God of War – Ragnarok Test

teasers

Kratos continues to improve with his new detour into the Nordic world of gods, but weakens precisely where the predecessor particularly stood out.

All screenshots and video scenes are from GamersGlobal

Series reboots are tricky. Trying to use it to breathe new life into a series can easily backfire. Even if the result is really good, that doesn’t stop the fans from going on the barricades in advance like at DmC – Devil May Cry (in the test). What santa monica studio 2018 with God of War (in the test: 9.0) tried it was doubly tricky: On the one hand, it did a lot of things differently in terms of game mechanics, which made the adventure justifiably vulnerable, especially from the point of view of series fans like me. On the other hand, the studio burdened itself with the backstory of the main character Kratos, which began at the end of the PS2 era. And in doing so, they shifted the plot from Greek to Norse mythology. God of War was therefore both a sequel and a reboot and could easily have failed with this combination. That didn’t happen, on the contrary!

But what about the sequel? God of War – Ragnarok out? Can the sequel iron out the last weaknesses of the new gameplay while maintaining the narrative class? I’ve already played it for you on PS5 and I’ll tell you below and in the test video embedded above why I like Ragnarök a little bit better in almost every respect, but in which aspect it doesn’t quite capture the magic of its predecessor.

You will encounter a whole series of bosses and mini-bosses. This crocodile-like Dreki is far from the tallest of them.

Strong staging, less thrilling

Even after the change of the leading developer one could guess that God of War – Ragnarök in puntco staging will rely on a more or less unchanged principle without visible loading times. As usual, there is nothing here that pulls you out of the adventure. Only those who fall out of their shoes in combat will see a (relatively short on PS5) loading screen. Otherwise everything runs seamlessly, even the transition from a game scene to one of the cutscenes calculated live in the engine and vice versa is fluid. A bit of tricking is done and often much more than would be necessary on the PS5 with the fast SSD. But Ragnarök is also coming out for PS4. On the latter, the game would probably have trouble reloading the graphics if I didn’t keep crawling slowly through small tunnels or crevices.

The staging is still strong and elements like these hidden loading times weren’t really a disruptive factor for me. However, the story didn’t pull me as emotionally as in the previous one. It’s not so much because there aren’t any emotional scenes. In fact, there are even a few that are more intense than in the direct predecessor. But the game doesn’t consistently maintain that intensity at such a high level. There are also more scenes in between that don’t bring much added value in terms of narrative. However, this is complaining on a high level. In terms of narrative and atmosphere, the predecessor was exceptionally good, even when compared beyond the action genre. So the height of the fall was high and there can be no question of a total fall. Don’t expect Ragnarok to surpass its predecessor in this regard, though.

Atreus isn’t just Kratos’ sidekick. You are always walking in his shoes. What is striking here is that the sections of the game with Atreus are much easier; even too easy.

Selective open world

For my action-adventures, I still prefer the linear variety, or at least ones that you can play linearly if you want. What about Ragnarok? There are a few parts of the world that have an open-world character, but I don’t have to deal with the side stuff. I would even go as far as to say that sticking to the main story path doesn’t put you at a significant disadvantage in Kratos’ development – even though I’ve completed a number of side quests myself. Sure, if you don’t increase your maximum rage or hit points with collectibles, it’s a little harder. Even then, you shouldn’t encounter unsolvable problems, especially since checkpoints are created between the individual phases in the larger boss fights on the normal difficulty level.

If you were afraid that Ragnarök would become too much of an open-world game, I can give you the all-clear. The areas mostly become more open, especially later on, and you will always encounter optional bosses, which can be very tough on the first try. But the structure remains linear despite the selective openings of the world and is much more adapted to character progression than open-world titles. You can also see that in the armor system, which I think is unsuitable for God of War. I still have to deal with it, so that Kratos isn’t too weak against the opponents who are constantly getting stronger, but it all happens in a much more orderly manner and doesn’t bore me as much as it was partly the case in the predecessor. I could have done without it though.

Of course, the fighting in God of War Ragnarok would be what I would miss the most. But I don’t want to miss the puzzles either, which I (here one on the story path) had a lot of fun even in the optional area.

More scope, more variety

In God of War Ragnarök there are always passages in which the developers place too many standard fights – especially on the way to the home straight, you could have dosed it better. However, the battles offer greater variety as the number of enemy types increases. Sometimes it’s more of a variation, which then demands more facets with their special skills and attack patterns. However, you can take demands literally, because I found Ragnarök on the medium level of difficulty significantly more demanding than the first adventure in the Nordic world of gods. However, I hardly ever used resurrection stones because it felt like cheating too much. However, Sony Santa Monica clearly intends to use them to a certain extent.

But not only the variety of normal enemy types is growing, but also that of the mini bosses and Obermotze. While both categories in the predecessor felt mainly made up of trolls or similar beasts, it is now also against the crocodile-like Dreki, horned creatures from Norse mythology and many other enemy packs that I don’t want to spoil for you. I especially like the big boss fights on your way through all nine worlds of Norse mythology better. I especially have more fun with the bosses, as this time there are some really big chunks that Kratos could easily grab with one of their claws, and will if you’re not careful. In any case, you can look forward to a few, as well as a lot of scope. Because even if you follow the main quest relatively strictly, you should need roughly 25 hours at the medium difficulty level. Depending on the side quest effort also considerably more.

Author: Benjamin Braun, Editor: Hagen Gehritz (GamersGlobal)

Opinion: Benjamin Brown

With its predecessor, Santa Monica Studio undoubtedly delivered a strong piece of action that also captivated me more than most other games in terms of narrative. However, I was not completely happy with the first God of War in Norse mythology. Because the shoulder perspective made the fights very confusing at times, and I just don’t like that my chances in battle depend more on my current armor than on my skill. However, the realization that God of War Ragnarök only provides limited improvements in these two points must be countered with a much more important one. Namely that Ragnarök does its job better than its predecessor in almost every other area!

The graphics on PS5 are absolutely fantastic apart from minor niggles. There are more and more spectacular boss fights and generally a much larger variety of enemy types. The fact that there is just one more weapon to supplement the frost ax and chaos blades is made up for by the fact that (mostly indirectly controllable) NPCs accompany me. And also because I don’t just fight as Kratos. What I also like better for long stretches is the general game structure. Especially in the first half of the game, the world opens up more selectively in the meantime, which makes Ragnarök feel more linear in a pleasant way. In the later course, the open-world-like offer then becomes almost a bit too much and distracts too much from the essentials at the expense of the dramaturgy at exactly the wrong time.

However, it is primarily an offer that I can accept, but also simply turn down without any significant disadvantages on my path through the main quest. However, you should not do the latter across the board. Because there you can expect not only more standard fights, of which the developers also install a few more here and there in the story missions than should be. The side quests also await you with story-heavy bonus orders and clever puzzles again and again.

The area where Ragnarok falls slightly short of its predecessor is in the emotional depth of the story. That’s not to say that Kratos and Atreus’ new adventure isn’t exciting or doesn’t come up with a number of twists and turns, some of which are surprising. But apart from a few particularly intense moments, the story didn’t quite pull me in like the previous one. But that’s really complaining at the highest level. Because in this point the predecessor was outstanding and difficult to top. In addition, that doesn’t change the fact that Santa Monica Studio can easily increase again with Gof of War Ragnarök. If you’re only a little interested in action games, you can’t avoid this game.

God of War – Ragnarok PS5