God of War Ragnarok

 When I was a Sophomore in college, I heard about a game called God of War - it was supposedly amazing, where you fought your way across the world of Greek mythology. I've been a big fan of Greek myth my entire life, and so I was intrigued.

The game, which had come with the most amazing reviews and recommendations... I didn't really like it. I played through a substantial portion of it, but gave up at a late stage where you had to climb up these bloody pillars in the underworld where if you made any error you had to start the whole thing over. It didn't really feel worth my time. The protagonist was the epitome of mid-2000s edgelords, who seemed to just kind of hate everyone and not really have any redeeming qualities. It was just a rage simulator (though admittedly one that was also built around a lot of platforming puzzles).

The game went on to finish out a trilogy, where the non-Ares Olympians were revealed as villains as well that Kratos would go on to slaughter, but even as people raved about how good the games were, I kind of ignored them. They were also gore-fests - I remember seeing a clip of the fight against Cronus in which viscerally gross violence was performed to his titanic fingernails and I said "eh, pass."

So, when "God of War" (actually God of War 4, but this was at the height of the "name a legacy sequel the same as the original" trend) came out in 2018, showing Kratos relocated from the realm of Greek myth to one of Norse myth, I was skeptical.

But what I saw of it also looked, well, fun. And furthermore, the characterization had shifted significantly. Kratos was no longer the young, hot-blooded rage monster, but instead an aged, weary figure whose primary goal now was raising a son he struggles to understand.

Kratos is still kind of an asshole at the start of the fourth game, and he's not a good father. But the journey that he and Atreus take together to grieve Atreus' mother (who is only kind of a suggested presence in that game) along with the confrontation with the "Stranger" who is actually a key figure to the apocalyptic prophecies of Ragnarok, lead to a complex and interesting narrative.

The 2018 game was good, though I think some of its promise is left a little underbaked - you get the sense that the budget was big enough to qualify as a AAA game, but they were figuring out a lot of things - not the least of which a radically different gameplay style and visual tone.

God of War Ragnarok does a lot of things really well - one is that it fulfills the promise of 4's massive open world that allows you to travel to all 9 realms of Norse myth (admittedly, even here a couple of the realms are reserved only for specific story chapters).

What is particularly effective, though, is the way that it actually feels like a fitting end for this saga.

Again, I never finished 1 nor played 2 or 3, so I can't comment very well on the Greek portion of Kratos' journey. But over the course of these past games, we see something that is sadly rare in this era of endless franchises. Kratos changes - significantly. By the end of the story, you actually feel that maybe, just maybe, Kratos is going to know peace and actually feel he's truly redeemed himself.

Now, a lot of figures from Norse myth are going to have to die for that to happen, but this isn't a wholesale slaughter - the Aesir are portrayed as complex and nuanced (well, except Heimdall, who's just a total bastard). In particular, while Thor plays an antagonistic role and certainly has a lot to answer for, at the same time you can see how he became that way, and I think he's not straight-up a villain, per se.

Odin absolutely is, and is unquestionably the prime antagonist of the story. Given that these games have always been an examination of western culture, Odin is naturally the representative of patriarchy. What I think is amazing about his portrayal (played by the West Wing's Richard Schiff, whose likeness is used for the in-game model) is that you can absolutely see that there is some kernel of something sympathetic within him. His goals are not strictly evil - it's just that the only way he understands how to deal with others is to manipulate them. He constantly belittles Thor as a dumb brute in order to keep him the dumb brute he can send after his foes. And he offers to teach Atreus magic in exchange for help with his quest, but really winds up just having Atreus use his skills and powers to aid Odin's goals without really doing anything for him in return.

Now, I'll admit that having played a ton of Elden Ring, my expectations for Open Worlds is quite high - there are elements of Ragnarok's world that I found frustrating (in particular, when returning to an area I'd completed earlier in the game to fight one of the Berserkers that are part of a major side quest, I got lost for like an hour going in circles just trying to get out to one of the Mystic Gateways that allow you to travel the realms, and got genuinely panicked and frustrated) and I think the difficulty of the game swung wide and unpredictably (I eventually wound up playing on the lowest difficulty when confronting one of those Berserkers in Alfheim and just kept it low so I could see the story - though even on that difficulty setting, the Berserker, who has two side-bosses with them, was still very hard).

Still, this is an emotionally satisfying game experience, and one that I think anyone with any affection for this series will probably think is a fitting end to it.

We'll of course see whether it is - corporations love branding. But I think that it would be kind of sad to see Kratos dragged into some new conflict when this could be the close of his story.