Available since November 9 on PS4 and PS5, God of War Ragnarok is generating a lot of reactions and some of the players do not seem satisfied with the direction taken by this episode. There are a few criticisms that come up often, of which the way tends to drool the solution of the puzzles before you have looked for the solution yourself.
This article contains spoilers for chapters covered in the second part of the game. If you have not yet finished your journey through Alfheim with Tyr, we recommend that you avoid reading this article.
The Lost Sanctuary: Yak Back Narrative Corridor
After the incursion into Alfheim by Kratos, Tyr and Atreus, the latter then leaves for a journey through space during his sleep. He then lands in Ironwood, the place that can give him the answers he seeks according to the Serpent World. Located in Jotunheim, Atreus will meet Angrboda there, a very important character for the development of the son of Kratos. Two characters who will therefore have to get to know each other quickly so that the rest of the scenario goes smoothly, but the game will bring that in a way that somewhat slows down the cruising speed of the adventure. Concretely, you will help Angrboda during his daily tasks, mainly by going to pick fruit on yak's back.
Why is it so long?
This chapter comes up against the limits of narration: the last two God of War tell its story through its characters in an uninterrupted sequence shot , which means that you will have entire game sequences reserved for dialogue between the characters: when you eat climbing sessions or lengthening corridors, it's not so much to hide loading times as because the game wants you to concentrate on its dialogues while remaining active. And basically it works very well: in the Hour of Accounts , the chapter following the one with Angrboda, the relationship between Kratos and Freya evolves at a good pace, between two Einherjar massacres.
The Lost Sanctuary, like the others, uses this process too much at this time because the Atreus and Angrboda relationship must start from scratch: the game will therefore stuff you with dialogue while the two giants trust each other and tell their stories . . GoW Ragnarök has a lot going for it, but where the relationships with most characters that go the way with Kratos are already established and just need deepening, the chapters with Atreus are very often dedicated to brand new protagonists. , which leads to such lengths and this chapter is probably the worst example of all in the matter.
Why didn't that bother us?
it is clearly a soft belly of an hour while the game of Santa Monica managed until then to keep a cruising speed quite suitable after a dantesque first hour. This "breathing" considered suffocating by many players did not bother us more than that, for several reasons: the first is the gameplay and the few fights that hang around in the chapter. At the challenge difficulty level, each encounter represents a suitable challenge which requires you to make good use of all the paraphernalia of your characters and that of Atreus is quite extensive. Also Angrboda will quickly join the battle and his field actions are quite cool. Also and above all, we forgave him this high-sounding phase thanks to the second part of the chapter, much more solid, with the fight against Grylda and the race through Jotunheim just after. In any case, the beginning of the Lost Sanctuary is likely to remain in the memory of players, but not necessarily for the right reasons.
Like its elder, God of War Ragnarök offers an RPG-style progression, with statistics, equipment level and a good shovelful of resources and important items to support it all. In this guide, we will see the main axes of the progression of the game to start well.
