God of War: Ragnarok. They rewrote Norse mythology.

My name is Buddan, and this time I left behind such a big and loud toy as God of War Ragnarök .

As always, I hasten to share my impressions of the adventure I have completed. The time has come for me to figure out what the bald bearded man has done in the world of the Scandinavian gods, having previously annihilated the Greek world from which he comes. The game is certainly an expensive and rich triple AAA, but is it really that good when compared to the first part of 2018?? It’s not for nothing that they called it simply gorgeous DLC?

Sorry for the spoiler, but yes, she’s damn good, and it’s hard to call her dlc! I, almost without looking up, vacuumed it all up to the very holes, but, naturally, there were controversial points that I would also like to mention. Suddenly for myself, I even became interested in some of the myths about the Scandinavian pantheon of gods and how they were reinterpreted in the game, so sometimes I will go into some kind of comparisons with the folklore original, but don’t be alarmed.

In general, let’s start slowly, and we will do this with a short excursion into the past of the main character, because it is always nice to learn about his beginning and formation before getting acquainted with the last chapter in the history of a character. There will definitely be spoilers here, for now only for past games, so everyone who hasn’t played as the brutal Spartan, but was wondering if it’s worth it, yes, it’s worth it. Well, now I’ll briefly go over the main milestones of this brutal series.

In the past

Under the title God of War, 4 serial parts have already been released, 3 full-fledged spin-offs, and one mobile phone, so there is something to see in this epic.

The main character of all parts is the brutal and smooth-headed Spartan general Kratos. In the first God of War, during one fierce battle, having lost most of his soldiers and about to lose his life from an over-inflated barbarian leader, he asks for help from the gods of Olympus. Ares, the cruel god of war, answers him. Having accepted the blessing of a celestial being and wrapped in blades of chaos, Kratos defeats the enemy, becoming bound by an oath of allegiance to his patron god. So he becomes a faithful servant of the god of war, fulfilling all the orders of the new master.

By accident for the Spartan and by the planned plan of Ares, who was trying to improve his new ward, Kratos, in berserker mode, kills his lover and daughter during an attack on the temple of Athena. It turned out somehow not like a family, but the local priestess, who saw such a massacre, cursed the Spartan and covered his skin with the ashes of his burnt wife and child. Now we are now smooth and white, but this is by no means a virtue. This is where the rumor about the Ghost of Sparta came from, which seems understandable.

Under the weight of guilt and constant nightmares, Kratos asks the gods to save him from suffering, and they promise him this in exchange for killing Ares. The god has completely gotten out of hand and allows himself too much, which undermines the authority of the Olympians. The first part just ends with the fierce battle of these deadly warriors, ending with the assignment to our hero, if you can call him that, of the title of the new god of war.

Having not received the promised peace from what he did in the past, the new god of war tries to forget himself in wars. He provides patronage to his Spartan army and makes more and more military raids, specifically scoring a bolt on the Olympians. Zeus doesn’t really like this, so he decides to first teach the newly minted deity a lesson, and then completely lower him to the level of a mortal. We don’t like this situation either, and, having done a killer job with our blades, we have a constructive conversation with the Moiras – the goddesses of fate.

As a result of the bloody dialogue, we change the past, jumping back to the fatal moment of Zeus’s dirty tricks. With the power of reason and virtue, we almost explain to the thunderer how wrong he was, but Athena, one of the few who empathized with Kratos, intervenes in the showdown and ruins the eloquent conversation. It turns out that if we kill Zeus, then all of Olympus will die and large-scale cataclysms will begin. In the ear before death, Athena makes a strong throw. Suddenly Zeus is our father, and he is a little worried that his son will take the throne of Olympus by force, as he himself did earlier.

In three, we, together with the liberated titans, storm Olympus and methodically cut out god after god the entire pantheon, slowly turning poor Greece into a lifeless piece of earth. At the end we kill Zeus and, it seems, die ourselves, but we don’t die and crawl away somewhere where we haven’t had time to do business yet. In the spin-offs, by the way, there are also many interesting details that complement the ancient Greek saga about the god of war, but I think there is no need to bother with them anymore. Let me just say that they are very good and I liked them, even if they are weaker than the serialized parts of the series.

Greece at the end of part 3. No wonder Kratos moved .

According to spin-offs, Kratos even had a brother. He couldn’t survive more than one game.

God of War 2018 completely changed the usual look at one of the most brutal slashers with an alpha Greek in the title role. Now we have become the father of a boy named Atreus and at the start of the game we are experiencing the death of our beloved Fay. By the will of our beloved, we must go to the top of the largest mountain in all 9 worlds and proudly scatter the ashes of the deceased woman on everyone’s heads. It is this request that results in a luxurious adventure in which Kratos is revealed far more as a character with character than in any game in the series before. Towards the end of the game we kill Balder the Beautiful, who here looks like a redneck who served time.

Balder the Beautiful is described as the most beautiful ace. God of spring and light.

Yopta, Balder! God of autumn and hangover.

In Scandinavian mythology, he is the god of light and, God forgive me, spring. In myths, Loki kills him with cunning, but we have a twist "beautiful» heads corrected by Kratos. The God of Spring himself was in trouble throughout the game and, due to the protective spell of his mother, Freya, stopped taking damage and feeling anything. In the moment he still felt, but not for long. By the way, the spell was broken both in myths and in the game by mistletoe. According to the chronicles, it was Loki, the god of deception and lies, who slipped it in. In the game, Balder himself accidentally ran into Atreus’s arrowhead, made from that very mistletoe. Here’s a little straw for one of the main twists in the finale.

In myths, Balder was killed by an arrow from mistletoe, which Loki slipped to the blind god Höd.

In God of War, events developed somewhat differently.

Somewhere along the way, the whole family kills the sons of Thor: Magni and Modi, because they are also not very pleasant, and we take the head of Mimir, the wisest man alive according to Scandinavian mythology, to help us. Also, every second we develop a relationship with our son, kill kilotons of living creatures, and in the end we complete the main task, but at the same time we find out that our wife was a giantess. Thus, our wife Fey is the giantess Laufey from myths.

Laufey from the game is a very charming giant.

Because of Laufey from Marvel, who was Loki’s father, I even thought that in God of War the character was changed gender.

In fact, Loki’s father, according to myths, is the ice giant Farbauti, and Lauveya, according to the canons, is his mother.

During her life, the giantess carried out rebel activities against the usurper of 9 worlds – Odin, whose son was Balder. Atreus’s second name, Loki, will also come up, which is very interestingly woven into everything that’s happening. From all of the above, the fact follows that our own son is a demigod, half-giant, and we definitely won’t be friends with Odin anymore.

By the way, he destroyed the giants or the Jotuns, since in some prophecy they will be the cause of the death of Asgard and himself. Another interesting point – the Jotuns could predict the future. In the finale, we are shown an altar, which depicts a scene very similar to the death of Kratos, which greatly fueled interest in the next part.

To summarize, the game came out very cool. I’m crazy about the new old Spartan and how familiar the series has become. In my eyes, she has grown in all aspects, just like the hero himself.

Even though I have a cooler attitude towards Scandinavian mythology than Greek mythology, there has never been such a living Kratos, such chemistry between the characters and such a realistically beautiful epic in the series. For me, this experiment definitely paid off.

Meanwhile, the death of Balder will be the beginning of Ragnarok, or the death of the gods. Oh my god, how unexpected! Many people guess what Ragnarok is, but here’s what the authors of chronicles and legends thought about it.

About Ragnarok from myths:

the death of the god Balder was a harbinger of Ragnarok, and this event affected all 9 worlds, bringing Fimbulwinter, that is, eternal winter, which actually lasts only 3 years. Then come subsequent problems. Internet sources mention the violation of tribal norms, bloody feuds between relatives and moral chaos, but, fortunately, the game does not rely so much on the original source, if it can be called such.

According to the prophecy, on the day of Ragnarok the monstrous wolf Fenrir or Garm, who guarded the kingdom of the dead, will be freed from his bonds. Here is a small footnote from me, since in many sources the name of this wolf changes and he is either Fenrir or Garm, but in the end I read somewhere that Garm is another name for Fenrir and vice versa, which suits me. The developers are implementing this point in a brilliant way, but everything has its time.

His or their possible son, a huge wolf named Skoll, chasing the Sun, will finally catch up with him. Skoll’s brother, a wolf named Hati, will seize the moon. And when the world serpent Jormungand emerges from the depths, the fire giant Surtr with a flaming sword will join him. The mistress of the underworld, Hel, and the god of lies and deceit, Loki, along with the giants and Vanir, will also be there.

A ship made from the nails of the dead, Naglfar, liberated by the flood, with an army of Jotuns on board, will sail in pursuit from Helheim. All the aces, led by Odin, and all the einherjars (the best of warriors), who will be called by the guardian of the gods, Heimdall, will oppose them, blowing the horn of Gjallarhorn, announcing the beginning of Ragnarok.

The horn of Gjallarhorn is one of the obligatory elements of this legend. Without a whistle, such a mess doesn’t start.

Seeing that neither evil nor good can win, the giant Surt will gather all the murderous power of the fire under his control and bring it down to the ground, thus ending the battle of darkness and light. But the death of the world will be followed by its rebirth. This refers to the end of the old world and the construction of a new one. By the way, many sources write that Thor’s sons Magni and Modi will survive, but we definitely don’t.

To sum it up, what is the recipe for the perfect Ragnarok??

This is how the base turns out, but in the game itself the developers did everything creatively. Something is there, something is not, and they were fully creative. For example, Mimir, again according to myths, was executed by the Vanirs, deities at war with Asgard. One stole Mimir’s firebrand and kept it for himself, using the advice of the wisest. In the game, Odin himself imprisoned Mimir in a prison of indestructible roots, because he helped the Jotuns. And I won’t talk about the fact that Ragnarok is described as a confrontation between the heroic Asgard and all kinds of monsters and simply evil. There will definitely be changes, and it will be all the more interesting to see how the scriptwriters have woven myths into their game.

Plot without spoilers

It will be difficult for me to tell you, and I deliberately put this in a separate piece of text, because the game is amazingly good. This is an expensive and rich digital work, which, in my opinion, you should go through yourself. Delve into all the details of the story, collect secondary quests and get acquainted with the characters of this world. All this brings a lot of positive emotions.

I finished the game almost without being stuck, and I didn’t just finish it, I climbed it up and down. The filling was enough for me for more than 50 hours, and not even a single thought arose to skip something or skip additional activities. Well, except for the crows, damn them. I won’t say that there are no questions at all, and in general in some places the game can be tinkered with, but, you know, this is all very small compared to all the advantages and advantages. If you haven’t played and you have the opportunity, then it’s better to do so. If not, then move on.

Plot with spoilers

throws us into the lives of Kratos and Atreus 3 years after the end of the last part. Balder is dead, a three-year winter is raging in 9 worlds, which fits into the list of must-dos before Ragnarok, and the main characters have changed a little. Some have aged a little, and some have matured, like our cub, for example. The guy has grown up, and now all the girls in the yard are staring at this idiot!

It’s true, there are no girls in the yard. The boy lives exclusively with a conservative parent, who, although he got mad from the first part and no longer inserts the brand name “boy” everywhere, can still run into a yellow-haired one, teaching the mind to reason.

Literally 5 minutes from the start of the game, firstly, our son is hiding some suspicious ball, and secondly, Freya, Odin’s ex-wife, whose son we killed, attacks us in an epic way. Mommy has a pronounced mood to take revenge for her offspring, and now she often hunts us. Having somehow missed the angry ex-mother and performed a couple of painful holds, we return to our house.

It turns out that the whole outing was for the sake of dinner, including for one of the local domesticated wolves – Fenrir. The pet is on the verge of life and death. In order to help his pet, Atreus performs some kind of street magic technique, without realizing it, and seems to kill the animal, separating the floating lights from the dog and sending them into the sky.

An important moment in which Atreus sees off his wolf on his last journey. The lights are 4 parts of Fenrir’s soul.

The bald man doesn’t understand the tragedy of the moment and forces the guy to train, which he has been doing for the last 3 years, and the boy has an injury, and even adolescence is raging. A small domestic quarrel happens, and dad just decides to lie down. Here we also meet Mimir, our short bro.

Having decided to rest a little, upon awakening we lose the boy and find him in the guise of a bear. Puberty is different for everyone: the voice breaks, hair grows generously here and there, but this is something completely new. But seriously, Atreus is mastering new magic and now knows how to become a misha. Our son also had a problem in his ass after the first part, and the boy is desperately looking for what he needs to do, like Loki, influencing the upcoming Ragnarok.
Literally, as soon as we crossed the threshold of our home, Thor immediately came to visit, having lost two sons by our grace. We managed to spoil everyone, in short. After a short feast, Odin appeared, having also lost his son at our hands.

The Allfather asks us not to get involved in everything Ragnarok, and for this we will not be taken revenge. Atreus also needs to stop sniffing around where Tyr is hidden, and this, for a second, is the Scandinavian god of war and justice, and even another son of Odin, who was considered dead. The Ghost of Sparta, of course, is shocked by such quirks from the guy behind his back, but politely refuses the favorable offer.

Thor decides to leave this family meeting with our sweetheart on his hammer, and now the two gods are waving household tools at each other. Satisfied with the duel, the one who is the fastest leaves, spitting out his knocked out tooth in farewell.

The dwarven brothers Sindri and Brock, who have known each other since the first part, find us. We return home with them, where our son is left alone with Odin, but upon arrival everything turns out to be normal. The boy is alive and well, they even paid for the inconvenience caused, and the unexpected guest officially invited Atreus to Asgard. The guy also says that behind our back he was quietly running to local fortune boards.

Main source of information and strong plot pusher at some points.
There were a lot of these things in the first part.

This is the little that remains of the giants, and with the help of Jotun magic, the boy discovered the second bottom in them. There he just learned about Tyr, who is alive and hidden somewhere. The plot is slowly whistling, and reluctantly our dad goes along with Atreus’s plans, otherwise the guy will eat his whole brain.

Two dwarves settle us in their safe shadow residence, hidden between the worlds, and from there we go in search of Tyr. After some adventures we find him, but not everything is so simple. Long imprisonment had a softening effect. The God of War has become a fierce pacifist and completely refuses to pick up anything sharper than a fork.

The Scandinavian god of war came out very well here. Only with two hands.

According to myths, Tyr lost his hand while shackling Fenrir. According to one legend, he put it into the wolf’s mouth as a sign of good intentions. Well here we go.

This is not the kind of hero we were expecting, but the plan was that it was he who would lead the people to Ragnarok against Odin. Having returned home with a new three-meter-long friend, who also cooks stew wonderfully, we decide to take a nap, and Atreus or Loki, as you prefer, tiptoes off with his friend Sindri and starts doing weird things.

First, the guy calls on the world serpent Jormungandr to find out what to do next, and then he decides to talk to Freya, who almost killed us a couple of hours ago. Having taken some damage, the young man talks about both Tyr and Odin. He also inserts fresh information from the Jötun prophecies, from which, at the end of Ragnarok, one-eyed should die, but all 9 worlds should not. Therefore, it would be good for us to unite and act as a united front against a common enemy, but figs. Freya is still adamant and throws the sly one out of sight.

After traveling to a new sanctuary and realizing that there is a world of the Jotuns Yarnvid, which, like fairy-tale Narnia, exists in myths and some closet, Atreus, having taken a nap, is accidentally transported there. Yes, the guy is actually a wild magician. In Yarnvida, the pleasant-looking young lady Angrboda is already waiting for him. She is one of the last Jotuns and is waiting for Loki in order to convey to him images of his fate, to prepare him for the inevitable, including the death of his father.

In addition, Madame hands us a bag http://quatrocasinoonline.co.uk/ of round pebbles, just one of which we were twirling in our palms earlier. It is in these stones that the souls of the Jotuns are hidden so that they are not all completely killed, and now Loki must keep them, manage them and try to bring them back to life again. Which, by the way, is what the guy does, stuffing one of the souls into a healthy half-dead boa constrictor, found a little later. Here you fall asleep as a giant, but suddenly you are a python, thank you!

Here it will be interesting to refer back to the mythological reference, in which, according to legend, our Loki had as many as three wives! Oh yes, guys, what Kratos did with Persephone, Aphrodite or whoever else, for his offspring it’s just like getting his beak wet. It appears that Loki had Glut as his wife, the goddess of radiance, with whom he had two children. Sigyn, the goddess who gave birth to Loki two sons, and the giantess who gave birth to Loki three monsters: Hel – the goddess of death, the world serpent Jormungandr and the wolf Fenrir. I think it’s clear which giantess we’re talking about..

Let’s go over Loki’s wives. Meet Glut – Goddess of Radiance.

Goddess Sigyn holding a cup of poison. After Balder’s death, Loki was chained to a rock and a poisonous snake was hung over him. The idea is that the poison should drip onto Loki, but his wife helps.

Well, the forest witch Angrboda with her offspring.

The writers played the story with the snake very beautifully here, because by moving the giant’s soul into our anaconda, Loki and, what’s more, Angrbod, in a sense, together will give birth to Jormungand. Yes, this healthy guy is a man-made creation, and as the game progresses you will find confirmation of this. We go further and leave Yarnvid, leaving Angrboda alone for now. In fact, the moment is touching, because the girl’s goal in the prediction was to set Loki on the path of fate, and now her role seems to have already been played, well, as she thinks. We consoled the girl, so far only with words, and jumped out of Yarnvid straight under the father’s belt.

We don’t have the most gentle morals, so Loki is saved from his father’s bream only by Freya, who decided to take her revenge in time. At the decisive moment, she changes her mind and proposes a temporary alliance, during which she must be helped to get rid of Odin’s magic, which keeps her in one world. We help, and the union is extended. Freya becomes our comrade-in-arms, deciding to mess with Asgard with us.

The Spartan is disgusted by the thought that it is necessary to clear out another pantheon of gods, because there are more than enough experiments from Greece, but everyone is trying to say that this time the deed is good. Ragnarok is inevitable, and Odin is a bitch, so this deal needs to be done.

Thanks to Freya, we meet her brother Frey. He is the leader of a small militia in Vanaheim, the home world of the Vanir, and after our wanderings there, Atreus quietly decides to join Odin in Asgard. There our boy expects to find answers to questions about his destiny, deceive the all-father and become a complete young man, having scouted out everything for a successful Ragnarok. How to save daddy should also be clarified. It’s smug to try to deceive Odin, who in terms of cunning ass takes almost the first place in the game, but we are not just a guy from the village. We are Loki, although we don’t know what this promises us.

Oddly enough, the guy is accepted in Asgard. I mean, only Odin accepts it, instructing Loki to glue the mysterious mask together. One-Eye hopes, with the help of this ancient artifact, to look into the secrets of the universe and change everything there at his discretion, and Loki, with the help of his giant magic, can track other pieces of the mask throughout all the worlds.

But besides the supportive Odin with his own interests, there are other aces here. For example, Heimdall, who discovered the sharingan and the gift of foresight. Brighteye is arrogant as hell about his knowledge of everything, and he knows that Loki came with bad intentions. Of course, the ace immediately warns everyone about this. Fortunately, whoever Odin has as a friend will boldly send everyone away.

There is also Thor, whose son we stabbed to death, and the second one was hacked to death by our father. There is also his daughter, whose brother we stabbed to death, and our father hacked to death the second. In short, they know us here. Thor’s daughter, by the way, namely Trud Thorsdottir, is a very impressive young lady, and it would be better if we increased Jormungand with her, if you know what I mean. As a result, with all these guys we have to wander around 9 worlds, collecting a mask for Odin and slowly getting to know each of them better.

At this time, our father learns firsthand that his boyfriend is in Asgard and, one might say, his life is under the control of the enemy, so there is no need to show off here. Kratos never shows off, so he decides to go to the local sisters of fate to find out how it really is there. I already had the experience of receiving information from the sisters of fate, but the second time, as you know, things go easier.

Nice girls tell the truth during a rather annoying conversation, and we learn that Heimdall wants to put a sword on his son. Well, we also learn about the future death of Kratos from Sparta, which worries us little for now. At the beginning we decide to deal with the threat to the offspring. Killing Heimdall is almost impossible, but there is a loophole. The gnomes help and take out one artifact, namely a ring that creates copies of itself. From it we will forge the spear Draupnir and get a new cool weapon that can be thrown, exploded, and so on in a circle.

At the same time, our guy accidentally, during his next foray for a fragment of a mask, releases Garm, a dog chained in Helheim. The animal is very violent, it can open portals between 9 worlds and cause chaos there. We wanted to help the dog out of good intentions, but in the end everything turns out as it turns out, and we also receive lyulya from Heimdall, condemnation from Odin and rush to our father in tears. He won’t praise us, but we will correct the mistake by first beating the naughty dog ​​half to death, and then piercing it with a knife. Only not with a simple knife, but with a piece of Fenrir’s soul, which we unconsciously hid there at the very beginning of the game.

As a result, we sort of created half Garm, half Fenrir, getting an obedient and charming furry bastard. Another interesting scenario move, although we did without Angrboda here, she taught us how to deal with souls. It turned out to be another common brainchild, but there is no smell of intimacy. At the same time, the scriptwriters also played well with the constantly changing names, well done. The third child of this couple, Hel, will already be created, apparently behind the scenes, but it would be interesting.

Garm guarding Helheim.

Garm+Fenrir guarding cuteness.

Further in the story, we decide to help save Freya’s brother from captivity and cross paths with Heimdall. This is where our spear comes in handy, which we use for its intended purpose. Violet-eyed leaves us no other choice, so we kill him and at the same time take the horn of Gjallarhorn. What good is there to waste here?.

After such gestures, Atreus decides to return to Asgard again and complete the mask. Upon completion of this quest, the guy leaves at the most tense moment, taking the artifact with him. Already in a cozy atmosphere, having made a bunch of friends, we decide how we will storm Asgard, and everything would go well, but Tyr suddenly turns out to be pretending to be Odin under a masking spell. One-Eye planned all this a long time ago and quite comfortably listened to our plans and gobbled up our munch. The new old guest is trying to steal the mask, killing Brock, who saw through it, but we interfere.

As a result, Odin, tucking his beard, runs away without a mask, and ours lies on the road to the world of fire giants. There we help Surt become a hot guy by stuffing him with red-hot blades of chaos. Now we have everything for a good end for all gods. Having rested a little, gathered our strength and organized all our forces, we move to Asgard, putting Kratos at the head of the army

Here a real epic is already happening, and everyone gathers: Surt at the whistle to Gjallarhorn, and Jormungand, and the ship Naglfar, which, however, is quickly destroyed, but everyone there is already dead anyway, he is from Helheim. Even Fenrir runs to the light. In short, according to Ragnarok there is complete order here, the only thing missing is Hel. Otherwise, the writers turned everything inside out, but did it elegantly, almost maintaining the sequence of Scandinavian legends, only changing the emphasis on the participants in the confrontation.

In the finale we will clash with Thor, and then, like real alpha males, we will become friends with him. But now friendship is so short-lived, and Thor is killed by his own father for betrayal right in front of everyone. Having united all our forces, we will triumphantly beat down Odin, and Atreus will also put the villain’s soul into a pebble, which will smash Sindri with his hammer.

The hot spot in this brawl will be put, as it should be, by Surt, who does not know how to stop in time, and we will lose Freyer, who covered our rear. Before the credits there will be a touching farewell from Atreus to his father, because his son and Angrboda are going to save the souls of giants and make their own way.

End of the party and everyone goes home. They created it themselves, and in the end they snatched it away, although victory was already in their hands.

Kratos lets his son go and realizes that the death that was about to happen to him is the death of the old Greek god of war. Now he is a completely different character, and in the eyes of his comrades he has become a reliable father, a loyal friend, a fearless warrior and a true Scandinavian hero. After the main ending, you can still finish what you didn’t have time to do earlier, and continue the main story a little. They allow you to save the real Tyr, attend Brock’s funeral, kill the remnants of the Asgardian army, and even meet minor characters in different parts of 9 worlds who are starting a new life.

There is also a very cool free add-on “Valhalla”, and, despite its cost, there is just a ton of content in it. In addition to cool new roguelike mechanics, it continues the plot of the main game. Kratos is offered, after his merits, to take one of the main places in the new pantheon of gods. Naturally, the guy still has fresh memories from the Greek gatherings, so there are a lot of doubts.

Well, having responded to an invitation from a stranger, he plunges into Valhalla with his bare hands, where they begin to rummage through his old sins. Tyr always brings the final line, and now the god of war is very well guessed in him. In general, this is a psychological adventure that will be very pleasant both for fans of the previous parts of the series and for newcomers who have been stuck with the god of war only since the northern duology.

The real Tour in Valhalla is no longer such a peace-loving big guy. Fights with him are some of the most interesting, in my opinion.

To summarize,

the plot is very suitable, and it’s not about sudden turns or some previously unseen artistic techniques. It’s just that everything and everything that comes our way is done very high quality and with meaning. Each character is perfectly written, almost all have their own character, history, depth and even some kind of conflict that is interesting to watch.

Kratos is ashamed of his past and is preparing to accept the fact that his son has grown up and become an independent unit of society. Atreus has a theme of growing up, finding oneself and taking responsibility for one’s actions. For Freya, it’s coming to terms with the loss of her son and forgiving his forced killer in order to move on. Traumatic relationships happen too. The gnomes have a whole lot of zigzags here, and I don’t want to fully reveal all the delights of this game. Even, damn it, Thor has a problem with alcohol and a desire to earn the love of his father, who spanks him like a lousy mongrel.

In general, I have my respect for Odin – he is such a charming bastard that every time he rubbed something in, I sat down in a dopamine chair. This is how well it fills the ears, and this can be said about almost everything. If you paint not top to bottom, as I did, but in detail, then we’ll just get stuck here.

This high level of quality also goes into the bulk of the side effects with the outside world. Thus, I don’t want to release the game before the finale and even after it. There is also the virtuosity with which the scriptwriters reworked the myths to suit the needs of their game, without missing key moments and playing a little with some moments .

But I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t talk a little shit. The story is sweet, and what follows does not change this fact at all, but I still got hooked on something.
Ragnarok itself rushed by somehow very quickly. Yes, all the fun is in the process, and the preparation for it was at its best, but the final confrontation was rushed, and I would like to see more epic. After all, the death of the gods, the end of times, a key event in Scandinavian mythology, and we just broke through a bunch of mobs and fought beautifully twice. This is where I didn’t have enough.

Along the chain I remember that Heimdall was somehow quickly leaked. They boosted him so well during the game and made him such a very imposing, smug character, even making me interested in the upcoming fight with him. How can you easily kick an opponent who is looking ahead and already knows your thoughts and actions?. Even when they started to assemble a cart about the spear, I was still waiting for some kind of zest, because the trick of the spear is that it can explode, be copied, and it has the element of wind.

If you look at it this way, then the ax can break in and come back, and the blades can explode and spin around the area on chains. Everyone has elements. As a result, we simply throw spears at him, which we can also dodge and not pick up. Sort of like that.

Well, the main point for me is the whole intrigue with the death of Kratos. Yes I know what you’ll say. This is a metaphorical death, and in the pictures it’s not death at all, but generally the sucking out of multi-colored garbage, but be that as it may, the death of Kratos is a very powerful charged barrel that simply didn’t fire. I was waiting until the very end to see how interesting they would play out his death, and maybe he would sacrifice himself or something, and then maybe they would take him out of Valhalla in the expansion.

In Greece, he crawled out of the world of the dead on a regular basis, and even himself, and even Aida, later killed. In short, the intrigue lasted from the first part, and throughout almost the entire second, interest in this topic was fueled. In my opinion, to say that this is just such a metaphor and he died, but not in the way you thought, is a little disappointing.

My expectations are my problems, and these are, in fact, trifles, but when the game is going to an A, I want everything to advise this, but based on these moments, it sank a little in my eyes, and it was possible to tighten it up.

Visuals, music and gameplay

no worse than the story. The beauty of the 9 worlds is simply pleasing to the eye, and the picture really encouraged me to slow down and look around. If you think that you saw everything back in the 2018 game, then I hasten to please you that this is not so. The developers and artists did their best. There are no complaints with music and voice acting either, and during battles, exploration and, of course, dialogues, the game sounds organic and natural, as if it shouldn’t have been any other way.

The gameplay is basically carried over from the first part, and all those people who said that this is a great addition, from a mechanical point of view, are perhaps even right. I don’t think this is bad, because the 2018 game had great gameplay, and I liked it more than the hack-and-slash of previous parts, but let’s go back to Ragnarok.

We still have the Leviathan ax, blades of chaos, and then a spear appears, but the set of moves and techniques is familiar. Heavy hit, weak hit, shield parry, runic attacks, rolls and Spartan rage. We add crafting armor and weapons, leveling up our partner, his skills, our skills, and this was also all done before.

But, fortunately, there was something new. It was logical that there was more of this, new techniques and runic attacks appeared. For example, if you use one skill frequently, you can upgrade it by adding one of three characteristics. This can be done with everything you have learned, which encourages you to fight in a variety of ways and with all techniques. The levels have become more vertical, the enemies are more sophisticated, and there are more riddles, although you may suddenly receive an unnecessary hint to solve them.

Partners are now changing, and Kratos also has Freya to level up. Atreus actually has a very intrusive solo gameplay, which I will return to later. A medallion appeared with a bunch of stones, some handles and artifacts with another active skill. Don’t forget about several types of Spartan rage, one of which even has the sword of Olympus, and partners now have more techniques.

And at some point it seemed to me that this is all too much. It’s just trite, it’s just difficult to remember all this diversity. Sometimes I really thought that because of the attempt to add something new, the game was simply overloaded, and they added more and more. But as they say, it’s all a matter of practice.

I learned this from the berserkers, who open in the second half of the game and become analogues of the Valkyries from the first part – mini-bosses in the location. And here, having found myself with a couple of an even higher level, I learned both techniques and combinations, and all this mess of side effects from the armor and the skills of my party members.

For example, there was a very useful artifact that allowed you to break worlds and slow down time. To this I picked up gear with increased damage in the slowdown and a shield, which, if successfully parried, could also cause a slowdown effect.

In the end, I combined my build and used everything the game allowed me to do to achieve my goals. After I polished this couple one long evening, I got a feel for the combat system and realized that remembering everything is real and not so difficult, you just need to practice. Thus, I changed my mind and think that everything is fine here, although I had to work a little for this revelation.

In terms of the world and minorities, everything is fine here too. The territory cannot be called open, but it is very diverse, and it basically turns out to be a rather vast area, in which all sorts of activities and smaller pieces of locations are scattered. You can’t get everywhere right away, and good exploration begins after receiving a spear, but side effects can be touched at any time, and in some of them the level is equal to the caliber of the main plot quest.

They are interesting, juicy, well staged, and their implementation is always useful, because consumables for leveling up and new runes will not find themselves. Towards the end, a healthy and not very obligatory zone appears, which simply took up an indecent amount of time from me, and I didn’t even mind. In general, it is advisable to touch everything, because this promises a full experience and will allow you to get the most out of the prepared content, and there is something to touch here.

But again, not without questions. I spoke about the oversaturation of all sorts of artifacts and talismans, like a gypsy, and you gradually get used to it, but I didn’t get used to playing as Atreus until the finals. Each such episode, and this was not the only one, irritated me. It was much more boring for me to play as a guy than as his folder. There is also an emphasis on long-distance battles, and up close you can wave and even turn into an animal, but the boy appears as some kind of chopped up copy of his father, which in fact is so.

His plot itself was also not very touching, so I took the episodes with his participation more as a necessity than as an interesting pastime. It’s good that there are more colorful characters around him, so these moments are brightened up a little by them. Perhaps this is all a matter of taste, but for me the difference in playing as Kratos and as his son was very obvious.

this suggests itself. I really liked the game and was able to please both as a person who played the previous parts, and as a player who is in the mood for a new portion of Scandinavian adventures. Interesting, deep, high quality, epic and sometimes funny. You don’t waste time on such a game, because you get plenty of impressions from it. I definitely recommend her. This is definitely a must-have item, no questions asked. I got high.

And after I got high, I think I can finish it. I hope you found it interesting and perhaps have some thoughts you’d be happy to share in the comments. I will definitely be glad to read them. Play good games and have fun. Bye everyone.

God of War: Ragnarok

Best comments

There are merits to the relaunch, and quite a few. But what really irritates me is the complete black and white morality. The Jotuns were all good, white and fluffy, and in general, all the Nine Worlds stood only on their noble shoulders. And Odin, on the contrary, is an abuser, a racist, a chauvinist and a complete weirdo with the letter “M”. Aphid, sit down now and compose ditties in the style of “If there is no water in the tap. ».

There was something like that in the original trilogy, too, of course. But in the end it all came down to the fact that the Olympians, the Titans, and Kratus himself did a fair amount of crap. It’s somehow more honest.

Usually, if there are inconsistencies or confusion in myths, this indicates that in different tribes of the area of ​​​​the formation of what we call a single phenomenon – Egyptian / Greek / Scandinavian, etc. mythology, there were different interpretations of similar mythological ideas, and these interpretations changed over time, and in the case of Garm and Fenrir, at some point it could well be the same character, who was called differently in different tribes, as was the case with Wotan and Odin, but over time, like the second, they could be given slightly (or a lot) different roles, and ultimately, in the course of geographical changes of tribes, differences in interpretations of the plots of myths and subsequent syncretisms, it is now generally accepted that Garm is the Scandinavian analogue of Cerberus, that is, the gatekeeper in the world of the dead, and Fenrir is one of the three terrible children of Loki and Angrboda, the harbingers of Apo… ahem, Ragnarok. But to complete the picture, it is of course worth keeping in mind other interpretations that have come down to us.

I agree, as an expert (not) of Scandinavian mythology, having successfully visited Angrboda’s wiki and reading that “the aces expected great evil from the children of such a vile mother,” I definitely expect to see in the game not… a very cute and good-natured girl. Jokes aside, I want to say that if anyone had complaints about Angrboda’s appearance due to the inauthenticity of the setting, then it’s strange that there were no complaints about Loki or Baldur himself, who definitely don’t look like their mythological versions. However, I don’t think that works of art are obliged to exactly reproduce the plots of myths (otherwise you can find fault with Dante), and given that we meet Angrboda in a very warm biome, even though according to the myths Yarnvid should be a dark forest, but if the developers decided not only to please the so-called agenda by adding the appropriate character, but also to adapt the range of the area where we meet her, unlike Netflix with their vision of dryads from The Witcher living in a normal forest, then the logic is followed, which means it’s normal for me 🙂

Aya, they don’t like swear words here, even in abbreviated form or with asterisks.

Kratos lets his son go and realizes that the death that was about to happen to him is the death of the old Greek god of war.

Of course, this is a very childish explanation, and in general I completely agree with the disadvantages you described, but I don’t want to stifle it, the game is still good.

I won’t say anything about the gameplay of the sequel, because at one time GoW 2018 was replayed and researched to its core, so I still have no desire to play the second part: s, but it was interesting to look at the plot on YouTube. How to actually read and refresh your memory through this blog, thank you and good luck!

PS. Garm+Fenrir is really cute

ZYY. By the way, this is your second blog in a row, which prompted me to write something in the comments, which is rare for me :).

I would say that overall the idea is really good. But I would cut out time travel (nothing good comes from them except plot holes) and Kratos getting into Hell, and even into Christian. Let the Ghost of Sparta retire, and?

Well, the fact that the origin of Atreus and his status as the local Loki didn’t really come into play in the game, that’s for sure. I was waiting for something serious, so that the audience’s eyes would pop out of their heads when they realized – yes, this skinny boy with doe eyes is really the very god of deception who brought about Ragnarok.

But no. Atreus ended up just staying in Asgard and running around with Thor. Even he had an extremely indirect relation to the murder of Heimdall.

The person who came up with this is 15 years old, yeah?

And the Spartans did it perfectly without him. These are not modern Americans, they had a completely different value system. And Kratos, I repeat, sincerely cared about them, even personally intervened in battles to ensure their victory.

Now compare with Odin, who in the finale used mortal Scandinavians as meat shields against the army of Ragnarok. And he still dares to give Kratos a lecture on how to be a god? Yes Kratos was a hundred times greater deity than Odin.

On the one hand, yes. On the other hand, I’ll remind you that Kratos himself was a Spartan. For all his shortcomings, he sincerely loved and revered his homeland, and even made his fatal deal with Ares, including in order to save the defenseless Spartans from the barbarians. And I ask you not to forget that grandiose hysteria in the second part that he threw when he heard how Zeus razed his city to the ground! He didn’t even give a damn about the appearance of the Kraken.

1) Became the root cause of the birth and fulfillment of the prophecy of Ragnarok, driving all other worlds, and even many of his fellow aces, to the brink with his paranoia, cruelty and envy. The list could end with this, but I will continue;

2) Turned his son Thor into an incredibly complex, self-loathing alcoholic and scoundrel. After all, he didn’t need a son, but just a walking hammer who would hit anyone he pointed at. Which backfired on him;

3) Endangered the Norse multiverse by making Yggdrasil’s guardian Nidhogg part of his trap against Freya. If she and Kratos had not found the descendants of the dragoness, the World Tree and the dimensions associated with it would have died;

4) He willingly sacrificed members of his own family, turning his daughter-in-law Sif against him. And she, as we remember, did not allow Atreus to bring the mask to Odin;

5) “It hasn’t turned into a fished-out land”? I’ll repeat my question, how did you complete the game?? Both parts tell us and show that almost everything bad that happens in Midgard and other worlds is the work of Odin. Mass famine, the invasion of the dead and monsters, the transformation of people into desperate cannibal robbers – all these are the results of Odin’s curses. Moreover, he did it purposefully, and not in a fit of impulse, like Kratos.

How much Thor was criticized for his appearance, but in my opinion he is the best character. I even made a character for him in DND.

I wish I could buy his armor))))

Actually, I didn’t catch this about the Jotuns. Angrboda’s granny is also such a kind person)

And Odin was presented elegantly, and despite the fact that he has obvious problems with morality, he came up with a good idea while talking with Kratos in the middle of the game. While Kratos was a god, he did such things that it is certainly not for him to judge the actions of Odin. And it’s true.

I’m sorry, of course, but how did you play the games?? There they shout from every iron how beautiful and wonderful the giants were. I start to feel sick towards the end, it’s so cheesy.

While Kratos was a god, he did such things that it is certainly not for him to judge the actions of Odin. And it’s true.

Kratos has the right to judge Odin, if only because he cared about his followers, the Spartans. Unlike the All-Wise One. No doubt, Zeus killed Kratos for the cause, but even in his worst days he was not such a scumbag.

Ragnarok itself rushed by somehow very quickly. Yes, all the fun is in the process, and the preparation for it was at its best, but the final confrontation was rushed, and I would like to see more epic. After all, the death of the gods, the end of times, a key event in Scandinavian mythology, and we just broke through a bunch of mobs and fought beautifully twice.

There is a bad suspicion, based on earlier news about the game, that the continuation of the restart was supposed to be the second part of the trilogy, and initially it was done that way. A leisurely exploration of the worlds, scandals of intrigue and so on, and then either the developers burned out, or another effective manager gave the command “Quit!“And Santa Monica had to somehow write the ending of the story to a game that was two-thirds, or maybe more, ready. From there came the confusion of Ragnarok itself, and Freya, who quickly made peace with everyone, and the complete merging of the intrigue with the death of Kratos, and this search for an incomprehensible mask. Here I can already see the skill of the screenwriters that even this turned out to be a completely sane normal story. But what a shame it is to realize that it could have been even better.

Personally, I saw the finale of the second part somewhere after the tragic VOTHETOP TURN with a duel with Thor, where the god of thunder gouges both the leviathan and the blades. All-father has outplayed everyone, Freya is still thirsty for our blood, Atreus has lost old friends (here a love triangle between him, Angrboda and Trud just suggests itself, especially since everything in the game also led to this!) and his father no longer trusts him, Kratos himself is unarmed, and there is no one left to repair the ax. And now in the third part we are recruiting allies across all the worlds, making peace with everyone and giving the most epic epic in the finale.
But it didn’t work out ((((

How to look, I got it

Thank you for such detailed comments. I’m really enjoying it)

About Gram and Fenrir, it is very similar that this was the case, and some fragments about one dog have reached us, but from different sources. Even with this, the guys from Santa Monica played with it very creatively, combining everything logically and beautifully. It feels like this moment was well planned and tied right back to the events from the beginning. While I was playing through the game, I didn’t even know about this leapfrog with names, but on the blog it was as if I had discovered a pleasant new facet of this transformation.

Angrboda, if we take it as a source of the agenda, is very smoothly woven in and did not cause any rejection for me either. Here you can remember the Beautiful Balder, or the pot-bellied Thor, reflected in the game in a very unique way. In general, it doesn’t hurt the eyes, and thank you.

Thanks again, let’s hope that my next work (if there is one) will also make you want to go down in the comments. 🙂

The ending still needs some work, yes. But people wrote that there is even more drama there, because BOY will go as slate and become an even more evil ruler than Odin, replacing him on the throne of Asgard and coming to his more canonical incarnation of the true Loki – the god of deception and illusions

And Kratos will go give his son a slap on the head:/

Kratos was running for his life when he decided to talk to Ares. If he had taken care of his army, he would have done it not on the verge of death from the hammer, but earlier. If we list all the exploits of the Spartan, then our dialogue will last much longer than necessary. I can’t see him as a caring general and sensitive patron in the Greek trilogy, no matter how hard I want.

I’m not saying that Odin is a positive character, and he’s done enough business, but even with everything you listed, it’s still much more than what was left after Kratos’ “impulse” in Greece. Let me remind you that there they showed us ruins, tornadoes and restless souls. I’m not sure if any of the monsters survived.

By the way, at the time of the game in 2018, the main monsters are unfriendly fauna inhabitants and Draugra. Odin’s curse has nothing to do with it, everything is written in the code. Hunger, robbers – these are already the consequences of Fimbulwinter, the cause of which was the death of Balder, killed by Kratos. And I played the game with pleasure and for a long period of time)

I think that in the end each of us will remain with our own point of view, and this is not bad. There is room for both your interpretation and mine.

Me too. But it could have been better. I’m talking about the plot if anything. There are almost no complaints about the gameplay

On this occasion, one person came up with a better plot development than the authors themselves:

“In my version, Odin sat down in Kratos’ ear that the boy would be better off without Kratos, namely, first in the person of Tyr, then in the person of the Galiks in a dream. He showed Kratos how Loki was doing well in Asgard.
In the second battle with the drunken Thor (after the dialogue with Thor’s daughter), Kratos hesitated for a second, remembering the words of Odin and Thor defeating him. Odin tells Thor to kill Kratos and Thor charges the hammer and throws it at Kratos, but at the last second Atreus in the form of a bear closes Kratos and catches the hammer, Atreus dies with the words “we write our own destiny”, one teleports there and looks in horror at the boy’s death, Thor is confused by what he has done. Odin, taking the mask, says to Thor “what have you done, it’s time for us to leave”, Thor says “we are even for our sons” and leaves with Odin.

Kratos silently takes the boy in his arms and carries him to the portal, silently carries him around the world, where they gather with the gnomes and Freya, he doesn’t say anything to them about their regrets, etc. He carries the boy into the portal, he takes him away to bury him at their house in the snow, digs the ground and says in the background to the title music (below):
-I tried to be better for him, tried to be someone else.
He buries the boy, returns to the house, throws away the ax and says:
– but in the end we are who we are.

takes the blades of chaos and, screaming furiously, they wrap around his hands and glow with blue fire and, having increased in size, the blades are restored to perfect condition.

Next, the scene is transferred to Asgard, Freya arrives there in an attempt to interrogate and scold Thor and Odin for what they have done. Odin tells Thor and the guards to strengthen their defenses, since it is possible that Kratos will come to them and that he will not pass through the gate. Returning to the main building, they try to justify themselves to Freya, etc.

But an explosion occurs, the scene switches outside, where Kratos simply demolished the gate and with his eyes red from rage, the game switches to him.
The subtitle appears:

Chapter 3: God of War
And in the task frame it hangs – kill them all.

Kratos without HP with endless fury shreds all the Asagrdians on the way to the main house. After partially clearing the mobs, Thor blocks Kratos’ path (here I thought of inserting another boss fight, but settled on a different option), Freya immediately tries to reason with Kratos, with dialogues that he himself told her earlier with his son, but Kratos does not listen, she suddenly teleports. Next Thor, just starting to spin the hammer, Kratos cuts off Thor’s hand, then the second and cuts off his head without a fight and moves on. Entering the building, Lady Sif tries to defeat him, but in one mini-scene he pierces her with a dagger and kills her, Thor’s daughter sees this and rushes at him, but he easily throws him away, she hisses and promises to take revenge on him, he comes up and says to Rey “I will wait for this, but you will have one try” and leaves.

Here we are switched to Freya, who was teleported to her by Angrboda, there is dialogue, explanations, etc. But Angrboda shows Freya one of these doors-scriptures of the future and she is horrified.

Next again on Kratos. He comes to Odin, the latter tries to justify himself, but Kratos does not listen to him, a mess ensues. At the end, the defeated Odin begs for mercy, but Kratos, raising his blades, is stopped by the cry of “Stop” from Freya and Angrboda. She shows him the very future on these scriptures. It turns out that the future in the picture where Kratos died is not real, but specially drawn. And in the present, Atreus died and released that very “snake” that was Kratos and his tattoo. Namely, in his thirst for revenge, he had to take revenge on the aces for the death of the titans. And all this was originally the plan of his wife and the titans, who gave birth to Atreus so that he would die at the right moment. And that both Kratos and Atreus are nothing more than pawns of fate, as the Titans wrote. Odin, seeing that Kratos was distracted, took advantage of the moment and tried to kill him, but Freya covered him, and Kratos kills Odin. Odin drops the mask that Atreus collected. Kratos, raising his mask, enters that very gap and there is his monologue and flashbacks, speaks with the spirit of Freya, then he speaks with his wife and how she could do this, she arrogantly explains that the aces should have answered, etc. Sees Atreus there and how he was in Asgard. He talks to Zeus, sees how he killed the Asgardians and that everyone around him is dying because of him. In short, he goes along the timeline to the moment where Atreus died. In this dimension, he can change his fate and does not allow Atreus to cover himself, Kratos takes the blow and after a dialogue with Atreus dies. The mask is destroyed, the gap closes. Thor learns from his daughter that Kratos did not threaten her and begins to blame himself for leaving Atreus without a father because of his inability to listen and blue. In short, there are a couple more paragraphs, but Atreus eventually goes with them to Asgard and lives there.

Kratos finds himself in the underworld in 9 circles according to Dante, from where he tries to get out throughout the next game. And then another plot for the game.»

Somehow I got through it and didn’t even feel sick) Maybe what you’re talking about is there, but in Ragnarok it didn’t catch my ears at all, and in the 2018 game, to be honest, I don’t even remember. I definitely didn’t have an obvious point about this.

Well, if sending your charges on regular military raids is a concern, then I don’t even know. When you arrive in Asgard, it’s quite cozy and calm there. If we take Odin at the time of Ragnarok and Kratos, as I understand it, in the interval between parts 1 and 2, then I’m definitely for Odin here. But this is my opinion, you still can’t call him a positive character.

Damn, I would definitely look at this! Sounds like a working option)

And again I disagree) According to the information given in the game, Kratos was constantly at war, trying to distract himself from what he had done in the past, + he is also the god of war. Intervening in a war with a huge spike, as he did in the second part, is like a trivial matter without risks. Yes, he sympathized with the Spartans, but the impression was that he did it more for himself than for them. His entire divine reign was nothing but massacres and raids.

In Ragnarok, Odin was already a god, and not just a god, but the head of the pantheon. He was worshiped by both warriors and partly peaceful people. He is at least more experienced and established order, albeit through controversial methods. And what he said (not a lecture there at all) was appropriate, because during his reign his area of ​​responsibility did not turn into a scorched earth, as happened under Kratos. In Asgard, people are drinking, having fun, life goes on and everything is going on.