God Of War Ragnarok Review: 7 Ups & 3 Downs (No Spoilers)

Ups

7. The Story

There are so many parts of Ragnarok's second half that had me thoroughly, stupidly elated. Like absolutely, visuals-I-can-watch-as-a-human-being-do-not-get-more-satsifying-than-this incredible.

What Sony Santa Monica have gone for - after we watched Kratos struggle internally and externally with being emotionally vulnerable alongside his son Atreus in 2018 - is a direct expansion of those thematics, fleshing out the core ideology of manhood and being a father, rather than literal ground covered. Yes, you'll journey across the Nine Realms - this time featured in full - but it's the distance Kratos and Atreus travel as characters; as humans, that will blow you away.

To accurately play such a deft storytelling hand requires a huge buildup; a huge amount of forcing the player into a headspace of "...is this really all you have?", but the payoff is medium-advancingly unique and worthwhile.

There are strides taken here that will pay off not just for PlayStation's burgeoning identity as triple-A blockbuster storytellers, but for gaming overall.

Still, God of War Ragnarok is very much a sequel story; very much reliant on 2018's title as grounding for why you should care about these two characters from the outset, which is in itself reliant on almost the entirety of God of War's 17 year-old history.

You'll still get a LOT out of this story and the "Norse Saga" overall, but as a continued maturity of such an initially one-dimensional character; themselves a living embodiment of post-90s blood n' guts gameplay and envelope pushing, what Sony Santa Monica have crafted is nothing short of essential.