Analysis | God of War: Ragnarok is about triumphing over fate

With Ragnarok coming to the nine kingdoms of Odin in the new super production of Santa Monica, it is only fair that the discussion proposed by God of War is the ability that each person has to shape their future, deepening the transformation of big dad Kratos and giving more protagonism to the now-teenager Atreus.

Ragnarok has arrived

God of War: Ragnarok starts a few years after its predecessor and continues the events started by Kratos and Atreus in the first adventure, which means it is highly recommended to play the 2018 game, even though it is possible to see a small summary in the menu before starting a new one. journey. The duo took refuge in the protected forest of the late Faye and trains daily so that the boy is prepared in an eventual conflict with the Aesir gods.

Although the end of the first game has shown an improvement in the relationship between father and son, it is still problematic and some points have worsened with the development of Atreus. Now older and better trained, he has his own ideas for what to do next and is developing his godlike powers. The problem, of course, is that Kratos will disagree with many of his son’s choices.

If in the 2018 version the Spartan warrior began his transformation into a more attentive father and overcome his past traumas, here all of this is deepened and the new challenges presented, especially the prophecy of his death, force the character to deal even more with the past wounds and focus on your child’s safety. For longtime fans, several mysteries of the Greece/Norse transition and more about the late Faye are finally revealed.

Atreus, in turn, has a much bigger role now. More prepared for combat and much more mentally mature, he is no longer a spoiled child and embarrassed by his powers, although he is still in constant doubt whether he is Atreus son of Kratos, or Loki champion of the Jotnar.

All disagreements with Kratos and his attitudes are the result of his own line of thought that makes sense and leaves it up to the player to reflect on who is right. If it were an old God of War, then we would just have a bloodbath with a brutal war between the two against the gods, but in this new guise of the series, the narrative aspect is the focus and the characters are more developed, including the core “enemy ” of Asgard. Thor has a family, Odin has his motivations, Freya remains blinded by revenge after Baldur’s death, and all the secondary characters, like the dwarves Sindri and Brok, gained even more layers in their relationships.

Morality is gray and there isn’t a classic design of struggle between good and evil, and in fact it’s quite possible that you care about and identify with several Aesir gods and disagree with someone from the front line of Kratos’ group at some point. time.

As all the characters presented have their own and sometimes complex conflicts, it also increases the thematic complexity of the narrative. The way they’ve managed to navigate from core to core without missing a beat or leaving anyone undeveloped is impressive, especially given that the campaign here is longer than the previous game, taking Kratos and Atreus across all nine realms at some point. It took me about 55 hours to get the platinum trophy this time.

God of War: Ragnarok is about triumphing over fate

In theory, the first game’s murals already told what will happen here – the giants’ prediction of how the final cataclysm will unfold spells out a tragic end for Kratos and pinpoints Atreus as Loki – but in practice there’s a constant struggle against that fate. and many twists and turns as new characters emerge, like the excellent Angrboda. More than an epic clash between gods, which is obviously also part of the adventure and has its moments of a classic God of War – the ending is absolutely incredible – Ragnarok tells a story of love between father and son, overcoming trauma, forgiveness and , mainly, fight against the imposition of destiny.

2018 on steroids

As far as gameplay and visuals go, God of War: Ragnarok looks and behaves like its predecessor for the most part. Although Jim Ryan, CEO of Sony Entertainment, at one point said that he believes in generations and published a teaser with a logo that, at the time, implied that the game would be released only for PS5, in fact the development was completely focused on PS4 and features the same design decisions as its predecessor on most fronts: combat, menus, exploration, and more. If, on the one hand, this brings an experience that doesn’t seem very new, on the other hand, it allowed us to refine it to the maximum and correct a good part of the limitations that existed.

You may already be wondering about the variety of enemies, for example, the main criticism of the 2018 game. If that was a defect there, here the variety is one of the high points. There are dozens and dozens of different enemies, as well as many memorable boss fights. Some bigger enemies are repeated, which is normal in any game, but now there’s not just a Troll and a Dragon to impress you.

The endgame, by the way, is much richer and has new enemies to challenge those who missed fighting the Valkyries. Exploration also gained the novelty of Kratos being able to use the Blades of Chaos to reach higher places, which ends up being more of a visual effect than actually opening up a whole new layer of verticality. Through the different maps of the nine kingdoms – even the repeated ones have different paths due to the effects of “Fimbulwinter” – what you’ll be doing is sailing again by canoe, stopping at beaches and solving different puzzles and secondary missions to unlock new ones. upgrades to your weapons and armor. However, some new areas allow navigation with animal-drawn sleds, which in practice is the same, but presents a different look.

One part that definitely disappoints is having to upgrade the ax and blades from scratch again and watch them transform into the same weapons with gold accents. The armors also follow the same proposal of having two models: the “full plate” and the one with a leather strap going through Kratos’ chest, with different textures according to the materials that the player collects, with nothing surprising in the endgame in this regard. The positive highlight of the equipment – ​​and the biggest novelty in the combat – is the possibility of equipping new shields, which have their own abilities and expand the player’s expressiveness in combat, since, combined with the new option of amulets, they make the build more flexible to focus on different types of attributes. There are some other impactful and important new features that elevate the combat experience and even the narrative here, varying the gameplay from the previous game, but elaborating more on that would spoil your experience, making it more worth you figuring it out on your own and yourself. surprise when playing.

Conclusion

God of War: Ragnarok maintains what worked in 2018 and corrects the main limitations of its predecessor. The narrative part is thematically more complex and manages to develop its characters in a deeper way, without letting the pace drop in a more filled campaign. The gameplay has a massive diversity of enemies and some new features that increase the expressiveness in combat and are worth discovering when playing. pros

• Well-developed characters and outstanding moments in all arcs
• Wide variety of enemies brings constant newness to combat
• Lots of build possibilities
• More realms to explore
• Lots of options between graphics and performance to choose from

cons

• Cosmetic part of weapons and armor follows the same structure as in 2018
• Sometimes it feels like a repeat experience

Grade: 9.0/10.0

A PS5 copy of the game was provided by Sony for the purposes of this review.

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