{"id":1806,"date":"2023-02-07T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-07T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/?p=1806"},"modified":"2023-02-07T03:45:47","modified_gmt":"2023-02-07T03:45:47","slug":"god-of-war-ragnarok-review-gluttonous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/07\/god-of-war-ragnarok-review-gluttonous\/","title":{"rendered":"God of War Ragnarok Review – Gluttonous"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Gluttony.\u00a0 Overindulgence.\u00a0 Intemperance.\u00a0 These are words I would use to describe God of War Ragnarok.\u00a0 Take heed, my loyal followers, and I promise there is no reason to break out the torches and pitchforks\u2026yet.\u00a0 Notice I didn\u2019t use the words dreadful, foul, or just plain bad to describe the latest tales of Kratos and Atreus.\u00a0 There is a lot I like about God of War Ragnarok<\/em>, but my time with it felt like a kid who ate all his Halloween candy in one sitting.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t escape the feeling I had consumed too much and was left rolling on the floor in discomfort from a stomach ache.\u00a0 I am not here to discourage you from playing the game.\u00a0 I am here to explain why I developed growing contempt for God of War Ragnarok<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The legend of Thor drinking the whole ocean feels poetically similar to God of War Ragnarok<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Our story picks up a few years after God of War (2018).\u00a0 <\/em>Fimblewinter has started to settle in.\u00a0 Freya still hunts the pair.\u00a0 Atreus, creeping into his puberty years, has begun sneaking out behind Kratos\u2019s back to search for lost Giant artifacts hoping it would help decipher his role in Ragnarok.\u00a0 Naturally, this draws the ire of Odin who finally decides to pay the two a visit.\u00a0 Hoping to avoid the legendary Norse event that spells the end of Odin, the Allfather tries to strike a peace deal with the pair.\u00a0 Kratos, having enough of the gods stabbing him in the back, turns down the Allfathers\u2019 request, and Kartos and Arteus go on the run to escape the fury of the Norse gods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Combat in God of War Ragnarok <\/em>hasn\u2019t changed much in comparison to God of War (2018).<\/em>\u00a0 The camera is pulled back slightly, but it doesn\u2019t seem to help with dealing with mobs of enemies.\u00a0 Most enemies feel like hacking away at a tree.\u00a0 I know the game isn\u2019t designed to one-shot enemies but driving the Leviathan axe or Chaos blades into an enemy only to watch a fraction of their health bars tick down causes my eye to roll in irritation.\u00a0 These are legendary weapons.\u00a0 I would believe they need to chip away at giant rock golems, but for a basic raider?\u00a0 Luckily, the boss fights don\u2019t suffer from this issue and their spectacle outshines the bosses from the 2018 title.\u00a0 I applaud the effort, but I still don\u2019t find God of War<\/em> combat enjoyable.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Some of this blame could be laid squarely at the feet of the gear system that\u2019s been hamfisted into this series.\u00a0 Similar to the previous title, most of this gear just provides mundane stats.\u00a0 Yes, these stats could be used as the solution to merely chipping away at an enemy\u2019s health bar in combat.\u00a0 This problem persists early on before the gear system is introduced.\u00a0 None of the gear set bonuses felt rewarding enough to hunt for, and quite frankly, I am playing God of War to rip monsters in half.\u00a0 I am not here to hunt for bracers with 5 extra strength.\u00a0 This gear system does not work and in all honesty, should be overhauled or removed.<\/p>\n\n\n

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It may seem like there is not much new on the combat front, but God of War Ragnarok does have a new trick up its sleeve: Atreus combat.\u00a0 As mentioned, Arteus has gotten into a habit of sneaking out at night to search for Giant artifacts.\u00a0 As a result, there are some chapters where we get to play as Arteus, and the game shifts to focus on his archery skills.\u00a0 Enemies seem less likely to bum-rush you so you are free to fire arrows at will.\u00a0 You do have a few melee attacks that you can use to finish off enemies including transforming into a wolf.\u00a0 It\u2019s honestly just fine.\u00a0 I don\u2019t detest it, but I frequently wondered when we were going to get back to playing as Kratos.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Fortunately for God of War Ragnarok<\/em>, characters are king.\u00a0 It is a phrase I have uttered many times, and as I have grown more fond of storytelling, I see how true the phrase can be.\u00a0 You can have the most epic journey planned for your heroes, but if your heroes can\u2019t inspire then no one will hear your tale.\u00a0 I may have a distaste for the combat within God of War Ragnarok, <\/em>but I will not deny the work the writers have put into this cast of characters.\u00a0 Kratos perfectly embodies all the worries a father has for his child, but is still willing to trust him when the time is right.\u00a0 Arteus is the teenager lusting for more and wondering where his place in the world is.\u00a0 Odin, resembling something close to Logan Ray from Succession, <\/em>subtly manipulates everyone to fuel his obsessions.\u00a0 Thor is brainwashed by his father into thinking his only worth is one of destruction.\u00a0 There has been a lot of hype surrounding HBO\u2019s take on The Last of Us.\u00a0 <\/em>Personally, I think HBO picked the wrong franchise.\u00a0 These characters have so much depth to them, and I believe a show based on the God of War Ragnarok <\/em>would be superior.<\/p>\n\n\n

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If the characters are great why am I am claiming the game is overindulgent?\u00a0 It ultimately boils down to pacing.\u00a0 This game\u2019s story could honestly be told in ten hours, but my play-through is clocking in about thirty hours.\u00a0 The pace of this story is glacial.\u00a0 You will get a small morsel of story and then have to slog through combat and puzzles just for another crumb of story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Some defenders of the game might claim that I am being dramatic.\u00a0 The pacing isn\u2019t that bad, they will cry.\u00a0 I only need one word to make these jeerings fall silent: Jotunheim.\u00a0 I can almost hear them recoiling in disgust.\u00a0 There is a chapter within God of War Ragnarok<\/em> where Arteus falls asleep and wakes to find himself in the Giant\u2019s mystical realm, Jotunheim.\u00a0 There Arteus meets a girl named Angrboda.\u00a0 She claims to have all the answers Arteus is looking for, but can\u2019t give them to him in a reasonable amount of time.\u00a0 Instead, we must journey to her camp, then help her shop for items she needs for her animals, help her clear out a nest of vermin, and then rescue a wolf from her evil grandmother.\u00a0 What bit of information do we get out of all of this?\u00a0 Just more reasons for Arteus to start Ragnarok and kill Odin.\u00a0 Something he was already planning on doing.\u00a0 Calling this game padded is an understatement.<\/p>\n\n\n

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What is worse is there are some bits of the story that God of War Ragnarok<\/em> just refuses to answer.\u00a0 I obviously need to dive a bit into spoiler territory to make these claims.\u00a0 So if you are looking to avoid spoilers, this would be the time you walk away knowing that I am probably in the minority of people tired of the bloat that is mainstream gaming.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Arteus is trying to avoid Ragnarok because it is foretold that Thor will kill Kratos during Ragnarok.\u00a0 Hoping to avoid his father\u2019s death, Arteus decides to take Odin up on an offer he made early in the game: come work for him in Asgard.\u00a0 Hoping he could use Odin\u2019s vast collection of knowledge to both kill Odin and spare his father, he journeys to Asgard to accept Odin\u2019s offer.\u00a0 There he learns about the rift in Odin\u2019s Great Lodge.\u00a0 Odin, in his youth, had attempted to look into it but was blinded in his right eye.\u00a0 He then found a bit of a mask with strange writing he could not decipher.\u00a0 He had hoped Arteus could decipher the mask with his ability to read any language and be able to locate the other pieces of the mask so he could finally look into the rift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At the end of the game, Kratos has beaten Odin, but he is able to break the ground beneath them.\u00a0 They all fall into Odin\u2019s personal chambers where the rift is hidden.\u00a0 Odin gives Artues the opportunity to gaze into the rift with the mask giving them answers to any questions they might have.\u00a0 Arteus at that moment snaps the mask in half destroying both the mask and the rift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I am a little irritated that we never got the answer behind the mask and the rift.\u00a0 I know these items are basically just mystery boxes.\u00a0 To those unaware of the concept, the mystery box is a literary device meant to be mysterious but also drive the plot of the story.\u00a0 A magical McGauffin you might say.\u00a0 Think of Rey\u2019s identity in the recent Star Wars <\/em>films, the disappearance in The Leftovers<\/em>, and most famously the island in Lost.<\/em>\u00a0 The rift is only meant to drive Odin\u2019s madness; showing that he would gladly trade it all in just to unlock its secrets.\u00a0 Naturally, this ripples out to the other characters.\u00a0 Thor is so willing to drown himself in booze to numb himself to the fact that his father only sees him as a tool to overpower his foes.\u00a0 Heimdall, seeing how much Odin covets this knowledge, spitefully uses his power to perceive people\u2019s true intentions as a way to climb higher in Odin\u2019s ranks.\u00a0 Odin\u2019s quest is the driving wedge between Kratos and Arteus\u2019s relationship.\u00a0 Artues, desperate to learn about the Giants and Ragnarok, turns his back on Kratos and takes advantage of Odin\u2019s need for answers.\u00a0 Yes, as a way to get these character to interact with each other, the rift and the mask fully fulfills this purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n

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However, watching Arteus destroy the mask at the end only made me sigh in frustration.\u00a0 Again, I recognize the mask and the rift are just there to drive the character\u2019s actions, but I was hoping it could be a little bit more.\u00a0 I have always been curious about how Kratos reached the lands of Norse mythology.\u00a0 Surely, if there was a Greek pantheon, they wouldn\u2019t be content only ruling over Greece and letting the Norse gods have their own turf.\u00a0 God of War III <\/em>showcased the world being destroyed by Kratos\u2019s actions.\u00a0 You can\u2019t tell me Kratos just jumped over the fence and everything was right as rain in Norse mythology land.\u00a0 I understand that Kratos\u2019s origin is not the story God of War Ragnarok<\/em> wants to tell.\u00a0 Alas, I am still sitting here wondering why the series hasn\u2019t explained it.\u00a0 I am not looking for a grand cosmic defining answer.\u00a0 I will accept the simplest of answers, but I would still like an answer nonetheless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In fact, God of War Ragnarok<\/em> seems thoroughly uninterested in Kratos as a character.\u00a0 Most of the plot is driven by Arteus while Kratos is mainly tagging along.\u00a0 Yes, the relationship between Kratos and Arteus is the highlight, but why don\u2019t we get to see more of Faye, Atrues\u2019s mother, and Kratos\u2019s relationship?\u00a0 What makes these questions surrounding Kratos worse is it seems like the series wants to move away from him and focus on Arteus.\u00a0 Meaning these questions might never be answered.\u00a0 In the end, Atreus and Kratos go their separate ways because the two recognize they need space to grow.\u00a0 A touching way to end, but I can\u2019t escape the feeling they are building to an Artues-lead God of War<\/em>.\u00a0 Not the worst idea I ever heard.\u00a0 They are moving the series forward in a different direction and already have a framework for it.\u00a0 Honestly, I am not sure I would be interested in spending sixty dollars on the solo adventures of Artues.\u00a0 Not because he is a bad character.\u00a0 I just come to God of War<\/em> for Kratos, and this recent title doesn\u2019t seem to share my view on him.<\/p>\n\n\n

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I recognize I am the minority.\u00a0 More people are playing one game for a longer period of time.\u00a0 Though I may cry the end is nigh for many live services, many of them have gained a foothold in popular culture.\u00a0 Call of Duty<\/em>.\u00a0 League of Legends<\/em>.\u00a0 Fortnite<\/em>.\u00a0 Games have evolved to be played over a greater length of time.\u00a0 No amount of soapbox rambling will change that.\u00a0 Do I fault developers for evolving as well?\u00a0 Of course not.\u00a0 All the love and praise God of War Ragnarok<\/em> and Elden Ring<\/em> have received are enough to show that people want these monstrous titles.\u00a0 But not me.\u00a0 I will not deny that I wept when I attended the funeral of a character who died in the game, but I will also not deny that I was glad to be done with God of War Ragnarok<\/em>.\u00a0 I felt that I had just walked out of a buffet.\u00a0 I had stuffed my face with so much processed food that my stomach ached.\u00a0 Engorged by all that I had consumed.\u00a0 Many go to these buffets and are never bothered by these feelings.\u00a0 I, in my older age, can\u2019t ignore them.\u00a0 I, no longer go to these buffets.\u00a0 I try to control my portions and get satisfaction in what I consume.\u00a0 Similar to my eating habits, I question how much longer I will be able to stomach these overlong mainstream games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Gluttony.\u00a0 Overindulgence.\u00a0 Intemperance.\u00a0 These are words I would use to describe God of War Ragnarok.\u00a0 Take heed, my loyal followers, and I promise there is no reason to break out the torches and pitchforks\u2026yet.\u00a0 Notice I didn\u2019t use the words dreadful, foul, or just plain bad to describe the latest tales of Kratos and Atreus.\u00a0… Continue reading God of War Ragnarok Review – Gluttonous<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1823,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1806"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1824,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1806\/revisions\/1824"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}