God of War Valhalla
While cheers erupted during The Game Awards for what looked like an expansion to God of War: Ragnarok, enthusiasm dipped a bit when it was revealed that the Valhalla DLC appeared to be more of a combat arena challenge type thing, formatted as a roguelike.
Given that Ragnarok already has a bunch of combat challenges, it seemed like it would just be sort of a variant of that with roguelike mechanics integrated, and even though there was some talk about it being a “personal journey” for Kratos in the wake of Atreus leaving, the free DLC didn’t seem like it would be all that significant.
Oh boy, turns out that is…really underselling it.
This is something I haven’t really seen before, a blend of a mini-expansion with significant story components alongside traditional combat challenges. It is not really anywhere close to the area-based, objective-heavy fights as optional side activities in Ragnarok. Valhalla feels important in a way that I don’t think most people would expect if they downloaded the DLC. I genuinely would have paid money for this if I knew what it was.
God of war Valhalla
It is hard to go too much into story detail without spoiling, so I won’t. Though it starts with Kratos and Mimir, other characters from Ragnarok with return along with other characters…not from Ragnarok. This is a dive into Kratos’ Spartan past in a way that is mostly buried deep within the new Norse games, like the Blades of Chaos under the floorboards. And when it rears its head, you will understand why this is essentially a must-play for any fan of the series, new era or old.
As for combat itself, that’s a bit more discussable. Even though this is a rougelike, it rarely feels too repetitive, as you are almost always making story progress and few fights are identical to one another, along with a collection of bosses you will remember from the base game. I haven’t finished yet, so I’m not sure what’s to come but again, the ghosts of Sparta call.
You can go through the mode and unlock permanent stat and other upgrades for Kratos, along with cosmetics (which are mercifully not microtransactions, meaning there are no asterisks to “free” here). You will also get temporary upgrades for specific runs, usually meaning you are focused on one main weapon or two, an over time, you will get more and more powers you’ll remember for the game, and a couple new ones.
I don’t know what else to say other than to reiterate that if you thought you might want to skip this because it was just some sort of mindless arena combat thing, it is not that, and I would consider it necessary for fans on the story side, at the very least, even based on what I’ve seen this early. And it’s free, you might as well, right?
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
