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

God of War 2018 took the series that was well known and loved by many and really flipped the script changing the gameplay, story structure, mythology, almost everything. It was a risky move making such a change, but paid off incredibly well. God of War Ragnarok continues down the path of the recent (ish) change, but does not do too much to innovate. This game is essentially more of the same (which isn't a bad thing) so you know exactly what you are getting in to, but just makes some tweaks here and there and ups the stakes and the feelings with the story. I do believe I enjoyed the story more in Ragnarok, as there are more side characters involved who each bring different elements to the game, and with the increased stakes it felt more grand in the overall sense of scale. The voice acting for all the characters is phenomenal this time around, and all the voice actors really make the characters come to life. I enjoyed the armor system this time around a bit more as the runes and other materials you can add to your armor really opens up the possibilities for fun and weird builds. Apart from a few battles I was almost never in danger of dying as I focused my build on defense and health regeneration, but fights took longer as I wasn't as strong offensively. If you are a completionist going for the platinum trophy there is both good and bad news. The good? There are no trophies that are tied to difficulty, so if you want you can bump the challenge down. The bad? There are so many collectibles in this game. I saw the number somewhere for the platinum trophy, and it's pretty dang high. Most of these can be found while going through the main game if you like to explore off the beaten path, but many cannot be obtained until very late game or even post main game. The Trials of Muspelheim are a pain in the rear this time around as how they have restructured how they work. You will have to repeat some of the same basic trials repeatedly to complete them all. Overall, my play time was right around 50 hours for the platinum trophy. That is 50 hours of near constant enjoyment.