God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla uses an old genre to tell a new story

As I battled my way through God of War Ragnarök’s new roguelike expansion, Valhalla, I was dying to learn the next part of Kratos’ story — and that story is what’s made me push through even when the game got tough.

God of War’s recent entries — the 2018 reboot and Ragnarök — are renowned for their cinematic storytelling. The tight camera makes you feel like a direct observer to Kratos’ every move, and the excellent motion capture, writing, and voice acting make the characters of myth in the games seem like actual living beings. But Valhalla takes things one step further by using the structure of a roguelike — where you make attempt after attempt to overcome increasingly difficult challenges to beat the game — as a narrative tool to let...

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