A fantastic sequel that improves on the previous game in multiple ways. The story alone makes it worth playing. Another one of the few games I managed to 100%. I love it, and because of that, I have a lot of complaints, because I wish it was just a bit better.

The biggest problem I had is the constant crashing. it seems a very common issue, as there is a 50 page long thread on Steam forums about it with no clear fix. The fix that worked for me was having FPS locked at 72.

The default bindings don't include vibration, and if you want adaptive triggers to work, you need to turn Steam input off, which eats up battery life so hard that even plugged into a phone charger, it'll turn off anyway. Speaking of which, default vibration settings are insanely strong. Thankfully there's a setting to change it.

In God of War Ragnarok, you are in a constant fight with 3 things; The camera, which actively fights you as you try to target important hazards to destroy them and keep enemies within view, the lock-on system, which is constantly turning on and off as you grab stunned enemies, due to both sharing a binding, and your companions, who actively and constantly berate you for failing to perfectly react to every single situation, and whom will tell you everything you're supposed to do as you're doing it.

I do like the added depth to combat, the changes to the armor system and enchantments, equipment appearance customization, etc. I was often pleasantly surprised with changes they made.

What I do not like is that the game breaks its own rules on a constant basis. What I mean is that it goes to great lengths to try and remind you of its own mechanics, only to throw those conventions away at a whim. they made an attempt to clarify that some attacks are undodgeable by showing a blue circle, which is an improvement over the old game, but you will find there are plenty of attacks that are undodgeable, without it being specified, except on rare occasions in a beastiary entry, but only if you kill 10 of that enemy or whatever.

It's frustrating because you're constantly punished for doing what seems like the right actions according to the game, but they're not the right actions because despite being grouped into specific categories, some attacks are unique and act much different than anything else without a proper tell for it. Some attacks are dodgeable but won't count as a dodged attack, so you won't get bonuses for dodging it. Some attacks are unparriable, but are dodgeable and blockable. Some attacks ask you to dodge, but have a secret followup that is undodgeable, unblockable and unparriable, without any cue. Most parriable attacks can be dodged, but some can't be dodged and will punish you HARD for trying, despite being way outside the range of the attack, and it not being a blue circle.

Your companions have no trouble telling you the most obvious and familiar attacks that already have proper visual cues, but they will stay quiet in those situations where it's unclear what the right action is.
One of the new mechanics allows extra healing by activating rage mode as you get hit, but some attacks will not trigger it properly, some attacks will stagger you out of it, and some will grab you out of it. I just wish things were consistent and clear. It drives me insane that they made this entire visual cue system only to ditch it for certain attacks.

One thing about this game is that a lot of its difficulty outside of poorly handled cues on certain attacks comes from the fact that they restrict what you can see using the third person camera, and program the enemies to walk behind you while you're focusing one enemy. They try to help by giving you a radar, but the radar disappears the moment you look up to throw your weapon, and there's no way to tell if something's attacking from afar or right next to you, aside from your companions calling it out occasionally. Trying to keep enemies in frame is an uphill battle. Putting your back against a wall to keep everyone in view makes you susceptible to being wallbanged to death.

A lot of character action games will have a "director" making sure you're not put into situations that are impossible to deal with by having only a few enemies attacking at once, but this game will often put you in situations where for instance, the game URGES you to stop everything you're doing and throw your axe at that guy RIGHT NOW only to instantly make 3 other guys attack you at that moment, punishing you for trying to engage with the mechanics it's screaming about, or they'll put you in a situation where 2 enemies attack you at the same time, you dodge the unblockable attack and get hit through your i-frames by an undodgeable attack
Because of everything I've mentioned, it feels to me like the difficulty feels artificial at times, and serves to frustrate you rather than challenge you.

Despite all this, it's still fun and very much worth playing. It's a very beautiful game, the animations are great, the music is great, the characters are great, the story is engaging, combat is very fun and has a lot of depth, the enemies are all pretty unique. It ran very well on my PC, but I'm a bit on the higher end.

A fantastic sequel that improves on the previous game in multiple ways. The story alone makes it worth playing. Another one of the few games I managed to 100%. I love it, and because of that, I have a lot of complaints, because I wish it was just a bit better. The biggest problem I had is the constant crashing. it seems a very common issue, as there is a 50 page long thread on Steam forums about it with no clear fix. The fix that worked for me was having FPS locked at 72. The default bindings don't include vibration, and if you want adaptive triggers to work, you need to turn Steam input off, which eats up battery life so hard that even plugged into a phone charger, it'll turn off anyway. Speaking of which, default vibration settings are insanely strong. Thankfully there's a setting to change it. In God of War Ragnarok, you are in a constant fight with 3 things; The camera, which actively fights you as you try to target important hazards to destroy them and keep enemies within view, the lock-on system, which is constantly turning on and off as you grab stunned enemies, due to both sharing a binding, and your companions, who actively and constantly berate you for failing to perfectly react to every single situation, and whom will tell you everything you're supposed to do as you're doing it. I do like the added depth to combat, the changes to the armor system and enchantments, equipment appearance customization, etc. I was often pleasantly surprised with changes they made. What I do not like is that the game breaks its own rules on a constant basis. What I mean is that it goes to great lengths to try and remind you of its own mechanics, only to throw those conventions away at a whim. they made an attempt to clarify that some attacks are undodgeable by showing a blue circle, which is an improvement over the old game, but you will find there are plenty of attacks that are undodgeable, without it being specified, except on rare occasions in a beastiary entry, but only if you kill 10 of that enemy or whatever. It's frustrating because you're constantly punished for doing what seems like the right actions according to the game, but they're not the right actions because despite being grouped into specific categories, some attacks are unique and act much different than anything else without a proper tell for it. Some attacks are dodgeable but won't count as a dodged attack, so you won't get bonuses for dodging it. Some attacks are unparriable, but are dodgeable and blockable. Some attacks ask you to dodge, but have a secret followup that is undodgeable, unblockable and unparriable, without any cue. Most parriable attacks can be dodged, but some can't be dodged and will punish you HARD for trying, despite being way outside the range of the attack, and it not being a blue circle. Your companions have no trouble telling you the most obvious and familiar attacks that already have proper visual cues, but they will stay quiet in those situations where it's unclear what the right action is. One of the new mechanics [spoiler]allows extra healing by activating rage mode as you get hit, but some attacks will not trigger it properly, some attacks will stagger you out of it, and some will grab you out of it.[/spoiler] I just wish things were consistent and clear. It drives me insane that they made this entire visual cue system only to ditch it for certain attacks. One thing about this game is that a lot of its difficulty outside of poorly handled cues on certain attacks comes from the fact that they restrict what you can see using the third person camera, and program the enemies to walk behind you while you're focusing one enemy. They try to help by giving you a radar, but the radar disappears the moment you look up to throw your weapon, and there's no way to tell if something's attacking from afar or right next to you, aside from your companions calling it out occasionally. Trying to keep enemies in frame is an uphill battle. Putting your back against a wall to keep everyone in view makes you susceptible to being wallbanged to death. A lot of character action games will have a "director" making sure you're not put into situations that are impossible to deal with by having only a few enemies attacking at once, but this game will often put you in situations where for instance, the game URGES you to stop everything you're doing and throw your axe at that guy RIGHT NOW only to instantly make 3 other guys attack you at that moment, punishing you for trying to engage with the mechanics it's screaming about, or they'll put you in a situation where 2 enemies attack you at the same time, you dodge the unblockable attack and get hit through your i-frames by an undodgeable attack Because of everything I've mentioned, it feels to me like the difficulty feels artificial at times, and serves to frustrate you rather than challenge you. Despite all this, it's still fun and very much worth playing. It's a very beautiful game, the animations are great, the music is great, the characters are great, the story is engaging, combat is very fun and has a lot of depth, the enemies are all pretty unique. It ran very well on my PC, but I'm a bit on the higher end.