God of War (2018) remains one of the greatest PlayStation games of all time. Its plot was captivating, its action was superb, and its commitment to telling its story in one, unbroken shot elevated video game cinematography immeasurably. It’s a remarkable game in many ways and my favorite PS4 game by far, but it’s by no means a perfect game. As I work my way through the spectacular PC port in anticipation for Ragnarok later this year, I’m experiencing a lot of the same pain points and rough edges that still sully the experience. While none of these issues are especially intrusive, I expect that Santa Monica Studio has worked hard not only to refresh God of War Ragnarok with new ideas, but to refine the formula and improve on some of the original’s weaker aspects. Here are the five things I hope the God of War sequel fixes.
The Gear System
When I restarted God of War, I was briefly confused to see a character sheet with traditional RPG stats like Strength, Dexterity, and Luck. This is the first God of War game to feature an RPG-style gear system, and it’s fair to say that it didn’t quite hit the mark. Armor and weapon parts feel like they only exist to be rewards for exploration and puzzle solving, as the loadout system is far too shallow for meaningful build crafting. For the most part, you only need to worry about slapping on the gear with the highest Strength and Defense values. Managing sockets and upgrades for incremental gains is tedious, and the progression path from one available armor set to the next is filled with odd power spikes. This is the most underdeveloped system in the game, and I hope the sequel can make gear easier to manage and feel more impactful.
The Endgame
There’s a lot of optional side content in God of War that help to extend the game beyond the campaign. Finding all of the gear, fighting the valkyries, and completing the Muspelheim arenas are great optional challenges, but the poisonous realm Niflheim is far and away the most ‘end game’ of them all. Niflheim offers its own progression loop as you complete craft keystones, complete Favors, and slowly grind your way through each chamber. It’s a great way to squeeze the most out of God of War’s combat, but it ends much sooner than I would have liked. Hopefully Ragnarok has a more robust endgame for those that aren’t ready to move on when the story ends.
Enemy Variety
While there are some notable bosses, God of War suffers for its lack of combat variety. The troll-style boss you fight in the first ten minutes ends up being the main boss type throughout the entire game, and everything else pretty much feels like variations on the basic Draugr. The sequel definitely needs a wider variety of enemies to fight.
Navigation
God of War has a hub-and-spoke style world that has you traveling back and forth between new and familiar places. If you play through the campaign and avoid the side paths, you won’t have much trouble finding your way around. Unfortunately, the level design is often at odds with the God of War’s insistence that you leave no stone unturned. There’s a Metroidvania quality to Kratos’ item acquisition, and if you want to fully complete the game you’ll need to do some significant backtracking. I found older areas to be completely unrecognizable to me once I left them, making it difficult to retrace my steps and search for missing secrets. Fast travel doors help, but God of War Ragnarok needs a more streamlined way to revisit old areas without getting lost.
The Empty World
Aside from a handful of NPCs, the world of God of War is eerily lifeless. The threat of Ragnarok doesn’t seem particularly severe when the world has seemingly been abandoned already. While there’s story reasons why no one else lives in Midgard, it still feels weird to travel the world and not find anyone else living there. Trailers for the sequel have shown some indication that we’ll find towns and cities that are still inhabited by people, which is promising. After all, you can’t have an apocalypse if there’s no one around to witness it.