God of War: Ragnarok is of course steeped in Norse mythology. Characters like Thor, Atreus, Odin and many others are all within the expansive world of the video game series. God of War Ragnarok also stands out on the technical and artistic front. Although it is clearly a cross-gen game, it can offer stunning visuals and majestic sceneries for each of the Nine Realms. God of War Ragnarok's Valhalla DLC does not employ too many cutscenes to narrate its story. Instead, the expansion relies on character dialogue in between levels, and even combat to get the job done. The player can explore these worlds at their own leisure, but unlike the previous game, Ragnarök doesn’t rely quite as much on its open-world aspects. There’s a very direct story to be told God of War: Ragnarok raises every stake for Kratos and his son Atreus. More than 15 years after the first God of War game, Santa Monica Studio still manages to outdo itself with the huge scale of this game. It feels extremely familiar to the 2018 God of War, but that’s not a bad thing given how good that game was. There’s plenty more to like here, even if the story gets a little long at times. God of War Ragnarök ’s free DLC, Valhalla, is so good I can’t believe it’s free. While the original Ragnarök was robust and a worthy successor to the 2018 reboot, it was also a bloated Now, Ragnarok has come to try and make lightning strike twice. Today marks the veil dropping on the “early impressions” embargo, where those of us with review copies can share our thoughts up You'll be battling gods, monsters, and humans alike for dozens of hours, if you so choose, on the way to finishing one of the year's best games, so says our God of War Ragnarok review. piApv.