There are many definitions of art and many ways of showing it. According to some, art is just drawings that imitate the beauties of nature. According to some, art is the expression of our inner intuitions, while according to others, art is only what pleases the eye, ear, and even the soul if we are romanticized. Regardless of which one you agree with, it is clear that art has an aesthetic concern. For this reason, it does not necessarily have to directly serve common notions of beauty. Sometimes it can also seem quite gloomy, scary, or mysterious. In other words, what we call art today is not a refined concept but rather what pleases the eye, soul, and ear. From this perspective, series like Breaking Bad and the Mona Lisa painting have come together under the same roof with art. From this perspective, games that take years to make and whose aim is to provide a beautiful experience to those in front of them cannot be separated from movies and paintings. From this perspective, we are reviewing a giant game that offers a very beautiful experience among games for you: God of War: Ragnarok.
God of War in brief
For those who don’t know, in this section, we will tell the story of Kratos up until the Ragnarok game. So if you haven’t played the games yet and want to discover them from scratch, you can find spoilers until the “Game Review” section below.
God of War has had a large place in the memories of gamers since 2005. So much so that Kratos, who was not actually mentioned in mythology, has now begun to be mentioned so much that he rivals names such as Ares and Athena, who are considered giants of mythology. So, what is the story of Kratos?
Essentially, Kratos is a warrior who serves the Greek gods. Kratos, who enjoys killing and brutality, is someone who cannot exist without war, but his perspective changes one by one with what happens to him. He lost his family as a result of the disagreement he had with Ares and the betrayal he suffered. With the loss he suffered because of Ares, he killed Ares and became the new god of war, but things don’t end there. Kratos, who found a place for himself in Olympus as a result of the first game, has disagreements with the Olympian Gods in the next two games, and these events lead him to a war. Finally, Kratos completes his adventure in Greek mythology by killing all the Olympian Gods. These events ended for the game world in 2010, and we don’t see a new adventure from that day until 2018.
In 2018, Sony made a new start for the PlayStation 4, bringing Kratos back, and this time his address is Scandinavia. Here, we see a more peaceful Kratos with the maturity of age and parenthood, but Kratos can’t stay calm here either and draws trouble. He embarks on adventures and a lot of dismemberment with his son Atreus.
As for the latest game, Ragnarok, which was released in 2022, Kratos, Atreus, and the loyal Mimir are determined to defeat Odin and Thor together. Of course, this will not be easy.
Game Review
First of all, the God of War from 2018 and the God of War from 2005-2010 offer completely different gameplay. Even if you open the two games and compare them, you will notice that the only thing that is the same is Kratos’ pale complexion. Of course, there is also a lot of dismemberment.
Apart from that, everything from the storytelling style to the dynamics; from Kratos’ attitude to the camera angle is completely different. First of all, the game has taken on a much slower pace and wants to tell a solid story rather than give you action. In this respect, even if you like the games between 2005-2010, you may not like the ones after 2018. The opposite is also true.
In our opinion, the game has definitely embarked on a much slower pace of storytelling. It has unleashed progress in its “smash son, smash” mindset and set out to provide a much more in-depth experience. Of course, it shouldn’t give the impression that it has completely unleashed its “smash son, smash” mindset. Kratos is still insanely strong, and of course, his main feature is still smashing. In this respect, you can be sure that the game is still an action game. It’s not just an action game anymore. It’s actually a multi-dimensional game with its story, dialogues, wide and explorable world, puzzles. The game in 2018 had already earned the right to be the game of the year with these features. After that, expectations from Ragnarok were also high. It should be clear that normally the sequels of strong games experience a performance loss. Especially if they are such good games. However, this was not the case with God of War; Ragnarok. It was also one of the last candidates for the games of the year in 2022. Its misfortune was that it encountered the unprecedented Elden Ring. It would probably not be wrong to say that if Elden Ring had not come out that year, Ragnarok would have been the winning game.
Now, let’s leave aside the game of the year, and consider whether you’ll be satisfied if you buy and play Ragnarok:
First of all, almost every game has become too long nowadays, and the main thing expected from games ranging from 1000-1800 liras in Turkey is to do justice to this money, both in terms of game length and quality. Ragnarok also does a solid job in this regard and offers a game time of 30-35 hours. In my opinion, time is always secondary. If what you play is bad, so be it, even if it is 100 hours. Still, even in a good game, an excessively long time can be demoralizing. After all, you don’t want to start getting bored with the game you love.
Ragnarok is one of the successful games that can continue on its way without a stone being touched in either of these criteria. It keeps you on the road beautifully without keeping you on a map or geography for more than 1.5 hours and you constantly encounter new enemies in new geographies. Apart from this, there is a development in the story frequently and thus you continue to play by constantly looking at the screen at the edge of your couch or bed or wherever you are playing. In fact, no matter how great it is to play with Kratos, the game makes a difference by occasionally taking you to sessions with Atreus.
It opens the mind with small puzzles here and there, but let’s say this as a small criticism, so that it doesn’t hurt the evil eye. Well, we don’t solve Sudoku either? Why are you making us solve puzzles when we’re going through such excitement? Should those who want to solve them and those who don’t want to continue? Frankly, this has become the fashion of new games. In the last 5-6 years, games have become really obsessed with this. Puzzles up and down… Still, since I don’t want to trivialise such a beautiful game by getting hung up on this, I’m continuing.
In terms of action, we can say that it is almost a repetition of the 2018 game, but it didn’t need to change that right now. As the second game of the series that found its place with a new approach, there was no need for radical changes all of a sudden. The action is still exciting, enjoyable and fun to watch. In other words, the game has generally managed to keep the things it does well constant. What about the things it adds to it? What about the things it does worse?
Well, let’s point out a few things at this point so that the 2018 God of War=Ragnarok result doesn’t come out. First of all, the 2018 game was the opening game for the series, which caused it to go to great lengths to show what it did differently from the 2005-2010 series. Here, Ragnarok didn’t waste any time with those parts and focused directly on the story, and told a story that was even tougher than 2018. Especially when Thor and Kratos come face to face… Oh, that scene is enough on its own. As for what it added, there’s not much to say other than really minor corrections during the action and a wide variety of geographies. The only bad thing to add is that Ragnarok drags on the story at certain points and especially the last mission is much duller compared to the rest of the game. Let me state that the story is generally not dragged on, only small parts made at certain points cause a small break in the story, and this caused Ragnarok to extend to 35 hours, while the 2018 God of War finished its job flawlessly in 20 hours. In other words, although it is enjoyable, some effort was made to extend the story, and this only made itself felt in a couple of missions.
Author’s Comment
I don’t know how objective it is when it comes to games, but I think Ragnarok is a masterpiece in every way. Everywhere I look shows that this is not just my opinion. From a cinematic perspective, its scenes, map designs, action, story… Ragnarok is truly a masterpiece. I can easily put it in the top 15 games I’ve ever played. The reason I say top 15 is because I’m not a fan of Kratos or mythology. I want to say sincerely that it’s a legendary adventure game that is both emotional and exciting and will easily be in the top 10 when you look at it from a gameplay perspective.
