God of War: Ragnarök Review - Learning to trust.

By Sam Coles:  

Hard to believe that at one point God of War was at a crossroads with its future, Ascension wasn’t a bad game, but it wasn’t widely praised compared to God of War III. Sony put the series on hold for a few years, until E3 2016 we got a look at a new God of War, a soft reboot of an aged Kratos who is once again a family man with his son. At first, I wasn’t really in favor of the new direction in terms of the slower and more methodical combat. However, when I played the game for the first time in 2019, I fell in love with the game. Fast forward to 2021 we get a direct sequel, and the question is.... Is it better than the 2018 reboot game? No, but it is still a great experience.  

God of War: Ragnarök takes place directly after the events of the 2018 release, where Kratos has aggravated another pantheon of gods, this time Thor, Odin and Freya as he manages to do what was thought to be impossible, he killed Baldur. Kratos and his son Atreus go on the run, as everyone is trying to kill them, however Odin is rather reasonable with Kratos trying to offer peace. However, this is Kratos, and he disagrees with Odin’s offer and ends up having a fight with Thor which goes as well as one would think, and Thor gets several shades of blue kicked out of him. The story is engaging, and what I like is that it is not just from the perspective of Kratos, you get story segments with Atreus, and you get to know him more and how is frustrated that his father still doesn’t trust his judgement which evolves throughout the narrative. 

What I love about the story in this game is Kratos and the evolution of his character. To begin with, he is a bit of a hermit and misanthrope, as he struggles to connect with people and has trust issues even with his own son’s judgements and decisions. It kind of reminds me of my own father, but I digress. Anyway, he slowly opens up to people and his son as the story progresses and we get a taste of who he was before with the dream sequences where he is with his deceased wife Faye. These moments are touching, as we get to see a softer side of Kratos as he is not tearing someone limb from limb for once. He is a caring individual in these moments, who shows love and compassion and yes, he still responds like he usually does with an agreeable grunt, but it is still touching nonetheless.  

Now we get into the meat and potatoes of the game, combat and if you are looking for something drastically different you will not find it here. However, what it does is take the framework of the 2018 release and adds new bells and whistles to make feel fresh. You of course have Kratos’ Leviathan Axe and Blades of Chaos, but you have a new weapon in the form of a spear which can be used for combat and traversal puzzles (and I use the word puzzle lightly).  

Combat is very tough, although I did play this game on hard difficulty so your experience may vary throughout your playthrough. However, I would encourage you to play it on hard, as it gives you more of an incentive to use the different combat and gameplay mechanics as you will be fighting a lot of enemies in varying skills and sizes. You will be swarmed by enemies in this game, if you are not on your toes so quick reflexes and timing are key for one’s success in this game. I died a lot in this game and yes, I know my fault for playing on hard, but this game is relentless with combat encounters especially in the latter half of the game.  

That is another aspect this game gets right, the enemy variety. The 2018 game lacked enemy variety as you were fighting the same looking enemies, minus the Dark Elves who were fun to fight yet they were a pain the backside. Boss fights are varied in this game too, you won’t be fighting the same looking troll, repeatedly, the only difference being what elemental colour they are sporting. This time you fight various bosses, from Thor, Ogres, Centaurs, Valkyries and much more. I feel that Santa Monica Studios took their hand, stuffed it into a bucket of mythological Norse creatures and just threw them all over this game, in a good way.  

The game is wider in scope in terms of exploration, there are many moments where you are on a sled exploring the frost laden wasteland of Midgard. The game encourages you to explore, which I do too as it is key for upgrading your weapons and armor, so you don’t get caught with your pants down around your ankles during the hard combat segments. It is not quite an open world setting, but there are more instances where you can explore off the beaten path compared to the previous game.  

Visually the game looks amazing, using the same engine as the 2018 release you would want the art style to be consistent with the previous release and it is. I played this on a standard PS4 that I bought in 2014, and it looks fantastic a few pop in issues here and there but nothing to break my immersion. Yes, it runs at 30 frames per second, but it runs at a consistent 30 fps, and I did not encounter and slow down throughout my play through. Which is astounding considering all the particle effects on screen. 

Now I can hear you say, “Sam, you said this game isn’t as good as the first, yet you praise a lot”? The game is great from a combat and exploration point of view; however, it is let down by its pacing with the story. I feel this game goes on for a bit too long, it drags in a few sections, and I mostly attribute this when you are playing as Atreus. It makes for a nice change, but there are so many moments where the game forces you to walk, and you have no control. These mostly happen when you play as Atreus, and he asks stupid questions with obvious answers, I just found some of these sections to be rather tedious and asinine.  

Overall, God of War: Ragnarök was a fun and moving adventure, with great writing and voice acting, engaging and varied combat and breathtaking visuals that are awe inspiring. Great experience, and I would highly recommend any PS4 or PS5 user to pick this game as it is a solid title.  

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Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice - Mental Health Portrayed in Video Games.

By Sam Coles: 

Video games still have this stigma that they are just mindless entertainment, not as much these days but there are still some that think video games can’t aspire to be art. This has been proven to be untrue multiple times, as games can tell stories that are on par if not better than films and television. Anyway, taking on a subject such as mental health is hard to portray tastefully, and one of the few games to tackle mental health in a tasteful manner is Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. 

Released in 2017 and developed by Ninja Theory, Hellblade is a game that was something completely different in tone compared to their other projects. Before this game they made the rather divisive DMC: Devil May Cry back in 2013, and to jump from that to this game which is very dark in tone is somewhat jarring and surprising given their pedigree. It was a rather small-scale project too, which is amazing considering how beautiful the game looks visually as well as the acting, but I will get to that. To be honest when I first played this game in 2018 when they released it on Xbox One, I wasn’t expecting anything mind-blowing, but it caught me off guard as it is an emotional and oppressive experience with its themes.  

Hellblade’s theming of mental health, her condition being psychosis is set in Norse Mythology, where you play as the titular Senua where she is on a journey to resurrect the soul of her dead partner. What I like about the story of this game is that it starts off quiet, you have the gentle whisper of the narrator, that happens to be one of the voices that Senua can hear a great example of both non-diegetic and diegetic audio as the narrator is both guiding the player and Senua. Not only that, but Senua will also often look at the camera, as if she is looking through the screen at the player almost like you are there in her mind as you go on her dark journey.  

To begin with the voices within her mind are guiding her, often remarking that she might be going the wrong way and gently criticising her as well warning her of danger during combat when an enemy is about to attack from behind or with a heavy attack. However, as the story progresses, the voices become more spiteful, very aggressive to them disappearing all together. You really start to see Senua’s mental state slowly become worse as the story progresses, and you are on that journey with her (Especially with surround sound headphones) and you become uneasy with her. What makes this convincing is Melina Juergens’ performance, she comes across as out of her element, in control and just angry and lost all at the same time. It is a haunting performance, as the studio worked with mental health professionals to give a very convincing performance as if the actress herself suffers with psychosis.

 

You get flash back sequences with Senua, where she is with her partner and her family. You don’t see these characters; just hear their voices and you are in their point of view. What I find heartbreaking in these scenes is that her family don’t want to associate with her due to her condition, which echoes today’s society that still find mental health a bit of a taboo subject. You really do sympathise with her, as she slowly drifts away from her family, where she slowly becomes more and more isolated until she has nothing but the voices echoing in her mind.  

There is a powerful moment in the story where you see Senua’s descent into Helheim, you see Senua at her lowest. She has been through it all, beaten, stabbed and burned, her body is both physically and mentally damaged and can’t take much more. She lashes out at the voices, and they all just stop, no more ridicule, advice or reassurance just an empty void. Where Senua has been used to the voices which I assume for years at this point, she begins to panic as she is completely alone in the darkness with no one. She breaks down and cries, constantly looking back at the camera, as if she is looking at the player wanting your sympathy and as if she is asking for help. It really got to me this scene, and I almost wanted to reach out to take her hand help her.  

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is a game that was and still is a unique game in the industry, it takes its themes of mental health extremely seriously and portrays it in a tasteful manner. It is something I would like the gaming industry to explore more within narrative design, as there are only a couple of examples, I can think of such as Max Payne with depression and grief and Spec Ops: The Line with PTSD. Anyway, I would highly recommend this game as it really got to me emotionally when I first played it, as it really puts you in the shoes of Senua and what she copes with every day. If you want to play it, you can play it on PS4/5, Xbox One, Series X|S and Nintendo Switch.  

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