God of War: Ragnarök

This is god of war's (2018) doom eternal situation. A really good game reboots a beloved franchise and gets a sequel after four years that takes the original and improves on everything. Still this game is unique enough from the original to feel completely new.

From beginning to end you are enthralled into the 9 beautifully realized realms as the story takes you from amazing spectacle to amazing spectacle. This game is never predictable and it makes for a rollercoaster i wanna ride plenty more times. The acting performances, the character models and camera work make every cutscene something you should never skip. This truly is another sony masterpiece.

After the success of the 2018 reboot of God Of War, I found it very hard to even fathom what could possibly be improved and was concurrently worried that a sequel would water down the brilliance and poignance of the first.

Not only were my concerns alleviated, it improved upon the sequel in every imaginable way. The score by Bear McCreary came back with vengeance and introduced new themes providing the emotive path that would be tread throughout the story.

This is similar to the 2018 sequel but at the same time wholly different, with more characters to meet and (what seems) a vastly larger world, you are more immersed and really do feel part of the world and story arc at large; the ambient sound and tasteful use of 3D audio also completely encompasses you in whatever realm you end up in.

Speaking of realms, there's more of them and they're stunning! Each has their own dynamic and tale just like the first but this goes far more in depth.

Ragnarok has an incredibly written story, worthy of Oscar's (let alone game awards). Speaking of which, Christopher Judge as Kratos, Sunny Saljic and the whole host of incredibly talented cast really showed off what is possible with acting in the game industry; their performances are all award worthy, the story is award worthy, the soundtrack...

Many may think my title is a stretch, but, this game really does set the bar for years to come and in my opinion (at the moment at least) nothing comes even close to what the team at Santa Monica Studios has created.

Bravo.

Never has a game left me with such awe. Left in goosebumps I sit here thinking about the last hours I poured into this beautiful game. With the same set of goosebumps that help tight to my skin the entire playthrough. The character development had my face stained with a permanent smile. The story had me engrossed and excited. The gameplay was far more snappy and quick, heavy hitting and impactful. The world is so immersive and real. The lessons learned and the story presented is one that will forever stick. I know as a certainty that this game won't leave my mind for quite some time.

This is undoubtedly the best game I have ever played.

A fantastic and strong continuation of its predecessor, God of War Ragnarök is not afraid to take unexpected turns, or slow its pace for you to fully explore an environment. It has the same upgrading system as before, but with better armor, in my opinion. Atreus is a little bit older now and it's so great to see everybody reprise their magnificent roles.

I don't want to give away too much in this review, but it's definitely worth buying. One of the best looking games on PS5. It'll definitely be a game of the year contender with Elden Ring. If you're new to the series, I recommend you start with God of War (2018) If you have the dedication, you could always start from the very first one. They're all on the PS+ collection. I still have yet to beat this newest entry, but I wanted to spread the good word as soon as possible: Ragnarök is here and it is beautiful.

Now I understand how Sony was convinced to release first GOW (2018) on PC. Honestly if I wouldn't have a Playstation, I could be looking to get a PS4 or PS5 asap. Because this is not only one of the greatest title of Sony, but also it's probably the best blockbuster in recent memory. Even first Avengers or Endgame didn't give me this sort of satisfaction to be honest, nowhere close. Such a complete and epic storytelling, vastly increased depth in character development, dialogues and actions make sense, unforgettable moments, perfected an already great gameplay with highly improved graphics. And most of all, face animations are probably the most realistic ones. Especially Freya and Kratos seemed like almost real people.

Before the release, I've been thinking this is going to be a huge DLC as some claimed but I can assure it's entirely something else. Maybe first one or two hours you'll have that feeling briefly but be patient, it only gets better and better along the way. They've already created an amazing game engine and strong gameplay with first one, apparently it gave developers an opportunity to focus on storytelling, art direction and additional characters and oh boy, it really paid off.

No need for any spoilers. And I highly recommend avoid any gamesplay videos at all costs. You'll want to see and feel every detail for yourself. I'm very careful using overused words like masterpiece and epic, and I'm really careful to rate a title 10/10. But this game deserves everything.

Finally, thanks to Sony. Single player gaming should never die because such a perfection is only possible by single player titles. And thanks to Santa Monica. This game is a "naughty" statement to other Sony Studios about how a sequel should be made. This is a must-have!