BinaryMessiah God of War Ragnarök Review

G(od of War (2018) was a masterpiece of a game. I honestly expected just more of the same with Ragnarok as I couldn't imagine how they could improve or add anything. I knew they were reusing many of the same realms, and I thought this would feel more like a short expansion pack relying primarily on endgame challenges. I was dead wrong. This game is about 10 hours longer story-wise and has more explorable realms than the first game. A couple of realms are still used as central hubs, but most are fully explorable with hours of content in each one. This brings me to the actual story itself. It's phenomenal, moving, tear-jerking (especially the ending), and has one of the best ending levels I've played in over a decade. While there are many improvements over the first game a few flaws still remain that haven't been addressed, but they're minor. The game starts out pretty much right where the first game ended. You're in a cave with Atreus (who is now a teen) and you ride through a snowy path on a dog sled. I don't want to explain too much of the story details as there are some twists and beautiful moments, but every single character here is memorable. All of your favorites from the first game are back plus a lot of new ones. Thor, Odin, Thrud (Thor's daughter), Sif (Thor's wife), Heimdall, and many others just ooze character and charm. Even some of the smaller characters with little screen time make such an impact and are so well written and designed. It's some of the best writing and character development in any game, period. I just want to say that you won't be disappointed with the story at all. It does take 20-25 hours to complete the story, but it's never boring, never dull, and goes off on so many different paths. You can now play as Atreus in many scenes and he's nimble, swift, and a lot of fun to play as. He's a stark difference from Kratos' larger and slower build. He can melee with his bow, shoot arrows, and equip relics that add augments to his arrows. He also has powers as well. He does have his own assist partners in the game. Without spoiling anything there are several characters that accompany him on his own journey. You aren't stuck with the same companion through his sections. The gameplay is just so varied that it never gets dull. Combat itself has improved some, but it was never flawed before. Animations are tighter and more varied, and you now have three different abilities you can change and equip. These are in form of relics and amulets. When you hold down L2 you can press R2, circle, or R1 and use cooldown abilities. These are more abundant than in the first game with a ton of find and collect. These are specifically heavy and light attacks for each of the three weapons as well as one ability from your amulet. There are passive buffs you can apply on your amulet that can reduce cooldowns, make you more powerful while using certain relics, and equipping any three at the same time grants a special bonus. This is all slowly unlocked to you throughout the story, but to get the most out of this stuff you have to explore and do all the side stuff to get better buffs and abilities. The combat system is just perfect. I didn't think it could get better but it does. The only thing I wish I could do was combo in and out of different weapons. That's the only issue I had with the combat. The additional spear weapon is a treat and adds powerful mid-range attacks so Kratos is fully balanced. The axe for short-range, and the Blades of Chaos for long-range attacks. These weapons can be upgraded by defeating bosses throughout the realms for sparks and they are hard to come by and rare. You must seek them out to increase your equipment level. This is even more important that the first game. Enemies have levels above them just like before, but the side stuff is what mostly relies on this. The hardest enemies in the game are the Berserker bosses and you must tackle them in a certain order to gain that extra level and be at level 8 which takes a couple dozen hours to get to. The enemies are well-designed, every single boss is different, and even the mini-bosses have been mixed up. We're no longer spammed with just troll bosses like before that got quite repetitive outside of the story bosses. That's where my first minor complaint comes in. The bosses and large-scale battles are toned down in this game quite a bit and that was a huge part of G(od of War's DNA. The quick-time events are almost non-existent as well outside of key scripted scenes. I was a little let down by this and was probably the only major letdown of the game. The large-scale bosses do exist, but there are only a couple and they are pretty far apart in the story, but they are still epic nonetheless. All of those cool large-scale bosses are mostly replaced with well-designed smaller bosses that require you to really hone the combat system. It's honestly no joke either. These side optional bosses will kick your a(ss. Even 35 hours into the game I was dying a dozen or more times until I memorized every attack pattern and dodged and parried perfectly. This is why having the proper equipment level is key. I would come back even just one level higher and it would make my time easier. You also get to use resurrection stones which are highly recommended to always have as you don't get penalized for using them. There is a new berserker stone as well that gives you full rage. When it comes to exploration Ragnarok is full of it. There isn't just a couple of boat areas like before, but nearly every realm can be traversed by boat with a lot of areas to unlock, chests to grab, and puzzles to solve. One of Ragnarok's strengths is its environmental puzzles. These are Zelda-level fun and addictive to find and solve. It's recommended to do all of the side stuff at the end of the game when you have all the abilities and weapons needed. The same Relic chests exist from before by finding three runes to hit with your axe, but more ways to solve these have been added. In addition to just mashing square to Atreus and other partners to assist you, there are two arrow types now. Magic and Rune arrows. Rune arrows are green and do heavier damage, but magic arrows are purple and can increase fire or ice damage on enemies. These are also used in puzzles. The purple arrows can create domes that can be shot to create a chain reaction of fire to light up runes for puzzles. These can be tricky, but fun to figure out. Your spear can be used to blow open weak points in rocks and be used as a pole to get to new areas. It's so satisfying to finally go back and get that one chest you saw teasing you or get to that whole new area you knew was above you, but couldn't get to. These teases throughout the story make you want to explore which I did anyways. I usually got everything I could with my current abilities in the realm before moving on. You can easily spend 5 or more hours in each realm completing them to 100%. There is still the Muspelheim challenges, Odin's Ravens, and many more favors to find, collect and solve. You will easily spend 50-60 hours in this game to complete it to 100% and it's satisfying, addictive, and so much fun. The level design is fantastic as it's easy to remember nearly everything in the game and where to go. Just a simple chest was easy to remember once I got to that area. There were a few small areas that were a pain to explore such as near the Abandoned Village in Vanaheim. It's one of the few areas poorly laid out with confusing paths and easily missable shortcuts, but these aren't very common. The production values are the last thing I want to talk about. They are amazing, mesmerizing, and absolutely mind-blowing. I can't say in words just how well put together this massive game is. Christopher Judge's performance as Kratos is deeper has more nuance, and he just is Kratos. Sunny Suljic does a fantastic job as he's grown with Atreus and has put his own spin on the character. Odin's actor, Thor, and everyone in between is perfectly cast. This is Game of Thrones or Harry Potter-style perfect casting. This is one of the best-acted games ever made, and that's not an exaggeration. I couldn't get enough of everyone on screen and there is just so much dialog and acting on screen that it's insane. The music is also phenomenal. If you loved G*od of War's music before it sounds just like we've grown to love, but more mature and of course varied due to the sheer size of this game. Deep sweeping horn instruments, a lot of crescendos, and emotional orchestras play away at the perfect tempo. This type of game only comes once in a generation. Lastly, I want to talk about the technical side of the game. The graphics look amazing on PS5, and fine on PS4. Sadly, this is a cross-gen title so the graphics aren't as impressive as a next-gen-only title like A Plague Tale: Requiem, as you can see where the visuals were held back to be able to scale down to the base PS4. The game looks amazing in 4K 60FPS Quality mode, but a game that requires precise timing plays better in Performance mode at 1440p. However, the best is the VRR mode but is only available on TVs that have been released in the last year or two. Sadly, this whole VRR and performance and quality modes will continue until we are done with cross-gen titles. Loading times are super fast on PS5 as well so there's nothing to worry about. Technically, Ragnarok is nothing to worry about as it's still one of the best-looking games ever made. Overall, Ragnarok is a perfect game. It has puzzles, great level design, a huge world to explore, bosses small and large, epic scripted set pieces, and characters that are well acted and always welcome to see on screen. The story is an emotional roller coaster of Kratos learning to let go and Atreus becoming an adult. There's the larger scale issue of every realm trying to come together to defeat a common enemy. The combat is easy to learn, but hard to master with a ton of armor and equipment to find. Exploring and solving environmental puzzles never gets dull or boring. There are side quests, treasures, and everything in between. This game literally has everything and just like the greats before it is the essence of what a good game is. The only flaws are the lack of quick-time events, large-scale bosses, and the optional bosses are incredibly tough, but that's not really a flaw in the end. Ragnarok is the best game to come out this generation so far, and like at the end of my review in 2018 - how can they make this series even better?