God of War Ragnarök

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God of War Ragnarök is a sequel to God of War (PS4) and the ninth installment in the God of War series, developed by SIE Santa Monica Studio and released on November 9, 2022 for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.

God of War Ragnarök
"Fate only binds you if you let it. Do what is necessary. Not because it is written." — Kratos
Protagonist(s): Kratos Atreus Genre(s): Action Adventure Platform(s): PlayStation 4 PlayStation 5 Windows Release Date: November 9, 2022 (PS4 and PS5) September 19, 2024 (Windows) Developer(s): Santa Monica Studios Publisher(s): Sony Interactive Entertainment

Plot

After the events of God of War, Kratos and a now teenage Atreus must stop Ragnarök from approaching.

Why It's Also Godly

1. As with the first game, the graphics are impressive and a major step up from the previous game.
2. The plot is just as amazing as it was in the previous game, as Kratos and Atreus must prevent the end of the world as they know it.
3. Impressive voice acting, once again with Christopher Judge doing his very best as Kratos, and Sunny Suljic nailing it as Atreus.
   • The game’s story introduces tons of new characters that make the story even better
     • Odin, the allfather, a manipulative narcissistic father who only thinks of himself and pretends to be on people’s side to get what he wants
     • Thor the God Of Thunder, a strong but drunk God who’s being controller by his father hoping to earn his father’s love
     • Thrud, Thor’s Daughter who hopes to prove herself into being a Valkyrie
     • Heimdal, Odin’s second in command who can read thoughts and loves to irritate his opponents
     • Lunda, a dwarf who’s Brok’s “companion”, she can be really funny
     • Angrbroda, one of the last giants who helps Atreus during his missions
     • Faye, Kratos’ wife, we get to see more of her and how they fell in love together
4. The combat is just as brutal yet rewarding as the previous game.
   • Melee combat where you use your hands and shield to attack, not the strongest but can be useful for small enemies and defences.
   • Levithan Axe, an Axe powered with the power of ice and can be really good for freezing enemies.
   • Blades of Chaos, Kratos’ iconic weapons, powered with the flames of hell can be used to burn enemies.
   • Draupnir Spear, a new weapon that is really strong and powered by wind, can be used against far enemies.
   • Atreus’ bow which can shoot normal arrows or arrows powered by runics, can be also used in melee combat (Exclusive to Atreus).
5. It also features new weapons such as the Draupnir Spear which can be used to impale enemies, as well as be used as to swing across ledges.
6. Absolutely amazing soundtrack, especially "Blood Upon The Snow".
7. Much more enemy variety than the previous game.
8. The boss fights are just as amazing as the previous game.
9. The Vahalla DLC, added for free in an update, brings everything to a complete close.
10. After years of running, being foretold of his death, Kratos and Atreus finally get their happy endings.

Valhalla

1. Valhalla is a Rogue Like game where you play as Kratos and master yourself while trying different rages and combos with tons of rewards
2. God Of War Ragnarok Valhalla is an entire Campaign that was released on the PS4 and PS5 for free on announcement day.
3. Despite being a DLC, it has an entire campaign that's longer than most AAA games nowadays, such as 2023's Call Of Duty Campaign.
4. The 5 difficulties now reward you depending on what you choose, the higher the better.
5. Armor and Gear can be unlocked and worn before starting a playthrough and unlike the main game, they don't affect your stats, which lets you choose how to customize yourself without worrying about being weaker.
6. Enemies from Greek games return such as the minotaurs and the harpies
7. The Blade of Olympus returns as a rage ability, beating Valhalla's campaign lets you use it in the main game in New Game +
8. Classic Kratos returns (Though he's just a skin) and once unlocked, you can play with him in the man game in New Game +
9. Charming and wholesome story that brings back moment from the Greek games while also giving Kratos the good ending he finally deserves.

Bad Qualities

1. Sometimes the characters would spout the obvious when trying to solve a puzzle, but even that's a minor nitpick. Sound familiar?
2. The game has lots of glitches, most of them have been patched by day one patch but some are still there such as the Lyngbakr quest which can permanently lock you from achieving 100% (it is heavily recommended you do it before defeating the final boss).
3. The story while amazing, it feels rushed and crammed in as if it could have been two stories instead of one, which gives some characters less time.
4. Shield combat has been removed and replaced with simpler attacks.
5. The new difficulty give me balance has been seen as the same as give me challenge difficulty by players.
6. Photo Mode, while improved, it has some downgrades from its prequel that ruin the experience such as not being allowed to alter the faces of characters in certain moments of the story and sometimes not even allowed to activate it at all, you also need to pause the game to enter photo mode which makes it impossible to take funny photos when you die during the game.
7. The PC version requires a PSN account, and as a result, it isn't available in many countries without PSN, which leads gamers there to pirate it instead.
   • Unfortunately for PC users, the PC port requires a PSN account to sign in even for Single-player games.
   • Unlike Helldivers 2 and Ghost of Tsushima, there's no online multiplayer, making the PSN account thing even more pointless.

Reception

God of War Ragnarök on PS5 received "universal acclaim" from critics, according to review aggregator Metacritic, garnering a score of 94/100. This ties it with both the original 2005 installment and the 2018 installment for the highest Metacritic score in the series.

Trivia

• This is the first game where you have the options of choosing 5 difficulties as opposed to the usual 4 difficulties; it’s also the first game where all the difficulties are unlocked from the start (second game if you count God Of War 2018 which lets you start any difficulty after an update).
• This is the first game to have features such as Arabic dubs and accessibility features.
• This is the first game to be released as a cross-generation game, released for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.
• Although this is the first game to have you play as a different character other than Kratos in the story, it's the second game to let you play as another character other than Kratos; the first game would be God Of War Ascension which lets you play as the prisoner, however he was exclusive for the Mulitplayer mode, by coincidence, both games are the final chapter of their sagas.
• The reason this game is ending the Norse Saga even though it's the 2nd game in the series is because the developers took a lot of time to make God of War 2018 and God of War Ragnarok and believed if they made a 3rd game it will take about 4-5 years, which they felt it would take to long to finish the saga.
• Kratos was actually planned to be permanetely killed in the game by Thor and have Atreus travel back in time to save him, but this idea was scrapped.
• This is the first game to have a DLC campaign, as well as the first game to have DLC trophies.
• The game has suffered from delay for many reasons such as Christopher Judge’s (Kratos Actor) health, Sunny Suljic (Atreus actor) reaching puberty which affected his voice and forcing the studio to rewrite the script and re-record new dialogues, covid 19 and in order to avoid crunching
• Draupnir Spear bears many resemblance to Arms of Sparta from God Of War Ghost Of Sparta.
• Thor in God Of War Ragnarok is considered to be the most accurate version of Thor from Norse Mythology
• The game has received controversies before launch due to Angrbroda being black, Thor Being fat (which many assumed he should be like Marvel’s Thor), the game being announced for the PS4 as well despite being announced as a PS5 exclusive and because of the delay.
• Although not the final PS4 game by Sony (They still make MLB The Show series for the PS4), this is the final big game released by Sony for the Playstation 4.

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