I Think 'God of War: Ragnarok' Is The Best Game I've Ever Played

Your mileage on that may vary depending on what type of games you enjoy, and I don't think it pushes out the Mass Effect Trilogy as my personal favorite games, but there's no denying that this is ludicrously good.

Picking up roughly three years after the powerhouse ending of 2018's 'God of War', which saw a mellowed (by his standards) Kratos finally opening up to his son Atreus about his past, and learning to be a better father, 'Ragnarok' launches us straight into the action as the main antagonist, Odin, abruptly arrives at our heroes door to "bargain" for peace. I think that might be all I share with you story-wise, as the gasp-worthy twists and turns of this truly epic game are yours to experience.

To avoid any light spoilers that may pop up below, here's the short version; this game is downright immaculate, with its pulse pounding combat, stunning world design, superb characters, and gripping story, I have very few, if any, complaints. It's damn near perfect and I'm telling you right now not to miss out. To see one of the best hack and slash series of all time become possibly the best story driven action adventure series ever has been nothing short of amazing.

Lets kick things off with the moment to moment gameplay. 'Ragnarok' is a game that refuses to let you be bored. The game offers a plethora of things to do between major story beats, whether its exploring the gorgeous world for goodies and secret bosses, solving puzzles that are JUST tricky enough to get your brain working, or fighting off hordes of powerful enemies, you'll find it hard to run out of things to do even if you choose not to jump right into the main story.

Combat, which was polished to a beautiful shine in the previous title, has been iterated upon perfectly in 'Ragnarok'; the core systems were already great, and the new abilities/weapons you acquire are an absolute blast, managing to keep combat fresh and exciting without completely reinventing the wheel. And this is before we get to playing Atreus, who steals the spotlight in a few solo sections that allow his character, and his struggles, time to shine. While I will admit I wasn't too excited to break from my norm at first, the sections in which you play as Atreus might be some of my favorite in the game; his fast paced and varied style of combat, in which you simply overwhelm foes with flurries of stylish attacks, feels so wholly separate from Kratos' more blunt and brutal approach.

These new sections also allow one of the series strong points to truly shine; its characters (and by extension, the extremely talented cast of voice actors who give them life). Occasionally seeing the world, and the people in it, from Atreus' point of view was an inspired choice. While the characters we know and love from the previous title all get plenty of time in the spotlight, and some gut-punch character arcs to boot, the adventures of Atreus give us insight into characters we may never have gotten to know at all (namely, our enemies), adding some lovely moral grey areas to our God-battling adventures. Thor, for example, who may at first seem like the games new big boss, is surprisingly not so black and white a foe; portrayed as a drunken screw up with too much power, crumbling under the weight of his sociopathic fathers mistreatment and his own mistakes, Thor becomes much more sympathetic than I was expecting.

Look, I'm finding it difficult to describe in detail the aspects of this game without gushing, so I think detailed sections are a no-go here. Let's just drop the pretense.

I love the visuals; not only are the graphics top notch, but the art direction (which is much more important), is best-in-class. Pause the game at any given moment, and you have a new wallpaper.

I love the characters, I love that no one feels tacked on and character arcs don't feel cheap or wasted. I love this story of the trials of parenthood wrapped up in a story about literal gods going to war with each other. How this game manages to be so bombastic and epic, but also so nuanced and intimate without feeling silly, is a testament to the skill of the writing team and the high quality work of the ever-underappreciated voice actors. I cried on at least three separate occasions playing this game, and these weren't cheap tear-jerkers either, the game earned it.

If I had to complain about anything, I do think some of the optional bosses can be a bit frustrating on higher difficulties; there were a couple of moments where I thought I had combat in the bag, only to take one bad hit and have to start from square one, but even this can be ironed out using the accessibility feature that enables mini-boss checkpoints (and probably stems more from my tendency to play very aggressively). Aside from that, the menu system for upgrading/crafting can be slightly confusing, only because there's so much packed onto the screen. Oh, and the puzzle hints can be a bit annoying. Really though, nothing stuck out at me as being a serious issue. This isn't to say that it's 100% perfect, just that nothing derailed my enjoyment of the game enough to warrant a complaint.

'God of War: Ragnarok' harkens back to collect-athon adventure games of old, it reminds me of something like a more mature 'Jack and Daxter' or 'Ratchet and Clank'. This is the kind of high quality single-player experience that we just don't get anymore from the AAA game industry; a game with a story to tell, bolstered by perfectly polished mechanics, backed up by hours upon hours of quality content, and not obsessed with squeezing the player for every cent in their bank account. A game that not only honors its predecessor, but builds upon and even surpasses it. 'Ragnarok' is to this new series what 'The Empire Strikes Back' was to Star Wars; A perfect sequel. It's a shining example of what a game can be when the team behind it gives a damn, and when their management lets them do their jobs right (yeah I'm looking at you Ubisoft, Bioware, Bethesda, Activision-Blizzard, CDPR, did I forget anyone?). This is my new gold standard, this is what video games should aspire to.

A very, very enthusiastic 5 out of 5, Santa Monica Studios has not missed once with this series and 'Ragnarok' is still somehow an all time high.