God of War’s sequel, teased one year ago, now has an official name. It’s God of War Ragnarok, and the new trailer, from Thursday’s PlayStation Showcase, is our most in-depth look at the game yet.
God of War Ragnarok was delayed to 2022 earlier this year. Although Thursday’s trailer gave no date, Sony has since reaffirmed that window, referring to “the 2022 release of God of War Ragnarök on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5” in a PlayStation Blog post published after the showcase.
The story returns to the realm of Midgard, where Kratos immigrated with his son, Atreus, following the defeat of the Olympian gods. As the title implies, both will now be involved in the eschatological conclusion of Norse mythology, and presumably the rebirth of their world. During a more in-depth look following the event, developer Sony Santa Monica described God of War Ragnarok as the “finale” for Kratos’ Norse saga. That’s also where the studio confirmed that Ryan Hurst (Sons of Anarchy) will voice Thor, while Richard Schiff (The West Wing) will play Odin. Other new characters include Laya DeLeon Hayes as the jotunn Angrboda; Usman Ally as Durlin; and Ben Prendergast as Tyr, the Norse god of war.
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More details are outlined on the PlayStation Blog. On its Twitter account, Santa Monica Studio said that Christopher Judge and Sunny Suljic will return as the actors for Kratos and his son Atreus, respectively, along with Danielle Bisutti as the Vanir goddess Freya; Robert Craighead and Adam Harrington as sibling blacksmiths Brok and Sindri, respectively; and Alastair Duncan as the talking head Mimir. Also returning from the previous game is composer Bear McCreary.
Sony Santa Monica Studio’s trailer acquainted viewers with the backstory from 2018’s acclaimed God of War for PlayStation 4. Though not a reboot of the 16-year-old hack-and-slash adventure series, it is a canonical “reimagining” of the franchise, as director Cory Barlog characterized it at the time.
The 2018 game got a free upgrade patch in early February, enhancing it for PS5 with frame rate targets of 30 frames per second or 60 fps at a checkerboarded 4K resolution. It’s also part of the 20-game PlayStation Plus Collection, a downloadable library of full titles available to every PS5 owner with a PlayStation Plus subscription.
Update (Sept. 10): We’ve added some further details to this story.
