The long-awaited return of Kratos is finally here. God of War Ragnarok follows up after the harrowing events of the franchise’s 2018 soft reboot, delivering an epic sequel that stumbles at points. Any kind of sequel is hard to pull off, but Ragnarok provides a bigger and grander experience than its predecessor while retaining exceptional combat. Yet in the pursuit of delivering such a bombastic and epic experience, developer Sony Santa Monica loses focus on what made the previous game so compelling. Bigger is not always better, and ignoring that obvious truth means that Ragnarok is missing a key part of the 2018 game’s success: the relatable simplicity of the story.
