God Of War Ragnarök: The Kotaku Review
Literally, nothing anyone can say will dissuade a certain set of PlayStation fans from playing God of War Ragnarök, the...
The post God Of War Ragnarök: The Kotaku Review appeared first on Kotaku Australia.
Literally, nothing anyone can say will dissuade a certain set of PlayStation fans from playing God of War Ragnarök, the latest major Sony exclusive starring Kratos, the god killer himself. After years of waiting, the hype for this highly anticipated sequel has exploded beyond control. And while I have a few qualms, I’m here to report that, yes, Ragnarök is very good and will likely satisfy folks who loved 2018’s God of War and want to experience further adventure with Kratos and his boy. God of War Ragnarök, out November 9 on PS4 and PS5, is the follow-up to 2018’s soft franchise reboot, which moved Kratos from the land of Greek gods to the world of Norse mythology. It also aged him up, gave him a young son to care for, and tasked the two of them with spreading the ashes of Faye, Kratos’ wife and Atreus’ mother. (Spoiler warning: If you didn’t finish 2018’s God of War and care about what happens, skip the next paragraph.) That seemingly simple task led the two on a large-scale adventure involving gods and monsters, and helped the pair grow closer. Unfortunately, they also invoked the ire of Odin’s former wife, Freya, by slaying her son Baldur. And Baldur’s death triggered Fimbulwinter, a three-year season of ice said to precede the world-ending conflict known as Ragnarök. Meanwhile Atreus learned he’s half-giant — known as Loki to his mother’s people — and Kratos discovered a mural depicting his death. Fun times! All of those story threads continue in God of War Ragnarök, which quickly establishes that Fimbulwinter is nearly over — meaning the world will end soon via Ragnarök — and that the now-older Atreus has been sneaking out to look for clues about his giant lineage and to possibly discover a way to prevent the cataclysm. Odin takes note, eventually forcing Kratos, Atreus, and friends to work together to foil the god’s scheming, save the world, and hopefully change fate to prevent Kratos’ demise. Big epic stuff! But don’t worry, unlike other folks online lately, I won’t spoil any of what actually happens. That in mind, what surprises me most is that while the overall narrative is extremely large-scale and epic, the game spends most of its time focused on the relationship between Kratos, Atreus, and their friends. Sure, Ragnarök is coming and Odin — one of the most powerful gods in all the nine realms — is trying to save his own skin, but that’s not really what this game is about. The greater focus is on Kratos and Atreus. The young boy isn’t a young boy anymore and he wants to live his own life and become his own man. Kratos isn’t dealing with that very well, falling back to his old ways to protect and control Atreus. This leads to tension, a lack of trust, and some tough moments. Their relationship is the heart of the game, and even when I’d sigh upon encountering yet another door puzzle, I’d push forward because I wanted to see what happened next. Like its predecessor, Ragnarök is a third-person action-adventure; that means a lot of fights, and I mean a lot! Luckily, the killin’ is good, with combat feeling both heavy and responsive. Each swing of your axe or slice of your blades looks nice, sounds powerful, and feels satisfying. This time around you start out with both the awesome ice axe and the fiery Blades of Chaos. This also means combat is a bit trickier from the start, with more complex engagements forcing you to switch up your weapons to counter different enemy types sooner. Eventually, you acquire a third weapon, a magical spear, that fits perfectly into the combat toolbox, but which I won’t spoil beyond that. The big difference this time around is that you don’t only fight nasties as Kratos, but also as his son. While you could give Atreus commands in the previous game, this time around you get to actually play as him as he goes on his own adventures — sometimes without his dad knowing. These Atreus segments help shake things up and keep the combat from getting too stale, as the young son is much more range-focused with his bow and magic. These sequences also give Atreus more time to develop into someone beyond that kid Kratos called “Boy” all the time. One particular extended Atreus segment around the game’s midpoint is one of my favourite parts from all of Ragnarök. Impressive stuff. While it might upset some fans, I’m happy Sony Santa Monica was confident enough to sideline Kratos at times to give his son more focus. The Arbiter levels in Halo 2 were a horrible mistake, but here the hero swap works and helps make Atreus a fully-formed character beyond just “the son of Kratos.” And more than just a minor detour, Atreus has his own weapons, skills, and abilities you can upgrade and tweak throughout the game. Ironically, that also adds to one of my biggest problems with Ragnarök: too much menu fiddling. I can’t stress enough how irritating I find all of Ragnarök’s various armour, weapon, and ability menus. Every few hours during my 35-hour playthrough the game added more stuff to manage and tinker with. You can upgrade every piece of armour and equipment. Some weapons and armour have to be crafted with a combination of two or three of the game’s dozens of crafting materials and currencies. You can also equip abilities and runes, and guess what, you can upgrade those, too. You also have to manage multiple skill trees, each of which contains skills that you can (yep!) tweak and upgrade.The post God Of War Ragnarök: The Kotaku Review appeared first on Kotaku Australia.