Overview

The time of year has come and past, the big end of year window where we see many of our favorite major triple A titles release and battle it out for our time praise and to be crowned the Game of the Year, and what a year 2022 was with some incredible releases from the monolithic Elden Ring, the snappy Neon White, and the wonderous Xenoblade Chronicles 3. But that's not why you're here, there's one major release that we were all sitting on the edge of seats waiting for in anticipation and now Ragnarok is here!

(Montage)

When I think about God of War Ragnarok one thing that really sticks with me me is how much of the old stuff we love is there and how much they're polished up and added to the game. In many ways the jump between 2018 to Ragnarok reminds of the jump Halo 1 to Halo 2. From adding my depth and polish to the combat systems, to letting us control and explore new characters, and ultimately making a game that is familiar feel different and fresh. Ragnarok is a game that truly shines and fines excellance in many areas, but none shine brighter than the games story. The big question, around Ragnarok was can it top the ps4 icon God of War 2018, and now the question is how did they manage to do it? Well, that I have the answer for, and now that the dust has settled and the game has had some time to breathe I want to dive into what I believe is the best narratives of the year with God of War: Ragnarok, let's get into it.

The Story

Narrative Overview

God of War Ragnarok takes place three years after the events of the previous game, where both Kratos and Atreus have been training in preparation for the impending calamity that is Ragnarok . God of War Ragnarok's narrative is full of countless twists and turns that tie back to the prophecy of Ragnarok. The themes and focus around Ragnarok are at its root focused around the concepts of prophecy and fate but within there are focused around vengeance, war and godhood. In a prophecy everyone has a role to play, everyone has a path to follow right?

The quick rundown of my thoughts about the story are that God of War Ragnarok tells a cleverly written narrative that juggles many ideas, and characters playing a game of hot potato and keeping the player in suspense of what will happen next. The narrative isn't afraid to take some leaps and flip the script, and serves as the prefect conclusion to the Norse Saga.

Before elaborating on why I feel this is the case, I want to let you know that we'll be heading into spoiler territory here. I think God of War Ragnarok is something you should experience for yourself so feel free to come back and watch once you've finished the game. But I'll leave a timestamp for when to skip ahead. If you want a quick 12 second summary of how I feel here it is with a time stamp.

(It was perfect me + timestamp)

SPOILERS Provide Chapter and time to skip to

Themes

Prophecy and Fate

God of War Ragnarok is thematically centred around the concepts of Prophecy and Fate. The idea of preventing the inevitable or is trying to change what is inevitable what ultimately makes it come true. God of War Ragnarok and its relation to Prophecy feels like its a race against the clock as the father son duo aim to change the course of fate. The interesting factors involved with Ragnarok is how the Prophecy of Ragnarok impacts the relationships of the both the main and supporting characters. Whether it is Kratos not wanting to believe its true, due to the implications the prophecy holds, or Atreus desperately trying to understand both Ragnarok and his identity. The story plays a hot potato flipping you back and forth between different characters that provide a great perspective on a much wider cast of characters than in God of War 2018.

Ragnarok is always dangling the idea and concept of prophecy throughout the story, throughout the story you'll see constant references to the phrase "The Path". There are two ways to interpret the path, one being obey prophecy the predetermined fate that has been set for you, that is your path. The second is we write and build our own path, and this could not be more clearly conveyed than in a line of dialogue Kratos shares with Atreus where he says "Fate will only bind you if you let it. Do what is necessary, not because it is written".

It is here where both Kratos and Atreus are defying the path set for them and choosing to make their own destiny and it is with this willingness to fight that all subsequent themes fall into place and work as well as they do. Because the clever part of Ragnarök's storytelling is that the concept of The Path isn't exclusive to our protagonists, everyone has their role to play, and how much you're a believer in prophecy.

Vengeance for Family

In God of War 2018 the theme of the severed relationships amongst family is thoroughly explored, and in many ways God of War Ragnarok takes many of these relationships and refocuses it through the theme of revenge. This quest for vengeance stems from the blood shed in God of War 2018, one prime example being Freya and her hatred for Kratos, after the loss of her son. Some other examples include Thor's hatred for both Atreus and Kratos for the death of his sons, and arguably the most important example being Sindri's loss of his brother Brok which fosters a hatred towards Odin and resentment for both Kratos and Atreus.

If you look throughout the God of War's story there are many relationships that focus on the theme of vengeance and coming to the realization that it won't bring justice or salvation. This is conveyed so well during an exchange between Kratos and Freya where he tells her that once their mutual goal is over she has the right to kill him, but it won't bring her peace.

The reason why the theme of vengeance works so well, particularly when it factors Kratos into the equation, is because it cleverly flips the script where Kratos was originally the God killing monster, avenging his wife and children. He is now the one who has taken from someone else.

There is a pivotal scene towards the end where Kratos fights Thor and they have a conversation and an exchange where Kratos tells Thor that they have to put their differences aside and stop the violence for the sake of their children and family and Thor is able to let go of his want to kill Kratos. Freya throughout her ventures with Kratos is able to slowly move on and forgive Kratos. But there is one character who never is able to let go of their rage, anger and ultimately goes through with their vengeance and that is Sindri, who in the end is the one to kill Odin, and is the one character in the game even after the story has concluded is empty without peace and is nothing but a broken man.

War

God of War Ragnarok makes use of the concept of war in a really clever way through a variety of devices, the first and most obvious being providing perspectives of both sides of the prophesied war of Ragnarok where you'll be exploring many of the other realms as Kratos aka team 1 and exploring Asgard and as Atreus aka team 2. The game makes good use of showing that there is no black and white good or evil for one side. Showing that the right side is something that is subjective based on perspective.

This can be perfectly conveyed in the following exchange between Atreus, Tyr, and Kratos where Atreus talks about helping the Light Elves in the previous game and proceeds to ask "did we help the wrong side".

(Insert clip here)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbAWBjw4keQ

These types of questions and moments can be found throughout all of Ragnarok and are all questions brewing and building towards Ragnarok which is ultimately a war of the gods. Whilst we're on the topic of Gods lets explore that more thoroughly.

A God of War

God of War Ragnarok explores the values and principles of a god as they've generally perceived by Kratos as nothing more than deceptive, brutal monsters who're typically self motivated, himself included. However Ragnarok and the broader Norse saga make excellent use of a god and their values through the contrast between Kratos the Greek God of War and Tyr the Aesir God of War.

It juxtaposes both of these gods of war through ideology, values and and principles, particularly early on conveying and reinforcing that Tyr's fought for peace and was a god people loved and idolized, rather than feared. Again this is completely juxtaposed to Kratos and his character, or is it?

If we were talking about Kratos from the original trilogy then absolutely this would be the case, but the Kratos here in Ragnarok is as mentioned when we discussed God of War 2018 showed us a he is something trying to change, is also under the belief he is actions and character are irredeemable . Throughout the Norse series and particularly Ragnarok Kratos is told and the idea of him being being a God of fear, an irredeemable monster is reinforced particularly in this exchange with Odin that hammers home the ideals of a God.

(Gameplay - 7 contains this)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im_z8SYuQYY

Again, God of War Ragnarök flips the script here through both Kratos and Atreus defying the prophecy together, uniting the realms to fight against Odin and leading the charge. The leadership and actions of Kratos lea to fulfilling what is the true prophecy which isn't revealed until the closing scene of the game painting an optimistic future of hope, that provides the tormented soul of Kratos a future where he is a God that people could idolize.

It's a perfect conclusion to a character who has been betrayed, vengeful, and haunted by the very actions he has committed. In Ragnarok Kratos develops into a character who puts his actions above his own desires and ultimately finds peace and redemption.

Where God of War 2018 is a tale of change, Ragnarok is a story of redemption and purpose with Kratos becoming the god he believed could exist. As much as I love Kratos, I feel like the way Ragnarok concluded Kratos's character arc, I don't know if I want to see him return. It feels like Ragnarok is the perfect send off and conclusion to his story.

The Gameplay

The Combat

God of War Ragnarok takes the foundations of combat established in God of War 2018 and refines both the flow and fluidity of combat whilst sustaining much of the incredible weighty combat that you've come to enjoy when using the Leviathan axe and the Blades of Chaos. The block mechanic has seen a facelift with a circle that appears around enemies attacks giving the player a visual window of time to time their block creating a more clear parry system. One area where God of War Ragnarok has seen improvements is in the variety of enemies that are present in the game, with many of the returning enemies from the first game, with some new welcomed additions to spice up the encounters.

Most of the combat mechanics in God of War Ragnarok feel a lot more fluid with the variety of abilities and attacks readily available that only strengthens with each incremental ability or weapon that you unlock throughout your travels, which we'll dive more into shortly. God of War Ragnarök can feel like it is borderline a fighting game at times with continuous chain of attacks that blend together seamlessly as you pummel, juggle and mince up your enemies.

I would say that this change in feeling is more than likely attributed to the director for God of War Ragnarok Eric Williams and his love for fighting games, alongside his previous experiences working on fighting games. On a recent episode of the Friends Per Second podcast Williams would go into the details fighting games and discuss many of the technical little mechanics involved in fighting games that a players pick up on and need to master. He would further elaborate on how himself and the team would want to apply these same levels of mechanical depth into the combat structure for God of War, allowing more room for combos and some comboing spectacle for those able to master the tools of the game.

Game Systems

The Game Systems found in God of War Ragnarok are familiar to its predecessor but have a few new enhancements expanding the players options and ability to experiment further.

Weapons in God of War Ragnarok work much like how they did in 2018 with two slots being equippable for Light and Heavy runic abilities, and also a handle abilities which are also upgradeable and provide stat increases to Kratos.

There is also more than one type of shield that you can equip and upgrade which come with unique perks and stats to tailor more to your playstyle.

There is a much broader category of skill trees to continuously evolve the move sets of the the characters that are playable in Ragnarok, along with the weapons, runics and armour that you can provide to them too.

The gear systems in Ragnarok doesn't reinvent the wheel but further refines and polishes up and adds more to the systems existing systems found God of War 2018, and you know what, that's perfectly fine. They're engaging and do provide a way to customize and tailor the players experience, and in Ragnarok I'd say that there is a wealth of weapons, shields, armour and abilities to enhance the level of player expression during combat.

The Semi-open World

Exploration

The exploration in God of War has overall seen a pretty substantial facelift, with it still maintaining the semi-open world structure found in the previous game, but with more little stopping points to explore and much more puzzles and puzzle variety to keep the game fresh and interesting. The puzzles found in throughout God of War Ragnarok are fun little puzzles that aren't too difficult especially around release when Mimir would give you the solution instantly, which would be a tad annoying. The puzzles make clever use of the elements or core mechanics tied to each of the weapons available throughout the game, and not all puzzles you encounter will be immediately available encouraging you to come back and revisit areas when you need a break from the main questline.

Like in the previous entry there are a wealth of side quests and many in Ragnarok that become available early on the game nudging the player to diverge of the beat and path to explore or take break from the main story. Many of these quests do provide meaningful little side stories with simple enough objectives, but neatly in someway tie back to many of the major themes found throughout Ragnarok's main questline. Also like in the previous title, the side content is where Ragnork's more challenging encounters take form for players looking to master their skills, which is a nice way to keep those looking for a little extra engaged.

Visuals, Performance, and Sound

Soundtrack and VA

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One aspect of God of War Ragnarok that is unsurprisingly incredible, is the amount of stand out performances from the Voiced Cast. Some notable ones to me being of course Christopher Judge and Sunny Suljic, but also Danielle Bisutti the voice actress for Freya did an outstanding job, really nailing the mixed emotions of that character, and bringing it to life. The overall voiced cast for this game were outstanding and nailed their role, creating the proper tension, conflict, and care between each of these scenes that was required and bringing to life the cinematic narrative of Ragnarok perfectly.

God of War Ragnarök's soundtrack is composed by Bear McCreary the same composer for the soundtrack of God of War 2018 with many reeditions of the tracks from the first game, that come in much more grander and impactful than before. How he managed to make this soundtrack go harder than it did before, I honestly don't know, but he did it. With more of its grand Nordic orchestral epics to really hit home the cinematic spectacle that is God of War Ragnarok.

Visuals and Game Performance

God of War Ragnarok for a game that is releasing both the PS4 and PS5 looks incredibly good for a game that was held back to release on the previous gen consoles. The game runs at a solid and consistent frame rate with many options to optimize fidelity or performance. I've seen people complain over the reuse of a few animations and complain that the graphics aren't revolutionary. But I'm telling you, load this up on a 4k TV and these environments look beautiful. I replayed God of War prior to Ragnarok's release and whilst 2018 still looks incredibly good, Ragnarok blows it out of the water. Simply put the environments are incredible, the realms are gorgeous mystical, grand and rife with varied biomes that pop out with there distinguishing features.

Conclusion

God of War Ragnarok delivers a strong compelling narrative that is weaving each of its narrative threads together up to the final scene. It is a game that should be celebrated for its brilliant writing and clever portrayal of the source material that it pulls from. It's combat remains engaging with a far greater expansion of components for the player to experiment with and greater level of depth. It provides more of what we liked from 2018 and adds some nice additions such as new characters, areas and weapons for us to play around with. It doesn't reinvent the wheel with its gameplay elements, but rather refines what worked well into something that feels polished and iterated on. The experience that Ragnarok is one that will stick with me for a long time to come and is the perfect conclusion to a near perfect duology.

Thanks for watching!