God of War Ragnarok Review

Santa Monica Studio's 2022 sequel closes the Norse arc and gives Atreus half the game. He is playable for substantial stretches with his own combat kit and his own agenda, which turns the father-son relationship from a framing device into an actual conflict - the two disagree about the prophecy and the game lets them act on it separately. All nine realms are visitable this time, several of them substantial, and the Leviathan Axe and Blades of Chaos are joined by a third weapon that arrives late and reworks the crowd control. Combat is more elaborate than the 2018 game, with shield variants that change the parry timing and a genuinely deep late-game build system. It is more talkative and more conventional in structure than its predecessor, which is the main criticism, but Ragnarok itself is staged with real ambition. The free Valhalla DLC added a roguelike mode built around the series' own history. The PC version arrived in September 2024.