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The 2018 reboot of God of War was a game of mythmaking – legends and lands lay just out of reach, confined to discussions on the periphery of a single-cut story. By contrast, Ragnarök is a game of myth living – you’ll get the delayed gratification of witnessing these wonders in the flesh. You’ll meet gods. Change worlds. By showing you all this, the game loses some of its folkloric power, but it’s a credit to its makers that you will frequently be stunned by its spectacle. It’s an adventure of growth: of fathers, of mothers, of children, siblings, friends, allies and enemies – and of the team who made it. There’s a lot to love in Ragnarök, and it somehow sheds little of its narrative potency by zooming out and spanning the Nine Realms.
There is also familiarity. This is a game of pure sequel craft. That, for some, might be a disappointment. After all, its predecessor was a lauded ‘Game of the Year’ winner. As a result Ragnarök is the biggest game of 2022 – PlayStation has LeBron James, John Travolta and Ben Stiller doing the TV ad, for Christ’s sake. The anticipation for this game to be as significant as the first is stratospheric. But Ragnarök’s first hours raised that dreaded question, “What have they been doing for all that time?”
And then it happens. Developer Sony Santa Monica is confident enough to withhold the answer. A few hours into our 36-hour playthrough the full craft of Ragnarök was revealed. It is enormous, with variety, depth, and seamlessly designed connective tissue that leads essential quests into optional tasks, into other discoveries, and back out again. This was similar in some ways in the first game, but the breadth and scope of Ragnarök means that achieving this with such fluidity is masterful.
Fimbulwinter has come to Midgard, and with it you get a frosty reception. The Lake of Nine is now frozen solid, and your adventure weaves between realms more liberally than it ever did with the first game. Kratos and Atreus meet friends and foes both fresh and familiar, and its ensemble cast deliver more dynamics and more perspectives. But it never forgets the roots of its character drama. Christopher Judge puts in a remarkably subtle and effective second performance as Kratos, who continues to develop and deepen throughout the course of the game. Sunny Suljic is in many ways even better as Atreus, and the game’s exploration of their relationship – and how parents and children conflict and contrast and complement – is so well explored. The rest of the game’s cast are similarly strong albeit smaller component parts.
The original story ended just as things were getting truly interesting, and Ragnarök delivers on the promise of answers and resolutions – plus twists and turns that provide surprises and motivations that you didn’t expect. What suffers most is pacing. With a bigger story, wider cast and more complex structure comes pacing oddities that the first game avoided. These aren’t major, but similar to The Last of Us 2 you can see the rhythm suffer at the hands of complex narrative necessities. Oddly, too, is the fact that the titular mythical apocalypse remains strangely absent for a fair amount of the proceedings. But it’s the small moments that really hit different. Several, which are under one of the tightest NDAs we’ve ever seen, deliver gut punches, poignant reflection and beats of real anguish, plumbing to some depth when the stakes finally ratchet up.
In combat, every criticism of the original game has been addressed. There are dozens of enemy types, and more than enough blockbuster God of War boss moments to satisfy even the most ardent fans of the original trilogy. The Leviathan axe – the boomerang-like device of icy death which Kratos employs to decimate his enemies – is as brilliant as ever. There are new moves, new abilities and new combat styles. A particular new favourite sees you recalling the axe, but tapping L1 just before it lands in your hands. It sends Kratos launching into the air to catch the axe mid-leap before smashing down to the ground for a surrounding ice attack. Glorious.
In the end, the growth of Kratos and Atreus as parent and child, protege and apprentice, is mirrored in the game’s making. And the game is all the better for it. When God of War reboot genius and maestro Cory Barlog announced he would not be directing Ragnarök, there was fear and worry from players. Would the sequel surpass the first? Could anyone else fill Barlog’s shoes? The proof is here. There is a moment in Ragnarök where Kratos realises he needs not to show Atreus to survive, but how to live. The result is the PS5’s crowning glory to date. By relinquishing control, trusting in Ragnarök’s director Eric Williams and the rest of the team – by giving them stewardship but not domineering their destination – the growth of Sony Santa Monica is right there on the screen.
