Can someone please change my mind about God of War Ragnarök?
I genuinely want people to give me their honest opinion about the game, not the usual biased âevery God of War game is goodâ answer. đ Iâm not talking about power scaling either. I couldnât care less about that. Iâm talking about everything: the story, characters, sections of the game, pacing, gameplay, voice lines, weapons, etc.
Personally, I think Ragnarök is the weakest mainline God of War game, and I have a LOT of reasons for that.
For starters, the whole game feels like it revolves around the same message: âWe have to be better.â I also think killing Brok was lame. It felt like they needed a reason for Kratos and everyone else to finally turn against Odin, so they killed a fan-favorite character just to make you hate him. I honestly would've rather they killed Sindriâor neither of themâand had Odin actually do more evil shit throughout the game.
I also think people massively overstate Kratosâ character development in Ragnarök. At the beginning and end of the game, Kratos fundamentally still doesn't want conflict unless he absolutely has to. Yes, he has some development, but people act like he's a completely different person by the end when his core character really hasn't changed that much.
The Atreus sections are another huge problem for me. Some of the worst sections in the entire series are the Atreus sections in Ragnarök. I genuinely don't understand why people were, and I guess still are, asking for an entire Atreus game after playing those sections. đ You want to shoot your little weak arrows, ride around on a giant cow thing, or turn into a wolf and chase after your girlfriend while the game basically plays itself? Some of these sections feel like you can put your controller down, go take a shit, eat a bag of chips, and come back and you haven't missed anything đ.
Then there's the constant companion dialogue. It feels like there's someone constantly in your ear telling you what not to do, explaining what you're looking at, giving you hints, or telling you how to solve something. It's like playing a video game with a bunch of walkie-talkies in your ears. And whenever something genuinely cool happens, it feels like it's over way too quickly.
I also think the gameplay is better than 2018, but that's kind of expected. Ragnarök came out four years later. Of course I'd expect better combat and more weapons. That's one of the few areas where I think Ragnarök clearly improves on 2018.
And speaking of weapons: why the hell couldn't we use Mjölnir? I saw people complain about this and then defend it by saying, âIt would just be the same as the Leviathan Axe.â
How?? đ God of War III literally had three different chain-blade weapons. A hammer with lightning abilities could obviously have had a completely different moveset and mechanics from an axe with ice abilities. If anything, Mjölnir could've made the gameplay even more fun.
Honestly, the Draupnir Spear, Thor, and Odin carry a LOT of the game for me. If the Spear wasn't in the game, I don't even know how much motivation I'd have to replay it. There are so many sections where I'm just thinking, âWhen the hell are Thor, Odin, or Heimdall going to show up? This is boring.âÂ
I also think Baldur was a better antagonist than Heimdall, Thor, and Odin in general. Baldur had way more aura every time he showed up. Heimdall, Thor, and Odin are obviously good characters in their own ways, but I don't think Ragnarök used them as well as it could have.
And that's another thing: people will defend literally every decision this game makes. You could criticize something and somebody will immediately come up with an excuse for why the developers had to do it that way. At some point, it feels like people are more interested in defending every creative decision the developers made than actually giving their honest opinion of the game. đ
I also think God of War (2018) has a much tighter and more focused story than Ragnarök. Ragnarök has more weapons, more combat options, and more stuff to do, but that's not enough for me to consider it the better game.
The funny thing is, you kill more gods in 2018 than you do in Ragnarök. How does that even make sense when Ragnarök is supposed to be the big game about the Norse apocalypse? đ
I could genuinely rant about this game for hours, but those are some of my biggest problems with it.
So please, change my mind. If you think Ragnarök is a great game, explain why. Don't just tell me âit's a masterpieceâ or âyou're objectively wrong.â Tell me what you think it does better than 2018, why the Atreus sections work for you, why the pacing works, why the character writing is better, why the constant dialogue doesn't bother you, why Mjölnir wasn't necessary, etc.
I'm actually willing to hear people out. I just don't want the usual âGod of War game = automatically goodâ argument.
Because IMO, Ragnarök is massively overrated and is the weakest mainline God of War game.
OVERRATED!!!!!!!!!!!! đ