LogFAQs > #969203842

https://www.polygon.com/reviews/23438548/god-of-war-ragnarok-review-ps5-ps4-release-date

In 2019, I bought my first PlayStation 4. It was the first Big Console Id had since the days of the slim PlayStation 2, and it came with God of War (2018), a new game from a series I wasnt too familiar with. But I fired it up on my shiny new toy, keen to try something different. A big part of my God of War experience something that didnt click until later was the one-off novelty of playing a big blockbuster on a new console. And it was fine. It was OK. Sitting down to write this, I realize now that the finer points of the story were almost forgettable, which is kind of what happens when you follow the game-as-a-prestige-movie story path that seems to color a lot of the AAA landscape.

In 2022, God of War Ragnark has improved on that recipe, taking a page from the success and spectacle of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It is, in essence, the most non-Marvel Marvel story Ive seen in a game, from the eminently recognizable story beats heroes face difficult dilemmas, friends become enemies and vice versa, boy meets girl, beloved characters die, and so on to its practiced use of comedy and tragedy (the two classical storytelling genders) to push the players buttons.

Like its predecessor(s), Ragnark is the distillation of an everyman power fantasy, in which you enact powerful and badass acts of redemptive vengeance upon your enemies while retaining the moral high ground; you are, after all, playing a struggling parent with a whole lot of hang-ups. And while the writing does a much better job at building out the characters and their respective places in this world, the end result is a passably good but unevenly paced experience that, more often than not, feels like something I could binge on Disney Plus in any given week.

Like all art and entertainment, games reflect the cultural contexts and trends surrounding their development, and when theres big money involved, it means, more often than not, following a path that has already proved effective for the bottom line. Besides the Sopranos-like undercurrents, Ragnark also channels toned-down antihero qualities of The Boys, spatters of aspirational Tarantino dialogue, and the frat pack era of filmmaking the latter is evident in the character of Freyr, who, besides being a huge stoner, fails to show the blistering X-factor appeal that supposedly draws elves, dwarves, men, women, children, and stray dogs into his orbit. While some may delight at the banter when Thor shows up at Kratos house, it can feel a bit like eating reheated leftovers, albeit well-voiced ones. This isnt a complaint about derivative media; all our stories are derivative. But how you do it matters and when storytellers are generally too keen on remixing the hits without adding anything new, it means you have to work twice as hard to pull off a banger that still feels fresh and invigorating.

There is nothing life-changing about the way Ragnark wraps up, but it delivers the same pleasant satisfaction that I get from finishing a Marvel movie that lets me run on autopilot. Even where the game can be frustrating, rote, and uneven, its also safe and comforting, like a rerun of Cheers where everyone knows your name and you know that youll never get thrown out of the bar. God of War Ragnark, as the sum of its many disparate and often conflicting parts and influences, isnt here to reinvent the wheel. But its single-minded desire to emulate all the hallmarks of an epic Hollywood narrative will remain both its biggest weakness and its enduring source of success. And like many, many Hollywood success stories, it shouldnt feel this weird to say that something of this scope and scale is just OK.

In terms of design they also mention frustration with the closedness of the levels, that the game's systems never get to a level of complexity or interaction they promise, and that the game has many pacing issues.

Not so sure this game can beat Elden Ring for GOTY anymore