Ragnarok was my PS5 System-Seller. I had a love/hate relationship with the original God of War series, but God of War (2018) was masterful. Doom (2016) is the only game coming to mind that managed to so perfectly pull off the same trick, but God of War also had a major tonal shift from dudebro slasher to a much more grounded and serious game. Ragnarok is literally “More God of War”, and while it shook out a little weird, it’s still a thoroughly enjoyable video game product.

I haven’t read up what went down here, but from playing through both games now it seems pretty clear that something went weird in the development of these two games. 2018 ended sort of abruptly. You have your big setpiece ending fight, a very short epilogue, and it ends on an enormous cliffhanger.

Ragnarok feels like they had one more act for 2018. If they actually put it in 2018 it would have been way too much game. Maybe they had enough for a Blizzard-Style Expansion Pack (D2X, Brood War, Frozen Throne, etc) or a CDPR-Style Story DLC (Witcher 3: Blood & Wine, etc). Slightly upgraded engine, slightly upgraded mechanics, focus is all on story story story story story, and on just being more of the base game. Hell, even Horizon: Zero Dawn had beefy Expansion/DLC content with The Frozen Wilds.

But they didn’t do that. Instead at some point they spun it off into its own game. Lots of reused environments (though, updated), lots of reused mechanics, lots of reused . . everything. Except the Story! All new story! All new encounters! Couple totally new areas! But that’s all ok, it’s fine, it just makes it feel not as uniquely / legitimately full as it’s predecessor.

What’s new (Story, Environments, Bosses, Playable Characters) is great, as good or better than 2018.

What isn’t new (Combat, Collectibles, Gear, Core Systems, etc) is as good or worse than 2018.

Combine those and somehow you still end up with a pretty outstanding game. Not the best game of the year, but still a really good game, and a safe recommendation on PS5.