God of War - Valhalla Review

What is God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla?

God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla (Valhalla for the rest of the review) is a free DLC add-on for God of War Ragnarok. It was released on December 12th, 2023 and like the main game, is only available on PS4 and PS5. You play as Kratos as you enter Valhalla in a new rogue-lite gameplay loop that adds a twist to the standard hack n’ slash gameplay of the God of War franchise. I played it on PS5 and it takes around 6 hours to finish the main campaign.

Game Review:

Valhalla is a delightful addition to my 2022 Game of the Year. It’s a short expansion that incentivizes players to jump back in and dive deeper into Kratos’ story after the main events of Ragnarok. This is made all the sweeter because it was released for free; it does not cost any extra money to jump in and try this out. Because it’s a short expansion, I’m going to try to keep this review short and sweet.

If you want a more in-depth review of the gameplay mechanics of Valhalla, go read my review of God of War Ragnarok. The core of the combat remains unchanged, all the combos are the same and Kratos battles in the same manner as before. The differences are the added layers of systems that make Valhalla a rogue-lite. Without spoiling the main story of the expansion, Kratos is invited to Valhalla where he is put through combat trials that are randomized and utilize past enemies from the main game. If he dies in these combat trials, he will awaken at the entrance to Valhalla ready to start another attempt. 

This idea of restarting an attempt after a failure is common across all rogue-lite games with some progress carrying over permanently between runs while some progress is only temporary for each run. The developers re-examined many of the items and abilities of Ragnarok and recontextualized them in a way where they work in a run-based gameplay loop. Basically there are a number of boons and upgrades to stats and weapons that Kratos can earn that lets players make important choices on what gameplay style they are interested in. This is a really cool way to make players relearn some aspects of the combat, whether that’s just reminding themselves about how it played or actually learning the interactions between these new features and upgrades. While I did feel a little out of practice with the gameplay mechanics, the onboarding of Valhalla is superb and quickly got me back up to speed. I think the combat is a lot of fun and really well-designed. 

Narratively, Valhalla adds a lot of depth to Kratos’ character and story. Without spoiling, this expansion essentially serves as a form of therapy for Kratos and forces him to face his past. I think the reboot of the God of War series has really brought some maturity and growth to the series. I don’t know what happened in the background with the developers but I feel like the reboot, starting with God of War (2018), has really redeemed and honored the games from the past in the series. It doesn’t shy away from the angsty glorified violence of the previous games, but rather leans in and narratively helps redeem Kratos as a character. And it doesn’t do it in an overly simplistic way that minimizes the faults of his character but brings him full-circle in a complex and realistic progression towards his ultimate redemption. Valhalla serves as the final punctuation on that story of redemption and really epitomizes why I love these new games so much. Valhalla adds more finality and closure to a game that already is one of the most touching stories I’ve experienced.

Family Friendliness:

Valhalla is not a family friendly game. Like Ragnarok there is an adult level of gore and violence. It’s still toned down from the original series but there are still visuals of enemies being grotesquely killed. And there is also some cursing and maybe unsavory language used. The story and narrative are highly impactful and touching but I would not play this in front of or with young children.

Features for Parents:

Valhalla has a good pause feature and the game has a bunch of accessibility features that are available just like the base game. Being a rogue-lite means it’s a little less forgiving of just being able to pick-up and put-down whenever you want. To save the game and exit in the middle of a run without restarting means getting to the shops that are littered in between levels. So you can’t just save wherever but the save points are fairly generous. And if you have a PS5, the console itself has a great game suspension feature where you can pause games just by putting the console in rest mode.

Final Verdict:

Valhalla is an incredible expansion to an already outstanding game. It finalizes Kratos’ story and introduces some new engaging mechanics into the already fun combat system of Ragnarok. Finally, being a free expansion, there’s no reason to not give it a try if you already own the game. I cannot recommend this more highly, it is a masterpiece.