After 52 hours and all achievements collected, I still leave a negative review. The game is beautiful and fun to play, but I can't forgive what they did to the characters from GOW 2018.
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[b]Cons[/b]
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- Almost every character now feels like a parody or a cheap sequel version written by different, less passionate people.
- In 2018, I constantly had funny moments during conversations between Kratos, Atreus and Mimir. In Ragnarök, I had none. Now they mostly speak about pain and feelings. The narrative is clearly made by different people for a different audience.
- Kratos had problems comforting his own son after his mother died. Now he tells Freya: “You don't need to say it, I understand your feelings.” This is simply not believable.
- Brok was smart, rough and emotionally closed. Now he is just a more polite version of himself, while his jokes fall flat. Sindri was shy and kind. In Ragnarök, he mostly shouts, cries and blames everyone around him.
- Thor is fun at first, especially after everything we heard about him in 2018. Unfortunately, they turn him into a pathetic loser who is forced to quit drinking, and it becomes hard to look at him without pity.
It feels like the writers wanted all confident and interesting characters to be villains, while boring, old and self-aware characters are shown as good.
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[b]Pros[/b]
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- The worlds are stunning, the fights are cool and exploration is pleasant. This is the main reason I collected all achievements. The puzzles are repetitive, but still enjoyable enough.
- The villains are great. Odin is charismatic, smart and well written. He follows his path despite everything. Heimdall is a breath of fresh air: arrogant, perceptive and deliberately perfect at almost everything.
- Valhalla also pushes themes of feelings and self-awareness, but it feels much more natural and believable. Its dialogues don't make me want to roll my eyes.
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This is why my review is negative. I don't think it is okay for the industry to force ideology into games. Games should be fun and don't always need to reflect the real world. It is good to have something to think about, but it should not be the central part of the game.
