

The designers at Sony Santa Monica, the studio behind the game, use all sorts of tricks to keep things engaging. I've never tried meditation, but I imagine that the flow of combat in a game like this puts you in a similar state. You can customize gear and play around with different special abilities, using, for example, your frost weapon to chill an enemy and then swapping to your fire weapon to do extra damage. The battles are satisfying, highlighted once again by Kratos' Leviathan Axe, which you can throw and summon back to your hand with the pleasant push of a button. Fans criticized the last game for the monotony of its enemies, which were mostly variations of zombies, and the developers responded by packing God of War Ragnarok full of drastically different creatures to slay. The combat is brilliant and deep, full of interesting choices and combos that let you rip demons and monsters apart with abandon. I've played around 15 hours of God of War Ragnarok and although I'm not finished just yet, I've enjoyed every minute of it. That sets some grand stakes for God of War Ragnarok, and as the game begins, Kratos and Atreus are already grappling with big questions about their relationship, their purpose and what Ragnarok may bring. The first is that Atreus is really Loki, the Norse god of mischief and the second is that Kratos is destined to die. At the conclusion of the last game, Kratos and his son Atreus discovered a prophecy with two key pieces of information. Set in Norse mythology, the game unfolds a few years after its predecessor during Fimbulwinter, the period of endless snow that's said to presage the end of the world.

Playing God of War Ragnarok is beautiful and rhythmic, sort of like playing an instrument-except at the end of the song you get to decapitate a worm demon with a giant ax. Four years later, a sequel has arrived, one that Sony hopes will reach or surpass the highs of the last version.

It went on to sell 23 million copies on PlayStation and PC. That game won accolades and was widely considered one of the year's best. In 2018, Sony rebooted the series with a new entry that ditched the crude sex scenes and reimagined series protagonist Kratos as a gruff but loving father. God of War kicked off in 2005 with a trilogy of lewd but fun games about murdering Greek gods such as Zeus and Hades.
