God of war Ragnarok, a true AAA game in a world of overpriced, unfinished let downs. a game where the company cares about what they release, and cares about their target audience. A game with fantastic art, acting and music, with fantastic dialogue and a fantastic story.

I proudly rate God Of War:Ragnarok, a well deserved 10 out of 10.

 

You follow Kratos and his son Atreus to the path of Ragnarok;the end of all nine realms, in which you face opponents such as Thor, even Odin the all father himself. Yet truthfully, the game masters itself when you look at it from another perspective. The game I enjoyed follows a father and son on their quest to divert their fate and be the men they want to be. The characters make choices that feel real and feel impactful. The characters make mistakes and they right their wrongs through trial and error and they feel the guilt of their mistakes. Something I enjoyed in this game, that I feel not a lot of games do, was show us different perspectives. 

 

I wanna start with what I believe was the games magnum opus 

 

the dialogue 

The dialogue in this game was really something special, it focused on issues such as generational trauma, healing your past mistakes, dealing with consequences of your actions and forgiving but not forgetting. The father-son dynamic of Kratos and Atreus is far more relatable and tear jerking than the first installment in this game. There is so much to do with nine realms and dozens of quests to explore yet during it all the foundation, the dialogue is there constantly. The phenomenal voice acting helped separate this game from the rest. it separates it from being another open world game with tons to explore, there’s constant MEANINGFUL dialogue. When the characters needed to shut the fuck up and let the music and art do it’s job they did exactly that. Let me tell you, even with the high praise I give the dialogue, some of the most important moments of the game are dead silent. They speak when they need to, not to fill the air with meaningless conversation. What really sells is the lines between father and son, those are the ones you’ll remember. The small praises he gives his son, or the life lessons he insists on teaching him. The questions and jokes Atreus makes with his father. You feel the weight they hold for each other, the care and love they have, even when it feels like kratos is distant, you know the love for his son is a bond no one can get in between. While dialog is usually focused on the main story, I found that even during sidequests, nothing felt random. Kratos speaking of his homeland, Atreus asking him or mimir questions and mimir with snarky remarks and stories. Even characters you meet later on don’t break the immersion, you feel like you're listening to a family talk to each other. There’s fights, there’s jokes, there’s banter. The dialogue not only keeps you intrigued even when you’re just sliding through the snow or boating through the water but it also just lets the characters you love talk like real people.

 

Exploration

I touched on it before but this game has so much to explore with 8 to 9 open realms of possibility, each one with its own separate map and these maps are big. This gives a player a lot to do, and personally I never found it as if oh man what should I do next, with so much to explore I found it hard to focus on the main story alone.With hidden chests, small puzzles that unlock crypts, weapons that are needed for different solutions and even different companions arrows sometimes needed to explore an area. Personally I find the exploration, in most games,  to be something that I usually don’t enjoy however even I found it enjoyable and rewarding! I found it not only felt less redundant but also more enjoyable than the first installment. 

 

quests and questing 

This game, with its 8-9 realms of open world maps, has an abundance of story and side quests. Even with a post game stretching into all nine realms. Not to fear however, if you’re like me and focus on the main story you can always complete the side quests during the post game. Even with dozens of finished quests I personally never found the questing redundant. I never found that there was nothing left to do. With the post game being extremely abundant in dialogue and story related content but side quests were definitely extremely fun, rewarding and they didn’t feel as redundant as they did in the first installment. Now as I said I usually like to focus on the main story before attempting the side quests, however I found myself enjoying the side quests even during the story. They fit in like puzzles and until the later acts you never feel like your rushed to get to the next story progression quest. I feel as if the game does a fantastic job of setting the pace in some places giving you that opening to explore during the story. The most enjoyment I received was the fact that I was just with these characters that I love, doing side quests together, and that I wasn’t fighting gods or focusing on the main antagonist at that moment but instead focusing on the small problems in each realm I passed through.

 

And lastly but definitely not least the story.

however the true masterpiece of this game was its main story the dialogue would be nothing without the absolute genius it took to write this beautiful heart wrenching story of a father and son fighting the odds against their fate, making their own choices and doing what they think is right I don’t want to spoil anything I want the reader to fully play the game blind because I believe that’s where the game shines with every turning points with every feat read and with every and with every surprising twist the game pulls you in deeper you aren’t bound to one perspective very rarely do you feel like one person is right and very rarely do you feel like oh my God when can I start killing again and you feel like you were following a genuine emotional tail of not only a blood related family but of the family that you choose of friends that you surround yourself with and those that you choose to forgive