REVIEW: God of War Ragnarok 32604u

And the most awaited day of the year has finally arrived. God of war ragnarok launches next week and here I come to give my verdict on what is one of the most anticipated games of the year. This moment was of paramount importance to me, as the 2018 game marked me a lot and brought new air to one of the biggest PlayStation franchises. 6q3f5o

In case you don't , in the previous game we had what's called a soft reboot, that is, everything is renewed in the franchise, but without excluding the previous stories. I strongly recommend that you play the first game before jumping into the adventures of Ragnarok, but in case you don't, know that the game has a summary to keep you up to date with everything so far. Also, note that this text may have some first game spoilers.

history and narrative 6f5a1q

This will be the least I'm going to touch here, since anything beyond what was officially announced could ruin your experience. That said, the game starts a few years after the end of God of War (2018). Kratos and Atreus are living in their house in Midgard and fimbulwinter is at its apex, wreaking havoc across the nine realms.

atreus is trying to understand his "Loki" side and how the Giants' prophecy will fit in with Ragnarok. This leads Kratos to have to decide between being stuck in the past and scared, or facing it to be the father the boy needs.

With this premise, the story manages to excellently delve into each character it introduces. The previous game focused a lot on the two protagonists and their relationship. In the new journey, we have that again, but in a much more comprehensive way, giving space for the construction of new bonds.

In addition, the narrative of the second game is much more accurate, not leaving the player as bored as happens in the first hours of exploration of the first. Around here, we always have something going on and all the ends that open, in one way or another, close.

And that goes right in front of the game's text which is as good as it was before or even better. We have moments to break down in tears, to be very pissed off and also to have a good laugh. This spills over into exploration and side quests that show the characters' relationship and detail Kratos' backstory, canonizing events from the previous games once and for all.

Another point that won me a lot and makes a total difference is that the game assumes that you did all in the previous game, so facing the Valkyries, opening the shrines and so many other things that we saw before are not placed as a mere commentary, but as an essential part of the story.

A Santa Monica Studio brings with this game an improvement in everything that concerns the narrative part of the franchise. I loved the decisions they made and the adaptations they made and I it that my Asgard "Marvel" look made me fall off my horse.

Gameplay 106d5e

If you had any fears regarding this topic, know that God of war ragnarok brings with it improvements that I didn't even expect for the gameplay. It is good to that the game is a continuation, so we have all the essence of the previous game, but with some changes and improvements that make a difference.

Movement and Combat 1n3m24

Starting with the movement, I felt that the camera is a little farther from the back of Kratos, enough to not cause more dizziness and discomfort when the dick is breaking. In addition, the protagonist got tired of being slow in this game and goes back to doing maneuvers in the style of old games, being able to climb walls and jump holes using the Blades of Chaos, generating new dynamics in gameplay.

Unlike the previous game, the triangle button gained some new functions. If before it served only to call the Leviathan Ax back, now each weapon has a special function. The Ax gains a special ice move and the Blades can be rotated to generate fire.

Last but not least, Atreus is back to helping us with his arrows and spells and the boy is more efficient, more agile and with a new kit of magic arrows. I won't go into this too much, but I can say that you will have the pleasure of playing with the BOY at some points in the story, allowing for even greater variety in gameplay.

About the abilities of both characters, something that bothered me a little is having to acquire some combos and improvements that we had already seen and used a lot in the other game. Are they good combos? Yes, but you end up missing variety with some things.

Of these repetitions, what I liked least, in fact, were the runic attacks. I still have very what to explore in the game, but I feel that repeating the runic attacks was not the best decision. Yes, we have a lot of new ones, but having to pick up the old ones all over again with no explanation is kind of boring.

Customization and exploration 5w5749

In customization, we're back with armor and weapons tools, which add the most diverse effects to them, from bonuses related to luck or dodge, or even a healing benefit or some element.

We also have a very interesting variety of shields now, allowing players to create combat dynamics, being more aggressive or staying more defensive. What I used most, by far, was the shield focused on parrying blows. With it, the more blows you parry, the more energy it carries, allowing you to deliver a charged blow by pressing the “L1” button twice in a row.

And speaking of trimming, the game brought a new “prompt” for enemies, now in blue. They flash with two circles that indicate that you can stop an attack using the shield skill by pressing L1 twice.

This leads us to the amulets that, unlike the mess of the previous game, in which we had this in each part of the armor, here we are improving spaces and collecting or making new amulets. They offer improvements to Kratos' general stats and offer unique bonuses when you have a set. Examples of sets are three Muspelheim amulets or three Vanaheim amulets. When using them, you will have a unique benefit that will be described in them.

In of exploration, the Santa Monica Studio didn't lie when he said we would be able to explore the nine realms. The best thing about this is that the game was even more creative and did not reuse the same travel system as the previous game, but in a much more practical way, using the world tree straight from Fast Travel points.

About what we can find in exploration, we have the return of Odin's crows, Muspelheim Challenges, lots of chests and of course collectibles that add to the lore of the game. One of these collectibles is poems and I ask you to pay close attention to them, as each one is a reference to a different game distributed by Sony.

Another thing that can be placed in the exploration field is the berserkers, the “Valkyries” of this game. There are several scattered throughout the kingdoms and each one offers a different challenge, some requiring more strength and others, more skill in dodging or defense. There are even a few more challenges released after finishing the game, but these I can't name without it becoming a mega spoiler.

Enemies 5cp6c

The other game was great as an introduction and return of Kratos, but it lacked a lot of variety of enemies and few epic battles. The good news is that God of war ragnarok fix these two points. With each new realm, we have a wide range of new enemies, allowing you to test new combos and get hit in a variety of ways too.

For bringing enemies from Asgard now, the game features a new element called Bifrost. It basically "eats" some of your health, leaving you with a curse. As long as it's active, it's like you don't have that health part, so it's easier to die. Of course, this goes both ways and you can throw Bifrost at enemies as well.

In addition, the game brings back the feeling of the first games in the franchise when facing the main bosses in the story, bringing some "quick time events" that make you feel the battles. Along with that, I felt that the game had more of the famous “setpieces”, scenes with a lot of rush, combat and situations that border on the impossible, but that are very striking.

Performance 58a2u

PlayStation Brasil has kindly provided us with a copy of the showmetech and only then was it possible for me to do this review. That said, I played the game entirely on PlayStation 4 and luckily it's very well optimized for that platform. It takes a little while to load the first time it opens, but then everything works smooth and perfect.

I only felt a slight discomfort with the loading screens when I had to face an enemy like the berserkers that end up killing you many times and, precisely in them, the loading ends up taking longer. This may be resolved in future updates and I hope it is.

A curious thing is that in PS4 the game weighs about 108 GB. Yes, he is bem large and is even justified by the content it offers. However, in PS5, where the game should have some graphical improvements, the game weighs around 84 GB, a good GB less.

Visual and Sound a2j5

God of War (2018) is still a game today very beautiful, especially when we talk about his art direction — made by Brazilian Rafa Grasseti in both games. That said, I felt that there were subtle improvements in the game when it came to the graphics, but it's not like it has much to improve at this point.

The game gave a good revamp to its HUD and also to the interface where we changed the equipment. The game's "RPG" system is still confusing and doesn't seem to change anything in practice, but it's much easier to understand how each area works and access each item.

The area where I saw the most improvement in this aspect was in facial expressions. They were already great in the previous one and here we have more moments where we were able to analyze every point of the characters' faces. This makes the immersion in each scene even greater and would certainly be sorely missed if it wasn't so good.

I played the entire game in Portuguese and, like the first one, I loved the localization in our language. The voices of the characters we already know are the same, with emphasis on the Ricardo Juárez (Kratos), Felipe Volpato (Atreus), Milton Levy (Mim) and Beatrice Villa (Freya). In the new characters, I really liked the voice of Odin and Thor, being only Tyr's voice that I thought didn't fit very well.

I know most of you will play with the Portuguese audio, so know that it's on the same level as the previous one. There is an occasional small issue where voices arrive early or late, but really, it wasn't a bother.

The soundtrack is back in the hands of Bear McCreary and many scenes wouldn't have the same impact without her. We have already known tracks from the previous one, such as the game's theme and Faye's theme, but we are also presented with new situations that deserve attention because they make all the difference.

The sound team also nailed the sound effects, bringing a lot of immersion in combat and action scenes. Like the soundtrack, the combat would lose much of its value if it didn't have the sound quality it has.

Verdict 62424m

After all you've read, it would be very ironic for me to say that it's not worth playing God of war ragnarok. I've mentioned it before, but luckily this has become one of my favorite games and maybe my favorite game in the entire franchise. The story is very competent, they improved the narrative - that was the most flawed part of the other, in my opinion - and managed to bring the spirit of the previous games to the surface without losing the essence of the new face of the franchise.

The only negative thing about all of this is the general price of the games that is hurting any wallet. The game is being released in two versions, one for PS4 and one for PS5. The suggested price in PlayStation Store is R$299 on the PS4 version and R$349 on the PS5 version. If you buy the PS5 version, you will have access to both, but if you buy the PS4 version, you will have to pay R$50 for the “improvements” of the newer console version.

God of war ragnarok will be officially launched on the XNUMXth of November to PlayStation 4 e PlayStation 5 and I hope from the bottom of my heart that you can enjoy it as much as I do. If you have any questions, use the comments field and if you have a little time, check out our Gotham Knights review.