God of War Ragnarök

God of War Ragnarök is a 2022 action-adventure game developed by Santa Monica Studio and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was released worldwide on November 11, 2022, for both the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, marking the first cross-generation release in the God of War series, and was released for Windows on September 20, 2024. It is the ninth installment in the series, the 10th chronologically, and the sequel to 2018's God of War. Loosely based on Norse mythology, the game is set in mythical ancient Scandinavia and features series protagonist, Kratos, and his now teenage son, Atreus. Concluding the Norse era of the series, the story follows Kratos and Atreus' efforts to prevent the nine realms from being destroyed by Ragnarök, the eschatological event which is central to Norse mythology and was foretold to happen in the previous game after Kratos killed the Aesir god Baldur.

The gameplay is similar to the previous 2018 installment. It features combo-based combat, as well as puzzle and role-playing elements. Improvements and additions include Kratos' main weapons: a magical battle axe and his double-chained blades, and a new magical spear; his shield has become more versatile, with different types of shields that have differing offensive and defensive abilities. His son Atreus, as well as some other characters, provide assistance in combat and can be passively controlled, though as a new feature in the series, Atreus is fully controllable in specific story segments.

Originally slated for a 2021 release, the game was delayed in part due to Kratos actor Christopher Judge's health problems in August 2019, and later, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on development. A free expansion pack titled Valhalla was released on December 15, 2023. Serving as an epilogue to Ragnarök, it follows Kratos as he participates in a series of trials within Valhalla, where he must come to terms with his past life in Greece.

Ragnarök has received critical acclaim, with critics praising its storytelling, characters, visuals, level design, and quality of life improvements over its predecessor. Minor criticism focused on some gameplay mechanics, as well as the excessive hints during puzzles. The game sold 5.1 million units in its first week, making it the fastest-selling first-party launch week in PlayStation history, with over 15 million units sold by November 2023. At the Game Awards 2022, Ragnarök received a leading 11 nominations, including Game of the Year, winning six. It received a leading 12 nominations at the 26th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, ultimately winning seven awards including Adventure Game of the Year. It also received a leading 15 nominations at the 19th British Academy Games Awards, the most nominations for any game in the history of the ceremony, from which it won six awards, including the EE Game of the Year Award.

Gameplay

God of War Ragnarök is a third-person action-adventure game. It features an over-the-shoulder player-controlled camera, and the game is presented with no camera cuts or loading screens. The gameplay is similar to the previous installment, God of War (2018), including being single-player-only. Throughout the game, players battle Norse mythological foes, with more enemy types than in the prior entry, including newer enemies, such as einherjar, wyverns, stalkers (centaur-like creatures with antlers), phantoms, human raiders, and nøkkens, among many others. The developers also added more mini-bosses to give the game more variety.

The player primarily controls the character Kratos in combo-based combat and puzzle game elements. Kratos's main weapons are a magical battle axe called the Leviathan Axe, and his signature double-chained blades, the Blades of Chaos. He also dons his original Guardian Shield, and utilizes hand-to-hand combat. The Leviathan Axe is infused with ice elemental magic. It can be thrown at enemies and magically summoned back to his hand, similar to Thor's hammer Mjölnir. The weapon can be thrown at environmental objects to trigger a damaging explosion, and freeze objects and some enemies in place for puzzle-solving until resummoned. The Blades of Chaos, infused with fire elemental magic, are a pair of blades attached to chains that can be swung around in various maneuvers. A new mechanic for Ragnarök is that the blades can be used like a grappling hook to traverse over chasms, and pick up objects to hurl at enemies. Kratos also obtains a new weapon called the Draupnir Spear, a close- and long-range attack spear that is infused with wind elemental magic and can make copies of itself; Kratos can throw multiple spears at an enemy then have them all explode in rapid succession. The spear is also used to traverse or unblock certain pathways. Each weapon has standard light and heavy attacks. They can be upgraded with runes to allow for magical runic attacks, with slots for a light and heavy magical attack, providing a variety of play style options. Additionally, a "Weapon Signature Move" ability was added, which unleashes a powerful magical attack for the equipped weapon. Another added mechanic is that if on a higher ledge, the player can leap down to perform a powerful weapon attack on enemies below.

The developers also revamped the shield for versatility beyond a minor parry; different shields can be obtained and used offensively or defensively depending on which is equipped. Smaller shields are more for parrying and can stun enemies while larger ones are more defensive and can create a large wave of energy to knock enemies back. Kratos's Spartan Rage ability was also updated to three variants: Fury, Valor, and Wrath. Fury is the standard mode for Spartan Rage and is identical to the previous game in which Kratos uses bare handed attacks to greatly damage enemies. Valor consumes rage energy to restore health and can also be used as a parry if activated precisely, while Wrath unleashes a powerful weapon attack for the equipped weapon.

The character Atreus provides assistance through artificial intelligence (AI), helping in combat, traversal, finding treasures, exploration, and puzzle-solving. The player can passively control Atreus by dictating where he fires his arrows with his bow, either in combat or for puzzle-solving, as well as what magical spectral animals he can summon to further assist with combat. Additionally, Atreus's combat was updated to reflect his character's growth. He has longer chained combos, may initiate a fight before Kratos, and his magical abilities were expanded. There are also points in the game where another character will accompany Kratos instead of Atreus and they too can be passively controlled. For the first time in the God of War series, the player can play entirely as a character other than Kratos (not including Ascension's multiplayer). This only occurs during some story missions when Atreus goes off on his own without Kratos and the player takes full control of Atreus. His gameplay is similar to Kratos in that he has close range combat by hitting enemies with his bow, and he has long range attacks by using his bow to shoot arrows. Additionally, he has special magical arrows, can create a shield from magic, and can summon magical spectral animals to assist in combat. Atreus also has his own rage ability in which he transforms into a wolf (and later, a bear) to deal greater damage. During these missions, Atreus typically has another character accompanying him and the player can passively control this character just as they do with Atreus when playing as Kratos. For some missions, Atreus has a magical floating sword called Ingrid that replaces the accompanying character.

The game retains the role-playing video game (RPG) elements of the 2018 installment. This includes the crafting system with many of the same resources to create new armor or upgrade existing armor and weapons with better perks. There are also many side quests found outside the game's core narrative. Ragnarök also adds armor transmogrification (transmog), which allows the player to change the appearance of their equipped armor to any other acquired armor without losing any of the equipped armor's stats.

Ragnarök has over 70 accessibility options. The game's user interface (UI) system was redesigned "to allow for more flexibility and readability", and more customization options for combat and interaction systems were also added. All accessibility features from the 2018 installment were retained but also expanded upon to allow players to adjust the gameplay to suit their own play style and needs.