10 Things You Learn Replaying God of War (2018)
3. The Combat Is Much Easier Now
Back in the day, Sigrun was a fiercely formidable foe. The leader of the Valkyries offered a viciously brutal final exam for God of War's combat system, as the player either demonstrated total mastery of the tools in their arsenal or suffered a brutal beatdown at the hands of the snazzily-attired queen. It took this writer three hours to best her in 2018, and memories of that fight meant her throne was approached with much trepidation seven years later.
So you can imagine how surprising it was when Sigrun fell a mere 15 minutes later.
This fight, more than any other, encapsulates just how much more advanced the combat became in God of War: Ragnarok. The sequel amps up everything - weaponry, abilities, enemy types - which has the effect of making the original game much more straightforward in hindsight.
Kratos' smaller toolset in God of War makes him much simpler to control than in Ragnarok, and going back to the prequel highlights Santa Monica Studios relative inexperience with the new format they'd created. The battles here are far more straightforward than the sequel's brutal encounter design (looking at you, Sisters of Illska), to the extent that the once-mighty Sigrun now feels like a warm-up boss compared to Ragnarok's more bruising battles.
Makes you wonder what horrors the developers are concocting for the next game in the series...