God of War Ragnarök for PS5

God of War Ragnarök for PS5

How do you follow up on one of the greatest video games of all time? Sony Santa Monica finds itself in a situation not dissimilar to when Francis Ford Coppola created the sequel to his mob movie masterpiece, The Godfather. Like part two of the Corleone story, God of War Ragnarok puts a fierce, younger member of the family directly under the microscope. In doing so it manages to reach the heights of its predecessor and, in some ways, even tower above it. The writing, performances, and music are each exceptional, bringing this expansive Norse tapestry to life – but even as it holds your heart in one hand with its elegantly told story it’s crunching bones in the other with fantastically ferocious combat. It all binds together to forge a monumental action epic that adds yet another impressive landmark to the video game landscape.

Keeping things broad and spoiler-free, Kratos’ story picks up a few years after the final revelations of 2018’s God of War – this is absolutely not one of those sequels where everything will make sense without playing the first game, or at the very least watching the included story recap (which is probably too brief to serve as anything but a jolt to the memory). The apocalyptic Ragnarok is coming, and its events circle around his son Atreus like one of Odin’s ravens. Fimbulwinter – a time of unrest that presages Ragnarok – has very much come and, during the intervening years, Atreus has been growing stronger, learning about his Giant name “Loki”, and trying to convince his father to trust him. There are touching callbacks to the hunting scene from the 2018 God of War as Kratos proudly watches Atreus prove that he’s no longer a child. But it’s no slow introduction: Ragnarok wastes no time in stepping into the action and, after a breakneck opening battle, the first step of this new journey is to leave the frozen realm of Midgard and find a missing Norse god in the broader and varied universe.

It may not be as tightly told a story as 2018’s, but Ragnarok has much grander designs. This is a sprawling epic that always keeps things on the move without ever becoming disorientating, gluing me to the edge of my seat as it repeatedly toyed with expectations. It’s an ambition regularly met by stunning execution, with a momentum that never slips as you hurtle towards its bombastic ending. This journey took me just over 28 hours with a few fair side quests completed along the way, but with plenty still left to do afterward.

Prophecy and sacrifice swirl at the story’s centre as it repeatedly prods at the concept of destiny and whether blood runs thicker than the ink that pens it. It doesn’t merely offer up surface-level readings of these themes; instead, each character and their motives are given the respect they deserve by delving in deep. It’s a truly special and fittingly grand conclusion of Kratos’ Norse saga, as well as providing resolution to some of his more troubled Greek memories.