Review | God of War Ragnarök

“Why did you want to do this mission with me, father?” Atreus asks after one of the many optional tasks. Kratos growls a bit, but doesn't dare to show the back of his tongue. It's Mimir, the severed head full of funny stories, who finally breaks the silence: "He just wants to spend some more time with you." It is also a perfect metaphor for God of War Ragnarök.

Because yes, the successor to the 2018 reboot essentially feels like more of the same. But that God of War was so good that spending more time in this world is absolutely no punishment. If you really don’t want to know anything about the game, read this one sentence before closing this page: anyone who enjoyed the previous game will be completely satisfied with Ragnarök.

But Mimir’s quote also applies in another way, namely because of the emotional underlay. Ragnarök focuses almost all his arrows on the story and the development of the relationships between characters. Scenes seem to have been written on purpose to make you cry, and dammit, they work damn well too.

God of War Ragnarök starts in the same place as the first part, namely at home. Kratos and Atreus have been hiding for a few years because everyone is out to get them. Freya is angry that they killed her son Baldur, Thor is angry that his sons did not survive and supreme god Odin is angry because… well, because Ragnarök is coming, the prophesied end of the world.

Atreus is tired of waiting and eager to discover who he is and what part he plays in all the prophecies. Shouldn’t he be saving the world, or at least helping with something? What follows is an immersive adventure in which everyone learns something about themselves. Can you break free from prophecies and expectations to become who you want to be? Are you in charge of your own destiny?

In this grand pantheon of quarrels between gods, everything feels very personal. Kratos is no longer as he used to be on a murderous crusade to kill all the gods, but is willing to talk things through and avoid violence, if this keeps his son safe. The growth that Kratos is experiencing as a human being is enormous, sometimes even unbelievably large. Not that he is now whining endless monologues, but the Kratos who only wants to drink blood is definitely a thing of the past.

The focus is on personal interests and motivations, which impressively seeps through even in the side missions. The game again has a number of open hub worlds, in which you can explore somewhat freely. Ragnarök isn’t an open world game all of a sudden, but just like in 2018’s God of War, there are optional areas where you can find additional content if you feel like it.

You’ll be triggered more than ever to sink your teeth into it, as you’ll be rewarded with bits of story and emotional moments surrounding the main characters. For example, in the dwarf kingdom of Svartalfheim, Mimir asks you to dismantle construction sites, because in the past he helped Odin turn the dwarfs into slaves of sorts. He wants to correct his mistakes from the past, which adds an extra layer to this fairly simple job.

In any case, the many characters are the biggest plus of the game. Returning favorites such as Mimir and the dwarfs Brok and Sindri, as well as new friends from the gods realm impress. The acting is top notch, with Danielle Bisutti as the highlight. Her broken Freya swings between limitless anger and heartbreaking grief, and is a joy to watch.

In addition, the portrayal of Odin is a bold choice that turns out fantastic. Between large and taciturn muscle masses like Kratos and Thor, Richard Schiff plays the supreme god as some sort of mob boss who relies more on his brain than on sheer strength. It makes him an endlessly intriguing antagonist who is always two steps ahead of you.

This story is again brilliantly portrayed by fabulous camera work, where no cuts are ever made in scenes. Everything is one take, which makes the adventures of Kratos and Atreus even more personal. You really feel like you are staying by their side and going out together. It also provides the necessary calmness, because the camera rests on faces for a long time. When there is an Important Conversation, you get all the nuances on the faces of the actors.

This time, the camera gets a little more space to capture other storylines as well. Ragnarök has a lot of creative tricks in store to portray the whole in a surprising way and to let everything melt together perfectly. Director Eric Williams deserves a big compliment for his sometimes daring, but certainly successful choices in the script.

You might notice that this action-adventure review isn’t about action for 12 paragraphs. This game relies so much on the story that the developers themselves sometimes almost forget that there is still a fight to be made. Quick, throw another group of meaningless enemies at the player! You are regularly confronted with small fights, just because the previous fight was so long ago.

That sometimes breaks the pace of the game, especially if it starts to feel like a must. Some battles and environments are even exactly the same as in the previous game. “Hey, remember this great enemy? Well, there it is again!” Fortunately, the total amount of different enemies has increased, making the game more varied in the end.

It shouldn’t spoil the fun too much, especially because the combat is so very good and tight. Little has actually changed since the previous game, but that’s not a bad thing at all in this case. The ax and double chain swords feel great as ever. You have total control over Kratos and all his moves, the controls never get in your way and the combos flow effortlessly from your fingertips.

New additions to your arsenal are welcome, but not a major revolution. For example, you can now charge your weapon before starting a combo for an extra dose of ice or fire. Later in the game you can choose to focus more on long-range combat, but hey, who wants that when you’ve got your hands on those iconic melee weapons?

You also have little time to get bored of the combat, because the game contains more epic moments and battles than before. Although Ragnarök, like his predecessor, has a slow start, the journey is more than ever filled with memorable confrontations.

Despite the above criticisms, God of War Ragnarök is a beautiful game that feels epic and grand in everything. The game is finished to perfection, all animations and details are correct and bugs are hardly or not present at all. The worlds are breathtaking at times, full of small details that bring the game all the way to life. We might have liked to see a bit more of some environments, because not all areas can be explored at your leisure.

But you really can’t complain about a lack of content here. The story rages across your screen in about twenty hours, but if you also want to explore all optional missions, you will certainly lose twice that, and maybe even more.

According to the developers, this God of War series will not be a trilogy and Ragnarök is the closing of this story. Strangely enough, it does feel like a trilogy. The game is so packed with surprising story moments that it feels like you’ve played two entire games in one. As if the studio had planned the story of a trilogy, but crammed the last two parts into one fantastic package.

Lesser gods would collapse under their own weight in such a case, but with Ragnarök that is absolutely not the case. The game is overcrowded, in the most positive way. It brilliantly weaves together all of its storylines and grandiose action, never having you huffing and puffing at the clock. After thirty hours of playing, we just want to spend more time in this world. Fortunately, there is still plenty to do.

God of War Ragnarök is available for PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4. For this review, the game was tested on a PlayStation 5.

Score:

9,5

+ Combat remains excellent.
+ Beautifully beautiful and compelling.
+ Phenomenal and emotional acting.
+ Great story, creatively portrayed

– Puzzles slow things down.
– A bit too linear at times.


Game Guide | God of War Ragnarok

Achievement / Trophy guide

Overview:
– Estimated achievement difficulty: 4/10 (on Story Difficulty, can switch difficulty at any time in gameplay settings)
– Offline: 36 (1trophy, 4trophy, 15trophy, 16trophy)
– Online: 0
– Approximate amount of time to  Platinum: 40-50 hours on Story Difficulty / 50-60 hours on Balance Difficulty / 60-70+ hours on No Mercy Difficulty
– Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 1
– Missable achievements  : 0, nothing tied to trophies or 100% completion is missable, can still return to all relevant locations after the story in free-roam
– Does difficulty affect achievements: No, can do everything on the easiest difficulty and use accessibility options 
– Unobtainable/glitched achievements : No
– PS4/PS5 Autopop & Save Transfer: Yes, but only from PS4 > PS5 (not from PS5 > PS4), it autopops all trophies including Platinum instantly upon loading the PS4 save on PS5
– PS4/PS5 Crossbuy: Yes but only if you buy the more expensive Crossbuy Edition for €69,99 (There is a cheaper PS4-only version for €59,99, can be upgraded to PS5 for €10)
– Free-Roam / Level Select after Story?: Yes, there is free roam after story, can return to all areas that are relevant for trophies and 100% completion.
– Extra equipment needed: No
– Release Date: November 09, 2022

Welcome to the God of War Ragnarok Trophy Guide! The game has a very similar structure to the 2018 God of War game. For platinum you basically need 100% completion. All Collectible Types are tied to trophies, except for Lore and Buried Treasures. There are 418 Collectibles in total. You can’t complete most areas on the first visit during the story because you’ll be missing the required skills. All the skills you need are unlocked automatically from the story. Some Collectibles don’t spawn at all until you’ve beaten the story. It’s best to focus on the story first and clean up everything after. Nothing is missable, you can return to all areas that contain collectibles after the story. The story takes around 20 hours and 100% completion another 20 hours (on easiest difficulty). There are no difficulty-related trophies, everything can be done on the lowest difficulty. There’s nothing you need to watch out for during your story run, just have fun and enjoy the game as you wish.

Step 1: Finish Story [20 Hours]

Finish the story on any difficulty. Playing on the lowest difficulty setting is fine. You can also make use of the Accessibility Settings to make it even easier.

Nothing that’s tied to trophies or 100% completion is missable. All relevant areas that contain collectibles can be revisited after the story in free-roam. A handful of story-specific sections become unavailable but they don’t contain anything for completion or trophies, so it’s of no consequence. If you forgot to pick up items dropped by enemies they are automatically placed in the blue chest at the blacksmith. There’s no way to miss anything.

Just like the previous God of War game, it’s impossible to get all Collectibles on the first visit. You won’t have the necessary abilities, they are unlocked later in the story. Some collectibles don’t spawn at all until after the story (Remnants), they cannot be found until you reached the endgame. So don’t worry about Collectibles for now, it’s impossible to complete them during the story. Grab what you find by yourself, then backtrack for the rest after the story.

Step 2: Follow a Collectible Guide for 100% Completion [20 Hours]

Even though the trophy list doesn’t outright mention some collectible types, you basically need everything. For example, you also need all 48 Odin’s Ravens to get one of the Relics/Hilts as a reward. To fight Hrolf you must get all Berserker Gravestones. To get all Apples/Horns you need the Nornir Chests. To fully repair the Amulet of Yggdrasil you need the Legendary Chests because they contain the parts. Accessing certain areas requires doing Favors so they are needed too. 100% Completion will also help you reach Gear Level 9 (maximum) to stand a chance against the Level 9 bosses Hrolf and Gna.

The only collectible types not directly tied to trophies are Lore and Buried Treasures. Everything else is needed for trophies.

The Bear and the Wolf

Collect all Trophies

Read more


News | First Trailer God of War: Ragnarok Shown

Sony has released the first trailer for God of War: Ragnarok.

The company did so during the PlayStation Showcase tonight. The new God of War was already announced last year through a teaser. Then 2021 was mentioned as the release year in the teaser, but earlier this year Sony already indicated that the game would only be released in 2022.

The trailer shows various locations in the game. Kratos and his son Atreus head out again and can visit all nine realms instead of the six from the previous God of War. The duo is looking for the Norse god of war, Tyr.

In addition, Ryan Hurst, an actor best known for his role as Opie from the Sons of Anarchy series, is known to play the role of Thor. It has also been announced that Cory Barlog will not direct the new God of War. Eric Williams takes over – he has worked on all the games in the series.

Finally, developer Sony Santa Monica reported that God of War: Ragnarok is the final part of the ‘Norwegian series’ of God of War. After that, the series may therefore focus on other settings.

God of War: Ragnarok is the direct sequel to the 2018 God of War. In it, Kratos does not compete against the Greek gods, but against the gods from Norse mythologies. In doing so, he uses a special ax that returns to him after throwing it at enemies or objects. The game was particularly well received by the worldwide press and gamers.

God of War is coming to both PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 sometime in 2022. Watch the trailer below.


Review | Marvel's Avengers

Developer Crystal Dynamics has made it clear that Marvel's Avengers must become a living universe. With a cooperative multiplayer mode that is constantly updated with new content, Marvel’s Avengers should last for years. The story mode intended as an introduction and the cooperative multiplayer are qualitatively far apart. It's surprising that the "single player mode" is the signed winner.

The narrative part of Marvel’s Avengers knows how to perfectly respond to the inner Marvel fan by not putting someone like Captain America or Iron Man at the center, but rather the young superhero-in-the-cap Kamala Khan. The fantasy trip for Marvel fans kicks off right when Kamala enters Avengers Day, sort of an open-air Marvel convention. The biggest difference is that the visitors do not marvel at cosplayers, but at the real superheroes in the flesh. If the future Ms. Marvel suddenly bumps into Thor, she’s not the only one who squeaks with enthusiasm.

However, that euphoria is short-lived. The Avengers giant airship goes up in flames after an attack. The nasty stuff that is released during this process turns Kamala into the very flexible Ms. Marvel. Then a classic origins story unfolds, in which Kamala not only discovers her own super powers, but also brings the fallen Avengers back together.

Although the story does not really surprise, it is a succession of fan material. In addition to Kamala, you regularly get the other Avengers under your control. They all have roughly the same type of attacks, such as a light and a heavy attack and a remote attack. But where Iron Man, for example, shoots with his repulsors, Captain America throws his shield , Thor with his hammer and The Hulk just pulls a fresh piece of debris from the ground towards the ill-fated enemy.

The unambiguous controls allow you to switch effortlessly between the different heroes, but you can also take the time to master a specific superhero. The story mode is not nearly enough to unlock all skills for the different heroes. This game is made to last much longer. The multiplayer DNA is deeply rooted in Marvel’s Avengers and the narrative part cannot be separated from the cooperative battles.

For example, during the “single player” you will be presented with missions several times that you can play with multiple players. If no partners are found through matchmaking, computer-controlled heroes fill in the blanks. These missions are immediately out of tune, the environments stand out against the locations you play through on your own, objectives are generic and the interaction between the Avengers lacks the credible touch that Kamala and Bruce Banner put on the stage in the beginning.

It is a shame that it has been decided to put so much emphasis on multiplayer, because at the moment there is a lot of fun to be had in Marvel’s Avengers, especially as a single player game.
That line continues unabated once you launch Avengers Initiative: the real multiplayer part of the game. This is set after the campaign, when the world is still plagued by various threats and the Avengers are needed everywhere to quell conflict. Some missions are done in minutes, others take considerably longer, but none of the online activities really surpass the single player.

Interiors are eagerly reused and usually have the ambiance of a dental practice. Usually the ultimate goal is to smash a few generators, defend a few checkpoints, or protect a few S.H.I.E.L.D agents. In addition, you should of course punch everyone you meet in the face, because that is what Marvel’s Avengers is all about: fight and fight, preferably as spectacular as possible.

Sometimes that results in unadulterated superhero fun, sometimes the chaos simply becomes too much. When vibranium shields, divine hammers, green fists, bullets, lasers, debris, robot parts and outstretched limbs fill the screen, it’s not just your eyes that struggle to keep up with the chaos.

Nevertheless, there is enough in the barrel for any superhero. In addition to the missions and routine gear upgrades, there are also daily and weekly challenges that earn you points as part of the Hero Challenge Cards. You can complete those challenges anywhere. In a story mission, online, on your own: everything counts. This way you can unlock new costumes, emotes and name tags per character. The game only gets a bit of an appearance because you can also unlock everything in the Challenge Cards with real money.

If the online activities were really cool and you enjoyed playing them over and over again, that was until then. But now that the missions are also repeated after a short while, you have to grind a lot to complete the Challenge Card and thus unlock all costumes.

Marvel’s Avengers really does need some work to break through online. In addition to the fact that the missions get boring relatively quickly, the game is not entirely perfect technically. Sometimes you fall through the ground, enemies end up in closed environments and there are quite a few graphical oddities in the game. Crystal Dynamics will add new characters in the coming period, including Hawkeye, Kate Bishop, Black Panther and, exclusively on the PlayStation, Spider-Man. That will only make Marvel’s Avengers attractive to more people, as playing as your favorite Marvel hero is the game’s biggest draw.

The fighting system is right, the powers are right, the balance is right: every superhero is fun to play with. The heroes’ designs are debatable, but the unlockable costumes solve that problem for most people. It is a shame that it has been decided to put so much emphasis on multiplayer, because at the moment there is a lot of fun to be had in Marvel’s Avengers, especially as a single player game. The multiplayer is now on level The Incredible Hulk (2008). Let’s hope it doesn’t take Crystal Dynamics eleven years to reach level of Endgame.

Score:

8,0

+ the “single player” turns out to be surprisingly good
+ Great sound and special effects
+ Every superhero is well put together with their own moves and custom costumes.

– Overly cluttered War Table
– Multiplayer recycles content
– Various technical issues


News | New Fortnite season is all about Marvel

The fourth season of Fortnite Chapter 2 was revealed by Epic this morning. Nexus War is all about Marvel.

Earlier this week, the upcoming Marvel theme was already teased, it showed Thor and Galactus. An image with Wolverine was also shown. Several Marvel heroes take on Galactus in the chapter. In addition to the aforementioned heroes, characters such as Iron Man, Storm, Doctor Doom, Groot and She-Hulk are also coming to the game. Wolverine isn’t coming to Fortnite until sometime later this season.

It is not the first time that superheroes have a role in Fornite, the Avengers, Batman, Deadpool and Aquaman have already been guests in the game. However, it is the first time that a complete season revolves around superheroes. In addition to skins for the heroes, adjustments are also made to the game world. For example, players can visit the Marvel Helicarrier. The fourth season will be available later today.


News | Thor is coming to Fortnite's fourth season

The fourth season of Fortnite is coming and Marvel hero Thor appears to be a major part of it.

A short clip with the Fortnite logo featuring Thor was posted in Fortnite’s official Twitter account. The date mentioned is August 27, or next Thursday. On that day Fornite: Chapter 2, Season 4 also begins.

Of course, every season contains a Battle Pass with exclusive skins. Thor may be part of that. Superheroes aren’t new to Fortnite: DC Comics villains like Joker and Poison Ivy were announced last week, and characters like Thanos, Deadpool and Iron Man have already appeared in the game.

Tomorrow, Fortnite will also host a one-day championship called the #FreeFortnite Cup, a tournament that pokes fun at Apple. Fortnite developer Epic Games and Apple are at odds with each other after Apple took the game from iOS, because Epic wanted to let players pay outside of Apple.


News | Dataminers discover new characters in Marvel's Avengers beta

Dataminers scoured the beta of Marvel's Avengers on PlayStation 4 and found the names of various characters.

The code refers to Kate Bishop, She-Hulk and War Machine. However, these characters have not yet been revealed for the game. They may be DLC characters or they may be in the game as a surprise. They may also refer to skins for existing characters or collectibles. Finally, it is possible that there is code around these characters in the game, but the developer ultimately did not use them.

Marvel’s Avengers will be released on September 4 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.