Months ago, a possible God of War Ragnarok expansion was leaked, including its announcement date (which we can confirm today). But although we knew the DLC existed, we didn't know who we would be controlling (Kratos or Atreus), what path the story would take, what new features it would bring, among other things.
One of the most eagerly awaited moments of the year has arrived in the gaming world: The Game Awards. Last year's edition was perhaps the biggest in history, and there were lots of announcements and updates of highly anticipated games. Well, we knew that the GOW expansion would be at this event, but that didn't stop there being surprises.
The first is that the game will basically be released the week after the event and the biggest surprise of all, it will be completely free for those who already own a copy of the game, whether digital or physical. But this last fact, although incredible, has also put a strain on our ears - after all, free DLC isn't usually a big deal, is it?
Well, we learned that the God of War expansion was an introduction to the well-known rogue lite mode in the God of War universe, which, once again, called into question the quality of the game, after all, the strong point of the game is its story, which is almost always not the strong point in games of this type.
But this new content never ceased to amaze, this time proving to be not only quality content in terms of gameplay, but also in terms of story. Some even considered it superior to the base game itself, but let's take it easy, shall we? Let's move on to the game's first positive point:
Your content
If you want to focus entirely on the game's story, which is possible mainly because the game has many (really many) difficulty levels, it's possible to finish the content in four to five hours. Quite a considerable amount, given that some of this year's full-price games didn't reach that length.
Just a few minutes into the game, you can already see that the combat is very satisfying and fun, and that you never get tired of it, both in the main game and here in the DLC. In fact, this expansion brings even more content in terms of combat, with new moves and weapons. And as if that weren't enough, the expansion also brings a considerable number of new (old) enemies.
The main game has a considerable number of enemies, to the point where you finish the game and haven't seen half of them. Valhalla takes this large number of enemies and includes many more. And they're not just ordinary enemies, especially for long-time fans of the franchise.
We have the return of several enemies from Kratos' journey in ancient Greece, so it's either gameplay or nostalgia that wins you over. There's one more point that might win you over, but we'll talk about it later. In addition to normal combat, Valhalla has some fun and challenging sub-bosses and boss battles.
The mode is basically a separate game, so in it you can improve both your life and rage bar from scratch, as well as improving aspects such as strength, vitality, defense, luck, among other things. Over the course of the cycles, you acquire two types of "money", one that you can only use in the current cycle and another that you can use outside of them.
This gives the game a very satisfying element of progression, but if you want more of a challenge, you can use some modifiers, which make the experience more complicated, but bring good benefits in return. On top of all this, it's possible to solve some small puzzles available in the game's scenarios.
Well, it's already clear what content the game has, right? But I said that there was a third factor in the game that could win you over, and without a doubt the most surprising factor of this expansion: its focus on
History
Well, for those of you who haven't finished Ragnarok, first of all, I don't know what you're doing here, but welcome. And secondly, this expansion takes place after the end of the game, which means there may be spoilers here, so keep an eye out. And the first spoiler is part of what we've already mentioned above.
We face several familiar enemies from Kratos' Greek days, but they're not the only ones who are back. As in the name, in this expansion, Kratos goes to Valhalla, the home of those who died a dignified death in Norse mythology. For those familiar with Naruto, you could say that Valhalla is like a genjutso.
But in case you didn't understand, in Valhalla we face enemies that reflect the mind of Kratos, which is why several enemies from Greece return, after all, it was totally destroyed at the end of God of War 3. In the 2018 game, we meet an aged, tired Kratos, who is trying to detach himself from his violent past.
Both in the second game and in this expansion, we can see Kratos maturing in this respect. There are those who prefer the violent, bloodthirsty version of Kratos, but there's no denying how much he has evolved over the course of the games. And now he needs to rid himself of the sins committed in the past in order to see a more hopeful future.
A divine expansion
Valhalla has a very well-written story, with many nostalgic and emotional moments. It evolves Kratos' story very satisfactorily and is an indispensable mode for those who own the game. An example of free content that should be followed in the industry. Not to mention that, as well as being fun, the game is still beautiful, with sensational graphics and new music on the soundtrack that combines melodies from this Nordic journey with the Greek one and look... what a magnificent EP they've made. Well, I don't need to say anything about whether or not it's worth it, after all, the content is free. The question is, what are you still doing here? Go and play! And then tell us in the comments what you thought lol.
See also:
First wave of Xbox Game Pass for January 2024 revealed
Rumor indicates new Xbox Developer Direct with another Shadow Drop
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