It used to be the case that a single-player game would release with a 30-hour campaign and a handful of bonus features, and that'd be it. But nowadays, gamers want a bit more bang for their buck. The invention and popularization of post-launch updates have been a bit of a double-edged sword for the gaming world so far. While on the one hand it allows some developers to release a broken game for full price and fix it later, it also allows passionate devs to keep updating their game with brand-new features. God of War Ragnarok's New Game Plus mode is a perfect example of the latter.
Released about five months after the game's initial launch, God of War Ragnarok's New Game Plus mode follows in the footsteps of just about every other single-player game that features the mode. New Game Plus mode allows players to start a campaign all over again, but this time with all the skills, abilities, and gear they obtained during their first adventure. God of War Ragnarok's New Game Plus mode achieves this and then some, but it could still have gone further in one particular area.
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Released just a few months after the game's release, God of War 2018's New Game Plus mode was a great post-launch add-on. On top of the usual elements that gamers have come to expect from a New Game Plus mode, God of War 2018 also delivered a few bonuses of its own. New enemy attack patterns and behaviors on higher levels, completely new sets of armor to unlock, an entirely new currency that unlocked unique upgrades, and more powerful Talismans were all added to God of War 2018's New Game Plus mode.
God of War Ragnarok's New Game Plus mode took its predecessor's excellent groundwork and continued to build on it. God of War Ragnarok's New Game Plus mode didn't just add one new currency to the game, but five, all of which were used to create the most powerful new armor and weapons in the game. This New Game Plus update also adds a slew of new Enchantments to the game, rewarded to players when they upgrade a piece of gear to level 9.1. But by far God of War Ragnarok's biggest New Game Plus addition was its Sparring Arena.
Though it was already available in the base game, God of War Ragnarok's Niflheim Sparring Arena received a major overhaul in New Game Plus. Along with the ability to choose from multiple difficulty tiers, the New Game Plus Sparring Arena gave players the option to control both Kratos and Atreus.
After choosing either Kratos or Atreus, players would then be prompted to choose their NPC companion, covering every possible option in the game. This means that players could choose to control Atreus and have Kratos as their companion or choose to team up Kratos and Thor. But while these more unique team-ups are a highlight of God of War Ragnarok's New Game Plus mode, it could have gone even further with it.
It would have been great to see God of War Ragnarok's New Game Plus mode expand this NPC companion feature outside the Sparring Arena. Obviously, it wouldn't make sense to have Thor team up with Kratos during or after God of War Ragnarok's story, but during post-game exploration, it would have been great to have the option to swap in and swap out companions at the player's will.
And if Santa Monica really wanted to go above and beyond, then it could have given these team-ups some unique character interactions, obviously nothing that affects the canon story but just some kind of fun back-and-forths in a similar vein to Overwatch 2's pre-game lobbies. These unique interactions alone could have made many fans return to God of War Ragnarok for just one more playthrough.
God of War Ragnarok is available now for PS4 and PS5.
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