God of War: Ragnarok - critical analysis and discussion

[Malkiah]

SPOILER ALERT:
brief preface, and then i'm going right into talking about story details. stop looking at this thread if you want to play/beat the game without knowing how it ends.

This is not meant to be a rating thread to discuss if GOWR is good or bad, and it's not meant to be to be a thread to shit on the game or to praise it.
I'm making this thread because I was beyond insanely hyped for it last week and was sorely disappointed by it after I beat it, and everyone seems to either be in camp "unadulterated ballsack gargling 10/10" or "crying like a man-baby without giving examples or insight as to why" and neither of us those are interesting to me.
I hope this doesn't turn into just a blog post, because I'd really love to discuss this game from a critical (as in critique, not just ragging on it) perspective with other people who also didn't necessarily love it, but I don't know if I'm just the only one who feels this way or finds it an interesting topic of conversation.
I'll guess we'll see what kind (if any) of replies this gets.

So... critical analysis.
Diving into everything - lore, story, narrative, combat, gameplay loop, world design, player engagement structure, everything.

I'd compare this a lot to Avengers: End Game.
A great first installment that felt like a (relatively) good and satisfying culmination of everything that had come before it, followed up by a substantially mediocre part 2 that simultaneously went too big, felt too small, was kind of boringly predictable, and the twists that came out of nowhere didn't feel surprising or exciting.

First and foremost, I think they seriously fumbled Kratos as a character.
The jump from rage-fueled murder machine in 1-3 to the restrained-rage-beneath-the-surface worked in the context of GOW18, where he's suddenly got this child he's saddled with and has no idea how to deal with it. His attempts to reconcile his own past and what he considers valuable life lessons with trying to be softer for the sake of a young boy who doesn't have the physical or mental strength for the full-blown hardship and discipline that is his natural inclination.
But in GOW:R he's just... soft and sad.
I get that they're going for a "he knows he's gonna die soon" angle as an excuse for why Kratos is suddenly timid and pacifist and weepy, but the fact they didn't pull the trigger on killing him made an entire game worth of seeing him get misty-eyed and lip-quivering every 9 seconds rather infuriating, because it felt like a huge change in characterization with no warning or reason or payoff.
So big "wtf" when it comes to Kratos.

Also not a fan of the way they kept talking about Atreus is still just a child and 'not ready', and then in the actual gameplay... I know it has to do with encounter design and the enemies you fight when playing as him, but Atreus moves faster and has a powerful chain combo that kills enemies in that single chain, and so playing as him he actually feels more powerful than Kratos does and it's really weird, and contrasts badly with how he's supposedly still weak and unprepared.

Ok I keep thinking of different things to point out that were weird and problematic to me, but I'm worried about this just being an essay nobody cares about so I'll stop now.

Anyone else have any thoughts? Counter points? Things sticking in their brain about GOWR they want to yammer about with other gamers?

[Tech614]

The character progression of Kratos is the best thing about the game and the culmination of it with him telling Atreus to open is heart to others suffering at the end is probably the most powerful point in the entire series. Just feels like it went way over your head and you're salty about not having your murder machine that bangs 3 women every night anymore. He's an old man that had another 3 years of raising a kid under his belt from the first game, he's not simply some male power fantasy character anymore.

Also if you feel like Atreus is more powerful than Kratos in combat you have absolutely no idea what you're doing with Kratos no offense. On Give me God of War Atreus hits like a wet noodle and can only kill anything with CDs up, meanwhile Kratos can melt the fuck out of health bars just by burning or freezing an opponent and switching to spear even if all his runics and relic are on CD. Atreus does have powerful CDs but that's literally all he has, hes weak as hell otherwise.

Kratos dying would of been cliche as fuck for the record, that's why you're not a writer. Also kind of stupid since the man has already died multiple times. Giving him a final prophecy where he helps rebuild and people look to him for help is the far more powerful choice.

[Malkiah]

Just feels like it went way over your head and you're salty about not having your murder machine that bangs 3 women every night anymore

Not to turn this contrarian, but I did literally say the change in his character made sense in 2018.
Respectfully, it's the change from 2018 to Ragnarok I found abrupt and jarring, not from the original trilogy.

He's an old man that had another 3 years of raising a kid under his belt from the first game, he's not simply some male power fantasy character anymore.

If that is sufficient to you to justify going from stoic to openly weepy most of the time, then that works for you and I won't rag on you over it.

[RobertoCarlos]

Not to turn this contrarian, but I did literally say the change in his character made sense in 2018.
Respectfully, it's the change from 2018 to Ragnarok I found abrupt and jarring, not from the original trilogy.


If that is sufficient to you to justify going from stoic to openly weepy most of the time, then that works for you and I won't rag on you over it.

Well if you think about it it makes sense that Kratos is more open and actually answering questions about his past life after being tight lipped on everything in the 2018 game.

You cant keep being the same stoic character and calling him Boi, eventually hes gonna need to actually address the big issues.

[Malkiah]

Well if you think about it it makes sense that Kratos is more open and actually answering questions about his past life after being tight lipped on everything in the 2018 game.

Oh I liked that aspect, that he was opening up more and trying to connect with Atreus and actually talking about his past - the little tidbits and references to events in past games were great.

You cant keep being the same stoic character and calling him Boi, eventually hes gonna need to actually address the big issues.

Of course not, you and the other poster seem to be badly mistaking "the jump felt abrupt and without buildup or narrative payoff" with "nyeh, Kratos isn't mad anymore" - I don't object to character changes if they feel contextually appropriate or earned. I don't even object to large changes in a character's behavior, if it unfolds reasonably within the story.

Going from the Kratos of GoW 1-3 to the Kratos of GoW18 felt appropriate and reasonable. Going from the Kratos of 2018 to Ragnarok felt out of left field and not in line with the character up to that point.

To wit:
The through-line in the latter half of the game where Kratos is suddenly wringing his hands about the killing of gods, notably with relation to Heimdall.
This would make sense if it was clearly expressed that his concern was about triggering a war with Asgard, and that's certainly mentioned rather offhandedly in cutscene dialogue, but he's already killed several Asgardians at that point and war is already upon them.
On top of that then he gets all weepy and forlorn about it when he kills Heimdall and that felt completely at odds with everything portrayed as his personality up to that point.

It would also make sense if Kratos were struggling throughout the game with his past of mindless violence, he's getting visibly old and he's concerned about the legacy he's leaving for his son - but we don't see any of that in his behavior, because this is a combat oriented game.
I found the contradiction between his cutscene dialogue contrasted to riling up Odin in a myriad of other ways (killing Odin's ravens at every opportunity, breaking his hold over the dwarves, killing his assorted warriors in random trash encounters) to be one of those suspension-of-disbelief situations in what the story was trying to make us believe about how he felt vs. what they had him actually doing while out and about.

Sure, we the audience know that his concern stems from the depiction of his death and his thinking that Atreus will soon be on his own, but we don't see any of what connects that to the Kratos Boehner of this game.
So I guess ultimately my conclusion is that I would have greatly preferred the beginning of the game focus on the intervening years, of his training with Atreus and growing connection to him, instead of say... spending 2 hours fetching pails of slop for a yak and sneaking around a giant's kitchen.
The game could have also spent that initial time giving more setup for their relationship to Freya unfold.
I would totally buy years of tension followed by her discovering they found another way to realm travel, and having to bury her thirst for revenge in order to get their help in Vanaheim.
(Yes that's more or less how it plays out in the game but that whole situation happens in about 8 minutes and two voice over lines, it's a hand-wave to resolve their relationship with Freya that feels like it only exists so that you can still have a Companion for the post-game after Atreus fucks off)

[Tech614]

In 2018 Kratos basically was the same Kratos trying to hide his past and act like a better person because he had to be for his son. It wasn't until the end of the game and into this game once he opened up about his past instead of hiding it that he started to legitimately change.

OP expected Kratos to act like nothing happened, still treat Atreus like a child instead of a young man and not have any character development at all from 2018 to Ragnarok after everything that happened. Sounds like you wanted the most generic story you could possibly imagine by having Kratos still be a stoic wall and die at the end of the game, it's hilarious you compare it to marvel in the OP since that shit tier writing would be perfectly on par with what MCU movies have become.

- - - Updated - - -

"the jump felt abrupt and without buildup or narrative payoff"

It's 3 whole damn years between 2018 and Ragnarok. There was nothing abrupt about it, and the character payoff is actually massive with almost all of the late and post game events.

- - - Updated - - -

spending 2 hours fetching pails of slop for a yak and sneaking around a giant's kitchen.

You mean you want generic hunting and training gameplay over introducing super important lore characters and area in Angrboda and Ironwood? Showing how Loki creates jormungandrr? Laying the foundation for how he will bring back Fenrir? That section has 2 of the best set pieces in the entire game on top of all the important lore dumps. This is once again why you shouldn't quit your day job, sounds like you wanted the game to be immensely more boring, predictable and generic than it was.

Just skip over the entire mythology so my man can see Kratos parent for 3 years and change over that time instead of adding 2 and 2 together in his head lmfao.

[Kumorii]

There are certain things I agree with. Especially about the end. It was supposed to be this epic moment but at the same time it felt a bit rushed and smaller than it wanted to be.

Odin was a great character but I feel it lacked something when we only get told about his atrocities and never get to see him being a huge dick. Except when killing Brok and Thor. Though Brok is more understandable and killing his own Son is certainly the more "villain evil" action he did. I'm no writer though, so not sure how they could do so since he needs to be friendly with Loki and we are supposed to be "tricked" along side Loki.
Maybe if they made him have more hands on interactions with us on the journey. Using multiple people to deceive us which is causing suffering among people all for his own gain.
They did this beautifully with Týr. Him pushing for the importance of the mask, him not wanting to fight anymore. But none of his actions as Týr warrant him as a villain that has to die.
They tried to make him more villainous with the sacrifice of innocent midgardians during the war. Then Síf comes out and just say "yup he's as garbage as they say" and that's all we really get. We have all these stories, but it feels so distant just hearing how bad he is. Wish they showed some of it more. I don't think it's bad per-se. I like the characterization because he's supposed to be manipulative... I just feel a piece is missing for it to be almost perfect.

When it comes to Loki I loved most of it. I was a bit confused when they already had a wolf named Fenrir because I could swore he was a "child" of Loki in the real mythology. So the way they tied into it with the soul transferring I found it to be very clever and well done. I can't remember if the spell at the start made the light show go into the knife, if so I must've missed it because the knife didn't hit me until he said he would give the wolf a soul. When he gave the soul to the snake in Ironwood I smiled quite heavily seeing how Jörmungandr came to be. I think there even is a time fuckery with him the real mythology so that was a nice way to make him a "child" of Loki.
Atreus's obsession with prophecies and making sure everything happens even though he doesn't want it to happen was a bit annoying, but I think that was part of the point. Sort of like when Atreus became a brat in GoW. Everyone started to dislike him because he became insufferable, but it was important. And I think after this he has finally learned that he can walk his own path regardless of prophecies. And it lead to one of the saddest moment. Which is Sindri.

Sindris disdain and dislike for Atreus was one of the best moments for me. It felt so well done and his anger is warranted. When he lambasted Atreus for doing everything for himself rather than others... he's right. Atreus just kept on with the mindset "All these sacrifices will be worth it in the end" is a very selfish thought when he isn't the one having things sacrificed. Atreus knew a lot of sacrifices would happen, but it was part of the prophecy so he didn't think about it on a smaller scale. The ramifications on individuals rather than the whole. So when he experience Broks death and Sindris misery he finally gets to feel that it's easier to talk about how it's for the greater good, but harder when it actually hurts you.

This is starting to get a bit long-winded though.

The gameplay and the world was great as per GoW standards, but even more refined and expanded. To me this is how a sequel should be. Not trying to redo everything, but instead expand upon it. Making the game bigger, rather than the same size but different. When Vanaheim opened up I never thought it would be that big of an optional area so that was a nice surprise. There are some gripes with the level design. Mostly minor things like not having backtrack potential for optional content. You had to make another roundtrip.

The biggest complaint I have is the end-game content. It felt very lackluster except for the Bersker King and Gná.
The Berserker King is this game valkyrie fights, obviously. Getting all the moves from previous fights and then some. Though I found him easier than Sigrund ever was and some of the dual fights were harder than him. Though I did find, what I think, is a very broken build for huge damage. Which utilizes the Bersker Curiass for the massive extra melee damage after using a relic. Using that + the relic giving time-shift + bifrost storm + the enhancements that gives extra damage during time shift made me able to delete 1 of the Berserkers right out of the gate when being at the same level. It's a really fun combo to pull of though and if you missclick you can fuck it up.

Gná is probably one of my favorite fights though. I know some will say this is the replacement for valkyries and yeah, technically since she is the valkyrie queen, but when I mentioned Berserkers being this games valkyries I'm talking about the gameplay mechanics behind it. Fighting lesser versions and then fight the biggie with all the moves combined. Gná has some old moves of the valkyries of course which made it easier as someone who remembers some of it from GoW and what I didn't remember It was easy to get into once seeing it and remembering the move. The new moves were the ones that took a bit of time to learn.

And that's it for end-game content. The Asgardian wreckage were just busywork and wasn't that interesting except for the Gná fight.
The prison in Niflheim was a nice bit of puzzling though very short and not that difficult. It was a nice reveal with Týr being there but that was just a few lines of dialogue and then just ends with "leave me I have to think"... like, ok? This felt like it could be DLC content in the future. But it seems like they don't like doing DLC's.

I feel like the end-game content was a bit rushed except for the Gná fight. Very lackluster. After killing the King and Gná I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with the cool stuff I get. Wish the game had a New Game+ mode with higher difficulty of course. My guess is that will come after a few months like in the previous game, but just like that game it kind of came too late for me. So maybe this will as well.

So what happens next?
I don't think DLC will happen, unless this is the last game with Kratos, which it might very well be. Then it might get some DLC to continue some of the stuff, like the Týr prison. New Game+ will most likely be a patch. Preferably I would want some DLC with more challenge areas, both puzzles and fight. Similar to Niflheim maze in original game. Somewhere you can progress every run, where you can use end-game items and have to use different kind of gear for different sections for maximizing the effects etc etc.

I think a spin-off game is very likely where we follow Atreus/Lokis adventures. Or this become the new main-line series. Though Loki going around fighting gods of other mythologies is a bit weird imo.
Not sure where they can go with Kratos. He's staying in Midgard to help rebuild... so what "gods" should he kill in another game? And his story was about him leaving his path of destruction behind. This feels like the end of the series... but I hope I'm wrong. Even though both GoW and Ragnarok has less god slaying than previous games it's still somewhat the point of the game. They teased the Egyptian, Japanese and Celtic in GoW 2018(though this could be me and plenty of others just reading too much into it), but after Ragnarok I don't see how they can make it so Kratos goes and fight them. Technically you can just write an event where they wrong him and he can still reject the idea of going to fight but they force his hand, but that feels a bit forced and a bit overdone, pun intended.

Anyway, I've been rabbling on for too long already. I hope we'll see what the future holds. I played on Give me no mercy and will now tackle the God of War difficulty at some point. Not sure if I 100% that save too, but we'll see.

This game is the GOTY for me. It's almost perfect and the complaints I have above are just minor even though it might not seem as such.
I know plenty are saying Elden Ring, but nah. This game for sure for me.

[Tech614]

On the future of the series, next game doesn't have to be a sequel and the series has a history of releasing games out of chronological order. Saying this because they still have an entire time period between Kratos was in Greece and in the nordic realms that is only briefly covered in a comic. There is enough time in there to have him go to Egypt or Celtic mythology between if they want.

Speaking of Celtic, if they do make a game with Kratos after this I think he will somehow find himself in celtic mythology cause they are hints leading that direction anyways. Either him or Atreus is going there at some point. SMS next game is probably not in the franchise though so it will be awhile.

[Xilurm]

On the future of the series, next game doesn't have to be a sequel and the series has a history of releasing games out of chronological order. Saying this because they still have an entire time period between Kratos was in Greece and in the nordic realms that is only briefly covered in a comic. There is enough time in there to have him go to Egypt or Celtic mythology between if they want.

Speaking of Celtic, if they do make a game with Kratos after this I think he will somehow find himself in celtic mythology cause they are hints leading that direction anyways. Either him or Atreus is going there at some point. SMS next game is probably not in the franchise though so it will be awhile.

They haven't made anything other than GoW games since 2005 so I doubt that's going to change. In fact the reason the Norse era was only 2 games is because they'll have more time to work on other mythologies.

[tomten]

SPOILER ALERT:
brief preface, and then i'm going right into talking about story details. stop looking at this thread if you want to play/beat the game without knowing how it ends.

I had to concentrate my eyes quite a lot to not mislook or see anything...
I'm currently enjoying it a lot... Just found out kratos has to die and i'm not liking it...
BUT... I love the game and story so far... Will return here later

[Tech614]

They haven't made anything other than GoW games since 2005 so I doubt that's going to change. In fact the reason the Norse era was only 2 games is because they'll have more time to work on other mythologies.

Cory is heavily hinted to be working on a new IP, and they where also trying to make a new IP before 2018 which got scrapped early in the PS4 life due to the leadership behind it leaving. That's why it took them until nearly the end of the PS4s life to release a game on it. You are going to be vastly disappointed my friend if you expect another GOW game anytime soon. Sony likes diversified portfolios for their game studios, they absolutely want them to create something besides GOW. They aren't MS that locks studios to forever work on Forza, Gears and Halo. Naughty Dog is currently working on a new IP, Sucker Punch went from Infamous to Ghost, Insomniac works on tons of different IPs. SMS is absolutely not going to be a GOW factory forever, that's just the way it worked out due to some unfortunate circumstances at the studio early in the PS4s life.

[minteK917]

No idea where the Kratos was not done well idea came from in your head. Hes literally the best part of this story. His path is obvious, but its done in a way that even if is been done a million times it was earned. Its pretty much a classic of you got a kid an you almost turn 180 on your responsibility, happens irl to a lot of people. I like his believable reaction as a good parent when Atreus lies to him, points it out yet as he says him self even if he doesent believe in any of it, he still follows him and does exactly everything Atreus asks. Which is telling about his growth as a parent, instead of dragging his kid along, he recognize that Atreus is growing and as a good parent its better to be there in the often bad paths your kids get into and help them, then to block all their paths in a miss guided attempt to get them to never make any mistakes.

Personally my GOTY is Elden Ring because its a game that I just got more mileage out of, more fun replays, personally better gameplay and I like that fromsoft art direction more. GOWR strong narrative makes it pretty close. Was a pretty good year for single player games, hopefully Callisto Protocol next month is good. Then 2022 will be one of those pretty sick years.

[Osmeric]

I haven't played the game, but I did enjoy the Carbot video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTJvSPhzbnk

Boy.

[Stickiler]

The through-line in the latter half of the game where Kratos is suddenly wringing his hands about the killing of gods, notably with relation to Heimdall.
This would make sense if it was clearly expressed that his concern was about triggering a war with Asgard, and that's certainly mentioned rather offhandedly in cutscene dialogue, but he's already killed several Asgardians at that point and war is already upon them.
On top of that then he gets all weepy and forlorn about it when he kills Heimdall and that felt completely at odds with everything portrayed as his personality up to that point.

I feel like you completely misunderstood the subtext of where Kratos is at mentally, and that's basically ruined the game for you.

Kratos doesn't give two shits about war with Asgard
Kratos doesn't give two shits about killing Heimdall
Kratos doesn't give two shits about some prophecy that says he'll die, "Death can take me when it earns it"

Kratos DOES care about Atreus, and that goes hand in hand with all his actions throughout the game. He knows Atreus carries his blood and his rage(as evidenced from the first game), and that if Atreus is unprepared for life and that burden, he's going to make a lot of the mistakes that Kratos made, and Kratos knows that those mistakes will ruin Atreus' life(him killing his first family is directly referenced to drive this point).

Kratos is specifically concerned with ensuring Atreus/Loki doesn't start the war "just because the prophecy says so". If there's a war, so be it, but it should be war for the right reason, and it shouldn't be Atreus "leading the giants to war", because Kratos knows what being the trigger/leader/general for that kind of war does to a person, and Atreus deserves a better life than Kratos had.

Kratos gets "weepy and forlorn" about killing Heimdall, not because he killed another Asgardian god(he's shown he doesn't care about that), but that he lost control of his rage, and if he can't learn to control the rage, how is he possibly going to be able to teach Atreus how to control it.


The entire subtext of the game is that Kratos is trying to steer Atreus away from being the war-mongering, civilization-slaying monster that Kratos was essentially forced in to becoming. It's so blatant that I struggle to even call it subtext.

[infinitemeridian]

I won't comment on the story, as I'm still only just leaving Vanaheim, but the game has some pretty glaring flaws that I think are worth noting. Let me preface by saying the game overall is fantastic - the presentation, acting, story, and overall combat are fun. The boss battles are pretty good so far (though nothing has been that standout except maybe Thor but he was weaker than Baldur imo) and the increased enemy variety is awesome. Plus, the game looks and runs amazing (I'm on PS5). That being said:

-Camera is absolutely awful. The lock on is super finicky, especially when switching between enemies, and it seems like it randomly breaks, which is frustrating. I know that's intended for some enemies, but it's super annoying in this game when you can't change the FOV so enemies just disappear from the screen.

-Some dialogue is absolutely dreadful and out of place. I really hate adding modern colloquiums to the characters like "ex" and "dumbass", it's really jarring and is very prevalent. It really throws me out of the game and is pretty cringey to boot. This is something that happens a lot too, it's not like it happens every once in a while.

-The game still has way too much climbing / walking segments. I like the combat but let me actually engage with it more. It seems like every area I'm just doing slow-ass climbing that I thought would be fixed with the blade grapple, but no that's like 10% of the climbing, the rest is slow and monotonous.

-Exploration this time around seems less rewarding, since most of the time it's just chests with crafting materials.

-Characters solving puzzles before you even get a chance. This has been harped on so I won't go into it, but it is patronizing.

-Some fights feel borderline bullshit. Particularly the Hateful, where the red ring comes AFTER the swing animation so it's a diceroll whether to block or roll. Also, sometimes they just randomly explode with no warning.

-The UI is awful, somehow worse than the previous game. Too much text, too many numbers, etc. Apart from the codex, it's pretty ugly too.

-The "rpg" mechanics are tacked on and bloated. Armor, weapons, the "mods" for each weapon, relics, enchantments. It's just boring and uninteresting to me. This should not be a game about "builds", focus on the meat and potatoes and stop throwing this fluff at me. It should really just be the skill tree, and the maybe a relic. The armor should be cosmetic only.

-Music is mixed weird, you can barely hear it most of the time. I don't find it particularly memorable so far either, maybe just the Freya valkyrie fight but even that was not anything to write home about, it's mostly just generic strings and chanting.

[hellhamster]

100% here, some thoughts:

-Kratos character development is great
-BOY character development is great
-Story overall is incredible
-Voice acting is pretty much the best I've ever heard
-Motion capture is pretty much the best I've ever seen
-Dialogue is great. The writing department really shines. I didn't mind the modernist terms
-Freya is a bit too much of a Mary Sue
-Odin could have had more depth as a character other than WAAAA KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
-The setpieces are amazing
-The climbing and basically moving around not exploring or fighting (ie backtracking) is boring
-The soundtrack is indeed mixed poorly, but it is great once deciphered
-Great enemy and boss variety
-Great build variety
-Why the fuck was Ironwood 2 hours long? They could have shoehorned Angrboda in a different manner other than have them collect fucking apples or whatever the fuck
-Kinda lackluster postgame, evolves into a collectathon
-The fuck is with the backseat gaming when there's a puzzle involved? Maybe they will eventually add an option to make Mimir shut the fuck up. He basically tells you the answer right away. Every. Single. Time.
-Endgame optional bosses felt kinda meh, especially compared to the Valkyries. They also all share the same fucking annoying moveset where they backpedal every 3 seconds to charge at you. The Bifrost Berserker was the most interesting optional boss honestly. Gna is basically a weaker Sigrun. The Berserker King felt like a pushover. The triple Berserkers was the hardest and most fun fight in the game, they basically attacked all 3 at once for me, BOY was bugged or something.
-Optional content that isn't quests felt kinda like an afterthought. I was honestly kinda happy there wasn't a Muspelheim trial where you have to kill stuff for an hour without getting hit.

I rate 9.5/10. Some minor flaws in an otherwise incredible gaming experience.

- - - Updated - - -

I feel like you completely misunderstood the subtext of where Kratos is at mentally, and that's basically ruined the game for you.

Kratos doesn't give two shits about war with Asgard
Kratos doesn't give two shits about killing Heimdall
Kratos doesn't give two shits about some prophecy that says he'll die, "Death can take me when it earns it"

Kratos DOES care about Atreus, and that goes hand in hand with all his actions throughout the game. He knows Atreus carries his blood and his rage(as evidenced from the first game), and that if Atreus is unprepared for life and that burden, he's going to make a lot of the mistakes that Kratos made, and Kratos knows that those mistakes will ruin Atreus' life(him killing his first family is directly referenced to drive this point).

Kratos is specifically concerned with ensuring Atreus/Loki doesn't start the war "just because the prophecy says so". If there's a war, so be it, but it should be war for the right reason, and it shouldn't be Atreus "leading the giants to war", because Kratos knows what being the trigger/leader/general for that kind of war does to a person, and Atreus deserves a better life than Kratos had.

Kratos gets "weepy and forlorn" about killing Heimdall, not because he killed another Asgardian god(he's shown he doesn't care about that), but that he lost control of his rage, and if he can't learn to control the rage, how is he possibly going to be able to teach Atreus how to control it.


The entire subtext of the game is that Kratos is trying to steer Atreus away from being the war-mongering, civilization-slaying monster that Kratos was essentially forced in to becoming. It's so blatant that I struggle to even call it subtext.

Very well said. A lot of people apparently missed this very obvious character development.

[Tech614]

The triple Berserkers was the hardest and most fun fight in the game, they basically attacked all 3 at once for me, BOY was bugged or something.

I agree with a lot of your post but not this one. King and Anga are very rng like sigrun on what moves they use so difficulty varies a lot but the 3 berserker fight is always the same and 2 of them share a health bar and are made of paper. With realm shift you can burn the duo down before anything even happens in the fight and it's a simple 1v1.

There are a few crucible challenges that gave me more trouble than the triple berserker fight on give me god of war anyways. Double berserker fight, bi frost using berserker, king and gna where also more difficult imo but king and gna are pretty rng so I can see where they will vary wildly for each player much like Sigrun.

[hellhamster]

I agree with a lot of your post but not this one. King and Anga are very rng like sigrun on what moves they use so difficulty varies a lot but the 3 berserker fight is always the same and 2 of them share a health bar and are made of paper. With realm shift you can burn the duo down before anything even happens in the fight and it's a simple 1v1.

There are a few crucible challenges that gave me more trouble than the triple berserker fight on give me god of war anyways. Double berserker fight, bi frost using berserker, king and gna where also more difficult imo but king and gna are pretty rng so I can see where they will vary wildly for each player much like Sigrun.

Did the 3 berserkers attack you all at once? I tried the burn tactic with a strength and runic build but I was probably underleveled.

[Kumorii]

Did the 3 berserkers attack you all at once? I tried the burn tactic with a strength and runic build but I was probably underleveled.

Have a burn build like that which nuked one of the 2 berserkers at jarnsmida mines. I assume it's similar. You use the relic that gives you realm shift. So no danger of being harmed at all and at max lvl it gives a lot of time.
Rush in, do 3x runic attacks to activate bifröst storm, activate realm shift and continue to delete one of them before they even get a chance to attack.

[Malkiah]

-Some dialogue is absolutely dreadful and out of place. I really hate adding modern colloquiums to the characters like "ex" and "dumbass", it's really jarring and is very prevalent. It really throws me out of the game and is pretty cringey to boot. This is something that happens a lot too, it's not like it happens every once in a while.

glad i'm not the only one who noticed this and was distinctly bothered by it.
anachronistic language in a themed setting is one of my pet peeves - 2018 had a bit of this with Atreus, but i swear to god one of the berserker fights actually says "i'm gonna squish you" and i almost couldn't believe that this was a professionally made game.

also what the almighty fuck is up with Lunda? i was utterly flabbergasted at the choice for that character.
i'm not saying that all 'ye olde tymes' productions need to use vaguely british accents or that boisterous characters don't have their place, but what in the shit was a caricature of a memphis country singer accent doing on a random NPC in a god of war game?
it's like if they had cast dolly parton to play Eowyn in LOTR and everything else about the movies was exactly the same accept every line of dialogue from her was just... dolly parton.
"well shucks, i ain't no woman sugah"
*stab*

-Music is mixed weird, you can barely hear it most of the time. I don't find it particularly memorable so far either, maybe just the Freya valkyrie fight but even that was not anything to write home about, it's mostly just generic strings and chanting.

definitely very generic music overall, and there were several places that i thought the instrumentation was completely inappropriate for the setting.
i'm reasonably certain there's a couple... it's maybe a steel guitar, and a harmonica, and it felt jarringly out of place.
there's nothing inherently wrong with having a low-key sound track, and after 2018s was so good i couldn't expect Rag to be equally amazing (that's just not realistic) but considering how high quality bear mcreary's work is normally it stood out for how not-good it was.