5/5 ★ – fez219's review of God of War: Ragnarök.

As a huge fan of 2018's God of War, Ragnarok does not disappoint. Does it fall into some big budget franchise and AAA traps? Yes. It's not necessarily a perfect game. But it's so damn good, there's so much fun stuff to do, and the production value is so insanely high that this is easily a 10. It takes everything good in God of War 2018 — excellent characters and plot, great combat, top of the line graphics, and satisfying exploration in a fantastic world — and dials it up to 11. There's just so much more here. As to story and characters, this is probably Ragnarok's single strongest suit. I couldn't stop playing because I had to know what would happen next. Ragnarok and its 2018 predecessor are excellently written, and feel at or near HBO quality in their focus on storytelling and characterization. Out of all AAA story-focused games, this is a high compliment I'd only give to a few; other standout stories that could with few changes become great shows include TLOU and Red Dead 2. I couldn't stop playing because I had to know what would happen next. The excellent characters are what makes the story so good. Kratos, Atreus, and the rest of the returning cast are all great, with lots of development. Most of the new characters are all excellent as well. Thor and Odin were my highlights — they're quite fleshed out and compelling, and you don't just interact with them as bosses to fight. Performances across the board are fantastic. The one character that I felt didn't meet their potential for me was Freya's brother, Freyr. He simply wasn't given enough screen time for me to care about him as much as the game seemed to want me to. But for a game that introduces so many new characters, it lands the execution of nearly all of them while doing an equally great job with its existing cast. This is extremely impressive. Most properties that suddenly bring in so many new heroes and villains feel overstuffed and whiff the execution, but Ragnarok knocks it out of the park. Dialogue is for the most part fantastic (which is huge, as there's almost constant dialogue between you and your companions) and nobody ever gets annoying, outside of revealing a puzzle solution too early. Once in a while, somebody has a meta-ish Marvel quip that stands out as bad (e.g. "how'd you do that?" "Giant stuff."), but it's so rare that it didn't really bother me. The overall plot does all of its characters right, and the ending was very satisfying. The game is very long, and a slight nitpick is that it's not always perfectly paced. There are a few main quests that feel just a bit drawn out, even if the great gameplay meant that I was still having a good time. Luckily when the game decides to hit the gas, it steps on it. That said, there were a few points when it felt like the plot just took on too much, and lost track of some earlier points. It was still one of the best and most polished stories ever told in video games, and never did a character wrong. But it wasn't flawless. Endgame spoilers inbound — be careful! ****SPOILERS BELOW**** ****SPOILERS BELOW**** Although the story was nearly perfect, I think it dropped the ball in two respects. First, it feels like the game forgets about the prophecy where Kratos dies in the final third. It seemed like that was a driving force of the first two acts, so I found that really weird. They address it after the ending by saying "huh, the painting was actually of Odin, he just looks like Kratos!" which feels very hand-wavey. It felt like they were building up to some big drama, then it just didn't happen. This was weak. It felt like the writers decided at the last second to cop out from a big risk. That said, I'm glad Kratos survived because that means we'll get to romp around another mythology as the big lunk! Second, Ragnarok himself was disappointing. Don't get me wrong, he looked cool and Sutr was compelling! Just he did basically nothing at the end except appear in the background. It didn't feel like he made a huge difference in the (otherwise awesome) final battle, which is sort of a big deal when he's been built up so much and is in the damn game's title! He should have had a more direct impact on the action. It seemed like Kratos and friends were going to have to stop Ragnarok to save some innocents or Asgard from total destruction, which could have been an awesome Cronos-style boss fight against a giant force of nature. The game was so packed that I'm not gonna complain that my fanfic Ragnarok uberboss fight (which would have had Thor help :)) did not happen, but Ragnarok should have at least done more than some static throwing animations at the end of the game. ****SPOILERS END**** ****SPOILERS END**** Spoilers aside, my issues with the plot aren't major, and I still was very happy with the story. The resolution left the Norse plot feeling tied up while leaving basically infinite possibilities for where to take the series next. I'm happy! As to gameplay, Ragnarok is better than its already excellent predecessor in basically every way. This is the rare AAA title that launches basically bug-free and already polished to perfection. The graphics are some of the best I've ever seen, and there's a ton of level variety as you explore every single one of the nine realms. The production value is mind-blowing. At any given point, there's so much to look at. One criticism I had of GoW 2018 was that levels felt just a bit too inorganic and video-gamey. Ragnarok levels, on the other hand, feel much better. They do a much better job mixing in verticality and openness and using believable environmental features to hide that you're going through a linear video game maze, which I appreciate. Kratos's blades are also used for mobility much more often, which made traversal more engaging. I thought exploring all the levels was a joy and made sure to plumb them for every secret I could. My other major criticism of Ragnarok's predecessor was a lack of boss and enemy variety. This isn't an issue at all here! There's a ton of new enemy classes and bosses, and all of the new enemies are a blast to fight. GoW 2018's combat was excellent, and it's just as good here, with plenty of tweaks and additions to keep things fresh. Kratos and friends feel insanely strong, with a ton of moves to fall back on, while enemies still pose a threat and keep you on your toes. Combat never got old in all of the 50 hours I took to beat the game and find every last secret within the world. I do wish the final bosses had just a bit more flair to them, but there's so much cool stuff throughout the game that I can't really knock the game for this. There are a ton of sidequests and optional areas on top of the main story, so there's no shortage of things to do. All of the side content is well-written and you'll find tons of upgrades that make it worth doing. I highly recommend doing every side mission you can as you unlock them, rather than saving them all until the end. You'll miss a lot of good stuff if you rush through. Overall, I think Ragnarok is one of the best and most polished AAA games ever. There's so much to do and see, and all of it is nearly perfectly executed and absolutely beautiful. It doesn't necessarily innovate, but it's incredibly impressive, fixes the flaws of its predecessor, and deserves its near-perfect acclaim. It's refreshing to get a AAA game that offers up so much highly polished content, without any cynical monetization traps or content bloat (like the infinite repetitive open world tasks that come in so many modern AAA games). This is simply a fully complete game that is made entirely to please the players. I can't wait to see where Sony Santa Monica takes this series next!