God of War Ragnarök (but on the personal computer this time)

Play it on: PS4, PS5, PC

Current goal: Give it a second chance

God of War Ragnarök did not hit for me the first time I played it in 2022. I adore father-son co-protagonists Kratos and Atreus, but Ragnarök felt somehow bloated and breakneck in its pacing at the same time. Attempting to introduce and wrap up a trilogy’s worth of plot threads left a poor taste in my mouth, as it felt like Ragnarök overcommitted and underdelivered on too much. I missed the 2018 God of War reboot’s conciseness, and despite some highs, Ragnarök never felt quite as impactful. However, all of that changed with the game’s free Valhalla DLC, which distilled the experience down to the best parts. The roguelike felt like the sequel I wanted, and it’s retroactively improved my feelings on the game as a whole. But the game is on PC now, and we’ll have some impressions up sometime next week. In the meantime, I gotta play it and see how it runs. Maybe if I’m not rushing through it to see how Kratos and Atreus’ story ends, I might have a better read on it? I hope so! — Kenneth Shepard