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[CompleteGlobalSaturation]

I finally completed this game.

Not the sequel I had hoped for if I'm totally honest. The game moved at a meandering pace. Some sections were downright awful, such as Ironwood. There were also far too many 'forced walking' sections, and the dialogue felt like it belonged in modern day America. One of my biggest gripes was also the HORRIBLE field of view. It was so frustrating to fight enemies when the 3rd person camera was right up Kratos' ass.

GOW:R felt like a bloated experience, a reminder to devs that bigger games are not always better. I did not have the will to attempt any of the side quests; I adhered to the main campaign only and it took more 20+ hours according to the in game timer. The final level was the highlight of the game. IF I were to replay this game, I'd probably reload my save from the final level.

Thor (both at the beginning and at the end), Heimdall, Odin boss battles were awesome. The other 'boss battles' were forgettable; they felt like fighting 'bullet sponges' and were not fun at all.

To this date, I still think God of War II is the peak of the series. It had the best 'adventure' out of all the games. God of War III probably had the most exciting boss battles however, and each of these felt unique.

On the plus side, the Valhalla DLC seems to be incredible. I'm enjoying it considerably more than the base game.

I'm curious to see where the series will take us next. Hopefully Egypt.

 

[Loomy]

To this date, I still think God of War II is the peak of the series. It had the best 'adventure' out of all the games. God of War III probably had the most exciting boss battles however, and each of these felt unique.

100% agree. Pacing in God of War II was just so well done. Interesting that Cory directed - what I think - are the 2 best games in the series.

Not the sequel I had hoped for if I'm totally honest. The game moved at a meandering pace. Some sections were downright awful, such as Ironwood. There were also far too many 'forced walking' sections

My biggest complaints with the game as well.

 

[AltogetherAndrews]

I finally completed this game.

Not the sequel I had hoped for if I'm totally honest. The game moved at a meandering pace. Some sections were downright awful, such as Ironwood. There were also far too many 'forced walking' sections, and the dialogue felt like it belonged in modern day America. One of my biggest gripes was also the HORRIBLE field of view. It was so frustrating to fight enemies when the 3rd person camera was right up Kratos' ass.

GOW:R felt like a bloated experience, a reminder to devs that bigger games are not always better. I did not have the will to attempt any of the side quests; I adhered to the main campaign only and it took more 20+ hours according to the in game timer. The final level was the highlight of the game. IF I were to replay this game, I'd probably reload my save from the final level.

Thor (both at the beginning and at the end), Heimdall, Odin boss battles were awesome. The other 'boss battles' were forgettable; they felt like fighting 'bullet sponges' and were not fun at all.

Heimdall felt a hell of a lot more bullet spongy than Garm. Which incidentally felt like the only boss fight to actually rival classic God of War bosses.

 

[AltogetherAndrews]

Also, Ragnarök was really weird in that I found the post-game content a lot more engaging than the campaign. Put a good 40+ hours into that. And it has the nastiest boss fight, too.

 

[Soodanim]

I appreciate the actual criticisms as opposed to the standard one word write-off this game gets. I might skip it and watch the highlights on YouTube for the story.

 

[Certinty]

Always said it wasn’t a great game.

Game if anything is worse than the 2018 one, the story in this peaks in the first hour or two then the rest is pretty trash (especially the last few hours) which is a shame given the potential of what they working with. Only thing I’ll probably say is better is most of the boss fights.

Struggled to even complete the game to be honest whilst with 2018 I platinumed it. Instantly dropped it after completion.

Huge disappointment in my eyes. Like others have said, God of War III really was the peak for this series.

 

[Itchy Tickles]

Funnily enough, I only beat it the other day myself on PC. Thought it was grand, but I have to agree about the pacing. Also felt like the time between action and long unskippable drawn-out conversations was off balance. (Side note - Not sure if it was just me, but when having a conversation and it has a prompt to press X to skip a line of dialogue, it never worked)

Combat was fine, but I felt the new weapon didn't add much except for puzzles / traversal. Even with the option enabled to shut NPCs puzzle dialogue up, they still yapped too much about painfully obvious things. This isn't exclusive to this game of course, Horizon was 100 times worse.

I didn't feel there were any epic big moments, more a lot of good ones and stuff to just waste your time. I genuinely thought it was cheap as hell to be beside a chest, but the game spawns enemies on the opposite side of the dungeon locking the chest, meaning you had to run all the way to the end, kill them and then return to open it and usually for hacksilver trash.

Overall felt like there were too many of the same thing to make them unique. From memory, the spirit side quests in the first game felt few and far between, but here it was like at every boat dock.

Only played a bit of the post game, but don't feel motivated to continue past the dwarf quest. The roguelike mode, Valhalla, seems alright so far.

 

[BennyBlanco]

This is how I felt about GoW 2018. Why am I doing so many slow walk and chats while characters rapid fire Marvel quips at me in a God of War game. Original trilogy is great. I have no desire to play Ragnarok after the last game which I never bothered to finish.

 

[CompleteGlobalSaturation]

Funnily enough, I only beat it the other day myself on PC. Thought it was grand, but I have to agree about the pacing. Also felt like the time between action and long unskippable drawn-out conversations was off balance. (Side note - Not sure if it was just me, but when having a conversation and it has a prompt to press X to skip a line of dialogue, it never worked)

Combat was fine, but I felt the new weapon didn't add much except for puzzles / traversal. Even with the option enabled to shut NPCs puzzle dialogue up, they still yapped too much about painfully obvious things. This isn't exclusive to this game of course, Horizon was 100 times worse.

I didn't feel there were any epic big moments, more a lot of good ones and stuff to just waste your time. I genuinely thought it was cheap as hell to be beside a chest, but the game spawns enemies on the opposite side of the dungeon locking the chest, meaning you had to run all the way to the end, kill them and then return to open it and usually for hacksilver trash.

Overall felt like there were too many of the same thing to make them unique. From memory, the spirit side quests in the first game felt few and far between, but here it was like at every boat dock.

Only played a bit of the post game, but don't feel motivated to continue past the dwarf quest. The roguelike mode, Valhalla, seems alright so far.

The post game content does not seem worth playing. I decided to watch YouTube videos instead.

I'm thoroughly enjoying Valhalla.

 

[thegame983]

The Atreus sections made me want to self harm.

 

[CompleteGlobalSaturation]

This is how I felt about GoW 2018. Why am I doing so many slow walk and chats while characters rapid fire Marvel quips at me in a God of War game. Original trilogy is great. I have no desire to play Ragnarok after the last game which I never bothered to finish.

The dialogue in Ragnarok is bad. Atreus also never shuts up, constantly stating the absolute obvious.

 

[yansolo]

This is how I felt about GoW 2018. Why am I doing so many slow walk and chats while characters rapid fire Marvel quips at me in a God of War game. Original trilogy is great. I have no desire to play Ragnarok after the last game which I never bothered to finish.

i felt the exact same way, i almost fell asleep a few times with how flat and boring the whole game and story was apart from 1 or 2 cool sections (when kratos gets his chains back especially), the og trilogy is way more fun to play

 

[Fake]

Ragnarok is a really really bad game that is carried by the God of War 2018 gameplay.

 

[Fbh]

I enjoyed Ragnarok but I think it's a good example of Sony exclusives getting in their own way by focusing too much on story and being "cinematic".
I like the combat, the new weapon and abilities are fun, I like the world and most of the new locations, I think visually it's great, it looks cross gen but also runs super smoothly and with good IQ which I vastly prefer over better graphics.
But then instead of just letting you enjoy the world and gameplay it's constantly interrupting you with cutscenes, and walking and talking sequences or random 1 hour long Atreus sequences where you don't really do anything.

My favorite part of the game by a mile was the optional "The Crater" section because it's one of the few parts in the game where I felt like it actually let me play for an extended period of time without constantly hitting the breaks.
Same with the Valhalla DLC (though I'm not that much into the rogue lite aspect)

 

[K' Dash]

I’ve said it a million times since I finished it, it is a worse game in almost every aspect that matters…

Same for Spidey 2, Horizon FB, Ratchet…

 

[xanaum]

I didn’t like the underwhelming scale of this so-called “Ragnarök” that gives the game its name; it feels more like a gang fight.

The characters aren’t that interesting; surprisingly, even though the Greek gods in the series didn’t have much narrative, they were way cooler. Maybe Santa Monica Studio put more effort into design back then since they didn’t focus much on storytelling.

The missions and relationships with the gods are mostly boring. Those missions with Freya, where she talks about how Odin was abusive and you basically do missions to help her overcome it, feel so fucking cringe in a game like this.

In the end, it wasn’t a bad game, but in my imagination and expectations, God of War Ragnarök could’ve been a perfect game with boss fights on par with FF16, more enemy variety and combat dynamics like in Wukong, and an epic storyline bringing a Ragnarök that feels like the wars of Middle-earth’s First Age in Tolkien’s stories.

 

[Sushi_Combo]

Fucking awful game in every single way compared to Gow 2018

 

[Joel Was Right]

Gameplay wise, I agree. The family drama with the Norse gods, however, was peak cinema and ultimately saved the game imo. When can we go back to a hack and slash type of series?

 

[Arachnid]

I genuinely can't believe that Kratos killed 2 gods across both games, and both kills were boring. God of War my ass. They had the entire Norse Pantheon at their disposal, but decided to make it a shitty art fest that preached about peace, friendship, family, and coexistence. Too much focus on being a drama. That's not why anyone is here.

We could have had God of War 3 on steroids.

 

[R6Rider]

Game wasn't amazing, but I had a blast playing through it. Combat was fun, and the story kept me interested.

 

[Danjin44]

I genuinely can't believe that Kratos killed 2 gods across both games, and both kills were boring. God of War my ass. They had the entire Norse Pantheon at their disposable, but decided to make it a shitty art fest that preached about peace, friendship, family, and coexistence. Too much focus on being a drama. That's not why anyone is here.

We could have had God of War 3 on steroids.

Even the game itself makes fun of current Kratos, “ his still kill gods but now he sad about it” from badass character to a sad old man trying to give emotional advice to everyone.

And in the end this whole Ragnarok to amount to nothing to the point I felt bad for Surt they ruin his life over this pathetic fight?

 

[Facism]

Horrid game, looking back. Take the Hellenic God of War and transpose him into the land of an equally mental and vicious pantheon of Gods, have him act like a Western father who can't discipline his son outside of screaming like a dickhead. Fucking boring. 0 gravity to anything in the game. Bored of Atreus half-way through the first game and we still have to babysit this melt who hasn't seen the classic slipper throw for acting up. That massive dumb boring section in the middle with the giant girl. The lack of friction anywhere outside of the utterly predictable father-son dynamic (barely) and Kratos/Freja.

Just liquid arse all the way through.

 

[Dr.Morris79]

To this date, I still think God of War II is the peak of the series. It had the best 'adventure' out of all the games. God of War III probably had the most exciting boss battles however, and each of these felt unique.

Couldn't agree more. I personally think the first two games were the peak.

 

[Pasta la Vista]

Agreed. For me, Ragnarok retroactively ruined 2018 since the build up was all for nothing.

The Greek saga was each game pushing the boundaries of its predecessor really delivering on the story and pace.

There is a better direction they could have went with Ragnarok, but that was neutered since the direction of Santa Monica Studio was to preach rather than entertain.

 

[Northeastmonk]

The buildup to Thor in 2018 and then actually fighting Thor in Ragnarok was a major letdown.

I hated how they portrayed Odin. It was like fighting House from the TV show. He didn’t feel powerful at all.

 

[diffusionx]

I legit loved the game until the end when the story just fell apart and the writers obviously chickened out and wrote some marvel tier gibberish.

 

[DanielG165]

Ragnarok was pretty slow and plodding for me, and never actually felt like the absolutely massive, grand-scale plot that the subtitle suggests. Ragnarok is literally the end times in Norse mythology, the end of the world as the gods, giants, and other beings know it to be. In this game, said event just felt like… Any other Tuesday? It didn’t help that Ragnarok came immediately after 2018, instead of building to that plot line over the course of at least a trilogy. And, the PS4 bones shackled it from being as big and epic as it should’ve been.

As it stands for me, 2018 is easily the superior game between the two modern God of War titles, with a far stronger and tighter narrative, deeper emotional moments, and the one-take camera actually makes sense there. 2018 is the game that I’ve played through multiple times, whereas Ragnarok will be the sequel that I hardly will feel like touching.

If God of War 3 could give us a battle on PS3 where you literally had to platform ON the boss to fight him, then Ragnarok should’ve been able to give us a fight between Kratos and Thor than spanned across all of Asgard, or Midgard, while riding along Jörmungandr or something. It’s… Boring. It’s a boring sequel that took too long to actually get going well, after that incredible first encounter with Thor and Odin. I’m all for slow burn stories, when they’re engaging. This was not one of them.

 

[Dynasty8]

The constant back seating during puzzles by the NPC was extremely annoying.

 

[lh032]

Game wasn't amazing, but I had a blast playing through it. Combat was fun, and the story kept me interested.

 

[bitbydeath]

I hated how they portrayed Odin. It was like fighting House from the TV show. He didn’t feel powerful at all.

He isn’t strong in mythology either, his power comes from being able to see everything, fighting is not his forte.

 

[bitbydeath]

I legit loved the game until the end when the story just fell apart and the writers obviously chickened out and wrote some marvel tier gibberish.

Agree with this.
Overall it was way better than the 2018 game which lacked of boss fights, had weaker gameplay, worse graphics, and constant repetitive enemies.

The story sucked in that one too, but that part is opinion.

Not sure why people praise it so much.
Loki was more annoying in the 2018 version too.

 

[Stu_Hart]

I am always curious about mythology stuff and theory crafting, so the story was fine for me. I enjoyed the game and the valhalla dlc. Gameplay in ragnarok is way better than in 2018 with more attacks and a new weapon. 2018 was great, but the kiddy version of atreus was annoying. He actually grew on me in ragnarok. Odin was a great villain with his manipulations and him being a narcissist. My only complaint was the iron wood section and the partner characters spoiling puzzles, but the whole experience is better than the sum of its parts.

 

[Kabelly]

God of War reboot felt way too PG-fied. Even stomping on enemies heads felt tame because they toned down the gore. Sekiro feels more like God of War than God of War and I haven't even played the original trilogy yet. Didn't buy Ragnorok.

 

[Bernardougf]

I finally completed this game.

Not the sequel I had hoped for if I'm totally honest. The game moved at a meandering pace. Some sections were downright awful, such as Ironwood. There were also far too many 'forced walking' sections, and the dialogue felt like it belonged in modern day America. One of my biggest gripes was also the HORRIBLE field of view. It was so frustrating to fight enemies when the 3rd person camera was right up Kratos' ass.

GOW:R felt like a bloated experience, a reminder to devs that bigger games are not always better. I did not have the will to attempt any of the side quests; I adhered to the main campaign only and it took more 20+ hours according to the in game timer. The final level was the highlight of the game. IF I were to replay this game, I'd probably reload my save from the final level.

Thor (both at the beginning and at the end), Heimdall, Odin boss battles were awesome. The other 'boss battles' were forgettable; they felt like fighting 'bullet sponges' and were not fun at all.

To this date, I still think God of War II is the peak of the series. It had the best 'adventure' out of all the games. God of War III probably had the most exciting boss battles however, and each of these felt unique.

On the plus side, the Valhalla DLC seems to be incredible. I'm enjoying it considerably more than the base game.

I'm curious to see where the series will take us next. Hopefully Egypt.

Thats why user/fans reviews like yours are much more valuable than the access purple midia .... its a subpar sequel like sm2 and fw .... sony western first party just sucks this gen no two ways about it ... personally gow3 is my favorite and I wished they came back to the old formula . ..it was so much better is not even close ...

 

[web3x]

Solid game... Except for the Atreus parts...

2018 was better for that reason

 

[Muskrat_Farms]

Just finished this on PC, first time playing. I dunno, I enjoyed it enough to try for 100% achievements, just missing one from Valhalla. Could’ve done without the extended woods adventure with Atreus, but man that crater section was great, I couldn’t believe how much more game there was hidden behind what (I think?) is an entirely optional area. Honestly think I enjoyed it more than 2018

Edit: just remembered the purple arrow puzzles, those sucked

 

[Merkades]

Since this (and FFXVI) just came out on PC, I have been playing them (done with FFXVI, 2/3rds or so with GoWR), and yeah, it is OK, but that is all. In fact, I switch to Ys X Nordics rather than finish GoWR, though I will finish that today or tomorrow and then go back I guess. An ok game, but I will be happy to finish it and move on to better things (like finishing DQ11S before DQ3 HD2D comes out...not likely...).

 

[xenosys]

I played through Ragnarok last month. I enjoyed it about as much as GoW 2018, which was an 8.5/10 experience.

I'm glad Elden Ring won GOTY in 2022 because it was comfortably the better game on reflection.

 

[Stu_Hart]

I played through Ragnarok last month. I enjoyed it about as much as GoW 2018, which was an 8.5/10 experience.

I'm glad Elden Ring won GOTY in 2022 because it was comfortably the better game on reflection.

Elden ring and gow ragnarok are different games. One is a souls games that is open world, and the other is an action adventure game. You are comparing apples to oranges, and GOTY is an arbitrary award. Neither game needs validation from geoff keighly's little show for people to know that they are great games. They can shine on their own respectively.

 

[drotahorror]

100% agree. Pacing in God of War II was just so well done. Interesting that Cory directed - what I think - are the 2 best games in the series.

Definitely in the minority here, but GoW2 pacing was not very good imo. Too much backtracking. GoW1 and GoW3 are superior and paced better imo.

 

[TrueLegend]

Game was amazing but pacing definitely has issues. Also the VANHIEM level design was really shall I say....let's not say about that, I mean they made that joke in Valhalla.

 

[Vick]

Thanks to Ironwood and similar, not a game I would replay. Whoever decided to put this sort of stuff into a God of War game should not only be fired, but never work in the industry again.
All sections not helped at all by a colossal downgrade in writing and tone which way too often almost reminds of a Marvel movie. There's incredible stuff in it going the total opposite direction (Norns for instance), but not enough of that.
New weapon is great, but the new enemies and kind of exhilarating fights in the game made me wish for a different camera at times, something that never happened with 2018 which I regard as a masterpiece.

The Crater is legit peak gaming however, especially at GMGOW difficulty which is the only way I play these games, and not spending time in there after you went through the main story would be insanity.
It’s like a DLC, hours long whole open expansion but already included within the package, you're loving Valhalla, you'll love the Crater, you love videogames, you'll fall in love with it.
What's truly crazy it that I remember reading it almost never made it into the game, instead of being the entire game.

 

[Danny22]

Spoiler

Spoilers: I genuinely think Odin and Thor were the good guys. Their sons were killed by those two, and they still treated Atreus with decency and respect. And that little sh*t didn't even let Odin have the mask in return.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Game gets a lot of unwarranted hate for only a few sections that have really poor pacing.

Rest of the game is absolute with much better combat encounters, set pieces, and side content than in GoW 2018.

I thought the story was particularly strong too, with some real gut wrenching moments and a very cool cast of characters. Yeah, the kid gets annoying at times, he did in 2018 as well and I could have done without his combat.

I do agree though that God of War 2 is the pinnacle of the series just from a pacing standpoint. GoW Ragnarok is excellent however, I would rather re-play it than 2018 which is barebones in retrospect especially the combat encounters/enemies.

 

[acidagfc]

I replayed both games recently.

GOW 2018 was a very compact, very cinematic adventure.
Freya is a fantastic character, every interaction is a joy.
I finished it in 30-ish hours, have not bothered with the valkyries though.
My only complaint was the encounter variety. Same trolls as mid-bosses got really stale by the end.

Then I started GOWR. First 10 or so hours were great. Knowing the lategame twist gave new light to a certain characters actions and words.
But then I got to Ironwood and I just closed and uninstalled the game.
I still wanted more, so a day later I installed it back and suffered through that section. Awful, just awful.
I finished it in about 60 hours and wished it was cut down to 30, same as the original.
All the Atreus sections needed to be cut out, they kill the pacing and do not give any worthwhile exposition or character development.
The gameplay was much improved over the first part, but the story just dragged it down.
It could have been an amazing game if they had the will to trim the filler sections.

 

[CompleteGlobalSaturation]

Horrid game, looking back. Take the Hellenic God of War and transpose him into the land of an equally mental and vicious pantheon of Gods, have him act like a Western father who can't discipline his son outside of screaming like a dickhead. Fucking boring. 0 gravity to anything in the game. Bored of Atreus half-way through the first game and we still have to babysit this melt who hasn't seen the classic slipper throw for acting up. That massive dumb boring section in the middle with the giant girl. The lack of friction anywhere outside of the utterly predictable father-son dynamic (barely) and Kratos/Freja.

Just liquid arse all the way through.

Damn right.

Give Valhalla a shot however. It's a more enjoyable experience and the story is more interesting than the base game, which I thought was completely and utterly stupid.

 

[DenchDeckard]

I agree op.

There were some really great sections within this game but my biggest criticism is, for me it felt like every time I was truly getting into the game and enjoying a kratos section....I got dragged back to being atreus and I just didn't enjoy it.

If be kicking ass as my boy Kratos and thinking, yep. This game is great, this section rules, give me more of this and then blam I'm pulled out and forced to be this whiny kid with poor combat.

Terrible pacing. A very disappointing god of war game.

Id give it a 7 out of 10

 

[Lord Malachite]

I platinumed God Of War: Ragnarok. While I did enjoy my time with it, I felt it was a very significant step down from 2018. Despite the fact that the world was the same, only larger, it felt much less well-made. Many of the areas I wasn't a huge fan of. Some of the quests were enjoyable, while others were major misses. I did both the core game and the Valhalla DLC not just to 100% trophies, but I got the true ending for each of them. I literally did all there was to do.

The Berserkers were the biggest mistake of the game IMO. While the Valkyries in 2018 were thrilling and challenging, the Berserkers just felt cruel and unfun, and not a satisfying experience. Putting one down never made me feel like I'd achieved a great victory, but rather that I'd just somehow beaten the obnoxious challenge the devs put in and there were still many more to go.

Some of the walking sequences were entertaining, while others felt like a tedious grind. As others have stated, the pacing was just off, and I didn't feel the instant connection with this game that I felt in 2018.

I think the best way to put it is this--Ragnarok is not a bad game. But it constantly reminds me of how awesome 2018 was. That's not something you want to be the major takeaway for your game.

 

[Roufianos]

Dreadful follow up honestly. It's like a bunch of amature fans got to make a follow up in the same engine.

 

[Dazraell]

I had a similar feeling. I didn't liked the pacing and felt like game tried to cram up way too much things at once. This resulted in a bloated mess

The story was very disjointed. The core conflict between Kratos and Atreus was just stupid. None of them had any idea what to do, which made hard to root for them. Instead I was just shaking my head how dumb all of this shit was. I also didn't liked Atreus's character development. I mean, I get why they done it as they were probably trying to tap to teenage angst phase, but man, it was exactly as bad as you thought it will be. And don't get me started about the final segment. It was so disappointing

That being said there were some thing that were solid (like boss encounters, sidequests, entire Crater location, the Valhalla DLC), but overall game lacked that focus the 2018 game had and at least to me felt subpar to the previous entry