of being manipulative and charismatic mob-boss, then you have big fat Thor made his habit of being an alcoholic...yeah you could tell he had a huge gallon of beer pouring down on his big fat belly...enough said, and of course Heimdall the asshat with punchable face and insufferable personality that makes everyone loved to hate him making his eventual showdown quite entertaining fights in the game.
The game's presentation design are astoundingly solid for its cinematic aesthetics in terms of in-game cutscenes and sequences are quite look pleasing on the screen just feels really good to watch, so I highly recommend to set the graphic options to visual mode which I think having a 30fps is suitable for cinematic design wise.
I also liked the settings of the Norse mythologies themes which I find the cultrial of scandinavian history quite appealing in this game, so there are numerous of locations to discover such as you have Midgard which is a harsh and frozen wasteland with heavily iced-over lake of 9 navigable by wolf-drawn sled and scattered with deep snow drifts, looming realm towers, and stark Norse ruins.
Svartalfheim is a vibrant dwarven realm featuring a steaming wetlands, geysers, and lush green shores with heavy industrial elements like massive pitmines, canals, and the busting city of Nidavellir.
Alfheim is a striking desert realm featuring sweeping sand dunes, massive canyons, and towering elven architecture.
Vanaheim is a vast and lush realm which has dense jungles, vibrant red-leafed canopy trees, winding river deltas, and the open expanse of the crater.
Muspelheim is a fiery volcanic realm filled with glowing lava rivers, charred rock formations, and ashen cliffs.
Nifheim is a frigid primordial landscape defined by towering ice formations, stark frozen fields, and sweeping mist.
Helheim is a frezzing realm which has bitter windswept icy landscape, towering dark stone architecture, and an oppressive somber atmosphere with giant spectral eagle Hraesvelgr and tear-ridden green mists.
Asgard is a rugged fortified Nordic village surrounded by massive defensive walls, towering scaffoldings, and steep rocky terrain rather than overt pomp and splendor.
Lastly the Jotunheim is a lush and warm landscape filled with coral reef-like plant life, stone trees, rivers, and glowing twlight skies.
These 9 realms are filled with many manmade landmarks, village homes, caves, camping site, and many environmental structures and landscapes going on.
Overall, it has decent story, good returning characters, and solid presentation design.
Gameplay
In single-player campaign, you take control of Kratos or Atreus (depending on story progression) in 3rd-person perspective of open-world environment, as your main goal is to complete all mission task being listed on the map and inventory menu.
Push the left stick control is to move the character where as pressing the left-thumbstick button is to sprint, and pushing the right stick control is to rotate the camera which not only is to move camera around but also used for targeting cursor.
You can interact the stuff by pressing the circle button which are used for picking up items or objects, hitting the lever, and talking to NPCs for dialogue.
You can access to character and map menu by pressing the left or right touchpad button which you will see the character's status, weapons, and armours as well as displaying the map inventory screen which helps you navigate through the pinpoint and whereabouts.
For combat, press the right-shoulder button is to use light attack which deals a small melee damage where as the right-trigger button used as heavy attack which deals a strong melee damage.
You can also perform throwing attack by holding with the left-trigger button then press the right-shoulder or right-trigger button which uses for long-range attack, but you can also retrieve your axe-welding melee weapon by pressing the triangle button which returns back to your hand.
The left-shoulder button uses for not only just blocking the enemy's melee projectiles, but also uses for parrying system which allows you to deflect the enemy's incoming melee attack if you see the yellow-circle being highlighted on enemy, so be sure you press it on the right timing as they get close to your range.
You can also do dodge roll the enemy's incoming attack by tapping the cross button while holding the left or right of the left-stick control is to perform evade.
You will have Atreus aiding with you to fight against the enemies or destroying objects that required specific arrow type, so you will have to command him to shoot with his arrow by pressing the square button.
You can cycle the weapon by pressing the d-pad button allowing you to switch your weapons, as well as the Atreus's arrow types.
When your rage meter is fully filled-up on the left-side bottom of the screen, this will allow you to temporarily activate the spartian rage mode by pressing both left and right thumbstick button, so this will make your melee damage attack much stronger and severe on enemies which can only last until it ran out of your rage meter bar.
So far, the default control scheme plays it brilliant which I had no issues with controlling these layouts for its movement and combat, so you can also reconfigure your gameplay and controls through the option menu which gives you a choice to remap your button layouts, change gameplay style, and other accessibilites to suit your playstyle.
We are now going to talk about the combat gameplay is because the franchise was best known for its mass-killing combos, deadly weapons, and tons of upgradable skills and abilities to learn is something that I'd like about God of War as a whole, so does this game managed to do a good job? absoultely which I'm gonna discuss my thoughts on the combat system and skills.
You have the axe act as an primary weapon where as the later twos like twin-blades and spear which you will eventually obtain it for later part of the game.
You'll start with the leviathan axe which is slow and strong weapon great for the ice element which can be thrown and recalled from any distance and it can also freezes enemies.
Then you have blade of chaos which is fast and wide-ranging weapon perfect for the fire element which excels at hitting hordes of enemies and it is also applies burning status effects and utilizes flame whiplash.
Lastly the draupir spear which is agile and ranged pressure weapon good for the wind element which can rapidly impales enemies with projectiles that can be detonated and it is also siphon enemy elemental magic to unleash amplified attacks.
What I liked about the combat system is the upgrade and skills for your weapons and armours, so each of them will have many attributes to improve on such as strength, defense, relics, cooldown, and luck which you will need to have these leveled up, so that you can able to fight against the high-class enemies that are tougher to fight during the battle.
So in order to do that, you will need a certain requirements such as looting many required materials, gaining many XPs after defeating enemies and bosses or completing numerious of quests, and collecting all currencies.
Once you gain all the stuffs that you need, you can head over to inventory screen which you will see the list of weapons and armours that the stuff you have equipped and others are not equipped, so these weapons can be upgraded if you have one of the required material which can be found on any area of each locations, so you can upgrade them through the blacksmith shop which Brok or Sindri will help you smithing your weapons which levels up your player's weapons will not only it increases your strengths for your attack power but also allows you to access your new fighting skills to unlock.
The fighting skills menu can be accessed to the inventory screen which gives you an option to choose which fighting moves you want to unlock, so it will also require XPs to unlock these skills.
This will make your fighting ability a lot easier to perform more combos and technique attacks delivering a solid damage on enemies and bosses.
Then you will have various of armours to select such as chest, wrists, and amulet which can be also upgraded through blacksmith shop which improves upon your defensive system reducing damage taken from the enemy melee or projectiles.
You will also have the 4 of the enhancements stuff such as the enchantments are the boosters which grant you an specific bonuses such as your strength, defense, relics, cooldown, and luck.
The attachments allowing you to customise gear by adding distinct perks, special abilities, and stat boosts to your weapons and shields.
The runic attacks is a special weapon skills has 2 slots to equip which allowing you to perform a various of light and heavy special weapon attacks such as winter's bite, mists of helheim, cyclone of chaos, tartarus rage, huldra charge, and the finger of ruin
The relics uses to amplify or prolong your effects such as granting melee damage bonus, burst of rage, push enemies back with force, and of course creating a shockwave to stun enemies.
These upgrades, skills, and enhancements that I've mentioned above really adds-up your benefits such as reduces your damage taken from the enemy's melee or projectiles, increased power for stronger damage attack, and also faster cooldown for your runic attack, relics, and companions to recharge.
I say these combat gameplay plays it really amazing throughout the battle with new skills to learn and more upgrades to improve on is something that I really enjoyed having to leveling up the character's stats just really adds-up a realism of the combat design, so this motivates me to be better fighting against the tough enemies and bosses.
I got to say that I actually liked the combat battle between Kratos and the enemies where you'll spend time to kick their asses by keep throwing the axe directly at them, swinging your blades around them, and thrusting and stabbing them with your spear.
Having to unleash your rage mode giving you ability to instantly knocking them out faster till it ran out your rage meter.
Finally finishing them off with your brutallity moves allowing you to rip and tear their body in pieces displaying the gorefested animated sequence of these enemies getting mauled to death on screen is something to enjoy the game's ultra-violent action-adventure.
What can I say about the open-world exploration? I say it's fun to explore many places in each 9 realms, so I've spent time of browsing through the areas searching for looting items on chestboxes, fighting hordes of enemies to farm XPs, visiting any undiscovered villages, homes, and fortresses, rowing on the boat, and so on.
The most important thing about the game is the campaign quests as a whole is because there good and bads to talk about regarding on whether the story quest are actually done right and some others might be not as quite good, so starting off with Kratos campaign quest which I personally liked the big adventure of father and son worked together on their journey which I really enjoyed exploring around the areas, doing many puzzle solving, fighting off the enemies, and of course those segments are actually great such as the prologue, search and find Tyr, and solving Groa's secret just off the good start.
There are also a side quests to do which is an optional choice for the players giving you a freedom to do an extra mission outside of the story quest, so having to play the side quests are not only it will expand your campaign's length to keep you busy but also it is a very useful for the beneficial reason to do it for the rewards such as valuable XPs, unique armour sets, crafting resources, and runic items just made the kratos whole adventure quite fun to play.
Not only you take control of Kratos throughout the playthrough, you also get to play as Atreus which is a secondary playable character that you'll take control of him in later chapter, so is the Atreus campaign any good? well...not quite so much as the Kratos campaign too be frankly honest.
I say he did have a good things for his combat system which he uses the bow as an weapon are perfect for range-shot on long-distance and he uses 2 types of arrow came handy for stuff like destroying blocked objects or puzzle solving related area.
His melee combat are fast and fluid which he can pull off his amount of combo attack and of course his transformation into bear or wolf is incredibly cool which I did apperiecate his combat style just worked really good.
Unfortunately his story quest started out decent at the first start of his independent adventure until the later chapter of his are kinda falls flat which I did mention earlier about the segments on Angraboda section and his quest in Asgard just kinda bores me is because I find these story segment quite uninteresting just made the paceing of the playthrough quite painfully slow and scripted, so I wish they could have made a better segments that has simple and straight-forward dialogue and more balanced paceing could have helped his story campaign much fairer.
The positive things in the campaign is has to be a boss battle which the game did it right job is because I actually liked having to fight these insane bosses that does quite an intense charge attacks, throwing magics at your face, and showing off their power ability.
You have Bjorn the grizzly bear came charging at you, the big fat Thor welds his heavy thunderous hammer to smash your head off, the big lizard-like dragon Niohogg is rediculously huge creature with impressive strength and immerse durability, the large-giant wolf Garm is quite bloody dangerous being with chained-collar around neck, and of course I find battling with Heimdall is got to be the most entertaining showdown that do not drags everything down, so I'm glad that they made the boss battle quite solid with many fun strategies and epic hand-to-hand combat is something that I can able to enjoy this game.
The game also has a free DLC called Valhalla which is basically an single-player expansion which takes place after the main game featuring roguelite mechanics where each death resets your tempoary stats and runic attacks while keeping the permanent upgrades between runs, so this is actually a tough but also a fun single-player experience that got everything right makes it an outstanding addition to this game are definite worth checking it out.
Overall, it has brilliant combat gameplay, fun exploration, great single-player quests, and entertaining boss battles.
Graphics
The graphics in this game is still stunningly look amazing for its visual quality even through it doesn't support the use of ray-tracing which is suprising that it's was meant to be the AAA title because it uses the simular game's engine and the assets from the predecessor to fit in for the PS4 version which I totally understand the reason, but the key difference is that they have added the improvement for the PS5 version featuring the shaper images, dynamic lighting amd shadows, cleaner environments and textures, and faster-loading times which did really help the game's visually.
As you can see the open-world environments are nicely opened-wide filled with many structures, objects, and landmarks that are perfectly well-designed on many landscapes and areas.
The textures of wall and surfaces are bold and detailed giving a shaper environmental look on many places, and then these lighting and shadow effects are also quite good on some locations depending on which areas has the clear balance of light and dark tone.
The use of HDR support does also improve the aspect of image level such as the color saturation, brightness, and sharpness just adds up the suitable screen filtering.
The motion capturing of character's animation is still remains intact and perfection throughout the cinematic cutscenes as well as in-game battle and sequences, as you can see their body figure and facial movement are incredibly well-synced and responsive just made the whole game quite realistic that proves how fantastic the visual design looked on modern-gaming platform.
Finally let's not forget the gore system in the game which I really liked the finishing kill animation of the enemies and bosses gets their body tore-up in pieces while the blood spreads everywhere on the ground is something that I adore the series well-known brutality throughout the in-game battle.
The game's performance on PS5 has four graphical options such as performance mode, quality mode, performance-HFR mode, and quality-HFR mode.
The performance mode targets with 60fps using dynamic resolution scaling between 1440p and 2160p, where as having the performance-HFR mode turned on unlocks the 60fps and over which is a solid choice for those who perfers a smooth and responsive combat.
The quality mode locked native 4K resolution with target between 30fps and 40fps, where as having the quality-HFR mode turned on unlocks the 40fps and over offers a sharper details much suitable for a cinematic use.
While the performance mode with both HFR on or off is still runs great, I rather much prefered the quality mode with both HFR on or off is because I find the details looks more bolder and cleaner on draw-distance, foreground, weather effects, and character's outfit just made the game look appealing on the screen.
Overall, it has amazing visual environment, fantastic animation, and great performance.
Music and Sounds
I say I adored the orchestrated folklore soundtrack that is still incredibly sounds fantastic throughout the whole campaign just adds-up the level of emotional depths between the father and son.
It was composed by Bear McCreary who previously did the score of God of War (2018) has done the job really well again proves that having an epic and powerful sound score in video games is the work of art.
The overall sound design is pretty solid for its environmental backgrounds, atmospheric noises, and surrounding areas just sounded great in many open-world locations.
I say the voice actors such as Christopher Judge and Sunny Suljic did such an excellent job for delivering an remarkable performance between the twos just really nails their character role entirely.
Overall, it has fantastic soundtrack, solid sound design, and excellent voice cast.
Special Features
The game has unlockable new game plus and of course does feature a free DLC-expansion called Valhalla.
Overall, an outstanding content.
Advantages
Decent story and good returning characters
Solid presentation design
Brilliant combat gameplay and fun exploration
Great single-player quests
Amazing visual design
Fantastic music and sound design
Outstanding free DLC-expansion
Disadvantages
Atreus's story section are not great
New supporting characters are forgetable
Final Verdict
Presentation 8/10 - decent story, good returning characters, and solid presentation design.
Gameplay 8.5/10 - brilliant combat gameplay, fun exploration, great single-player quests, and entertaining boss battles.
Graphics 9/10 - amazing visual environment, fantastic animation, and great performance.
Music and Sounds 9/10 - fantastic soundtrack, solid sound design, and excellent voice cast.
Special Features 9/10 - new game plus and free DLC-expansion called Valhalla.
Overall 8.5/10 - I say it is a good but not a perfect sequel which didn't quite match-up to the predecessor is because I felt the 2018's original game that was on PS4 console had done flawlessly outstanding job in terms of quality storyline, has better quest mission, and of course the epic battle sequences which is why I liked the original game's charm that made it very interesting to play, where as this does have amazing visuals, brilliant combat, and has great single-player quests which is fine but it falls shortly with the slow-paced Atreus's story section and lackluster new supporting characters wasn't the best part in which they could have done the job better, but that doesn't mean the game is a let down is because at least you'll still may find Kratos story campaign more enjoyable filled with many quests and duties to do and of course the showdown battle with the enemies and bosses is what really matters the most that helps you keep the busy with the game entirely.
That being said, God of War: Ragnarok is a solid action-adventure game which is still worth to play, so the physical copy are cost about £20 or more mostly on local shop or online store, where as the digital release on PS Store are retailed for £70, but you can also access to this game by getting it on the PS Plus subscription under the game catalogue.
Is it an definite play? I say if you previously liked the original game then you might gonna give this game a worth a shot.
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