Thanks to the latest development vicissitudes of Covid, we may not have been thrown to death with giant AAA games this year, but 2022 was still one of big names like Horizon: Forbidden West in Elder Ringbut also surprises like Marvel SNAP and Chained echoes a good year for games. But what do we think was the best game of 2022?
In the legendary words of Henny Huisman “there can only be one winner” and that honor goes to *drumroll*: God of War Ragnarök.
In 2018, Sony Santa Monica has already received a lot of praise from us for the God of War reboot. Gone was the bloodthirsty psycho Kratos ripping the heads of the Greek gods off his neck and instead we met a calmer retired father… who wasn’t averse to a game of violence. So I was curious how the studio could follow up on that work with a game that would be even better than the previous one, but they succeeded brilliantly.
Safe but breathtaking sequel
The few criticisms that there have been have been addressed by the studio and are already noticeable in the first few hours. A good example of this is enemies. Where in 2018 you butchered one Draugr after another, in Ragnarök there is more variety in the rabble you encounter and they must be approached in different ways, making you think about your tactics instead of just ramming buttons.
Ragnarök takes the formula that was so successful in the previous game and elaborates on it without tinkering too much. As a result, it feels like a safe sequel at times, especially in the beginning, but gradually manages to introduce more and more new elements. Combat looked very good before, but since Kratos can now use his chainswords to swing around battle arenas via pre-defined grab points, you get more freedom of movement as a player. And where most of the Realms were previously closed, they are now all accessible. All with their own wonderful art direction and full of side quests to keep you busy in addition to the main story. The kingdoms we already played in the previous game also feel new. It’s like walking down another street in your city that you’ve never been on before. It often happened that I stopped for a moment to look at all the splendor that surrounded me. Especially the dwarf kingdom Svartalfheim and Vanaheim with all its flora and fauna are breathtaking from some panoramas.
Another special mention for the soundtrack by Bear McCreary. That sucks you even more into the vibe and”Blood on the snow” that he made with Hozier is a regular feature here. The witness had a damn good year in 2022, because in addition to God of War Ragnarök, he was also responsible for the music in the Lord of the Rings series Rings of Power.
Star of the show
No matter how smooth the fights and beautiful the environments, the star of the show is the story writing and the accompanying performance of the actors. Except for one segment where the momentum builds (if you’ve played it and I say “mystical yak”, you probably know enough), you’re constantly with Kratos, Atreus, and their companions. The themes of fatherhood, but also the formation of an underlying meaning about one’s destiny, kept me captivated from start to finish. Even the side quests have been given such a level of polish that they feel like part of the bigger picture. Something that many large scale RPG side quests can learn a lot from. Even the minor characters have their moments to shine in this one, which not only gives more depth to their backstory, but also their connection to Kratos.
What the story does well too is playing with your expectations. The moments where you think you know where the story is going, you get a twist that turns everything 180 degrees… with all the consequences for the characters and the world that entails. Of course I won’t tell you more about that, because that would only lessen the impact.
Christopher Judge’s Kratos is once again very impressive and after his character’s huge growth curve in the God of War reboot shows he wasn’t done yet. Maybe it’s because I’m a father myself, but the emotional moments between him and his son Atreus — both the highs and the lows — have managed to capture me time and time again. Even to tears. You notice that Judge gives everything in playing him and that there is a deeper meaning to the role for him, something that is also reflected in the phenomenal documentary “Raise Kratos” came forward.
Retained from the previous generation?
However, I have a small caveat that it does not belong to the game itself, but to the console. Don’t get me wrong, God of War Ragnarök looks great on PlayStation 5. The environments you go through are all breathtakingly designed and the frame rate never dropped. Yet you notice that the previous generation of consoles was taken into account during development. God of War Ragnarök was also released for PlayStation 4. The invisible loading screens where Kratos has to walk slowly between two walls are therefore present on PlayStation 5 and look like something dated. However, this is a very small flaw (that you probably won’t even notice while playing because they are full of great writing) on an otherwise phenomenal game, but I’m very curious to see what Santa Monica Studios can do if they only have to focus on the PS5 hardware.
Mark de Haas
