God of War: Ragnarök, probably the most hyped game since the release of The Last of Us part 2, has been launched on PlayStation 4 and 5 starting this Wednesday. As a sequel to the popular role-playing game named The God of War, Ragnarök is taking the story of Kratos and his son Atreus forward in the Norse mythical world. Although the series has always been appreciated for being narrative focused, this launch appears to be more special as compared to any previous launch.

Building on the foundations of the seminal 2018 title, Kratos and his son Atreus will be facing “the specter of Ragnarök – the end of the days.” The series of events in this story, which many gaming enthusiasts have claimed to be its strongest point, takes place sometime after the timeline of the first game. There is strong anticipation and buzz around the launch of the game with multiple bloggers already claiming it to be the best game of the year 2022. Here’s everything that you should know about the game, to be played on both PS4 and PS5, before you buy the God of War and enter the mythical world.

Game Story

The God of War 2018 ended on a dramatic note. Even though Kratos and Atreus successfully scattered FaZe ashes on the tallest peak in all the Realms, they somehow accidentally kicked off Thimblewinter by killing Boulder. Thimblewinter is a three years long winter that ends with the beginning of the world ending event known as Ragnarok.

So, when the sequel begins, three will have passed which clearly means Atreus would be visibly older now. And secondly, Ragnarok is about to begin. Kratos, on the other hand, of course, wants nothing more than to mind his own business and live a secure life in isolation. A place where he can keep Atreus safe. His son, however, has other ideas and is driven by the discovery of the fact that he is Loki. Atreus, thus, wants to do everything in his power to stop Ragnarok.

End of the Norse Saga

The God of War’s Greek saga has a total number of six games and while no one ever really expected the series to be as Norse Era to get to those games, most players expected it would easily be a Trilogy. Santa Monica studio obviously had other plans. The studio made the decision early on that the God of War Ragnarok is going to be the second and final instalment in the Norse saga. The current story will see a conclusion by the end of this game. Although that doesn’t mean in any which way that there would not be any more God of War games in the future, there are many more mythology options that series creators can turn to for more games. However, Ragnarok is going to be the final game in the arc that began with the 2018 title.

Antagonists

What is obvious is that the Father and Son duo’s journey through the Norse Realms is going to be fraught with danger and they’ll run into more than a few formidable enemies on their quest to prevent Ragnarok. To start with, there’s Freya who has sworn vengeance upon Kratos for balder’s death and seems hell-bent on killing him by whatever means necessary. Then, of course, there’s Thor the hammer-wielding Acer brute who has Kratos and Atreus in his crosshairs given the fact that the two of them have killed many in his family by this point. The king of the Acer Odin the all-father is also going to be a prominent antagonist. So far these are the primary villains that could give matters of concern. But a cursory glance at Norse mythology is enough to realise that there are several key figures related to Ragnarok who are likely to have a role to play as well. For example, will Kratos and Atreus have to take on Heimdall the guards the entrance into the realm when they finally get to Asgard? Will the father and son duo end up fighting the fire giant while trying to prevent Ragnarok? Many such questions hang in the balance for answers.

More Aggressive Combat

At its core, God of War Ragnarok’s combat is going to closely follow the already established framework by the previous launch episode but it will still build on those foundations in several ways. Developer Sie Santa Monica Studio has been emphasising on allowing players to be much more expressive to that end God of War Ragnarok will not only offer more options with loot progression and upgrades, but it’ll also add other wrinkles to the combat such as new tools and abilities to use. Atreus should be expected to be more involved and helpful in fights. You can also expect greater enemy variety who are much more capable of dealing with player attacks and an added level of verticality in part.

Some new combat mechanics being introduced in God of War Ragnarok include the weapon’s signature moves, revealed by Game Informer. In the 2018 game, the triangle button was used to summon the Leviathan axe to your hand but now in the sequel, pressing the button will instead unleash new moves. These newly unleashed movies completely depend on what type of weapon has been equipped. Weapon signature moves will infuse the weapon with elemental energy ice for the axe and fire for the blades which will then allow you to deal additional damage to enemies. As gamers believe, this will run on a meter or a cooldown. However, the game developers haven’t delved into too much detail about the mechanic as of now.

Length

God of War 2018 was a sizable experience of 20 to 30 hours if you stuck to the main story. It included the time tackling side quests and some more time if you really do deeper into the optional content. God of War Ragnarok too as it seems is going to be a longer experience. Although no official word has come from Sony yet, journalist Tom Henderson who covers similar stories has recently reported that the game’s main story is going to be 20 hours long.

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