God Of War Ragnarok Review: 7 Ups & 3 Downs (No Spoilers)

6. INCREDIBLY Satisfying Combat

If you liked God of War 2018's combat, you're in luck, because Ragnarok has a TON more of it.

There is a meaningful change/addition to combat after around 15 hours (a marker in time I'll cover more as we go, still without spoilers), but Ragnarok doles out XP like it was handing out flyers.

Every time you unlock a new tier to the Leviathan Axe or Blades of Chaos, you'll likely have enough XP from just main quests to buy the majority of new moves all at once. Throw in some nicely character-fuelled side missions, and that meant I was unlocking 5-8 abilities in one go, every single time.

Thankfully, whilst there is a lot of reused animation and general feel - albeit far more polished on PS5 - Ragnarok bolsters Kratos' moveset with signature abilities per weapon, and an incentive to invest in elemental buildup to surmount the harshest challenges.

The latter truly comes into its own as you attempt to fell the various optional mini-bosses and sub-bosses that populate the realms, alongside the returning Muspelheim Trials. Here a combination of armour and weapon attachments are paramount to building up poison, ice, fire damage etc., combining with axe throws, cleaves and charges.

When God of War Ragnarok's combat is clicking, and you're lock-step with every animation and on-the-fly reaction to dodge, counter and press the offensive once more, there are few more satisfying video games.