Gaming II - Revengeance

That moment after Atreus frees Garm when everybody is raging at him for making such a huge mistake, but Kratos steps in and declares they'll fix it together is soooo good. Infinitely more compelling than all the shouting matches from last game And what a beautiful ending for both of them. It just made me feel so bad for powering toward the ending instead of spending time with Atreus, which I suppose is what the game wanted you to feel.

Likewise Atreus on his own is a fantastic addition, both in terms of gameplay and story. I kept getting so disappointed when his sections were over, I easily would've loved more of him adventuring with Thor, Thrud, even Heimdall.

In fact in general I kinda wanted more Thor. His characterisation and relationship with Odin is much more interesting than I was expecting. But really the player only experiences that in four sequences: Kratos's 2 fights and Atreus's 2 adventures. I don't know what I'd trade it for, but I really wanted more of that.

Similarly Sif was underused, but she does have what could be considered a very barebones arc: she's angry that Atreus is allowed around - and to stay in Modi's room - but she realises (if you eavesdrop on her and Thor's conversations) that Odin is to blame and that he doesn't care about anyone but himself, which she confirms when she sees the Midgardians he had given shelter to on the front line at Ragnarok.

Speaking of Ragnarok the actual event I agree was a bit underwhelming. To an extent it felt like they included a lot of actual Ragnarok stuff not for any story reason but out of obligation. Freyr - somebody who could've done with another quest or so imo - dies only because he dies in the myth, but I don't know why they adhered to that but ignored other stuff. Thor wasn't killed by Jormungandr nor Odin by Fenrir, so the inclusion of those two giants at Ragnarok anyway felt very forced to me.

My last gripe is the inclusion of Hildisvini, who felt like a very late addition. I do remember the boar from the first game since I replayed it last month, but he's reintroduced after about 80% of the story has passed. To be completely frank he feels like he's a stand-in in place of cut content. Oh the big bird from Helheim has allowed use of her army in exchange for not being in charge of Hel anymore? Wow sounds very significant, weird that the latter part of that comes from a post-game chat with Mimir The biggest indication to me is post-Ragnarok, when Atreus is chatting with all his friends and allies on the way to Kratos, after an especially long talk with Mimir, Hildisvini gets like 2 lines saying hi

Oh and Berserker fights are nuts and only demonstrate to me that the game isn't designed for fights with multiple stagger-proof enemies.

Anyway that's literally all my complaints so the rest I can safely say is flawless. Boss fights are a huge step-up from last game, hard to pick a favourite but I probably enjoyed fighting Heimdall the most. I've said in other threads recently that I tend to dislike characters who are evil and arrogant for the sake of it and never suffer any consequences, but I think it works well for Heimdall since he is literally untouchable.

The music is terrific - particularly when you fight the Einherjar, it's such a banger. I also think the first meeting with Odin/Thor is perfect and I've watched it many times.

And yes, the side quests. First game was pretty poor imo with either "hey can you fetch this thing for me" or helping ghosts. This game still has the ghosts but the non-ghost side quests are so much more worthwhile and meaningful than in the first. Helping Mimir atone for his mistakes, allowing Freya to reclaim her past, and freeing the Hafgufa are all such powerful moments that I'm shocked aren't main quests. They add so much and I wouldn't replace them for anything.

All in all, one of the best games I've ever played.