The end of the world draws near, are we prepared to witness the Fate of the Gods?
God of War: Ragnarok (now officially under that title) was easily one of the biggest reveals at the PlayStation Showcase 2021, with GoW Ragnarok having multiple awards and nominations for the Most Wanted and Most Anticipated Game.
Originally set to launch in 2021, Santa Monica Studio made the official Twitter announcement in June of this year that they are delaying the release until 2022 as they want to remain focused on giving us the best that they have to offer as well as keeping the wellbeing of their employees and families in mind during these trying times of Covid.
Of course, there were those who had nothing but complaints about this delay but the majority were understanding and supportive and, as I usually say, rather have the developers take the extra time to make sure that they give us a top-quality title especially when there is so much built-up excitement for it.
*Slight GoW 2018 Spoilers*
GoW Ragnarok is the sequel to 2018’s God of War in which Kratos chose to live out his days in Midgard, following the defeat of Zeus, with his son Atreus where they plan to reach the highest peak of the Nine Realms to scatter the ashes of Kratos’ late second wife and Atreus’ mother, Faye – who was actually a giant named Laufey.
What Is It All About?
God of War: Ragnarok continues the story following Kratos and Atreus as they begin to unveil truths regarding Laufey and Atreus himself, as he longs to know who & what he truly is; with the role of Loki somehow falling into all of this. Following the events of GoW 2018, Freya and Thor (two of the biggest antagonist reveals) will be seeking revenge for the loss of their kin; Freya’s loss of her son, Baldur, and Thor’s loss of his sons Magni and Modi along with his half-brother, Baldur.
Kratos and Atreus will be journeying through each of the Nine Realms, allowing you to access three realms that were previously unavailable to explore (Svartalfheim, Vanaheim, and Asgard) and allowing further exploration of realms already familiar to players (Alfheim, Helheim, Jotunheim, Midgard, Muspelheim and Niflheim).
Revisiting the latter six doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll just be revisiting and exploring that which you’ve already gone through, the repercussions of Fimbulwinter would have caused some drastic (and not so drastic) changes to the environment, while also generally being given a bit more roundabout reign by Santa Monica.
Not only will you be uncovering the secrets which Laufey has purposely led you to find after her death, but you will also be seeking out allies for the impending Ragnarok (basically the Norse version of the apocalypse) as chaos ensues Asgard.
It’s inevitable that we will be coming face-to-face with Freya and Thor (but then again, sure Thor is likely to be peeved about the whole “you killed my sons and half-brother” thing, but could there be a turn of events that despite the anger and grief, he’s actually coming to them about more pressing matters such as preventing Ragnarok?), among many others but with the way things pan out throughout the previous game and from what we’ve seen and deduced of Ragnarok so far, is anyone else feeling like there’s going to be some sort of showdown between Kratos and Atreus?
Characters We Expect To Encounter
Seeing as though this is supposedly going to be the second – and last – part of the Norse installments to the GoW series (with suspicion of an Egyptian or Japanese turn next), you can expect that they’ll be making the most out of it, squeezing in whatever aspects of Norse mythology they can (while keeping it as true to the game’s version of it as possible without overdoing it). That means we can expect to see quite a few interesting characters.
- Freya (Danielle Bisutti)
- Thor (Ryan Hurst) – Some major flack was given for the appearance of Thor because he has been portrayed as “up to body standards” meanwhile Santa Monica has gone to the liberty of portraying Thor as he actually is in Norse mythology.
- Odin (Richard Schiff)
- Angrboda (Laya Hayes) – A lot of flack was also received for the “colour of her skin” supposedly due to the fact that there aren’t “black people” in Norse mythology. Meanwhile if you actually read up, no specific race is specified. Quite frankly I think that it suits Angrboda.
- Tyr (Ben Prendergast)
- Mimir (Alastair Duncan)
- Sindri (Adam Harrington)
- Brok (Robert Craighead)
- Durlin (Usman Ally)
Fenrir better make an appearance too and he better be on our side. Not only this, Angrboda is the mother of Fenrir so it would only make sense. Skool and Hati possibly also make an appearance where two wolves are seen pulling the sled of Kratos and Atreus – Skool and Hati are the sons of Fenrir.
Gameplay
GoW isn’t exactly known for major versatility when It comes to combat and movement. We have our few sets of attacks/combos and that’s what we go with, but Ragnarok seems to be spicing it up a bit with the inclusion of more verticality and new abilities for both Kratos and Atreus, with Atreus boasting a cool new Runic Summon trick as well as the return of some of Kratos’ trusty ol’ weapons such as his Leviathan Axe, the Blades of Chaos, his Guardian Shield and I guess a sort of indirect weapon of Kratos would be his (likely) ability to command Atreus to fire his Talon Bow.
There’s almost guaranteed to be other weapons available…that’s actually a given…but for now that’s the only confirmations at this point.
As for what we’re likely to encounter throughout this vast and vicious land, enemies such as Draugrs (basically glorified Norse zombies, but warrior-style) are almost guaranteed. Among others, we can expect Hel-Walkers (some more undead warriors), Trolls (not the horrid little creatures that live under a bridge. Norse trolls are large, more juggernaut-ish, have large tusks on either side of their face and carry large stone totems with an engraved rune to grant them their relative elemental powers) and maybe even something called a Drenki.
Head of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios, Hermen Hulst, has confirmed that this will be available on both PS4 and PS5. There hasn’t been any confirmation about it being released on PC at all, this is still under debate. It was also specifically mentioned with the clarification on “no more free new-gen upgrades ” that Ragnarok will not be a free upgrade from PS4 to PS5, but it will be upgradable nonetheless for $10 (about R148).
God Of War Ragnarok – PlayStation Showcase 2021 Reveal Trailer
Just a little side note from myself: I could have droned on for an age, delving into the lore and the ins & outs of the God of War series but there was a focal point to stick to here. There have been a few questionable points and “huh?” moments that I’ve picked up on throughout the series and I’d quite like to do a bit more of an in-depth article regarding all of this, including some unmentioned points of Ragnarok so far. If this interests you or you have some questions that you’d like to have looked in to or some other titbits, feel free to leave a comment or contact us and I’ll see about squeezing that in.