God of War Ragnarok PS5 Review, including Accessibility Impressions
Epic on every Level!
Intro
Hello again, dear friends and kind readers! As dawn slowly creeps over Oslo once again, I pick up my trusty MacBook and sit down to write the review for what is probably the most anticipated game of the year for millions of PlayStation fans all over the world. What better place to write about Norse Gods and epic battles than the stunningly beautiful Nordic country of Norway, itself home to countless legends, fairytales and myths. Time flies, so 5 years after Kratos moved from Greece to the Nordics, a worldwide pandemic later and almost two weeks on from my extremely well-received preview article, the time has come for the final verdict!
God of War Ragnarok is the epic continuation of the already cult classic God of War reboot brought to us in 2018 by the talented people at Santa Monica Studio.
Before continuing this article, I want you all to know that I am a big God of War fan. I played all of the titles released over the decades on previous PlayStation generations. From the original trilogy to the PSP games, and all the way to Ascension, I took part in Kratos’s journey, fought his battles, and discovered his dramatic story.
In 2018, when the new God of War arrived and won Game of the Year, I was in a very difficult position. My sight started to deteriorate at an insanely fast pace and I wasn’t able to enjoy this new adventure as I wanted. So, I just fought some enemies and left everything else in Alina’s worthy hands. She played the game for me, explained the mechanics, visuals, events, and that’s how I wrote the review for you. Luckily, with God of War Ragnarok all has changed for the better.
The development teams under the PlayStation Studios umbrella have made a pledge to support accessibility to the best of their abilities in upcoming titles and what started with The Last of Us, Part II on PS4, continued and improved in The Last of Us, Part I on PS5 just a few months ago and now, Santa Monica Studio have delivered their first title where accessibility truly shines in all the right places, enhancing and enriching the experience and opening this magical universe to countless impaired and disabled gamers, alongside everyone else who could play it anyway.
Let’s get this out of the way right now. God of War Ragnarok is bigger, better, and more accessible in absolutely every aspect than its predecessor. It is Epic on all levels, it will most probably win Game of the Year because it definitely deserves it, so if this is what you wanted to know, I can confirm it. You can place your Pre-order and wait for the courier or for Ragnarok to knock on your door on November 9. If you want to read more, I encourage you to do so, and I can promise, like with all my other reviews, that I will not spoil any part of this formidable experience with what I will write below.
Story & Gameplay
In God of War Ragnarok we find Kratos and Atreus at their cozy hut in the woods. Winter has come, the lands are covered by snow, some time has passed since the events of the first game, and Ragnarok is almost upon them. In my dozens of hours with the game, I have explored the Nine Realms with Kratos, Atreus, Mimir, and other colorful characters. Along the way I fought countless forsaken creatures, from undead husks to Norse Gods, tried and in large part managed to solve puzzles, met with old friends and enemies and even made some more from each side, witnessed really emotional scenes involving Kratos and Atreus, laughed out loud more than a few times at Kratos’s grumpiness, at the wisdom imparted by the illuminated head Mimir, or at the interactions with and between our favorite dwarves.
During my adventure, I also upgraded my weapons, armor, and abilities, explored unbeaten paths, unlocked chests, completed a few side quests, and hoped at every step that I’m doing something to prevent the end of the world.
God of War Ragnarok is darker, more serious, and more mature than its predecessor. This time the danger is real and what once was a possibility now has transformed into a certainty. With all the Nine Realms at stake, Kratos has to decide if he will keep Atreus safe or if they arm themselves with axes, swords, shields, and bows and bestow war upon the Gods of this new and strange land. But, as it is always the case, things are much more complicated than they appear at first glimpse.
This is all I’m willing to tell you about the story. Suffice to say that once you start your journey, you’ll be in for a rollercoaster of a ride, filled with insane action and wondrous adventures.
First and foremost God of War Ragnarok is the coming-of-age emotional story of Atreus and less about Kratos’s vengeance. But, rest assured, the writing is brilliant, the voice actors are pouring their souls into these performances and from time to time the grim atmosphere is expertly lightened by some so much-needed and perfectly timed comedic relief.
The gameplay of God of War Ragnarok is built upon the one in the previous game and it’s faster, better, bloodier, more visceral, truly immersive and extremely entertaining. There are a few new mechanics that I’ll leave you to discover on your own, the explorable areas are much more open, with a great level design and an extra accent put on verticality.
On PS5, God of War Ragnarok feels like a next-generation game. You’ll feel everything spring to life in your hands thanks to the revolutionary features packed in the DualSense PS5 Controller. From the smallest of emotions to surfaces that you travel on and all the way to heavy blows during epic fights, the DualSense opens a new world of vibrations and haptics in the palm of your hands.
The 3D soundscapes are also elevating the level of immersion to a new all-time high. The power of the PS5 allows for great graphics and performance, but we will talk about that in just a few moments.
Accessibility
As you should know by now, I am blind, so playing video games on my own is not something that I’m usually able to do, but in rare circumstances, a fantastic title comes along and makes me forget that my disability matters so much. Because, you know, disability happens when accessibility doesn’t.
God of War Ragnarok is most of the time one such game. Although it is not quite as accessible for the blind as The last of Us, Part I and Part II, the dev teams at Sony Santa Monica Studio did a fantastic job with accessibility that should allow almost everyone to play and enjoy this blockbuster. Read more about the accessibility options included in this article:
God of War Ragnarök accessibility features revealed – PlayStation.Blog
For me as a blind gamer, the most important features are menu narration, text-to-speech, navigation assist, easy traversal mechanics, help to resolve puzzles, target lock during combat and, of course, a lot of different sound cues that tell me what action should I perform. Luckily and fortunately, everything I mentioned is available in Ragnarok and even more for other impaired gamers, including for those struggling with low vision, a motor disability or are deaf.
From larger text, to UI elements, to color customization of main characters and enemies, the possibility to extend time for puzzles, captioning, speaker names, change repeated button presses to hold and visual indicators, every modern accessibility feature has been taken into consideration and implemented to some level. Well, audio descriptions would be very much appreciated of course, especially since some of the scenes are filled with quiet emotion and tension, but who knows, maybe they will add that in the future with an update. During these weeks in which I had access to the game, a lot of the bugs surrounding blind accessibility have been resolved swiftly and I’m convinced these extremely dedicated and awesome people will do everything to fix or even remove any barrier that may stop a player from experiencing this epic masterpiece.
For now, text-to-speech is missing on the map and on the upgrade menus, but at first – as blind gamers – we can take advantage of the tutorial that holds our hand and helps us do the first upgrades. Also, although we cannot navigate the map like everyone else who can see, as blind players we can take advantage of the PS5 activities cards and track any and all side quests and main objectives once discovered. Also, the realms are fully voiced so we will never get lost between them. That’s why I think everything may be narrated at some point in the future. With minimal help from a sighted friend, via in-person assistance, or via SharePlay, we can set up the weapons and armor to be auto-leveled up, and we can also upgrade all abilities after we gather enough experience. I think otherwise we could miss on these RPG elements, but it would be a small price to pay anyway, as we can actually play the game. Some of the puzzles are difficult, so you may need sighted help, but every problem that I reported so far has been fixed. Boat navigation is somewhat tedious, but with patience everything can be surpassed.
As improvements from a blind perspective, I can think of better nav assist, voiced map / abilities / weapons areas or a switch in the settings menu to turn on auto level up for each of them individually, and of course, audio descriptions if possible. Also, a skip puzzle option could benefit players who have cognitive issues or just aren’t able or inclined to find a solution. We have such options in The Last of Us and Ratchet & Clank, so it has been done before.
I am super happy with the level of accessibility available at this time. Sound cues borrowed from The Last of Us are a welcome and pleasant addition, because as a blind player I was already familiar with them and the others introduced specifically for God of War Ragnarok are consistent and intuitive. I recommend that you get friendly with the control scheme, change key bindings where necessary and also familiarize yourself with the sound cue glossary. Just by using sound cues, effects, button prompts, narrated text and assistance in navigating environments, plus traversal help, I was able to enjoy this adventure like everyone who is fully sighted. 99% of the game I completed on my own, asking Alina to help only when I was too tired or lazy to complete a puzzle or find a solution on my own.
Graphics, Sound, and Performance
God of War Ragnarok looks, sounds, and plays superbly! From the smallest of details, such as snow falling down from trees to the way the light shines on water, objects, armor, or weapons, to emotions that can be read on our characters’ faces and to the stunning vistas greeting us at each step, every aspect of the visual presentation has been polished to a shine. We have frozen lands, lush forests, misty mountains, wide lakes and meandering rivers, human settlements with believable architecture that Alina was able to recognize from something that she saw at a museum here in Oslo, and many other surprises that I’d better let for you to discover at your own pace.
The same level of attention has been given to the audio for God of War Ragnarok. From the riveting performances delivered on screen by each of the characters, to the epic soundtrack and all the way to the small sounds that bring this game to life, the audio of the game ebbs and flows around the player, accentuating each moment of the adventure with appropriate music that dynamically changes according to the events happening on screen. The stunning visuals combined with top-notch sound make God of War Ragnarok feel like the perfect package.
There are multiple display modes to choose from, including an option to play this adventure at 120 FPS, but I think that 4k at 40 FPS or Dynamic 4K at 60 frames per second will be the most popular.
Alina has played alongside me, but always after I went through an area, and she tells me that there are no bugs, no glitches, nothing to draw us away from these magical lands. God of War Ragnarok is as polished and spiffy as any other 1st party PlayStation title. That’s of course a relief since most of the games coming out since the pandemic are not at all polished and have a ton of bugs. Congrats to the team at Santa Monica for a job well done.
Conclusion
God of War Ragnarok is the game everyone was hoping for, but will still blow you away by a long shot! Epic in scope, with a gripping story driven by characters that you can’t help but care about, with stunning graphics, and a fantastic combat system that’s always very satisfying visceral, and brutal. Add to that tens of hours of content to play and enjoy during your adventure, or after you finish it, and you’ll have on your hands the best game in a long time.
The PS5 really takes God of War to the next level with Ragnarok and shows how next-gen gaming should look, sound, feel and play. The future of gaming is beginning to be more and more accessible, and with time hopefully everyone will be able to Play, without any restrictions or needless barriers.
God of war Ragnarok releases on November 9 exclusively for PlayStation 4 and PS5.
Special Thanks
As a blind gamer, I want to say a sincere thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who worked on this title and gave us, the blind community of gamers, another fantastic adventure that we can play. Thank you for making accessibility a priority, it is amazing to play something created with universal access in mind and featuring accessible level design. You are our heroes!
Some just talk about accessibility, but forget about blind players and ship half-baked titles that end up frustrating more – I’m looking at you Microsoft, but others like Naughty Dog and Santa Monica Studio make it happen without saying anything before. If you are a blind gamer, PlayStation 5 is the console to have. Only on PlayStation you can play The Last of Us, Part I, The Last of Us, Part II, and now God of war Ragnarok with no sight at all.
I’m sure this is just the beginning of a new era in gaming accessibility and I hope to see more and more developers and publishers embracing the practice of releasing new games with a robust suite of options that will allow everyone to play! What everyone needs to understand is that in order to create an accessible experience you need to consult with disabled gamers and let them help you implement and test each and every feature.
Naughty Dog showed that when they hired award-winning accessibility consultant Brandon Cole to help with The Last of Us Part II, and as a result, it is the most awarded game in video games history and some of those awards are because of the revolutionary accessibility built into it. Now, returning to God of War Ragnarok, yes, there are some more things to do and fix, but so far I’m really impressed and grateful for everything that this game has to offer. It will receive itself countless awards and I’ll be the first to award it Game of the Year from PlayStation Fans Romania and an Editor’s Choice Award for the epic adventure, lifelike characters, excellence in entertainment and of course, world-class accessibility features.
Every developer out there should study with wrapped attention every small detail in God of War Ragnarok and The Last of Us, hire disabled gamers, and try to replicate these advancements in gaming accessibility!
Again, thank you for everything! Can’t wait to return and play more of God of War Ragnarok!
SCORE – 10/MASTERPIECE
Preorder God of War Ragnarok now!
Review copy provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment via PlayStation Romania
Victor Dima
