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God of War Ragnarök - Information Thread, update: initial OpenCritic reviews of Valhalla DLC posted

Commissar SFLUFAN

By Commissar SFLUFAN
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Phaseknox

Phaseknox

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13 minutes ago, best3444 said:

You're in for a real treat. I'm currently 20 hours in my second playthrough it's that good.

If you’re already playing through it again a second time, then it must be really good. I’m looking forward to playing it which I hope is sooner rather than later.

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SaysWho?

SaysWho?

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5 hours ago, CastlevaniaNut18 said:

Beat it last night. Yep, this is going in my top 10 of all time. 10/10, just about perfect on every level. 

I’m still gonna keep playing to wrap up a few things. I did just about everything prior to finishing the main story. Just need to finish off the berserkers and close the remaining Hel Tears. And those remnants that popped up after the end. 


hehe hope you’re getting the optional unmarked quest with the cool plot threads

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Brian

Brian

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Finished the main game. Took about 38 hours. It’s great. I was 50/50 if I wanted to do any of the end game stuff and then I came across

 

Spoiler

Tyr. He is alive! All I can think of is telling Atreus.  At this point, I think need to see this through fully  I need to see Sindri again  

 

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CastlevaniaNut18

CastlevaniaNut18

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I think I’m finished. Much like the previous game, I just can’t seem to beat the Berserker King. Too many attacks I can’t seem to dodge. I even have it on the easiest difficulty. 
 

Spoiler

Also haven’t beaten Gna, who is also a pain in the arse. 


Other than that, I believe I’ve completed everything. Spent 56 hours with the game. 

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best3444

best3444

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Ok. 25 hours into my second playthrough. It's easily in my top 10 games I ever played. I have discovered so much shit this playthrough that I completely missed and it's all extremely impressive. The main thing about this game is that it's just a complete joy to play. I love discovering all the chests and exploring every inch of the world. 

 

I'm playing this and Elden Ring each day and these both are just exceptional videogames. Both top 10 of all time. 

 

Great way to end the year and next year looks to be truly amazing. 

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SaysWho?

SaysWho?

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On 12/17/2022 at 10:36 PM, Brian said:

Finished the main game. Took about 38 hours. It’s great. I was 50/50 if I wanted to do any of the end game stuff and then I came across

 

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Tyr. He is alive! All I can think of is telling Atreus.  At this point, I think need to see this through fully  I need to see Sindri again  

 

 

I love that 

Spoiler

there's this whole new area to explore and crazy plot thread in Tyr being alive. Now I can finally tell you that real Tyr has an accent over the y, as opposed to the imposter with no accent. 

There are a bunch of clues people found from throughout the game, such as Tyr calling Freya 'Frigg.'

I love that all this stuff opened up. Hell, the fact that the green fucking Odin ravens have an ending was cool.

 

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JPDunks4

JPDunks4

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I'm like 35-40 hours into this, and it does feel like its 10 hours too long already.

 

I told myself I was going to try to tackle most of the side content after reading people say the side missions in this are better than Witcher 3, but I've yet to play a single memorable side mission.  Maybe I missed it but I've done just about everything I could do in every area thus far.

 

Spoiler

I'm at the area with the 2 Dragons now, killed one, flooded the river, and just started exploring again.  

 

Been playing on 2nd to highest difficulty, and its been pretty easy so far.  I do like the combat far far more than the first game, it feels faster and more fluid. 

 

Spoiler

Atreus sections have been a pretty big let down.  Using him is far less fun than Kratos, and the story just isn't compelling enough for me to care about his sections.  The one bright spot was the Giant Grandma you fight.

 

Ive been enjoying the game for the most part, at least certain sections of the game.  I do feel pacing is pretty poor overall as its just too slow too often. It hits some highs and I hope its full speed ahead, then it just slows to a crawl again.

 

Hoping to wrap it up before I leave for Xmas.

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SaysWho?

SaysWho?

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54 minutes ago, JPDunks4 said:

I'm like 35-40 hours into this, and it does feel like its 10 hours too long already.

 

I told myself I was going to try to tackle most of the side content after reading people say the side missions in this are better than Witcher 3, but I've yet to play a single memorable side mission.  Maybe I missed it but I've done just about everything I could do in every area thus far.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Been playing on 2nd to highest difficulty, and its been pretty easy so far.  I do like the combat far far more than the first game, it feels faster and more fluid. 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Ive been enjoying the game for the most part, at least certain sections of the game.  I do feel pacing is pretty poor overall as its just too slow too often. It hits some highs and I hope its full speed ahead, then it just slows to a crawl again.

 

Hoping to wrap it up before I leave for Xmas.

 

tbh, I don't remember any of the bigger side quests in Witcher 3 besides the Baron, but I do remember many of the side missions being involved and story-heavy (I guess besides delivering a pan for someone). 

 

What games like Witcher 3, God of War: Ragnarok, and Ghost of Tsushima do with many of their side missions is explore more of the main and side characters. The first world gives you side missions that explore

Spoiler

Mimir's past.

The next I believe flesh out

Spoiler

Atreus.

Vanaheim fleshes out

Spoiler

Freya.

 

The ENTIRE Forbidden Sands in Alfheim is optional, and if

Spoiler

freeing the creatures

and the changes in the world aren't memorable, then I mean, different strokes, but it's a heck of a sight. 

 

Odin's ravens go from what is ostensibly a collectibles side quest (which I still liked as a concept because it made you feel Odin's presence in the first game despite the character not appearing) and morph into an actual story, and there's a worthwhile ending to it. One side mission goes into some VERY interesting and unexpected places and only appears after you've beaten the main story.

 

The Berserker fights are fantastic, and the final fight isn't even the hardest in the game (which is also a cool unexpected post-game fight).

 

The tears that open up due to 

Spoiler

Garm

have a very memorable exchange between Kratos and 

Spoiler

Anxious Squirrel.

 Hell, the main squirrel itself felt fucking magical, helped by the voice acting of ProZD/SungWon Cho.

 

Vanaheim opens up 

Spoiler

an entire war-torn area of dragons and danger that you can tame, and then after exploring you just up and stumble upon an important well.

 This area also fleshes out 

Spoiler

Faye.

 

It's easily some of the most memorable side content I've played. Besides the games I mentioned, I think Red Dead Redemption 2 and many of the Souls games are the only ones I can think of that do side content so fucking well. Underrated I think is Shadow of War because I love the siege mode in that game.

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JPDunks4

JPDunks4

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Good way to put in in terms of fleshing out the different characters.  I played Witcher 3 so long ago that I honestly can't remember specifically what it had for side stuff as well, but just have memories of the feeling of playing the game having more meaningful side content.  

 

I'll try to avoid the later spoilers until I wrap up the game. 

 

I've fought maybe 3 of the Berserkers so far and they are fun fights.  Is there a way to get where they are to show up on your map or do you need to finish the game first?  I remember seeing a lot of their little graves around initially but don't remember where.

 

Enemy variety is definitely better, and quite a few of the boss fights have been rather fun.  If it ends on a high which I think it probably will, definitely up there as a top game, but would have been an all time great for me if it just edited some of its content down to be a bit more focused.

 

 

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Brian

Brian

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My favorite type of side quests are the ones that provide more lore to the setting and characters or quests that help make the world feel more alive. I think GoWR does a good job of that.
 

I will say my favorite W3 side quest is the one where a man cheats and leaves his wife so his wife curses his love child. She is willing to lift the curse if he comes back and repairs her reputation in town. The husband asks Geralt to kill the woman and help his kid. I ultimately told the guy to go back and reconcile with his wife. He does begrudgingly and every time I visited that area he was pissed af. 
 

2 hours ago, SaysWho? said:

 

I love that 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Spoiler

I really dislike games that when you beat the final boss, the game puts you back in front of the last boss and says “hey you can wrap the other stuff you missed”.  I look forward to revisiting all the areas to see the changes and getting more story surprises. 

I really can’t wait for the Atreus DLC or even if it’s a sequel of him hunting down the Giants. 

 

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stepee

stepee

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7 hours ago, Brian said:

My favorite type of side quests are the ones that provide more lore to the setting and characters or quests that help make the world feel more alive. I think GoWR does a good job of that.
 

I will say my favorite W3 side quest is the one where a man cheats and leaves his wife so his wife curses his love child. She is willing to lift the curse if he comes back and repairs her reputation in town. The husband asks Geralt to kill the woman and help his kid. I ultimately told the guy to go back and reconcile with his wife. He does begrudgingly and every time I visited that area he was pissed af. 
 

  Hide contents

I really dislike games that when you beat the final boss, the game puts you back in front of the last boss and says “hey you can wrap the other stuff you missed”.  I look forward to revisiting all the areas to see the changes and getting more story surprises. 

I really can’t wait for the Atreus DLC or even if it’s a sequel of him hunting down the Giants. 

 

 

I’m really hoping we get an expansion similar to Miles, the Horizon ones, Lost Legacy, for this and that it’s what you said, because that’s something we could get in like two years maybe. It seems like that could be the perfect thing to do for that sorta deal.

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JPDunks4

JPDunks4

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Finished the main story.

 

Very solid game.  Had some great highs.  Some lows.

 

Much much better boss fights.

 

Story was okay for me, ended pretty strong.

 

Overall enjoyed the gameplay of this GoW a lot more, but enjoyed the story and pacing of the first game more.

 

May do some more side content but not sure. 

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best3444

best3444

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5 hours ago, JPDunks4 said:

Finished the main story.

 

Very solid game.  Had some great highs.  Some lows.

 

Much much better boss fights.

 

Story was okay for me, ended pretty strong.

 

Overall enjoyed the gameplay of this GoW a lot more, but enjoyed the story and pacing of the first game more.

 

May do some more side content but not sure. 

 

Glad you enjoyed it. I had mixed feelings like you when I initially beat it, too. After getting really deep in my second playthrough I'm appreciating it much more. Like I said above, it's hands down in my top 10 games of all time. It's a special title with some pacing issues. 

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Brian

Brian

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14 hours ago, stepee said:

 

I’m really hoping we get an expansion similar to Miles, the Horizon ones, Lost Legacy, for this and that it’s what you said, because that’s something we could get in like two years maybe. It seems like that could be the perfect thing to do for that sorta deal.

Ghost of Tsushima had a chuncky DLC too. All of the major franchises seem to be planning some content after release. Seeing how the game ended, I think it’s a lock. 

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best3444

best3444

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5 hours ago, TheLeon said:

I’ve wrapped up most of the crater, now I’m heading into what feels like the end, and… I’m ready for it to be over. It’s a great game for sure, but I haven’t really connected with it like some people have.

 

You sick twisted fuck. It's one of the greatest videogames ever!

 

Spoiler

:p

 

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SaysWho?

SaysWho?

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Posted

I've been wanting to write something about the game for a while. I'm going to do this by writing about these aspects that stood out to me.

 

Sense of Discovery

Spoiler

 

When I was going through Svartalfheim and then got to Alfheim, I got an idea -- or thought I did -- of how God of War: Ragnarok was going to handle exploration. Besides some secrets in the more linear 8-10 hour games, they were not known for discovery. They had some secrets -- particularly one really cool one I remember in Pandora's Temple in the first game -- but this wasn't some Red Dead 2/Witcher 3 series where you're trying to get lost in the world and stumble upon cool things by accident.

 

 

God of War 2018 changed that. The Lake of Nine was fantastic level design that changed based on where the World Serpent was, with this decently sizable world which shed some of itself and opened up new areas to discover, including in areas you may have already visited. I enjoyed looking at the map and going, "Huh, there's a beach there. I wonder if I can dock," and before you know it, you discovered a secret area with a cool runic attack you can earn through puzzles.

 

For Ragnarok, I first noticed that the worlds had their own wide areas to explore, but I wondered if they'd try to replicate the Lake of Nine stuff. And in some ways, they did. Svartalheim is more straight-forward, but Alfheim changes as you free the Hafgufa, which allows you to get to more areas and leads to a calmer, truly beautiful world.

 

FkL3Gig.png

 

The Lake of Nine is really cool to see in its frozen form, taking the "same" world but making it feel like a new experience. But Vanaheim and the Crater are totally the bee's knees.

 

SaQCK8t.png

 

First you lose a character in a strangely emotional scene even though you didn't really know him well. But after the mission, once you're being led to that character (which now you know is important considering how important the previous scene was framed), you're thrust into this violent world with explosions and dragons flying around and attacking you from afar. The whole damned thing is optional, just as the Forbidden Sands are in Alfheim! And the more you do, the better the world becomes, from the rivers flowing with water again, to yes, discovering previously inaccessible areas, to the dragons not rampaging the crater anymore. 

 

And there's more! The day/night cycle opens up new areas. You're hunted by an enemy that takes multiple fights to beat, and either its blood from its wound leads you to her lair, or you may stumble upon it prior to fighting her. Hell, one of the biggest surprises was exploring the area and stumbling upon the fucking wishing well! Did NOT expect something like that since stumbling into the optional area was crazy enough. Hey, I'm at one of the shop locations and I hear grumbling, wtf there's a fire troll there on the battlefield!

 

Side Quests and Post Game

Spoiler

 

But there's more! I wasn't expecting a boss fight to end the Odin's Ravens quest. I wasn't expecting a NEW area of Helheim to open and then find fucking real Týr (which is accomplished through notes/lore you pick up and isn't given to you as a quest marker). I wasn't expecting to search for that undiscovered marker in Muspelheim and find another optional boss -- arguably the hardest in the game, but there's more disagreement in this game as to what's the hardest -- just pacing back and forth and ready to destroy me. 

 

 

A lot of the sense of discovery naturally meshes with side quests because what you discover off the beaten path is going to be something optional. The fact that, even after discovery, I still wasn't expecting how some of these side quests would evolve. Odin's Ravens were basically collectibles in 2018 but still cool since you felt Odin was watching you even though you could never see him. Here, you still get that, but now there's a story behind them and, for me, a surprise boss at the end. 

 

I thought 2018 did a good job adding some father-son lessons into its side quests; trust is an issue that's explored in at least several of them. In this game, there are several series of side missions that I feel explore the side characters. In Svartalheim, many of the side quests I did in the north expanded on Mimir's path. In Vanaheim, many of them explored Freya, and in the Crater, many of them expanded on Faye. 

 

Post-game really nailed it. I remember really enjoying the Arkham post-game worlds, particularly City and Knight, because it felt like the world kept going even as the main story ended, which doesn't always happen. God of War Ragnarok got this right: you have the remnants of Asgard -- the side missions and Gná herself -- still trying to fight for Odin even after the main battle has ended. Lúnda takes over for Brok and Sindri post-game. Thrúd wants to make her father proud, and you see a little cool scene with her in Midgard at the end. As mentioned, you get to free the real Týr and watch as he goes world to world and sees the changes since he's been imprisoned.

 

I dig stuff like that. I'm not against the game putting you back before the final boss or simply finishing the side quests you missed, but I do appreciate the work that goes into making the world feel as if it's changed and evolved since the endgame.

 

Bosses

Spoiler

In God of War 2018, the Valkyries and the Muspelheim trials were the areas that really made me appreciate the combat more than ever. In this game, the Muspelheim trials did so again, but the Berserker battles were really epic! I did NOT find the multi-berserker battles to be the hardest compared to the King and Gná, although they were definitely tricky and required several attempts! 

 

In general, I think Ragnarok did a good job on getting back to what made something like God of War 2 stand out: a good mix of big and smaller bosses. You have your demons and drakes and dragons, you have your trolls, you have your berserkers, you have your demons, and it's more of a variety than the Valkyries and troll mini-bosses from the first game (even though the trolls really weren't designed to be bosses in 2018, they felt like mini-bosses). 

 

2018 did have a whole set of valkyries, however, so they had many optional bosses even if they were differentiations and evolutions of each other, so I paid more attention to what main story bosses were in this game. Many were memorable for different reasons, some were clever (Thor "killing" you, Grýla's cauldron, Heimdall's ability to read your movements), and it was that good mix of bosses who were closer to human-sized and bosses who were big and imposing.

 

EENgu1P.png

 

luCt6x2.png

 

DDnUB3o.png

 

HBWUZAb.png

 

0kJyfZC.png

 

HW6HwxS.png

 

In fact, in regards to Heimdall, I feel I wasn't using the spear much at first, but the Heimdall battle makes you use it, and you start to appreciate its speed, its ranged attacks, and its versatility. It ended up being a great weapon and a wonderful way to introduce players to the spear if they hadn't used it much up to that point.

 

Grandeur and Atmosphere

Spoiler

 

My opinion of God of War 2018 is that it's a terrific game. I did think that it felt a bit smaller to me even though you travel to plenty of realms and encounter large enemies, which I think is partially due to the one-shot camera keeping it more personable and intimate between you and the characters. You never saw Thor or Odin or the pantheon in Asgard, so while you encountered enemies, it didn't feel as much as a Norse adventure quite yet. Part of that is likely due to the fact that I was not as familiar with Baldur, Magni, or Modi, however! Whatever the reason, I didn't view that as something "bad" with the game, just different.

 

 

Ragnarok felt a bit more like a grand adventure by opening up the realms that were inaccessible in 2018 (which, again, I didn't view as a negative and the story reasons did give Odin a presence despite not physically being in the game). It also opened up the number of bosses and Norse characters you met, and it opened up the kinds of characters you met. For example, there was something quite magical about meeting Ratatoskr.

 

TSYtTuE.png

 

Or encountering his personality squirrels along the way. Angrboda and Jötunheim felt otherworldly and peaceful, an interesting sight considering all the either risque or gory sights we've seen in the series so far. The Spark at the End of the World was a stunning sight, both due to the events with Surtr and the boss that followed. Then you had Asgard's imposing sight and its cast of characters.

 

0YqEHoI.png

 

OsGRKpd.png

 

lMwEd1R.png

 

I enjoyed the Asgard sections quite a bit for this feeling, especially since you're actually able to spend time with the Norse gods and see what makes them click; they separate themselves with their wall as much as the Greek gods do from Mount Olympus. 

 

All in all, I loved the game and have the urge to replay it early in the new year despite how much is in the game. Kudos to Sony Santa Monica for a job well done.

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