Gluttony. Overindulgence. Intemperance. These are words I would use to describe God of War Ragnarok. Take heed, my loyal followers, and I promise there is no reason to break out the torches and pitchforks…yet. Notice I didn’t use the words dreadful, foul, or just plain bad to describe the latest tales of Kratos and Atreus. There is a lot I like about God of War Ragnarok, but my time with it felt like a kid who ate all his Halloween candy in one sitting. I couldn’t escape the feeling I had consumed too much and was left rolling on the floor in discomfort from a stomach ache. I am not here to discourage you from playing the game. I am here to explain why I developed growing contempt for God of War Ragnarok.
Our story picks up a few years after God of War (2018). Fimblewinter has started to settle in. Freya still hunts the pair. Atreus, creeping into his puberty years, has begun sneaking out behind Kratos’s back to search for lost Giant artifacts hoping it would help decipher his role in Ragnarok. Naturally, this draws the ire of Odin who finally decides to pay the two a visit. Hoping to avoid the legendary Norse event that spells the end of Odin, the Allfather tries to strike a peace deal with the pair. Kratos, having enough of the gods stabbing him in the back, turns down the Allfathers’ request, and Kartos and Arteus go on the run to escape the fury of the Norse gods.
Combat in God of War Ragnarok hasn’t changed much in comparison to God of War (2018). The camera is pulled back slightly, but it doesn’t seem to help with dealing with mobs of enemies. Most enemies feel like hacking away at a tree. I know the game isn’t designed to one-shot enemies but driving the Leviathan axe or Chaos blades into an enemy only to watch a fraction of their health bars tick down causes my eye to roll in irritation. These are legendary weapons. I would believe they need to chip away at giant rock golems, but for a basic raider? Luckily, the boss fights don’t suffer from this issue and their spectacle outshines the bosses from the 2018 title. I applaud the effort, but I still don’t find God of War combat enjoyable.
Some of this blame could be laid squarely at the feet of the gear system that’s been hamfisted into this series. Similar to the previous title, most of this gear just provides mundane stats. Yes, these stats could be used as the solution to merely chipping away at an enemy’s health bar in combat. This problem persists early on before the gear system is introduced. None of the gear set bonuses felt rewarding enough to hunt for, and quite frankly, I am playing God of War to rip monsters in half. I am not here to hunt for bracers with 5 extra strength. This gear system does not work and in all honesty, should be overhauled or removed.
It may seem like there is not much new on the combat front, but God of War Ragnarok does have a new trick up its sleeve: Atreus combat. As mentioned, Arteus has gotten into a habit of sneaking out at night to search for Giant artifacts. As a result, there are some chapters where we get to play as Arteus, and the game shifts to focus on his archery skills. Enemies seem less likely to bum-rush you so you are free to fire arrows at will. You do have a few melee attacks that you can use to finish off enemies including transforming into a wolf. It’s honestly just fine. I don’t detest it, but I frequently wondered when we were going to get back to playing as Kratos.
Fortunately for God of War Ragnarok, characters are king. It is a phrase I have uttered many times, and as I have grown more fond of storytelling, I see how true the phrase can be. You can have the most epic journey planned for your heroes, but if your heroes can’t inspire then no one will hear your tale. I may have a distaste for the combat within God of War Ragnarok, but I will not deny the work the writers have put into this cast of characters. Kratos perfectly embodies all the worries a father has for his child, but is still willing to trust him when the time is right. Arteus is the teenager lusting for more and wondering where his place in the world is. Odin, resembling something close to Logan Ray from Succession, subtly manipulates everyone to fuel his obsessions. Thor is brainwashed by his father into thinking his only worth is one of destruction. There has been a lot of hype surrounding HBO’s take on The Last of Us. Personally, I think HBO picked the wrong franchise. These characters have so much depth to them, and I believe a show based on the God of War Ragnarok would be superior.
If the characters are great why am I am claiming the game is overindulgent? It ultimately boils down to pacing. This game’s story could honestly be told in ten hours, but my play-through is clocking in about thirty hours. The pace of this story is glacial. You will get a small morsel of story and then have to slog through combat and puzzles just for another crumb of story.
Some defenders of the game might claim that I am being dramatic. The pacing isn’t that bad, they will cry. I only need one word to make these jeerings fall silent: Jotunheim. I can almost hear them recoiling in disgust. There is a chapter within God of War Ragnarok where Arteus falls asleep and wakes to find himself in the Giant’s mystical realm, Jotunheim. There Arteus meets a girl named Angrboda. She claims to have all the answers Arteus is looking for, but can’t give them to him in a reasonable amount of time. Instead, we must journey to her camp, then help her shop for items she needs for her animals, help her clear out a nest of vermin, and then rescue a wolf from her evil grandmother. What bit of information do we get out of all of this? Just more reasons for Arteus to start Ragnarok and kill Odin. Something he was already planning on doing. Calling this game padded is an understatement.
What is worse is there are some bits of the story that God of War Ragnarok just refuses to answer. I obviously need to dive a bit into spoiler territory to make these claims. So if you are looking to avoid spoilers, this would be the time you walk away knowing that I am probably in the minority of people tired of the bloat that is mainstream gaming.
Arteus is trying to avoid Ragnarok because it is foretold that Thor will kill Kratos during Ragnarok. Hoping to avoid his father’s death, Arteus decides to take Odin up on an offer he made early in the game: come work for him in Asgard. Hoping he could use Odin’s vast collection of knowledge to both kill Odin and spare his father, he journeys to Asgard to accept Odin’s offer. There he learns about the rift in Odin’s Great Lodge. Odin, in his youth, had attempted to look into it but was blinded in his right eye. He then found a bit of a mask with strange writing he could not decipher. He had hoped Arteus could decipher the mask with his ability to read any language and be able to locate the other pieces of the mask so he could finally look into the rift.
At the end of the game, Kratos has beaten Odin, but he is able to break the ground beneath them. They all fall into Odin’s personal chambers where the rift is hidden. Odin gives Artues the opportunity to gaze into the rift with the mask giving them answers to any questions they might have. Arteus at that moment snaps the mask in half destroying both the mask and the rift.
I am a little irritated that we never got the answer behind the mask and the rift. I know these items are basically just mystery boxes. To those unaware of the concept, the mystery box is a literary device meant to be mysterious but also drive the plot of the story. A magical McGauffin you might say. Think of Rey’s identity in the recent Star Wars films, the disappearance in The Leftovers, and most famously the island in Lost. The rift is only meant to drive Odin’s madness; showing that he would gladly trade it all in just to unlock its secrets. Naturally, this ripples out to the other characters. Thor is so willing to drown himself in booze to numb himself to the fact that his father only sees him as a tool to overpower his foes. Heimdall, seeing how much Odin covets this knowledge, spitefully uses his power to perceive people’s true intentions as a way to climb higher in Odin’s ranks. Odin’s quest is the driving wedge between Kratos and Arteus’s relationship. Artues, desperate to learn about the Giants and Ragnarok, turns his back on Kratos and takes advantage of Odin’s need for answers. Yes, as a way to get these character to interact with each other, the rift and the mask fully fulfills this purpose.
However, watching Arteus destroy the mask at the end only made me sigh in frustration. Again, I recognize the mask and the rift are just there to drive the character’s actions, but I was hoping it could be a little bit more. I have always been curious about how Kratos reached the lands of Norse mythology. Surely, if there was a Greek pantheon, they wouldn’t be content only ruling over Greece and letting the Norse gods have their own turf. God of War III showcased the world being destroyed by Kratos’s actions. You can’t tell me Kratos just jumped over the fence and everything was right as rain in Norse mythology land. I understand that Kratos’s origin is not the story God of War Ragnarok wants to tell. Alas, I am still sitting here wondering why the series hasn’t explained it. I am not looking for a grand cosmic defining answer. I will accept the simplest of answers, but I would still like an answer nonetheless.
In fact, God of War Ragnarok seems thoroughly uninterested in Kratos as a character. Most of the plot is driven by Arteus while Kratos is mainly tagging along. Yes, the relationship between Kratos and Arteus is the highlight, but why don’t we get to see more of Faye, Atrues’s mother, and Kratos’s relationship? What makes these questions surrounding Kratos worse is it seems like the series wants to move away from him and focus on Arteus. Meaning these questions might never be answered. In the end, Atreus and Kratos go their separate ways because the two recognize they need space to grow. A touching way to end, but I can’t escape the feeling they are building to an Artues-lead God of War. Not the worst idea I ever heard. They are moving the series forward in a different direction and already have a framework for it. Honestly, I am not sure I would be interested in spending sixty dollars on the solo adventures of Artues. Not because he is a bad character. I just come to God of War for Kratos, and this recent title doesn’t seem to share my view on him.
I recognize I am the minority. More people are playing one game for a longer period of time. Though I may cry the end is nigh for many live services, many of them have gained a foothold in popular culture. Call of Duty. League of Legends. Fortnite. Games have evolved to be played over a greater length of time. No amount of soapbox rambling will change that. Do I fault developers for evolving as well? Of course not. All the love and praise God of War Ragnarok and Elden Ring have received are enough to show that people want these monstrous titles. But not me. I will not deny that I wept when I attended the funeral of a character who died in the game, but I will also not deny that I was glad to be done with God of War Ragnarok. I felt that I had just walked out of a buffet. I had stuffed my face with so much processed food that my stomach ached. Engorged by all that I had consumed. Many go to these buffets and are never bothered by these feelings. I, in my older age, can’t ignore them. I, no longer go to these buffets. I try to control my portions and get satisfaction in what I consume. Similar to my eating habits, I question how much longer I will be able to stomach these overlong mainstream games.
