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The latest chapter in the God of War saga comes to an end in God of War Ragnarok and PlayStation have been kind enough to allow us to play through a short preview of the game.
The preview allowed us to play through around five hours of Ragnarok, and it’s clear that God of War (2018) was really a prologue leading up to this. The new game is wild with much of the same over-the-top action yet heartful father-and-son character drama you’d expect from the revival series.
The Coming of Ragnarok
The story pretty much picks up where the last game left off with Kratos and his son Atreus preparing for the inevitable day of Ragnarok, the all-encompassing war that will end the world.
I can’t say much about the story without veering into spoiler territory but one thing that I can say is it’s still as consistent as you can expect from the first game. The developers have done a good job balancing the slower more emotional scenes and getting the most out of each character with faster-paced action scenes involving gods and other mythological beings.
One thing I really appreciate is how they showed the growth of Atreus. He’s a lot older now, looks bigger, has a deeper voice, he’s a much better fighter, and is even hiding a few secrets from his dad. Meanwhile, Kratos himself seems slightly more positive than usual with his son’s growth but has much he wishes to teach the boy to make him a better man than he ever was. Some might not feel the change as much, but I can imagine it’s going to shift dramatically through the story.
The game definitely feels more catered to people that have played the 2018 game however, there is a Story Recap for new players that want to jump right straight into the sequel. I would recommend playing the first game though as not only is it really good but will likely make your playthrough of Ragnarok even better, not to mention it’s already available for free on PlayStation Plus.
An Axe To Grind
Not much has changed in God of War Ragnarok when it comes to gameplay. It’s pretty much still the same in terms of controls, and attack animations, but now you can use Blades of Chaos much earlier in the game. A lot of people have been criticizing this aspect and even called the game glorified DLC, but you need to remember that not all direct sequels have to be drastically different. This game is very much a continuation of the first, so I do think it’s fitting that it’s so similar.
It also feels excellent to play with the DualSense controller that supports Haptic Feedback and Adaptive Triggers. Throwing and catching the Leviathan Axe feels far more satisfying with the extra resistance of the buttons. There’s also a lot more variety in the enemies to time around with a number of few Norse creatures introduced in each battle. This is important because each enemy has its own pattern that you need to learn to overcome, complete with an even larger variety of brutal takedowns.
To be honest, I’m still not used to this approach with the combat where you need to be a lot more strategic compared to the more beat em style of previous God of War games. Kratos is still as powerful as you can imagine, but even on normal difficulty, the game won’t let you slay enemies as easily anymore, and two or three attacks can bring The Ghost of Sparta close to actually dying.
Exploring Midgard
There are definitely some pretty big changes when it comes to exploration. Once you reach Svartalfheim, the game starts to feel far more open world with a number of side quests (Favors) available. Yes, the last game had an open world but you get a lot more freedom to do as you please a lot earlier in the game. I imagine this will evolve through the entire playthrough, so I’m pretty excited to see how much more there will be to explore later on.
The best change to the exploration is now Kratos can swing around with his Blade of Chaos kinda like a bike bulky Greek Spider-Man. You can reach far-away places by swinging with the blades, and while it might sound basic I do feel that it’s a good way to improve Krato’s verticality. He’s still a bit slower and I do prefer if we can control him like in the old games with a dedicated jump button, but this swinging action is still pretty fun and never gets old.
My Impression so far
From what we’ve played in the preview, God of War Ragnarok has been an absolute blast so far. If you thought the fight at the end of the last game was huge, this game offers the same larger-than-life spectacle and that seems to just be a taste of what’s to come.
While a lot of the combat feels similar to the last game, the experience is definitely what you can expect from a true sequel, with a story that continues from the previous title and a number of all-around improvements. I’m even more intrigued to explore deeper into Midgard and see how the game surprises me.
