February’s contest ended with two first place winners, who both picked games for me to review since tied winners can select the same prize.

One of the winners picked God of War Ragnarok.

Now, you might wonder why it took someone picking it as a contest prize for me to finally play Ragnarok, as it was one of my most-anticipated games of 2022, so here’s my tragic tale.

I started playing God of War Ragnarok right away when it came out. Determined to avoid spoilers, I used a wonderful Chrome plug-in called BlockTube that lets you block Youtube videos that contain certain keywords in the title. So with my spoiler filter in place, I visited Youtube one day – and what did I see on my front page but a recommended video that did not include the title of the game or anything else I’d considered to be a relevant keyword, but nevertheless had enough context to let me know that the video title was a potentially major Ragnarok spoiler.

That took some of the wind out of my sails, and then some things happened in my personal life that made me want to play the sort of game that would cheer me up, so I switched over to Yakuza 5 instead. Well between going on a Yakuza kick and being disappointed in seeing that spoiler, I just kept putting off Ragnarok.

But with it chosen as a contest prize, I finally returned. For the record, the spoiler that crept past my filters was indeed a huge spoiler, arguably the biggest twist. I was 45 hours into the game before I saw it.

Anyway, enough of that. Let’s talk about God of War Ragnarok.

I absolutely loved God of War (2018), but I’m afraid my feelings on Ragnarok are a bit more mixed. At its heart, it’s a similar experience, with similar combat and gameplay. Whenever the game let me loose to explore, I was having a great time.

Sometimes, though, the game decided to do something different. And nearly every time, I thought, “Neat, this is a nice change of pace,” only for the change of pace to outstay its welcome.

Some of the dialogue also felt odd, particularly with the gods coming across as so normal that it felt strange.

At the same time, it has some incredible story moments. Several moments really shook me, and even the spoiler I’d seen ended up being a huge moment despite me anticipating it. Moments like that had me feeling that Ragnarok was an amazing game despite its occasional missteps.

Yet the final part of the game felt… anticlimactic. Everything had been building and building, only for it to end all at once. It didn’t feel earned. It didn’t feel epic enough for what let up to it. I’d worried that concluding the Norse arc in Ragnarok instead of having a third game would make it feel rushed, and maybe that was it. All I know is that instead of the excitement I’d expected to feel at the end, I was left with a vague sense of disappointment.

But it didn’t end there! Free DLC came out last year for Ragnarok, and although I wasn’t very enthusiastic at the time, I decided to give it a try anyway.

God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla is post-game DLC set in Valhalla. It has roguelite elements, which is what initially turned me away, but I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to. It actually reminded me a lot of Hades, with upgrades to choose after defeating each room of enemies, different paths to take depending on the rewards you want, permanent upgrades to unlock after dying or completing a run, and (most importantly to me) enough story content to keep me interested despite the repetitive nature.

While Valhalla is an epilogue to Ragnarok’s story, it also calls back to the original God of War games. In fact, playing Valhalla made me happier than ever that I’d played the previous games first.

It feels like a love letter to the whole series, and it erased that lingering sense of disappointment that the main game left me with. When I reached the ending of Valhalla, it felt so perfect that I realized I’d be content if the series ended right there.

In short, although I have mixed feelings about God of War Ragnarok, my overall impression ended up being a positive one. While it doesn’t live up to its predecessor, it has enough great moments to be worth playing nevertheless. Just make sure you give Valhalla a chance at the end – especially if you’re a fan of the whole series.