Ragnarok is the best AAA game I’ve played. Objectively, the amount that went into this is staggering, considering the sleazy cash-grubbing hellscape of the current games industry. Its combat is sublime, the story at times gripping, and the exploration kinda rewarding. But similar to the prior sentence, you can see the cracks at the seams. What should be a masterwork is held back by not trusting the player enough, whether through the story or finding their own path. As a result, linear adventures give more freedom, despite the branching paths alluding to non-linearity.
It’s suffocatingly stiff and frustratingly great.
Trapped in Freedom
With epic backdrops positively dripping with detail, then you can’t walk into a bush, or hop a ledge that looks hop-able. It’s jarring how this stunning world is brimming with life but is just a canvas you walk across, only able to interact with it the way Santa Monica lets you.
Shuttling you down a setpiece roller coaster, exploration is hogged down by stiflingly straight paths. It’s a beautiful painting but a static “world”.
Sure there are branching paths to choose from, but for me, when it feels like I’m being locked in a tangled web of paths, the illusion of a world tempting me, and walking into gamey walls that push me back onto the “right path”, I feel genuinely trapped in this game by the “freedom” it affords.
That freedom mixed with the art design and world presented makes me feel like I should have more. It’s like a prison complex, terribly linear and drab with grey tones splashed everywhere. But made of glass. You can see every beautiful detail around you, it calls to you and makes you want to spread your legs, reach out and touch it.
But you can’t. It’s still a prison of glass. And that knowledge of where you are, grounded in this jaw-dropping world you can’t interact with besides pushing forward, is heart-wrenching.
Puzzles suffer as a consequence. They range from great to annoying with again, very obviously gamey environments. Not that they look archaic or arcade-like. But when every ledge blocks your line of sight except for the one you’re supposed to be up on? It just becomes incredulous and breaks the suspension of disbelief at that point.
Dancing to the beat of combat
It doesn’t trust you to find your own fun, so you play by their combat dance. Duck and weave. It’s stupid fun, don’t get me wrong. But it’s heavily curated. On rails. It’s not a linear game in the traditional sense, but the gameplay ITSELF is linear.
Block! Parry! Dodge roll! Punish! These clearly telegraphed signs are a push and pull, a war of attrition, and a dance to execute. And when you execute each step, throwing axes and being neigh untouchable, it feels amazing. The same way nailing a perfect streak in OSU! feels amazing. It is genuinely gaming nirvana.
Combat despite being curated still allows for expression and it’s an absolute blast at times. But it does teether on spongy and irrate gamer tilt-hunches at times.
Spoiler-free story criticism
The story is great, but little nods here and there slightly over-explain the story. Rather than letting their few words speak volumes, they often throw in an extra line to solidify the emotional impact or stakes or to drive it home. Much like what I just did.
They often throw in an extra line
t̵o̵ ̵s̵̵̵o̵̵̵l̵̵̵i̵̵̵d̵̵̵i̵̵̵f̵̵̵y̵̵̵ ̵̵̵t̵̵̵h̵̵̵e̵̵̵ ̵̵̵e̵̵̵m̵̵̵o̵̵̵t̵̵̵i̵̵̵o̵̵̵n̵̵̵a̵̵̵l̵̵̵ ̵̵̵i̵̵̵m̵̵̵p̵̵̵a̵̵̵c̵̵̵t̵̵̵ ̵̵̵o̵̵̵r̵̵̵ ̵̵̵s̵̵̵t̵̵̵a̵̵̵k̵̵̵e̵̵̵s̵̵̵ ̵̵̵o̵̵̵r̵̵̵
to drive it home
More personal takes
The game I feel isn’t designed for min-maxing. Not the same way speedrunning games are, or deckbuilders for efficacy.
It’s most fun when it presents a pre-set of tools. I just want to have my weapons and not have to worry about upgrading them, progressing not through stats, but my skill and knowledge of the game’s systems.
But I know that is a preference, and this is far from a nod against the game. But my previous points stand. So far this has been an absolutely scathing review.
So why am I about to give it an 8.5/10?
I gave up and let them take me wherever.
I turned my brain off and saw it for what it is. Chaining combos to stunlock enemies, taking in the beautiful scenery as paintings to glance once but not too long or you’ll want more than there is. I stopped trying to dance to my own beat and to theirs. The latter is not a knock against the game, nor was any that came before. A combat dance should be designed as how designers intended. Sure the way it was integrated was not as elegant as I’d liked the way Doom Eternal did, with varying colours of circles to respond to, but it got the job done well. But the game itself is a technical and artistic behemoth. Even if it did not agree with all my senses, it would be delusional and foolish of me to deny that. It sticks to its guns and does it well, and anyone can respect and admire that.
The bigger picture
Ragnarok is afraid to let go of the player’s hand, whether narratively with little nods, puzzles with little nudges, combat with obvious counters to strategies that make you go into a rhythm and dance to their tune. The combat is definitely a blast to play, but it still feels like you’re dancing to their tune rather than your own.
The game desperately wants to be more amazing than it actually is. But so afraid of letting players fall through the cracks, of not finding the fun the way it’s intended, it holds your hand tightly and never lets go.
But again, it has so many exceptional moments of brilliance that I can’t in good conscious give this a bog standard 7/10 that most good games associate with. From spectacle to eye-watering combat, I’ve said it’s frustratingly great, yes. But the great FAR outweighs the frustration. It’s a stalwart bastion against the buggy grime of its AAA peers, and that alone deserves praise. An epic saga with innovative combat is unearthed, despite all the mired muck that drags it down.
It’s truly a triumph, just too safe even if it doesn’t appear that way.
It’s the best AAA game I’ve played in a long time.
