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God of War Ragnarok, the long-awaited sequel to the 2018 game, has recently been released to incredibly positive reviews across the board. The game takes an extremely solid foundation laid by the first game and builds on it both in terms of narrative and gameplay.

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While Ragnarok is arguably better than the first game, that doesn't mean it's perfect. Sure, the positives absolutely outweigh the shortcomings, but they're still worth taking a look at and judging the game fairly. None of these make the game any worse, but they could certainly be improved upon.

10 Pacing And Story

god of war ragnarok
via Santa Monica

The first game of the God of War reboot told a relatively small story, according to God of War standards, at least. With a specific goal in mind and obstacles to build on the main characters, the game felt perfectly paced and had a great flow.

While Ragnarok begins quite bombastically, the story rather quickly becomes a tangle of several different incidents. The looming threat of Ragnarok, Atreus' search for his fate, and the Norse Gods' plots all make this game's story feel a bit disjointed. A lack of a specific end goal is a huge part of this, as you'll find characters asking what their next move should be quite often, especially early on.

9 Camera And Enemy Focus

Kratos fighting Einherjar, in God of War: Ragnarök

Something that carried over from the first game, the camera should have been overhauled a bit. While combat feels great in Ragnarok, the camera and spatial awareness can be unwieldy and lead to some infuriating defeats throughout the game.

The camera is fixed behind Kratos, meaning you can't freely look around, which sometimes becomes necessary. Locking onto enemies with R3 is a great feature, but changing between enemies feels unresponsive at times, and it can lead to attacks from behind that you can't respond to in time, especially in more crowded fights.

8 Respawn Time

God of War Ragnarok Death Scene with Thor's dialogue

Since God of War Ragnarok is a very combat-heavy game, and a challenging one at that, you'll find yourself dying quite often, especially in higher difficulties. That's not an issue in and of itself, but the time it takes to reload from the last checkpoint can become annoying over time.

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The game has a rather dramatic death animation, to begin with, in part to allow players some time to use Resurrection Stones, but waiting long enough to check your phone is never a great experience. This especially becomes annoying in boss battles, which require some pattern learning and, thus, several attempts before achieving victory.

7 Better Equipment UI

God of War Ragnarok Armor screen with chest armors list

God of War 2018 improved on the older hack-and-slash formula with a more RPG-like approach, and it was great. Fortunately, Ragnarok adds to this further and provides players with several ways to craft, upgrade and collect strong and impactful equipment.

While it's not a huge issue for experienced players, the game's equipment and shop screens can be a bit confusing for newcomers. With several weapons, pommels, runic attacks, and more, the menu feels a little confusing. It could easily be refined with more sub-menus and rarity distinctions, but as it stands, it's not perfect.

6 Varied Encounters

God Of War Ragnarok, Kratos And Bjorn Yelling At Each Other Header

Due to the titular character's skill set and the influence of the original trilogy, God of War Ragnarok is a game full of combat. That's not an issue since boss fights are the bread and butter of the series, and the combat mechanics feel absolutely visceral and exciting.

The game does both sorts of encounters, being boss and swarm, quite well. The issue is the lack of a different kind of encounter altogether. After several hours of play, going from boss fight to boss fight with puzzles and smaller fights sprinkled in between becomes repetitive. More unique encounter ideas are sprinkled in, mostly during boss fights, but are never fully utilized.

5 More Innovation

God Of War Ragnarok, Thor Standing In The Distance

This one is a weird topic to talk about. God of War Ragnarok is a great sequel, building on an excellent first game and adding more. Unfortunately, it feels like they relied a bit too heavily on the first game in terms of mechanics.

There is an argument to be made that this makes things consistent and makes sense lore-wise. All the same, it would have been nice to see some more original collectibles, puzzles, and possible adversaries than we got as opposed to the first game. This is a double-edged sword since the 2018 game is held in such high regard.

4 Lasting Consequences

freya god of war ragnarok
via Santa Monica

One thing that the series began doing with the 2018 game and continues with Ragnarok is creating compelling stories that stem from the characters' inner conflicts. The previous game took Kratos, a relatively unexplored rage monster, and turned him into a poster child for three-dimensional video game characters.

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While both Ragnarok and its predecessor are amazing story-driven games, the connection between them feels a bit underwhelming. The threats, clues, and easter eggs we found in the first game don't seem to hold the weight they could in Ragnarok. A more directly sequel-like central conflict could serve Ragnarok well as the leading story hook.

3 Fast Travel And Dimension Hopping

God of War Midgard Map with locations marked

On the other end of the story/gameplay spectrum is God of War's issue with fast travel. To be fair, the game provides gateways to the player quite often, and it does add to the immersion for sure, but not being able to teleport to hubs in such an RPG-like game feels limiting.

This could be explained in-universe, too. You're aided by several gods and mythical beings, after all. Not being able to instantly transport to a different realm when you finish the collectibles and missions in one and having to row a boat or traverse can sometimes feel like a waste of time.

2 Realms With Residents

God of War Ragnarok Nidavellir chests with Kratos holding axe

During the original trilogy, God of War was a true hack-and-slash game with some god murder and adventure sprinkled in. With the series becoming more and more of an open-world RPG in recent entries, it stands to reason that NPCs, side characters, and miscellaneous quests are of great importance.

Unfortunately, despite the genre shift, the world feels emptier than it should. Even when visiting locations that should be lively and full of residents, like the dwarf capital Nidavellir, you barely see random inhabitants just living there. It appears that the realms in God of War Ragnarok have an overwhelming population of monsters as opposed to people, which feels like a missed opportunity.

1 Accents

Screenshot of Mimir in his usual spot reading a book in God of War Ragnarok.

This entry almost feels like a crime to include, but there are arguments to be made here. To begin with, the voice acting talent is incredible in the game, including amazing actors such as Christopher Judge, Sunny Suljic, Alastair Duncan, and Ben Prendergast.

While the actors are amazing, and the characters feel authentic, the accents, unfortunately, hurt the immersion. Mimir's iconic Scottish accent and Kratos' grunting are welcome for sure. However, as we get to meet more and more characters from the Norse Pantheon, hearing a lineup of Nordic Gods with mostly American accents can take you out of the game.

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