- Code provided by the publisher
- Tested on PS5 in fluidity mode without any HUD for maximum immersion
- Main adventure finished in 25 hours without the auxiliary quests
- Mode of difficulty The balance above all easier than in the first opus
If snow-capped crowns God of War you miss and that the axe throw on brown turkey is your guilty pleasure at every Thanksgiving, maybe that Ragnarok has all its place under the tree this winter. In addition to our traditional criticism, BennJ and I are looking back at this ambitious AAA production, which has just been multi-medalized at the Game Awards. The qualities and flaws of the title of Santa Monica, four years after the memorable first opus, are examined. Who likes to chastise well... and if the quest for humanity of the colossus also revealed clay feet?
In 2018 Corry Barlog had overturned the table. Metoo had been there, and Kratos' character could no longer be content with tearing off the heads and representing the Woman as a piece of meat among others. After the excellence of The Last Of Us, has become the new model to follow for the next decade, like the Gears of War or Resident Evil 4 Before him, nothing would ever really be like before for large-calibre productions like those of the indees. Even A Plague Tale, double A ambitious, caress hope to equal the master.
It is with this indelible trace in the videoludic landscape that God of War He also had to compose by looking at Naughty Dog's side. With a camera closest to the spartan and able to erase during cinematics by a slight back and forth movement between the characters, exits the distant cameras of the PlayStation trilogy. The staging imposed respect by placing almost all the productions of the period on the tile. The second part of the adventures of Ellie and Joel is so founding that it serves as a starting point for Ragnarok who tries to make us pass to the enemy with Atreus, without ever succeeding in achieving the accuracy and elegance of the staging of Part Two.
Intimistic, the first part left the beautiful part to the promiscuity between Kratos and his son Atreus, who was found ragaillardi, in the midst of a teenage crisis, ready to deal with his father who did not know a truce to train his son. Surprisingly the greatest success of the game is probably to deal with educational themes rarely seen in the media, all the more so from the point of view of a paternal, more customary of stoicism than sentimental effects alien to the Troyans.
Ragnarok continues what he had begun by gradually establishing a rivalry between the father and the son, while the second gradually emancipates Kratos' systematic injunctions. A prophecy announces the end of the beans and will divide the fine team, between runaways, yelling and building a new trust. Who of destiny or free will will prevail?
Unfortunately the game promises more than it is able to give. Without spoiling, the epilogue leaves a bitter taste in the mouth, as a missed opportunity to finish in beauty which began however as a tragedy. All for this! blow the player to the credits. We will let you appreciate our views on this in the podcast for those who have already finished the game.
Family life
It must be said that God of War blows the hot and cold between frankly successful cinematics most of the time and unbearable Sidekicks that destroy ingame what the sequences at the engine of the game had managed to pose in terms of atmosphere. It was as if the game refused to accept the stakes that the scenario was still scared to lay stone by stone. It's a question of whether the sky will really fall on the head of our heroes, so stress is non-existent. Between Mimir and the many characters who will accompany Kratos or his son, each goes from his little contribution to unravel everything he can as if to occupy the void.
This way of never letting the player make his own interpretation is tiring in addition to artificially complexing the links between the secondary characters. It is not for nothing that the most beautiful scenes are those where Kratos is in doubt, alone in his tent, without Mimir or the quidam from the corner that brings his strawberry back. It is symbolically the time to lay down weapons that echoes the rare scenes where Kratos is "in civilian" so to speak.
Where the first opus focused on the father-son relationship, Ragnarok took on a family lifestyle. By humanizing his characters with great reinforcement of stereotypes and by combining fratries and other family intrigues, the ensemble sometimes limits itself to indigestion. Thunder's character, worse than Agbabora's, give a urticaria as they contrast with Kratos' writing quality. If you too dream of making ricochets with Atreus and riding a buffalo, then your most intimate fantasy will be realized with Ragnarok.
Mama Mia that it's flat as teenage idyll compared to DLC Left Behind, which in the same handful of hours, managed to weave a relationship of love otherwise more sensitive. It's a shame that you didn't take this opportunity to tell something real, to make us want to love Atreus for once. As for Freya's band of broken arms and his brother, less charismatic than his sword (Bennj©), we would have passed widely.
Kratos prepares retirement with Stania
Luckily, Kratos dubbing is once again a perfect fit. Seeing his gesture evolve to finally enjoy paternity and more only pursuing his thirst for revenge is the great success of the game. I think it is easy to say that no video game character has been modeled with as much finesse and life as Ellie and Joel. Each gesture betrayed a modestly held emotion, as if the god of war were covering up a torrent of emotions that would only ask to flow from the depths of his guts. Kratos is erased by war, disillusioned and a new variation of a Rambo on the road to early retirement. But what is it full of life for a bunch of pixels?
The scenes of the meals and the moments of rest also reinforce the attachment to the character and the dilemma that gnaws him. Special mention to the transitions between sleep and awakened dream that are among the most beautiful that it has been given to see in a video game. In contrast, the scenes with Kratos's wife miss the mark, without ever getting us to believe in this much too dull and carabinated love story. There was probably something to work on these flashbacks finally perfectly dispensable. It must also be said that the motivations of the characters are sometimes surprising if not unlikely.
In four years the game did not take a wrinkle, certainly, but it did not choose the game cure at Botox. The effects of particulate matter appeared less numerous than in the PC version, however, unless it is a choice of readability like magic seals now flood the gameplay. Overall it's beautiful even if you feel that the PS5 has been largely braided by its big sister. This time there is even more loading time hidden by lifting menhirs or passing through a crevice. It's a bit bald for a console equipped with such a powerful SSD.
This may seem anecdotal, but this aspect leads to making the universe of God of War artificial. The return of the hub with the portal leading to the different kingdoms is a false idea and above all a technical parade to travel between worlds. It is all the more a pity that the level design which was clearly not the first quality of its predecessor smells of naphthalin.
The few attempts to hit the Open World are also a failure. You never really feel the immensity of the world that seems sewn from any room, bound by the red threads of a puppet. Even the scenes in a sled do not manage to make up these areas and the idea trots in our head that this good old Kratos also feels cut off on consoles. Hey, last one. Gears And his sled just as missed, if it's worse. By ignoring the virtues of a good game design, the journey is deprived of a certain sincerity, without emotional involvement.
You'd have Thor to take it away.
Second missed opportunity, Thor's character is sadly under-exploited. After a band introduction that would make Kratos look like a Lilliputian, we won't really see him until the last third of the game during a memorable bar fight with Valhalla soldiers who refer directly to the sbires of the Mad MaxLess desert. There was clearly something to do with this charismatic character reduced to the role of quasi-figurant. Fortunately, he remains Sidir and his brother Brok who will be entitled to a treatment that is otherwise more personal, again with a dubbing in tune.
Ragnarok, it is also the bias taken Disney blue flower that mumbling. To the Herculean strength developers have added many magic scenes. It's simple, it's everywhere. Bifrost over here, bifrost over there. Even Atreus makes yoyo with his hands like Dr Strange. This is a bit of a shame, because magic is often the easy solution to solve narrative blockages and the poorest common denominator to advance history. We also feel that we had to respond to the critics of the fans about the few animals that popped the first opus. You wanted animals? You'll have them everywhere! It's so cute that it reminded me Avatar And the meveries that Disney loves so much for a few more plushs on the next accounting balance sheet.
On the whole, I found the fighting less spectacular, the fault of an overbidding of visual effects that damage both readability and the credit of fighting. If a dragon that generates portals and confrontation against the wolf remain friendly, it lacks ambition. It's also very personal, but I find that the brute force is much better than the close camera than the use of overt support spells. If the gameplay does not undergo a revolution, the bestiary evolves late and the game disappoints by recycling certain environments and kingdoms of the first opus.
Generally speaking, one is rarely disoriented and I don't remember as many memorable scenes as that of the Groa turtle house or the world snake. Sometimes even the fan service blooms even if it starts to chain the first two thirds of the game by ticking one by one the boxes of a specification that lacks cruelly daring. Luckily, the title wakes up late... and then comes back like a sulfur blower during his sloppy epilogue.
Of course, the game introduces a third-arm spear (and it's fichtly cool), certainly it makes our fellow riders vary, yet we feel a persistent impression of already-sighted. It is a pity that the game did not allow to continue with all the skills acquired in the first, which makes the gameplay a bit dull. It is only at the end that the different skills unlocked make the game a little more funky in terms of staging, although unlike a DMC the mastery of the most pointed specs remains perfectly dispensable in the penultimate mode of difficulty. Too bad that the passages with Atreus, in addition to being cucul la praloche, are completely broken in terms of balance. The twink explodes anyone who crosses his path with his bow and otherwise faster than his padre, which comes to mind when you pass from one to another. And it is not the apparent RPG dimension that is to be taken in default.
Hooked on a feeling
As for puzzles, do not look for a semblance of variety, it is also filling like the first. Worse by blocking us by a simple bush or invisible wall, Ragnarok reveals all the artifice of its game design. The grapple is the wrong idea of the game. The accessory is used constantly without ever succeeding in getting us any feeling of vertigo or verticality in the gameplay. It is on this point really a shame not to have taken advantage of it to propose climbing scenes other than a chain of teleguided QTE. This would have given the player a breath of fresh air and a semblance of accomplishment.
So in all this, did good old Geoff Keighley and the winners of the Game Awards have the lull by letting Ragnarok win so many titles? The answer is probably intermediate. This second part has everything in a row 1.5 and its main flaw is not to have given itself the audacity to hit where no one expected it. Ragnarok is neither a bad game nor a cult game. Yet it's hard to remember a truly memorable scene after 25 hours on the counter. Less personal without a doubt, much larger audience, the title would have gained to tighten the goal around the father-son duo rather than wandering along the way with forgotten secondary characters and written with the feet. Yet the artistic direction knows how to cultivate its small moments of directing glory when Santa Monica finally lets the player breathe. A show game that does the job, but that restes too much on its laurels for Kratos to finally be revered by his own. A bet that questions a third part, unless retirement is in order to avoid Gears of War syndrome. Does Cory Barlog already have a head in his next license?
For
- General artistic direction
- The Kratos character in tune
- The theme of paternity in the face of adolescence
- Sidri and Brok that raise the level
- Dubbing very good bill
- A popcorn gameplay
- The bar scene with Thor
- The third Spartan weapon
- HUD options and highly complete ergonomics
Against
- Environment and enemy recycling
- Narration without challenges
- A cardboard end
- Lack of general audacity
- Feeling of repetition
- A popcorn gameplay
- Gamedesign and puzzles very limited
- Unnecessary RPG dimension
- PNJ filling scenes
- Gnangnan as soon as Kratos isn't here
- Cucul and kawaii per moment
Good test! I see that you are much more critical than I am in the whole, even if I agree with your opinion especially concerning Atreus.
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