5/5 ★ – RaffleRouser's review of God of War: Ragnarök.

God of war Ragnarok improves on the first game in every way. There's more realms to explore. The combat is improved and the stakes feel raised in its story. I remember buying GOW 2018, I played it over spring break 2018 and enjoyed my time with it. I was still in the mindset of playing on hard mode to get the most experience out of my games. It was punishing but now I'm more accepting of meeting myself where I am. All that to say I played this on normal difficulty. Even then, I still felt challenged by the game. Going back to the combat, there's new weapons and shields that mix up the play style a lot. I really appreciate this change especially in regards to shields. I'm a baby shield user so being able to adopt a technique that allows me to eat blows and deal damage back was perfect for me. Also having more realms to explore was great. It feels like it fulfilled the promise of the first game. Each realm is carried and exciting to explore. The characters are all interesting and it was just as enjoyable to hear the gang banter as it was to watch the story cutscenes. It's a shame if this is the end of the Norse era because it would suck to not get to see where these characters go from here. Ragnarok did everything that a sequel should do. Every improvement felt just right. Every addition felt exciting and every story best had me coming back for me