GamingRagnarok, As Told By Steam Reviews

Aria Lane3 months ago2775 min


Artwork of God of War Ragnarök showing Kratos and his son Atreus standing in the middle of a frozen lake while brandishing their weapons. Steam reviews are imposed on the image around them.

Image: Kotaku / Sony Santa Monica / Sony

PlayStation’s only really released a handful of major exclusives to show for its efforts since the PS5 launched in 2020. God of War Ragnarök, the latest game in the long-running action franchise, is one of those titles, releasing at the tail-end of 2022 on both the PS4 and PS5 to acclaim and huge sales. Unsurprisingly, Ragnarök was always going to be a top candidate for the company’s push on PC, where it’s been porting exclusive titles since Horizon: Zero Dawn back in 2020. Well, now Ragnarök has landed on Steam, and the people have thoughts.

Most of those thoughts are pretty similar to the praise that Ragnarok first earned at its initial launch. Folks on Steam are absolutely loving it, and one person even called it one of the best games they’ve ever played. Ragnarök’s PC port is receiving near universal praise in most regards, from its fidelity to its story. It seems many are happy just to have received the follow-up to the previous God of War game after more than two years of waiting.

However, the PC version isn’t without some problems, as is commonly the case with these PlayStation ports. Though Ragnarök appears to be one of the more stable of the bunch, there have been mixed arguments about the game’s performance. Some claim to be playing the game with very little issue on systems that are several years old, while others who sound like they have suped up PCs have complained that the port still demands even more of them. Your mileage may vary, but it should kind of go without saying that if you’re expecting to run one of these blockbuster high-fidelity games, you should have quite the powerhouse PC. Even then, it might not be the most optimized experience.

There’s also a contingent of people in the Steam reviews making a big stink over something else, and it’s probably the dominating critique of the whole forum: PSN logins. After the Helldivers 2 login drama nearly ruined that game’s reputation, PlayStation walked back the requirement for PC players to need a PSN account to login for that game alone. Ghost of Tsushima’s PC port required the same login for its online mode, and now Ragnarök has a similar demand, which has incensed fans who don’t want to have to make another account to play a game they own or have to trust Sony with their private information.

A modder already implemented a way around the login requirement, though the mod has been taken down by its creator for undisclosed reasons. Meanwhile, the war over PSN logins continues to rage in Ragnarök’s Steam reviews, including a few comments suggesting that you can in fact bypass the requirement without mods. If you’re picking up the port, it’s at least something to be aware of, so that you can sort out your feelings prior to jumping in and getting hit with a sign-in menu. Here’s the full scope of what folks are saying about God of War Ragnarök on Steam.

A screenshot of a Steam review reading, "Not enough available memory' crash with a 24GB GPU and 64 GB of RAM... guess Kratos needs even more godly hardware!"

Screenshot: Kotaku / Valve

A screenshot of a Steam review listing comical suggestions for rating God of War: Ragnarök's graphics, inlcuding options like "Beautiful, Good, Decent, Bad, Don't look too long at it, MS-DOS," and the only box checked off is "BOY!"

Screenshot: Kotaku / Valve

A screenshot of a Steam review reading, "Oh no I have to make a PSN account my life is coming to an end."

Screenshot: Kotaku / Valve

A screenshot of a Steam review reading "Are you a calm and reasonable PC."

Screenshot: Kotaku / Valve

A screenshot of a Steam review reading, "he didn't say boy no more."

Screenshot: Kotaku / Valve

A screenshot of a Steam review reading, "Got yelled at by a squirrel for ringing a chime 10/10."

Screenshot: Kotaku / Valve

A screenshot of a Steam review reading, "I don't like the PSN thing as much as the next guy, but here's the thing: there's so many other more important things, such as climate change or women's reproductive rights, to get your panties in a twist about. Evil corporations gonna evil corporate, c'est la vie. Crappy publisher aside, this game is wonderful. Runs great. Badass and brutal as hell. Awesome story and characters. The developer doesn't deserve the negative reviews the game is getting. If you have a social media account, then you're already getting taken advantage of way more than having to sign in to PSN to play this. Go put all this vitriol into something else that actually matter to the world and buy this game. Absolutely recommend at full price."

Screenshot: Kotaku / Valve

A screenshot of a Steam review reading, "Sony is stupid to force players to be online for a singleplayer game. But Santa Monica Studio made one incredible game! a must play!"

Screenshot: Kotaku / Valve

A screenshot of a Steam review reading, "I bought God of War, ready to slay, But Sony steps in, blocking the way. 'Sign in to PSN,' the bark like a beast, Before I play, they need their feast. My data's the sacrifice, not Mjolnir or blades—Just digits and numbers for their corporate raids. Email, birthdate, card info too, All so they can milk a dime out of you. Screw your 'community,' your digital sham, I just wanted to crush gods—not give a damn."

Screenshot: Kotaku / Valve

A screenshot of a Steam review reading, "Crazy how I simply don't have to sign into the Playstation Newtwork by simply not pressing the Sign Into Playstation Network button, and am able to play the game perfectly fine. You review bombers are embarrassing as hell. Game is good, phenomenal actually."

Screenshot: Kotaku / Valve

A screenshot of a Steam review reading, "I find it hilarious that people are throwing tantrums and refunding the game over having to log in to playstation when there is literally an option to skip the login and you can play the entire game... without ever logging in... I am reminded every day how absolutely stupid some people are. The game is great. And you can skip the PS login if you really don't want to do it. Problem solved."

Screenshot: Kotaku / Valve

A screenshot of a Steam review reading, "The days of searching for 'Spider-Man PC, Uncharted PC, Ghost of Tsushima PC, God of War PC' a million times are finally over. It's time to bring Bloodborne™ DEMON SOULS."

Screenshot: Kotaku / Valve



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