It seems publishers forgot that single-player games once drove the industry. Gamers love and want them and they have made a comeback over the last five years. 2018’s God of War proved that to everyone selling 23 million copies as of this writing. These games are what gaming is. Zelda, Mario, Dead Space, BioShock, Onimusha, etc. These games define their generations and help form new beloved characters and worlds for generations to love.
What other series than God of War to continue being one of the best single-player games ever made? Its predecessor helped bring it back and show greedy publishers that gamers want these. Tens of millions of us. Engaging combat, fantastic characters, lore and world building, gorgeous visuals, tons of puzzles and exploration. This is what the core of a fantastic game is and God of War continues to prove this.
God of War (2018) was a masterpiece of a game. I honestly expected just more of the same with Ragnarok, as I couldn’t imagine how they could improve or add anything. I knew they were reusing many of the same realms, and I thought this would feel more like a short expansion pack relying primarily on endgame challenges. I was dead wrong. This game is about 10 hours longer story-wise and has more explorable realms than the first game. A couple of realms are still used as central hubs, but most are fully explorable, with hours of content in each one. This brings me to the actual story itself. It’s phenomenal, moving, tear-jerking (especially the ending), and has one of the best ending levels I’ve played in over a decade. While there are many improvements over the first game, a few flaws still remain that haven’t been addressed, but they’re minor.
The game starts pretty much right where the first game ended. You’re in a cave with Atreus (who is now a teen), and you ride through a snowy path on a dog sled. I don’t want to explain too much of the story details, as there are some twists and beautiful moments, but every single character here is memorable. All of your favorites from the first game are back, plus a lot of new ones. Thor, Odin, Thrud (Thor’s daughter), Sif (Thor’s wife), Heimdall, and many others just ooze character and charm. Even some of the smaller characters with little screen time make such an impact and are so well written and designed. It’s some of the best writing and character development in any game, period. I just want to say that you won’t be disappointed with the story at all. It does take 20–25 hours to complete the story, but it’s never boring, never dull, and goes off on so many different paths.
You can now play as Atreus in many scenes, and he’s nimble, swift, and a lot of fun to play as. He’s a stark contrast to Kratos’ larger and slower build. He can melee with his bow, shoot arrows, and equip relics that add augments to his arrows. He also has powers. He does have his own assist partners in the game. Without spoiling anything, there are several characters that accompany him on his own journey. You aren’t stuck with the same companion through his sections. The gameplay is just so varied that it never gets dull.
Combat itself has improved some, but it was never flawed before. Animations are tighter and more varied, and you now have three different abilities you can change and equip. These are in the form of relics and amulets. When you hold down L2, you can press R2, circle, or R1 and use cooldown abilities. These are more abundant than in the first game, with a ton of find and collect. These are specifically heavy and light attacks for each of the three weapons, as well as one ability from your amulet. There are passive buffs you can apply to your amulet that can reduce cooldowns and make you more powerful while using certain relics, and equipping any three at the same time grants a special bonus. This is all slowly unlocked for you throughout the story, but to get the most out of this stuff, you have to explore and do all the side stuff to get better buffs and abilities.
The combat system is just perfect. I didn’t think it could get better, but it does. The only thing I wish I could do is combo in and out of different weapons. That’s the only issue I had with the combat. The additional spear weapon is a treat and adds powerful mid-range attacks, so Kratos is fully balanced. The axe for short-range attacks and the Blades of Chaos for long-range attacks These weapons can be upgraded by defeating bosses throughout the realms for sparks, and they are hard to come by and rare. You must seek them out to increase your equipment level. This is even more important than the first game. Enemies have levels above them just like before, but the side stuff is what mostly relies on this. The hardest enemies in the game are the Berserker bosses, and you must tackle them in a certain order to gain that extra level and be at level 8, which takes a couple dozen hours to get to. The enemies are well-designed; every single boss is different, and even the mini-bosses have been mixed up. We’re no longer spammed with just troll bosses like before, which got quite repetitive outside of the story bosses.
That’s where my first minor complaint comes in. The bosses and large-scale battles are toned down quite a bit in this game, and that was a huge part of God of War‘s DNA. The quick-time events are almost non-existent as well, outside of key scripted scenes. I was a little let down by this, which was probably the only major letdown of the game. The large-scale bosses do exist, but there are only a couple, and they are pretty far apart in the story, but they are still epic nonetheless. All of those cool large-scale bosses are mostly replaced with well-designed smaller bosses that require you to really hone the combat system. It’s honestly no joke either. These optional bosses will kick your ass. Even 35 hours into the game, I was dying a dozen or more times until I memorized every attack pattern and dodged and parried perfectly. This is why having the proper equipment level is key. I would come back even just one level higher, and it would make my time easier. You also get to use resurrection stones, which are highly recommended to always have as you don’t get penalized for using them. There is a new berserker stone as well that gives you full rage.
When it comes to exploration, Ragnarok is full of it. There aren’t just a couple of boat areas like before, but nearly every realm can be traversed by boat, with a lot of areas to unlock, chests to grab, and puzzles to solve. One of Ragnarok’s strengths is its environmental puzzles. These are Zelda-level fun and addictive to find and solve. It’s recommended to do all of the side stuff at the end of the game, when you have all the abilities and weapons needed. The same Relic chests exist as before by finding three runes to hit with your axe, but more ways to solve these have been added. In addition to just mashing square to Atreus and other partners to assist you, there are now two arrow types. Magic and Rune arrows Rune arrows are green and do heavier damage, but magic arrows are purple and can increase fire or ice damage to enemies. These are also used in puzzles. The purple arrows can create domes that can be shot to create a chain reaction of fire to light up runes for puzzles. These can be tricky but fun to figure out.
Your spear can be used to blow open weak points in rocks and be used as a pole to get to new areas. It’s so satisfying to finally go back and get that one chest you saw teasing you or get to that whole new area you knew was above you but couldn’t get to. These teases throughout the story make you want to explore, which I did anyway. I usually did everything I could with my current abilities in the realm before moving on. You can easily spend 5 or more hours in each realm, completing them to 100%. There are still the Muspelheim challenges, Odin’s Ravens, and many more favors to find, collect, and solve. You will easily spend 50–60 hours in this game to complete it to 100%, and it’s satisfying, addictive, and so much fun. The level design is fantastic, as it’s easy to remember nearly everything in the game and where to go. Just a simple chest was easy to remember once I got to that area. There were a few small areas that were a pain to explore, such as near the Abandoned Village in Vanaheim. It’s one of the few areas poorly laid out with confusing paths and easily missable shortcuts, but these aren’t very common.
The production values are the last thing I want to talk about. They are amazing, mesmerizing, and absolutely mind-blowing. I can’t put into words just how well put together this massive game is. Christopher Judge’s performance as Kratos is deeper and has more nuance, and he just is Kratos. Sunny Suljic does a fantastic job, as he’s grown with Atreus and has put his own spin on the character. Odin’s actor, Thor, and everyone in between are perfectly cast. This is Game of Thrones or Harry Potter-style perfect casting. This is one of the best-acted games ever made, and that’s not an exaggeration. I couldn’t get enough of everyone on screen, and there is just so much dialog and acting on screen that it’s insane. The music is also phenomenal. If you loved God of War‘s music before, it sounds just like we’ve grown to love it, but more mature and, of course, varied due to the sheer size of this game. Deep, sweeping horn instruments, a lot of crescendos, and emotional orchestras play away at the perfect tempo. This type of game only comes once in a generation.
Lastly, I want to talk about the technical side of the game. The graphics look amazing on PS5 and fine on PS4. Sadly, this is a cross-gen title, so the graphics aren’t as impressive as a next-gen-only title like A Plague Tale: Requiem, as you can see where the visuals were held back to be able to scale down to the base PS4. The game looks amazing in 4K 60FPS Quality mode, but a game that requires precise timing plays better in Performance mode at 1440p. However, the best is the VRR mode, which is only available on TVs that have been released in the last year or two. Sadly, this whole VRR and performance and quality mode thing will continue until we are done with cross-gen titles. Loading times are super fast on PS5 as well, so there’s nothing to worry about. Technically, Ragnarok is nothing to worry about, as it’s still one of the best-looking games ever made.
Overall, Ragnarok is a perfect game. It has puzzles, great level design, a huge world to explore, bosses small and large, epic scripted set pieces, and well-acted characters that are always welcome to see on screen. The story is an emotional roller coaster of Kratos learning to let go and Atreus becoming an adult. There’s the larger issue of every realm trying to come together to defeat a common enemy. Combat is easy to learn but hard to master with a ton of armor and equipment to find. Exploring and solving environmental puzzles never gets dull or boring. There are side quests, treasures, and everything in between. This game literally has everything, and just like the greats before it, it is the essence of what a good game is. The only flaws are the lack of quick-time events and large-scale bosses, and the optional bosses are incredibly tough, but that’s not really a flaw in the end. Ragnarok is the best game to come out this generation so far, and like I said at the end of my review in 2018, how can they make this series even better?
One category that is rarely empty or anemic is the action genre. These make up the bulk of gaming and are usually the most popular out of any other genre. This was an incredibly fantastic year for the genre in terms of great storytelling and world-building. We got a little of everything this year and there was something for everyone.
God of War’s action has always been perfect. How can you perfect perfection? Well, by reinventing the way action combat is done once again which is what 2018’s God of War did. Ragnarok just adds more layers with refined animations, balancing, and new things to whack an axe at. It doesn’t get any better than this.
Multiplayer games are a huge thing in gaming. There are a lot of gamers who don’t touch them, but there is a large group who do. What makes a great multiplayer game is how it can bring you back. If the gameplay loop isn’t any fun, if the maps are dull, if the characters and action is boring you won’t want to keep coming back. From shooters, and MOBAs, to co-op adventures, nearly every genre has one.
While the overall suite of online shooting hasn’t changed much from 2019’s entry it has enough changes and tweaks to make this the best online shooter on the market. Call of Duty has done a good job recently re-establishing itself as the king of this while also making a valiant effort in the single-player department. The maps are solid, older maps are returning, and there are enough changes to make this feel like there’s a nice thick added layer of icing on this already rich cake.
This wasn’t an amazing year for racing games, but what we got were solid sequels. Not all of them pushed the boundaries of their respective series or the genre as a whole, but they were still enjoyable and looked fantastic. This was certainly a strong year for racing sims.
Gran Turismo 7
Perfect thanks to the talented and experienced developer Polyphony Digital. The visuals are amazing, the physics are immaculate, and the race modes are a lot of fun. Mixed with online play, a steering wheel, and a beer you are set for an amazing weekend of racing fun. It doesn’t get any better than this on consoles.
I’ll admit that it’s been a light couple of years for the fighting genre. Without heavy hitters like Mortal Kombat, Soul Calibur, or Street Fighter, you’re left with the smaller guys or newcomers. This was another light year with fighting games that were good, but not spectacular. None of these games revolutionized the genre or pushed their respective series in new directions, but were very solid.
The King of Fighters XV
The King of Fighters XV had an impressive roster, updated visuals, a few new gameplay tweaks, and great online play. While the series hasn’t evolved hardly at all in the last decade it still packs personality, charm, and beautiful visuals.
Professor Layton is a series I have been curious about but could never get into. When this game came out, I rented it from GameFly and sent it back the same day. It was frustrating right off the bat, and I couldn’t solve a single puzzle by myself. These are probably some of the toughest puzzles you will ever come across in a game. I don’t mean regular puzzles in a 3D space, but full-on college-level logic puzzles. Math questions, pattern recognition, optical illusions—they’re all insanely tough. You do some slider puzzles, the occasional jigsaw, and process of elimination questions. The game is insanely hard, and you will need a walkthrough for this one.
The base of the game plays out like a point-and-click adventure. You enter the town of St. Mystere to find the elusive Golden Apple and acquire its wealth. In the meantime, you are confronted by the townsfolk, who strangely present you with puzzles at every turn. There are 120 puzzles in the main game, with 15 unlocked as Layton’s challenges. There are an additional 25 puzzles available as weekly downloads, but the service has since shut down. These can be unlocked with cheat codes, as they are in the game code. Layton’s Challenges are unlocked by finding pieces to every puzzle. One is sorting items in either Layton’s or Luke’s room, and their reaction is a hint as to whether it belongs to them or not. Another is assembling a gizmo and finding all the pieces to a jigsaw puzzle. These are found by solving optional hidden puzzles outside of the story ones.
You can tap around on the screen for coins that are used to unlock hints, and you will need as many as you need. You tap on the village folk to advance the story or solve their puzzles. If you missed any optional puzzles in a given chapter, they are returned to the puzzle room, so you don’t have to worry about not finding them. These don’t include optional hidden puzzles found by tapping around the screen, however. You can get through the story and solve all of these later, at your leisure. You do get objectives at the top of the screen. Usually to go to a certain area or talk to a specific character. There are some really good-looking, full-motion anime cut scenes peppered throughout the game with full voice acting. It has low-quality audio due to the limited size of the DS carts, but it still looks good.
The game isn’t hard in terms of exploration. You’re limited to maybe a couple dozen screens over the course of the story, and it’s laid out in such a way that you will memorize where everything is pretty fast. The story itself is cute and charming, predictable and forgettable, but it works within the game’s world. Layton and Luke are great characters with depth, and their personalities shine through here. I just wish the puzzles weren’t so damn hard. There is no difficulty ramping, and there are no mini-games for breaks. It’s just 120 puzzles that I either knew the answer to and doubted myself about, didn’t understand the puzzle until I saw the logic behind the answer, was always off by one number, or almost had something. Most of these puzzles are well designed in terms of cleverness; a lot of the time the answer is right in front of you in the form of trick questions, but only those who are avid logic puzzle solvers will truly enjoy this game.
With a walkthrough, I did solve all 120 puzzles, and maybe 20 of those I solved on my own. It’s that damn hard, and it’s a surprise as this game seems marketed toward children, and I’m sure many bought it and had no clue what to do. These are college-level puzzles that only serious brainiacs can solve. Sadly, you’re locked behind the puzzle and can’t advance. There’s no way to pay your way out or see the solution. You get three hints, and a lot of them don’t help much. You just need to know that these are real puzzles that are serious. There is a scoring system in the form of Pacarats, but these mean nothing and don’t unlock anything. It’s really just a score. Every time you fail a puzzle, the potential score you can get for that puzzle drops. So, don’t worry about this system too much.
Overall, I liked the art and characters; the story was cute; and when I did solve a puzzle on my own, it was satisfying, but the majority were just way too hard. There are no mini-games, breaks of any kind, or anything else to change up the gameplay. Sure, the puzzles themselves have different uses for the touch screen. Write in stuff and use the touch screen as a notepad to solve math problems or trace patterns, but other than that, it’s just used to tap around the screen on static images. I’m hoping future games dial the difficulty way down and save the hard stuff for the optional challenges.
Oh boy, was this a good year for strategy games? From real-time to turn-based there was something for everyone this year. Whether you like 4X space epics, deep diving into numbers and spreadsheets, feeling nostalgic over 2D turn-based RPG-style games, or epic real-time battles this was one of the best years for strategy games that I can remember.
Tactics Ogre Reborn
This isn’t only a remake of one of the most beloved strategy games ever made, but it was well done and available to all consoles. Its writing, story, and characters will keep you glued to this whopper of a game, but the deep combat and strategy elements will please anyone who is a fan of this sub-genre.
HD updates and remasters have mostly evolved into fully-fledged remakes thanks to their popularity and the fact that they usually sell well. Sometimes more than the original version. 2022 was stuffed with remakes from some of the most beloved franchises of all time.
While there isn’t much new in terms of the overall content of the game the from-the-ground-up redesign of the visuals and the use of the DualSense controller do wonders to make this feel like a new game. If you never played the game before then this is the way to go.
Apple Arcade continues to dominate the mobile platforms with amazing original games that are non-pay-to-win or stuffed with microtransactions. These unique games invoke what gamers love about games and what mobile games should be. Not since the early days of iOS gaming have there been this many awesome games.
stitch.
A gorgeous and fantastically unique puzzle game that will keep you glued to your screen. The game insists on stress free and relaxing gaming. The bright colors, simulated textures, and overall zen nature of the game is welcoming. The addictive nature of mobile games is a key ingredient to making them great. You want to be able to play for an hour or five minutes, but always want to come back. Stitch has done this without making it frustrating or repetitive.
thebinarymessiah.com 
Try multiplayer. A lot of fun !