God of War Ragnarok Review

2018’s God of War was surprisingly good. Having torn apart ancient Greece and murdered a who’s who of its deities, Kratos settled down in Norse mythology as a reserved, mournful, deeply regretful man taking his son on a journey to fulfil his wife’s last request. Their relationship, though often the subject of memes due to Kratos’ less than affectionate parenting style, was strong, and it worked as both an introduction to a new mythos and a rebirth for the Ghost of Sparta as a likable character changed by his experiences. Note that this review will contain some story spoilers, so be advised.

Its sequel, Ragnarok, picks up a few years after its conclusion: Freya relentlessly hunts Kratos and Atreus for the death of her son Baldur, the cataclysmic Fimbulwinter has the realms in its grasp, and Odin and his number one killer Thor themselves turn up on our heroes’ doorstep. They want Atreus to stop looking for Norse god of war Tyr, and Odin uses the opportunity granted by Thor and Kratos having a massive dust-up to invite the young giant to Asgard, where the Allfather will have all the answers he seeks. Undeterred, Kratos and Atreus set off to find Tyr, confident he can lead an anti-Odin force at the coming Ragnarok: the end of the world. This is a strong set up, but unfortunately it doesn’t last. The basic gist of the plot is that Atreus is eager for Ragnarok to kick off so they can heroically get rid of the tyrannical Odin once and for all, and Kratos is dead against it both because he doesn’t want his son to go to war, and because he’s sick of war and violence himself, particularly the killing of gods. Unlike the previous game’s “Get to the highest peak in the nine realms” consistent goal guiding your every step, here there are several short term goals as the core cast potter around trying to decide whether or not Ragnarok is a good idea. There are some really strong moments here; Kratos and Freya putting aside their differences to break the spell Odin put on her, Kratos and Brok crafting a new weapon together and Kratos and Atreus freeing a trapped giant, flying jellyfish to name a few, but they’re the parts rather than the sum. Brok and Sindri get some surprisingly strong character moments, and Freya has a nice mix of her previous friendly, caring nature mixed with a unfillable void left by the death of her son. Kratos and Atreus are still the best part of the game; their relationship is warmer here and increases in respect and trust as the game goes on; Kratos is more friendly and affable in general. It shows in the little things, like calling Mimir by his name and only ever referring to Atreus as “boy” once during a particularly heated moment, as well as the larger ones where he openly praises and nurtures peaceful, emotionally vulnerable opinions and moments. He’s a man who’s seen, caused and felt a whole lot of pain, but still has a sense of beauty, kindness and peace as well as, crucially, an emotional vulnerability that shows itself at times. Unfortunately, the plot has some major problems with hinting at depth or interesting plot lines that it doesn’t follow up on. Slightly heavier spoilers here, so if you want to avoid them then skip to the next paragraph. Partway through the game Atreus takes Odin up on his offer to go to Asgard, and what follows is, rolled up into a few short segments: working undercover to see what Odin’s up to, making friends with Thor’s daughter, trying to bond with Thor and show a more sympathetic side to his personality, and hey, maybe Odin isn’t so bad? It’s not like the people who’ve told you how shit he is aren’t biased, right? Well, this is all painfully rushed: Thor is a sad drunk, he feels like he can’t be anything more than what Odin made him, but he face-turns with very little provocation. Odin insists he isn’t the villain until he just is, and leans into it. No twist, barely any alternate perspective, and ties into Atreus’ friendship with Thor’s daughter:
“I think you’re lying about my grandad being awful”
“He isn’t, your grandad IS awful”
“Oh, okay. I’m on your team now”
These sections feel like padding, despite being brief, and they’re responsible for a lot of story heavy lifting they’re woefully unequipped for. Why this wasn’t a trilogy I don’t know, it leaves the story feeling lopsided. The stuff with Kratos and his allies and friends is all rock solid (for the most part, there’s one heavy emotional scene that’s almost comedically rushed), but the stuff with the Aesir and Asgard really needed more time dedicated to it. Keep Atreus there for the rest of the game, take your time to really sew seeds of doubt about Odin, show the inner turmoil Thor feels and have both he and his daughter develop strong bonds with Atreus that could more feasibly be used to prompt face turns in the third game. Sadly, what’s here feels rushed and half-baked. It’s a shame.

Gameplay wise, it’s largely unchanged since the previous game; the same mix of melee combat with a supporting character providing ranged back up, and explorting a metroidvania environment. There are parts where you play as Atreus and have Freya accompanying you as Kratos, but it largely plays the same. I though Atreus would be more ranged focused given his weapon being a bow but he’s surprisingly strong in hand to hand combat. There are new puzzles, the most common of which is using elemental arrows to chain together spots on walls to transfer fire to points too far away to reach yourself. At its best it’s fine, at its worst it’s annoying and tedious. You have to wait for the arrows to recharge same as when you’re in combat, and often when I was setting up the third point one of the first two would dissipate without warning. Kratos’ rage of Sparta has different forms now: in addition to the standard damage-boosted hand to hand fighting you can use it to regain health or deal heavy damage to a single enemy, the latter of which I found to be the most useful. The combat feels a bit harder overall, though I may be misremembering the previous game. It isn’t particularly challenging in terms of mechanics, enemies just seem to do more damage and health stones seem less common. It was this game of the two that made me decide that only being able to buy a resurrection stone at shops is an irritating restriction. Also, while I fully intended to do all the sidequests, I quickly lost interest. The first ones you come across are both about Mimir trying to make up for shitty things he did in the past, and none of the ones that come after were even remotely as interesting. One thing I will say though, is that the enemy and boss design is far more varied and a lot stronger than this time around. Rather than just throw the same big troll dude at you in different flavours, Ragnarok has a wider range of both creatures and human enemies to deal with, and that’s at least one big improvement over its predecessor.

God of War Ragnarok isn’t a bad game, but it could definitely be better. The combat and metroidvania exploration are still good. The parts of the story focusing on Kratos, Atreus and their friends are rock solid, but the overarching plot is unfocused and the parts dealing with the Aesir and Asgard are rushed and underdeveloped. Personally, I would rather this had been a trilogy so it could take its time more and really soak in the characters and their relationships and motivations, but that’s not what we’ve got. What we’ve got is pretty good, but it had the potential to be great.

By James Lambert
@jameslambert18

Signalis Review

If you follow videogame related news and views, particularly on Twitter, then by now you’ll likely have heard of Signalis- a throwback PS1-style survival horror with a heavy Silent Hill influence. If you have heard of it and have an interest in playing it then I urge you to do so; it’s absolutely superb both on its own merits as a melancholic, grisly survival horror and as a love letter to one of the best survival horror games ever made. For those of us into that sort of thing, this is a real treat. Go in blind.

For those of you still with me, I’ll give some details where I can, but still do my best to avoid giving too much away. Signalis is indeed a PS1-style old school survival horror with a love of Silent Hill, especially 2, as well as cosmic horror, in particular The King in Yellow, which as a fan of that book, drew my attention immediately. You are a robotic worker called Elster, who’s come to an interstellar mining operation on Leng (I see what you did there) looking for a human, or Gestalt as they’re called here, woman who’s clearly very important to her. She picked a pretty terrible time to come looking, because there’s a horrifying disease tearing through the place that kills Gestalts and makes the robotic Replikas wish they were so lucky; transforming them into screaming monstrosities kept alive and revived a while after death by cancerous growths. Each type of Replika is based on the neural pattern of a different human, and so they have likes and interests relevant to that human and, among Replikas, unique to them. That’s all well and good, but unfortunately these things stop them from going insane, and given the current state of the operation and their human masters those factors aren’t being maintained, so they’ve got rampant robo-madness to deal with on top of the gruesome physical changes. Sierpinski mining operation gets increasingly dilapidated as you pursue your objective lower and lower into the earth; rust, blood and pulsating flesh abounds, and flashes of text and glimpses of a young, white-haired woman plague you. The head of the robot hierarchy; the towering and intentionally godlike Falke sees her too, and her current catatonic state seems to be linked to her experiencing something great and terrible when she left the base on an expedition. The plot is kept vague and dreamlike for the most part, as the few characters with any remaining sentience try to work out what the hell’s going on, but the abstractness works well and suits the nightmarish tone, and things are concrete when they need to be. Particularly the conclusion, which is brutal in a quiet, understated way. The effect is amplified by the worldbuilding showing that the setting is a totalitarian implied dictatorship; the kind where people have it really rough and that’s masked as doing your bit for your beloved nation. This place is grim, cold and cruel, even without everything you’ve got to deal with.

Gameplay-wise, it’s a mix of exploring environments looking for key items and killing enemies, and solving surprisingly involving puzzles. The game eschews tank controls, I’m sure many of you will be glad to hear, but does have a limited inventory system and item boxes. The six spaces available to you have been a point of contention and while I do see why people don’t like it, personally I didn’t find it too much of a problem. It doesn’t help that the game makes some strange decisions like making your torch take up a slot, and the health items that are automatically used upon death require being equipped which doesn’t stop them taking up space. It meant I ended up doing very little fighting, instead carrying one gun with no extra ammunition in case of emergencies, something that actually affects the endings. Like Silent Hill 2, what ending you get is determined by certain actions you perform in game, and one of them is apparently how many enemies you kill. Having said that, I liked the ending I got, and managed to avoid the one I really didn’t want, so clearly running was the way to go. The puzzles are the most interesting part of gameplay anyway; they require a combination of memory (or taking pictures of things with an in-game item or your phone, as I did), working out connections between certain things in the environments, and figuring out the solutions based on the information given to you. Sometimes they require tuning a radio you get early on to different frequencies, sometimes they require working out codes, or deciphering pictures or written text. One of the first ones asks you to mould an electronic lockpick based on an ultrasound showing the pins in the lock you’re trying to crack. They all felt engaging and enjoyable, and whenever I worked out exactly what the game wanted from me and then did it, I got a real boost. Made me feel like a smart bean, it did. It put into perspective how weak the puzzles in Scorn were, and Signalis isn’t even a puzzle game. The ones here feel challenging but also fun, like little events after exploring the area.

I’ll stop there because I don’t want to go into too much detail and spoil things. Signalis is fantastic; its atmosphere, enemy design and soundtrack all invoke classic Silent Hill. Its surreal, cosmic horror nightmare is disorienting and unpleasant, but in a really good way. Its puzzles are fun and engaging, its rusty, flesh-covered sci-fi environment a joy to explore, and its main story and themes are tragic, melancholic and gripping. A real treat for fans of survival horror games, particularly ones that lean towards the psychological and unnerving rather than jump scares. I love it, and can’t wait to see what two-person developer rose-engine does next.

By James Lambert
@jameslambert18

DLC Review: Resident Evil Village – Winters’ Expansion

Resident Evil Village was my game of the year last year, narrowly beating the excellent Disco Elysium: The Final Cut because its excellent blend of different horror styles wrapped up in a violent, harrowing, surprisingly emotionally affecting package really resonated with me. Plus it had that one really horrible bit that scared me harder than I’ve been scared since P.T. Its DLC came out recently and, having avoided most of the marketing for it, I went into it pretty much blind. It’s split into three sections as seen in the picture above, so I’ll be talking about them in that same style.

Shadows of Rose
Note that there are going to be some extensive spoilers in this section. Before I get into them, I’ll summarise Shadows of Rose thusly: doesn’t do enough with the concept, some of it is good, some of it is tedious, none of it is scary and I think liked the ending but I’m not certain. Right then, spoilers from now on, you’ve been warned. Oh, spoilers for the main game, too.

Sixteen years after the events of Resi Village, the now grown up Rose Winters longs for a normal life without her mould-based superpowers, suffering from bullying at school and having no friends. Her confidant, “K”, says he might have a way to make that happen: travel into the shared memories of the Megamycete and find Mother Miranda’s notes on how to use a special crystal to remove her powers once and for all. Once she’s in there, she’s confronted with a load of dead Rose clones with gruesomely damaged faces, monsters who cause that damage by draining the energy from them through their faces, and an evil, masked version of The Duke who’s using the monsters to hunt the Roses through Castle Dimitrescu. This castle section is easily the best part of Shadows of Rose: traverse the castle looking for three key items and using Rose’s powers to clear fleshly barricades and freeze enemies in place, guided by a guardian angel calling himself “Michael”, communicating through text written on surfaces and teleporting items and a gun in for Rose to use. There’s no explanation for why this Duke is evil, but corrupting your constant friend and ally from the main game is an effective starting point for what is essentially a nightmare world. Unfortunately, SoR doesn’t make the most of this situation at all. The Megamycete contains the memories of all who have come into contact with it, so where are the Bakers? Eveline’s here, but they aren’t, and neither are any locations from Resi 7. Mother Miranda shows up at the end but she’s still just trying to use Rose as a vessel for her daughter. Maybe a version of Mia could show up and blame Rose for killing her husband? None of that, just an inexplicably evil Duke, Eveline, then a Miranda boss fight. Speaking of Mia and Eveline, they’re front and centre in another visit to the Beneviento house, which starts off creepy and atmospheric with some neat puzzles, then pisses it away by replacing what you encountered in the main game (I’m still avoiding spoilers even now, because it’s so effective) with that wooden doll of Mia, who only moves when you’re not looking. That sounds creepy, and it is at first, but her kill animation is just her jumping on your back, she doesn’t make any noises, and the game throws one, then two, then three and finally four at you, which makes the whole thing feel frustrating, like they ran out of ideas. Get through that and there’s a forced stealth section where you’re shrunk down and have to avoid Angie’s doll friends, then finally another, giant Mia doll chases you. It’s not scary, not engaging, and reminded me of The Evil Within, which is a terrible thing for a horror game to do. In the end, when Miranda shows up looking for a barney, Michael reveals himself to be Ethan (which I saw coming but that’s fine. Reveals being predictable isn’t a bad thing), who shows up to help with the fight. Rose getting to meet her dad and the two of them getting a proper goodbye is great; I like Ethan a lot, I liked his heroic sacrifice at the end of the main game, but I’m also happy to see him get to see Rose again and tell her he loves her.

At least that’s what I thought, when I’d finished it. Then I replayed the main game to try out third person mode and, through tears, watching that awesome credits section where it revisits the story book from the beginning and shows how it ends, thought that actually I prefer the story ending there. Ethan weakly saying goodbye to a daughter he’ll never know as he faces down a heroic sacrifice is powerful and still hits me hard. The credits song “Yearning for Dark Shadows” contains a line that sums up, for me, Rose’s response to all this: “Hello my tears; because of you, I am who I am.” She knows what happened to her Dad, through being told and through the Megamycete, and that is responsible for her being alive, and has influenced her character, down to wearing Ethan’s coat sixteen years later. I don’t know, I’m two minds about all this, I’m going to have to let it soak in and mull it around my brain.

Gameplay wise, it’s basically the main game but with Rose’s powers popping up now and again; outside of that castle section you only really use them to break barricades and at certain story moments like fighting Eveline. They gain a massive boost near the end with the ability to teleport dodge and attack with big mould roots, but that’s only for the final fight with Miranda. Really the only time they play a natural role in the game is in that opening third, which is one reason why it’s the best part of the DLC.

Overall Shadows of Rose is a mixed bag. That opening section is strong, but the middle third drags with not-scary forced stealth and having to deal with a clown car full of Mia dolls, and the finale is potentially good for Ethan but a disappointment for being a repeat of the main game’s final boss. It doesn’t do enough with the concept for me; there are a host of potentially interesting places they could take this and they don’t do any of them apart from Eveline popping up.

The Mercenaries: Additional Orders

Fortunately, I have no such inner conflict about this part of the DLC. Two new stages, three new characters, all of them great fun to play as: this is where the meat of Winters’ Expansion is, at least in my opinion. The three new characters; Chris, Heisenberg and Lady D all play around with the core combat formula in interesting ways. Chris can’t block, instead having access to two punches; a quick, uninterruptable hook and a big, Resi 5-style straight that knocks enemies back and to the ground. He has an “Onslaught” bar that, when filled, greatly increases his speed and damage, and purchasable upgrades make successful punches reward you by filling big chunks of the meter. Chris plays a lot like Ethan in that he’s 1) a regular human height and 2) uses guns, but his more aggressive, risk-reward playstyle makes him feel distinct, and goes even further to make him feel like the badass Chris we all know and love. You can kill soldaten by punching them in the heart, it’s fantastic. Heisenberg fights using his massive hammer and a variety of Magneto powers. He can’t heal, but his block involves covering himself in metal and is far more effective than Ethan putting his arms up. His ranged attacks are throwing saw blades and pieces of scrap metal, with them doing more or less damage depending on how long you charge them up. He can call a jetpack soldat who’ll blast forwards in a straight line, heavily damaging anything in his way, and can conjure a magnetic field that powers up his attacks but slows his movement to a crawl. Personally I don’t have much use for the magnetic field or scrap metal, but I love taking out wolfmen with carefully aimed saw blades zipping through the air right towards their heads, clobbering anyone who gets too close with the hammer and taking out the big lads with my jetpack son. Finally, and the one I most enjoyed playing as, is Lady Dimitrescu, who much like Chris can’t block, but doesn’t need to given how immensely powerful she is. L1 and R1 control her Lust-style claws; holding the buttons lets her do rushing attacks like gliding over to an enemy, grabbing them by the throat and slamming them lethally into the ground. Lady D’s unique mechanic is the Thrill Meter; slaughtering enemies with claws and swarms of flies raises the meter and turns the noblewoman into a bloodthirsty, horny maniac; giggling in delight with every swing and giving her access to two new attacks; hurling vanities (that’s amazing, Capcom. I mean that sincerely) and summoning one of her three daughters to zip around the place putting enemies on their arses. Her ranged attacks all have cooldowns that can be shortened with buffs and upgrades, and even without them there’s very little barrier to her being an unstoppable whirlwind of death. The other three are fun to play as, but Lady D is on a whole other level; she’s the most refreshing, satisfying thing in this entire DLC.

Third Person Mode

This is where I have the least to say. Apart from cutscenes and the occasional more involved physical action, as well as the fight with Heisenberg, the game is entirely in third person. I thought it might make the game feel more like Resident Evil 4, but it didn’t really. Apart from making the part in the Miranda fight where she makes the arena dark trivial and the part in the factory where you have to shoot the weak points on that big fan more award, it doesn’t make much of a difference really. Sometimes I’d have trouble highlighting items when I wanted to pick them up, but not that often. I enjoyed it, but I prefer first person mode. Normally I prefer third person for horror games but something about experiencing everything Village has to offer through Ethan’s eyes is more effective for me.

So that’s the Resi Village DLC: alternating between being good but throwaway, disappointing and a great time. Kind of like the Resi 7 DLC but there’s less of it. With the Resi 4 remake on the horizon this is presumably the end for Village, so I’ll just say that seven playthroughs in, it’s still a masterpiece I love from start to finish.

By James Lambert
@jameslambert18