One can argue for a long time about whether Elden Ring deserves the title of the best shooting game of the past 2022 more than God of War: Ragnarok. Spiteful critics with almost the same enthusiasm criticized both projects for their secondary nature - they called FromSoftware's creation "Dark Souls in the open world", and the unenviable label "DLC for 70 bucks" was hung on the action from Santa Monica.
But hardly anyone in their right mind would deny that both projects came out at least good. Plus, there has been a decline in the gaming industry for several years now, and there are fewer and fewer AAA projects of this kind. It is easy to criticize, but in this situation it is better to thank the authors for their work.
However, this is all poetry. In November, the author of "Kanobu" Dmitry Sirovatko spent 20 hours of his life in God of War Ragnarok, studying both the story and secondary tasks for a more complete picture. It's time for a verdict and answer the question, how good were the remaining 30 hours of playing time?
As I have already noted, I understand the dissatisfaction of those who complained about the lack of innovation, almost bordering on their absence. As for me, the feeling of secondariness did not prevent me from enjoying it in the least. I went through the original God of War in the year of release, so I managed to both forget a lot and simply get bored. Moreover, such polished projects are now so rare that you don’t want to devalue the work of the team at all.
Yes, after completing the entire shooting game, we can now safely state that Eric Williams, who replaced Corey Barlog, chose the safest way for himself - to transfer the well-proven gameplay formula to new scenery. The minor changes that I have already talked about do not make the weather - the game feels almost the same as in 2018, but adjusted for a more frisky start. For now, both blades are immediately available to Kratos, and the game almost immediately forces you to combine weapons depending on the situation.
In side quests, there are still the same chests with beating bells, kindling fire at the right points and searching for items. The main part of the secondary tasks is just that, but thanks to the alignment of quest chains, the path to one goal can lead to a fork and the emergence of alternative tasks. Therefore, I want to “clean up” the locations completely, especially since there are plenty of full-fledged tasks with a plot background here too.
God of War Ragnarok is perfectly balanced in difficulty. Since the level of enemies and bosses is not indicated, the ability to jump to a lower level comes to the rescue if you do not want to mess around with pumping for a long time. This feature can help with optional boss fights. From old memory, I can’t say how much more evil they are than the former Valkyries from their predecessor, but some enemies made me sweat notably even on standard difficulty. And those who primarily need hardcore battles from the game will be able to, on the contrary, raise the level.
Sharing my impressions of the first 20 hours, I very carefully outlined the situation with the script, so that later I would not look like “changing shoes”. I had some concerns about whether the authors would be able to meet the bar and not ultimately reduce the brutal action to dull moralizing and strained drama. Alas, only half succeeded.
At the time when I wrote the first text, I met only one long segment with Atreus, where he enters the world of Angrboda - the same girl who was shown in the trailers before the release. It was almost an hour of not very interesting wanderings with the collection of items and chatter. And even then I wondered: why so sharply press the brakes in a dynamic action movie? Then an excuse crept into my head - maybe it was just a breather before something big. Unfortunately no.
For certain reasons, Atreus settles in Asgard for a long time, a good five hours are allotted to the wanderings of the hero, coupled with the same chatter and primitive action segments. So primitive that they are more like DLC made by an apprentice.
There are definitely positive moments from the boy's communication with the local inhabitants - this helps with the disclosure of lore and motives. But when this is backed up by such wretched battles, in which you can almost win with your eyes closed, you just want to grow together with the button responsible for rewinding. The only pity is that such a function simply does not exist.
The main plot, unfortunately, also gives a strong slack in the final third. Kratos' desire to finally start a quiet and peaceful life with his son is understandable, but some plot moves with whining gods seem so stupid and far-fetched that the notorious Ragnarok begins to be perceived not as a logical climax, but as a kind of piano in the bushes. It seems as if the heroes break the fourth wall and say to the gamer: “Brother, well, you understand that Ragnarok simply cannot fail to take place, otherwise why is it in the title”? The degree of absurdity, fortunately, is very far from what was seen in last year's A Plague Tale: Requiem, but spoiled the impression somewhat.
Despite the fact that these 50 hours will not fade from my memory soon, the final opinion turned out to be not so enthusiastic.
I will say more - the final third, even adjusted for the epic battle, I passed without much enthusiasm, periodically glancing at the in-game timer in the hope of seeing the end as soon as possible.
In my practice, there were very few shooting games that started spectacularly, but gradually lost their grip. It is a pity that the high-budget God of War, which, logically, should only increase the merits of its predecessor, eventually lost to it in a number of aspects. Although remaining at the same time very high quality, but no longer a masterpiece shooting game.