The continuation of what God of War (2018) started.
The world turns from a desolate but adventurous one for the father and son pair into something much heavier, as the “end” nears. Ragnarok, the Norse end of the world, is coming, and the pair have to stop it. Or rather, Kratos is trying to protect his son from all of it.
The theme turns to what Kratos would do to protect his son, and how the two of them disagree on the method. Kratos thinks that by eliminating every god, he can keep Atreus safe. All the while, people are trying to convince him he is going down the same path he took in Greece. That by seeking to destroy all the gods, he might bring Ragnarok about himself. He doesn’t care, as long as he can save his son.
Atreus wants to better understand the world and himself. He wants to know what kind of person he is without his dad, since he has powers Kratos himself cannot explain.
The two can’t come to terms on it, so they split up for a while and the game has you playing as Atreus too. You watch Kratos learn to stop holding on to Atreus so tightly, and in doing so, let go of his rage to kill all the gods. He lets Thor go and chooses not to kill Odin.
Both gods die anyway, but not by Kratos’ revenge. The game keeps circling the same idea, that if you hold on to something too tightly it escapes you.
That’s why I loved it. Apart from the visuals and the mechanics, the story between the father and son was amazing.
It’s been a while since I played, so I can’t write about it as well as I’d like. But this piece sums up the feeling of the game for me: Stories of Grief and God of War Ragnarök