There’s a new God of War game on the way and it’s a lot like the last God of War game.
Before I got to play through the opening four hours or so of God of War Ragnarok, I found myself lacking any pre-release excitement. That's not me being a hater, either. I'd enjoyed 2018’s PS4 reboot thanks to its retooled and surprisingly deep combat, and a scrumptious level of graphical spectacle, but every new trailer for Ragnarok seemed too familiar for my liking. It looked like yet another goofy, fun romp through Norse mythology with Kratos and his now-older son Atreus, full of the same visual splendor and excessive violence we already experienced in a title that landed on many "Game of the Year" lists four years ago.
Based on Ragnarok’s first few hours, that’s definitely the case. And shockingly, after sitting with it for a while, I think that’s...fine. Innovation and subversion are lovely — you know, like when Nintendo totally flipped the script with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. But maybe we don’t need to demand those things from video games that often.
What I do know for certain is that when God of War Ragnarok hits PlayStation 4 and 5 on Nov. 8, you’ll feel right at home.
Haven’t seen this much snow since the “Informer” video
Ragnarok picks up a few years after the 2018 reboot, with Kratos and Atreus’ home realm of Midgard blanketed in a never-ending frost. You won’t be surprised to learn that Kratos has now angered the Norse pantheon of gods, given that he gored each and every Greek god to death in the original God of War trilogy. In fact, you won’t be surprised by much of anything in the early goings of Ragnarok.
Fans of the reboot will instantly recognize all of its mechanical and design hallmarks. Kratos and Atreus spend most of their time trudging through linear areas, hacking away at nasty freaks, and solving environmental puzzles that are usually pretty rudimentary. Just like in the last game, you do eventually get the ability to freely roam around a bit in the dwarven realm of Svartalfheim, but you’re never permitted to wander too far off the main story path. This isn't Elden Ring. You're on a pretty short leash here.
I don’t want to laud God of War Ragnarok for being unambitious, but I don’t want to hate on it for that reason, either.
Even the combat is largely unchanged, though it gets fun a lot faster than the last game did. Kratos starts out with both the frosty Leviathan Axe and the scorching Blades of Chaos, and their basic movesets remain the same as before. Atreus' arrow shots are still mapped to the square button and they still serve the purpose of filling up each enemy’s stun meter, which, when full, allows Kratos to pull off a disgusting killer move.
If you liked the distinct third-person-shooter-without-guns combat in 2018's God of War, where manning both sticks and managing distance between yourself and enemies was key to success, you'll like this.
And, man, it’s still fun as hell when everything is clicking. Fights against rando enemies are fine if a little tedious at times, but boss fights still serve up all the satisfaction you could want from a game like this. An early encounter with Thor (presented here as a surly, beer-swilling grizzly bear of a man) sees Kratos and the god of thunder flying across the mountains of Midgard, and pulling off sweet tricks with the Leviathan Axe and the hammer Mjölnir. I was grinning ear-to-ear the entire time.
But that’s how the last game was, too. The big moments were big, with Kratos regularly encountering mythical creatures that were too burly to fit inside the frame of even the biggest TV you could buy. And boss fights frequently paused the action for a few seconds to play a thrilling mini-cutscene before getting right back to it. Aside from the fact that Atreus is now a teen instead of a teensy lad, little in Ragnarok has changed. And you know what? That’s cool!
Familiarity doesn’t have to breed contempt
Gamers have a funny way of demanding novelty at an unsustainable clip. We want sequels to show us things we haven’t seen before. We lop the most praise onto franchise shake-ups like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Elden Ring while (in my case, at least) deriding games like Forspoken for not even trying to reinvent the wheel.
Frankly, it’s not always reasonable. Nobody expects TV or movie directors to invent a new camera between seasons or sequels. Audiences are usually happy to simply get more of what they like. It’s how Marvel has gotten away with making the same movie 25 times.
I don’t want to laud God of War Ragnarok for being unambitious, but I don’t want to hate on it for that reason, either. I’ve spent the last few months recommending the Yakuza series to anyone who will listen despite most of those games taking place on literally the same small map with only incremental changes to gameplay over time. It’d be hypocritical of me to do that and then demand that the second game in a rebooted classic PlayStation series change everything.
You have to look at the necessity of innovation on a case-by-case basis. Zelda was in a Skyward Sword-shaped rut before Breath of the Wild came out, so that reinvention was both desperately needed and deeply appreciated. Yakuza, on the other hand, maintained such a consistent level of quality through the first seven main entries that fans haven't really demanded a major reimagining. That series eventually did get one in the form of Yakuza: Like a Dragon's great turn-based combat, but we would've been fine with more of the same there, too.
Developer Sony Santa Monica innovated upon God of War the last time around, so the fact that Ragnarok is shaping up to be that game but more is forgivable. Especially so because, man, it’s really fun. The PS5 version is unbelievably resplendent to look at and the loop of fighting, puzzle-solving, opening chests, and slowly upgrading Kratos and Atreus with better stats and new abilities still hits all the pleasure centers in my brain.
Maybe it becomes a significantly different game later on. If so, that’s awesome. If not, hell, I’m still game to travel down this familiar road made from the bodies of slain Norse gods once again.
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