God of War Ragnarok Hit With Wave of Negative User Reviews

By Cade Onder

God of War Ragnarok has been hit with a wave of negative user reviews following its very successful launch. God of War Ragnarok was one of 2022's most anticipated games. Its predecessor won Game of the Year in 2018, beating out hits like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Marvel's Spider-Man. God of War Ragnarok earned its hype after the previous game was hailed by fans and critics alike. Sony also announced the sequel ahead of the PS5's release, giving owners of the new console something to look forward to. After months of prolonged silence, the marketing campaign for the game properly kicked off over the summer, but was still restrained to maintain the game's secrets. Upon release, God of War Ragnarok was praised and became the fastest-selling PlayStation game in history.

It was a pretty historic release and many even had it pegged to win the Game of the Year award at The Game Awards. Although God of War Ragnarok did clean up at the awards show, Elden Ring won the coveted award. Perhaps there's a reason for this as the game has started seeing a wave of negative reviews on Metacritic (via GamingBible). While it may not be fair to call it a "review bombing" since the game still holds a solid 7.9 user score, it does feel like a strong contrast to the overwhelmingly positive reviews. A lot of the negative reviews give the game a 0, which just seems unfair given the game is totally functional even if you don't like its creative decisions. Various reviews cite the game as "boring", "repetitive", and "overrated". Some even call out the game's pacing, noting that it stops the action too much to tell its story and forces the player into lengthy cutscenes.

Of course, these are pretty fair critiques on their own, even if the score seems like hyperbole. However, some of these negative user reviews begin to show their true intentions behind their score. One review took issue with  the "insertion of modern politics in media" without elaborating on what that means and another blamed their issues with the game on Sony Santa Monica hiring "females" and "lbgtq developers". The latter review also complained about making Kratos too soft, resulting in him coming across as "weak" and "feminine". Although everyone is entitled to their opinion, some of these user reviews definitely feel a bit strange.

God of War Ragnarok is out now on PS4 and PS5. What did you think of the game? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @Cade_Onder.

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