Now, I know what you're thinking: "Edd, are you nuts?! That was a great game! There was so much to love about it!"

Whoa there, imaginary straw-man critics. Yes, there are indeed many, many great things that Cory Barlog and Santa Monica Studios accomplished with this entry and I will get to them. However, I am flabbergasted by how many people just praise the game while completely overlooking the negative aspects. I identify as a Norse pagan but I am looking at this game through a critical, storytelling lens so I am going to be leaving my own personal beliefs and biases at the door. M'kay? M'kay.

Also, there will be spoilers so if you haven't played the game or seen the cut-scenes, you've been warned.

Positives: -The soundtrack by Bear McCreary is, unsurprisingly, frickin' amazing. Seriously, while I'm writing "A Pup Named Fenrir" I will either put on the GOW: Ragnarok soundtrack or Fimbul Radio to get me into the Nordic mood.

-The actors all put on stellar performances, the stand-outs (in my mind) being Christopher Judge (Kratos), Sunny Suljic (Atreus/Loki), Danielle Bisutti (Freya/Frigg) and Ryan Hurst (Thor). When I first saw Odin appear in the game and realized that it was Richard Schiff, I was admittedly a little let down, not because he's not a great actor (he is) but just because that's not who I had in mind to play the Allfather. However, he quickly grew on me and now I'm having a hard time imagining anyone else playing that iteration of the character, namely a kind of magical mob boss. I remember the first time hearing Ryan Hurst's voice in the teaser trailer and getting super excited to see him, just because I'm a fan of his (due in part to his work as Opie on "Sons of Anarchy") and man, did he deliver! I also want to give a shout-out to Robert Craighead as Brok, the always amazing Adam Harrington as Sindri, Mina Sundwall as Thrud and Scott Porter as Heimdallr.

-The graphics and art design are top-notch, blending many Scandinavian folk art-styles and unique fantasical elements to create a world steeped in both historical realism and high fantasy to bring us a one-of-a-kind experience.

-The character writing is also, for the most part, top-tier in terms of deliverance and emotional pathos. I loved how the relationship between Kratos and Atreus and Thor and Thrud was fleshed out and it's nice to see a father-son story taking center stage without it being portrayed as wholly negative. Kratos' arc about letting Atreus have the freedom to find his own path and his reminisces about Faye is great stuff and really adds to the Ghost of Sparta's character.

-The antagonists, primarily Odin, Heimdallr and Thor, are well-fleshed out and feel like genuine threats to the protagonists. I was expecting Thor to just be a big dumb evil brute but they surprisingly give him a lot of depth and nuance, particularly in his scenes with his daughter Thrud and his wife Sif and Ryan Hurst did a great job at making him menacing and cruel but also sympathetic and ultimately really tragic, turning him into a foil for Kratos. Heimdallr is a bit basic in that he's an Odin fanatic constantly looking for his father's approval but he works well enough and is given a lot of personality. Odin, meanwhile, is presented as a multi-layered baddie, a multi-realm tyrant that acts more like a 1920's New York gangster than a mythical god-king. He presents himself as an affable, down-to-earth (ironically) wise-guy but is also a calculating, manipulative and vile sociopath that treats his own children and grandchildren like soldiers and hench-people rather than family. It's entirely possible that, in his own mind, he's doing all of these horrible things for the greater good, to keep the status quo going and to maintain order in the Nine Realms but his methods are so horrendous because of his warped view-point.

-I liked how Freya is portrayed in this game: a broken woman and ex-warrior-queen mourning the death of her son while also processing her complicated emotions for Kratos and Atreus and recovering from an incredibly toxic and dysfunctional relationship with her ex-husband Odin. This is primarily accomplished through Danielle Bisutti's incredible portrayal, giving Freya a lot of inner turmoil but also a sense of great personal strength. Well done, Miss Bisutti.

Negatives: -I didn't like how they handled Tyr. Does that mean I didn't like the reveal that Odin was masquerading as the Norse god of war? Erm, yes and no? Let me explain. On the one hand, it was actually a masterstroke of a concept, helping to solidify Odin as this master manipulator that disguises himself as the absent Tyr in order to spy on our heroes and to destroy his son's reputation by portraying him as a useless weak-willed coward. On the other hand, however, I felt like this was a huge missed opportunity.

In God of War 2018 (I still don't like the title; couldn't they have been clearer and just called it, "God of War 4" or "God of War: Midgard"? Just something!), Tyr is built up throughout the whole game as this virtuous man, great warrior and kind-hearted diplomat that aided the Jotnar and alone stood up against Odin's tyranny. Then, we got word that he was actually going to be in this game as an ally and I was excited! Then I saw the truth: Odin had been Tyr the whole time. Then when the game is over, you find the real Tyr hidden away (not even in a cut-scene, mind you) and he pretty much just spends his time hopping around from one realm to the next either meditating or doing Tai Chi. We didn't get to see two gods of war team up, to have Kratos befriend a war-god and see a different perspective on battle, or to introduce a central conflict where a man who has spent centuries being locked away by his own father joins the fight against his own former allies and confronts Odin for essentially ruining his life?

If they were going to do my boy Tyr dirty like this, then they should've just let him stay dead.

-It's been confirmed that GOW: Ragnarok was supposed to be the second part in a trilogy but Cory Barlog didn't want to spend several more years working on another game so they condensed it into one game and there are times in which it is painfully obvious. Character and plot beats are introduced and either rushed or forgotten, such as Kratos' death-prophecy (seriously, was anyone buying it when they teased it at the end of the last game?), Freya's vendetta against Kratos,

-Ragnarok itself. Oh boy, what a let-down! Remember God of War II and III where the Titans attack Mount Olympus and Kratos tears his way through the Greek Pantheon, mercilessly killing Poseidon, Helios, Hades and others? In God of War: Ragnarok, the titular conflict, this world-ending event, is over in a few minutes and we barely see it. There's some valkyries and einherjar but that's pretty much it. This is partially why I think it was a poor decision to kill off the Jotnar because it would've made for an awesome set-piece for them to assault Asgard and fight the Aesir gods in a bloody, drag-out brawl. And because a trilogy was turned into a two-entry series, many characters that are continuously mentioned are never seen and that lessens the impact of Ragnarok. Forseti, the son of Baldur and Nanna, is curiously absent, his only real contribution being that he discovers Heimdallr's body off-screen. It would've been great to have the slain god's son go after Kratos for the death of his father, his story paralleling Freya's own search for revenge but no, we never even see him. Ullr, the god of hunting and archery, who is supposedly also a benevolent god like Tyr, is also MIA, as are Hoder, Vili, Ve, Idunn, Hoenir, Njord, Ran, Vidar, all of whom are confirmed to still be alive in that universe.

-The characterization of the Aesir and the Jotnar. Now, this ties into my gripes with GOW 2018 in how they chose to portray these mythological characters and races. The Jotnar are no longer chaotic beings that occasionally produce good apples but are now an enlightened and mostly innocent race that was mercilessly slaughtered by the big, bad Aesir and the Aesir are mostly just bloodthirsty barbarians. I don't necessarily have a problem with the script being flipped, with the Aesir being the antagonists and the Jotnar the "good guys" but did they really have to be that black and white about it? Really the only jotunn that is portrayed in a negative light is Groa, Angrboda's grandmother, who is depicted as stealing living beings' souls and verbally abusing her granddaughter but even then she appears to be a victim of Alzheimer's or some other degenerative mental/neurological illness and is thus a victim rather than a victimizer. It just feels too basic.

-Kratos' death-prophecy was ultimately, and obviously, one big misdirect. Now, apparently it was originally planned to have Kratos die at Thor's hands at the beginning of GOW: Ragnarok and for Atreus to journey to Helheim to rescue his father's soul, tying into the half-destroyed Jotunheim mural. We see a little bit of this in the finished product where Kratos' heart appears to stop and Thor resuscitates him with Mjolnir but it's clear that a lot of rewrites took place. The game focuses heavily on Atreus and Kratos just kind of meanders around for a good chunk of it. I think they should've gone this route as it not only wouldn't have wasted our time with the whole oh-no-Kratos-is-going-to-die! plot but it also would've made for a more impactful journey for our two leads. I know some people will say, "Don't you see? It was never supposed to be Kratos that died in Atreus' arms but Odin! It was a subversion of expectations, as well as a defiance of fate!" If, and that's a big "if", that really is the case, then why is the mural different in both games? In the first game, it is clearly Kratos that is dead in that image and the words, "father", "mourned", "death, and most notably, "betrayal"/"disaster" in runes. However, when we see the mural again in Ragnarok, it still appears to be Kratos lying in Atreus' arms yet those runes are missing. It really appears to be a conscious retcon that the developers hoped no one would notice.

-The whole notion of fate/prophecy not being real, especially in the scene with the Norns, which completely flies in the face of the first game where Laufey/Faye and the Jotnar completely predicted everything that was going to happen with 100% accuracy. Hell, Atreus had a prophetic dream of Thor showing up and even in their first meeting, Angrboda is seen painting a picture of her initial interaction with Atreus/Loki as it was happening. So is it free will or destiny?

-Atreus being Loki. I'll admit, when this revelation was brought forth in the 2018 game, I, like everyone else, lost my sh** and thought it was absolutely brilliant. In the sequel, however, nothing is really done with this info. Atreus can be convincing at times, as well as very intelligent, resourceful and a bit charming but he's not especially crafty or even that much of a strategist. When Odin playfully asked him if he was a "trickster", all I could do was roll my eyes. Atreus could literally be named after anyone else from Norse mythology and it wouldn't change a thing. I was really looking forward to him becoming an antihero like his father, albeit one that focused more on cunning and social manipulation rather than brute strength. He mostly gets by on his sincerity and compassion which, while being more than positive traits, aren't things that I'd really associate with the Sly One.

Is there anything I missed? Do you think I'm wrong in my analysis? I would love to hear your guys' thoughts!

7855040
Yes, you are the only one.

7964641
Oh bother. Eh, that's okay.