First, stuff I liked. I think the combat is good; basically “more of the same” compared to the last game. I liked the puzzle-y navigation for the most part, especially in The Crater, which felt like the platonic ideal of an open world area. The dialogue continues to be well written, with Kratos’s gruffness being great for comedy.
A choice that I’m pretty ambivalent about is Sindri’s reaction to Brok’s death. Specifically basically completely cutting off everyone else in his life. It didn’t really feel like it fit with his character to me. However, I think that it’s interesting to show a character who in fact does not forgive when something traumatic happens. I’ll speak more about that below.
Which brings me to what I didn’t like much. Basically, the narrative I felt like fell flat in the end. Odin’s whole deal kinda worked, but his motivations were murky most of the time. The mask macguffin did its job I guess but ultimately felt like a big nothingburger. There seemed to be some attempts at themes which also had no throughline. Specifically the prophecy stuff which seesaws on what prophecy means, and the god-killing thing which basically feels like having their cake and eating it too.
There were also several moments without narrative setup which felt arbitrary. Top of mind is Freyr’s death. It just feels random and meaningless. Another is using the Blades of Chaos for creating Ragnarok, which feels just cheap. And then when Ragnarok is “incomplete” or whatever that whole sequence feels pointless.
The biggest issue I have is with the treatment of Odin-as-Tyr though. The whole game “Tyr” is telling you how war is bad and that you shouldn’t do it. And then it’s revealed the whole time he’s just Odin in disguise, manipulating you. And then you immediately go to war! And, like, I know that the game is literally called “God of War Ragnarok”, but this just feels like cheating. There’s plenty of good anti-war war films and games out there, but in this case it feels like the writers trying to feel profound without actually saying anything.