I have to say I'm disappointed by the story as a whole, and the ending in particular. They do so much world-building in this game, and that's great, I think it's all fascinating. But it hardly amounts to anything more than franchise bait, it's all sequel foreshadowing. Nothing happens in this game, it's so concerned with justifying its own existence, that I even think the father-son dynamic is kind of undercooked and the character development rushed through in the mid-game, when Atreus gets shitty for like an hour or two. There are so few characters in the game! There's Kratos, Atreus, Mimir, Baldur, Freya, Thor's failsons and the blacksmiths, that's literally it. And there's ONE woman in the bunch. And if the game really needed to tackle any of the shitty legacy of the older games, it was the misogyny, not the violence. It doesn't really do that. It doesn't give Faye any kind of voice either, and I think that's disappointing for many reasons. I expect they might in the sequel but that doesn't mean I want to let this game off the hook. It feels VERY sparse on narrative. Some good theming, I mostly like what's there. But for a game this long, with this much narrative potential, I think it's super underwhelming, both from a story perspective and a gameplay perspective (not a lot of interesting boss fights).
I like the game, I think it's a solid 8/10. But I just don't see the game that got the unanimous praise.
