God of War: Ragnarok casts Odin as a mob boss, a clever fusion of The Last of Us and Skyrim

God of War: Ragnarok Ended Kratos’ Norse mythology era, but spent 40 to 50 hours before it became one of the best Sony third-person action games to date: it’s the artistry and technical magic that pushes the genre forward, and in how its characters are depicted.

As a drama, it spans the entire spectrum from the famous HBO drama to WrestleMania, and is filled with some of the best action spectacle the series has ever seen (an achievement since the entire series begins with Kratos’ jumping in) A fleet of wrecks kills Hydra), but there are also many quiet, reflective moments that allow Pacer to breathe.

It also provides a wonderfully unique view of the gods themselves. In this painting, Odin comes across as the head of a crime family, akin to Tony Soprano or Vito Corleone: powerful, yet fearful. Greedy to maintain their position, willing to make huge sacrifices to protect their wealth, but ultimately unable to resist the changes of the times. It’s a stark contrast to the heroic, benevolent alien versions we’ve seen in Marvel’s MCU. But, dare I say it, it’s probably closer to the source material: Old Gods are hard to please.

God of War installments often feel like a barometer of industry trends, representing and exemplifying what video games look like in their release year. Fascinatingly, this one (as in 2018, but even more so this time) is arguably the halfway point between The Last of Us and Skyrim. It’s linear and character-centric, but full of open exploration. Underpinned by gritty realism, it is simultaneously an epic fantasy spectacle of light and magic. The best AAA games can be found here, in this PlayStation Exclusives top hits pack.

The fact that this is still the last-gen game at its core (though best played on PS5) suggests that we may have reached a plateau here: video games are conceivably as good as ever, and improved technology comes Building and running them won’t yield the kind of revolutionary advancement we’re used to during the first few decades of this medium’s hitherto relatively short life. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be exciting or groundbreaking: it just means we’ve reached a point where the virtues of painting are decoupled from the quality of brushstrokes.

If the latest top-notch AAA games run on decade-old hardware, we may have just reached a point where our beloved medium is driven by imagination rather than technology. As the barometer reading changed, I assumed it meant there was sunlight ahead.