God of War Ragnarok
PlayStation 4
Nostalgia Factor:
This is now my sixth review of a God of War game. While I've always enjoyed the series, I have never quite liked it as much as the critics seem to do. Looking back at my review for the previous game in the series, I can't believe I gave it an A, because my memories of the game line up more with a B or B+ experience than they do an A. Did I let the "game of the year!!!!11" people get in my head, or was it more a recency bias kind of thing? Because the game, while fun, definitely got way too high of a score from me.
About two and a half years have passed since God of War Ragnarok was released. I always knew I was going to play this game, but I was never in any rush to do so. Anyone who knows me knows that I like to do things on my own time. IE: when the price goes down. Well, when I found out my local library had a copy of this game, I figured now would be the time to finally dive in. Nothing beats free, right?
The reviews I've read of this game have been a bit polarizing - with some people praising it and other people bashing it for being repetitive and pushing a "woke" agenda. I don't care about any of that stuff. I just want to know if it is fun or not.
So, is it fun? Let's find out!
Story:
I hope you didn't come here expecting a deep, detailed analysis of the game's story - because I honestly had no idea what was happening about 90% of the time I was playing this. I don't know if it is because the game's story is confusing or because I simply have attention span issues. It might be a little bit of both. To be honest, I have never really been able to follow along very well with the storyline of any God of War game. I've never been a big fan of mystical gods and goddesses and their relationships and that kind of thing. When they start dropping names and talking about stuff that means nothing to me, I tend to zone out and start waiting for the fighting and big action set pieces to begin.
From what I was able to gather, the game takes place shortly after the last game in the series. Fimbulwinter has fallen over Midgard, which people many take as a bad omen. They feel that Kratos is somehow responsible for it. Kratos and Atreus are constantly on the lookout for ambush attacks from Freya, who is still pissed Kratos killed her son in the last game (even though he deserved it).
Somehow the characters start down a path that leads to war with Odin, the All-Father. This isn't your MCU version of Odin. This Odin, and pretty much all the Asgardians that follow him, are bad. It is up to Kratos, Atreus, and the newly recruited Freya to unite the 9 realms and bring about Ragnarok, a mythical war that is prophesized to bring about the end of Odin.
There are a ton of little side jaunts, but that is the main gist of the story. Along the way you'll rescue Tyr - the Nordic God of War. You'll encounter Angrboda, who has something to do with prophecies. She seems to be a key player in the events of the game, as well as a future love interest for Atreus. I never really figured out what was going on with her, as the quest where she is introduced is extremely long and boring. It had me zoning out and looking at my phone in the middle of playing the game, which is never, ever a good sign.
There are other quests too. Some involve giant dogs. Others involve a mythical mask of some kind. It's just all too much to keep up with. Or maybe I'm just an idiot with no attention span for this kind of game. Regardless, the story of this game wasn't really for me. Was it "woke, agenda pushing nonsense?" Absolutely not. I don't know where those people are coming from. I just thought the storyline wasn't very coherent or interesting.
Gameplay:
It's been a while since I played the last God of War, so I am not sure if the gameplay is similar or not to that title. I seem to remember the last game being more open world, with lots of backtracking and things to discover. This game is quite linear in nature. You battle through enemies, make it to your destination, watch a story sequence, battle more enemies, watch a story sequence, travel to your next destination, battle more enemies, travel some more, watch a story sequence.... on and on it goes.
It isn't until about 10 hours or so into the game where you start to get side quests, which you can go back and complete at any time. It does add a little needed depth to the game, but I still found things to be quite repetitive. And they got repetitive fast.
Honestly, I found this game to be quite a drag to play through. It took me like three months to make my way through this game. It just wasn't grabbing my interest enough. A lot of this has to do with the fact that I didn't care about the game's story. It also has to do with the fact that the game is quite repetitive. You can only fight enemies and watch cutscenes for so long. The game took me nearly thirty hours to complete, and I'd say by hour five I was already mentally checked out.
There are some nice boss battles and some fun environments to check out, but these things weren't really enough to keep me interested. You gotta do better than that. Everything in this game felt like "been there, done that." Making my way through the game was really a massive struggle at times.
All that being said, there are still things to like about the game. While I may have found the game to be boring or uninspired at times, it was never bad. Kratos handles well. The combat is fun. There are multiple weapons to pick from, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. A lot of special attacks and combos to learn. Some interesting side characters to help you on your way.
I just wish there was more to this game than fight, run, watch story scenes, and then fight some more. Like I said, it got old, fast. At its core, there is a truly great game to be found here. Unfortunately, they fumbled the bag a bit with this one.
Graphics:
Fortunately, this is a very beautiful game to look at. The landscapes are all very nicely designed and fun to soak in. The characters look great, and they emote well. The special effects like fire, explosions, and magic spells all look really good. I love the intense action sequences with characters being thrown through walls and that kind of thing. Some of the giant battles are visually very impressive.
That said, there was a certain lack of that "wow" factor to be found here. I was waiting for an area to completely blow me away almost the entire way through, and it didn't come until nearly the end of the game. Everything has kind of a "same-y" feel to it. Forests, caves, snowy areas, that kind of thing. It looks good, yeah, but was never particularly inspiring to me.
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Sound:
Everything sounds fantastic in this game. The voice acting is great, as are the ambient sound effects. The epic music and the chaotic sounds of battle all fit the action onscreen perfectly. There really isn't anything to complain about here. Even though I didn't have a particularly great time playing the game, I can't deny that its visual and sound effects are top notch.
Overall:
This is tough. The game looks and sounds great, and you can tell a lot of hard work was put into making this an A+ title. I just wish it was more fun to play - and that's the deal breaker for me.
The game is simply too repetitive. It's too linear. The puzzles are laughably easy. Every time a battle would break out I'd be like "oh fuck, were we go AGAIN." If I had been heavily invested in the characters or storyline, I may have been able to overlook some of these flaws. But this wasn't the case, either.
It may sound like I am being harsh, but I won't say I necessarily hated this game. There's a lot to like about it, but it wasn't quite enough to truly win me over. It's an okay experience, and that's it. I was ambivalent about the game the entire way through, and I feel as if this needs to be reflected in its final score. So I am going to give it what I feel is the perfect middle of the road score.
**drumroll**
THE GRADE:
C
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