At long last, Sony have greenlit previews for God of War Ragnarok. Here is what the first previews are saying of the highly anticipated sequel to 2018’s God Of War.
Easy Allies – They note how much of an improvement God of War Ragnarok is over 2018’s God Of War. On a visual level, animation is more detailed and smoother, and subsequently combat feels faster and smoother as well.
Kratos has several new combat mechanics on hand, but nothing too complicated to unlearn from the last game. He and Atreus now earn EXP separately, and speaking of Atreus, their relationship has changed since the events of the last game. While Atreus was well bred and remains polite, Kratos can see that he is starting to struggle with the same things Kratos himself dealt with, as a human who suddenly received a large amount of godly power to abuse. While Easy Allies only played two hours, they came out of it wondering what else the dev team could accomplish after seeing what they had accomplished for God of War Ragnarok.
Gamespot – Tamoor Hussain brings up some story spoilers I will not share here. I will say the narrative of God of War Ragnarok fits in very nicely with everything that was established in the 2018 game.
In terms of combat, there is now a system for light and heavy attacks, which frees up Kratos from just using his Leviathan axe. This also gives Kratos more options against enemies, who now offer a more considerable challenge than the previous game.
Eurogamer – Chris Tapsell opines that there isn’t much innovation in the combat system. He does enjoy the many contraptions that need to be operated, AKA the puzzles, that were a major part of God of War gameplay design since the very first game. Chris doesn’t think there is a lot of innovation in God of War Ragnarok, and he believes the reason for this is is the limitations set on the design by having to port it to the PlayStation 4.
GameInformer – Kyle Hilliard backs up accounts that the game is a significant improvement in its presentation from its predecessor. While noting the combat hasn’t changed all that much, Kyle made note of how Santa Monica Studio improved the enemy variety, and added an element of environmental objects also being used as weapons. Not just rocks, but Kratos can uproot trees to bat enemies around, as you would imagine he could. Kyle also writes about the banter between Kratos, Atreus, and the talkative Mimir.
PlayStation Blog – finally, SIE content communications manager Tim Turi writes for the official PlayStation blog and saves some key details. Some of this is probably too spoilery but we’ll provide a brief summary
Haptic immersion from the DualSense to match the visuals
Kratos can now do a huge jumping attack
Brok and Sindi’s shop serves as your homebase, where you upgrade and store loot
Your default shield breaks, opening up the opportunity to choose from two new ones with different abilities
Bifrost is no longer open for you to use, but Brok and Sindri have prepared mystic gateways instead
Atreus now has sonic arrows
Kratos gets a compass from Sindri that allows Kratos to track objectives, perfect for side quests
God of War Ragnarok will be released on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on November 9, 2022. It is highly likely it will follow other Sony games to come to PC at a later date. In the meantime, you can also read about the special edition God of War Ragnarok DualSense controller.
Source: Twitter
