God of War Ragnarok also has the added advantage of all nine realism being available, at least in narrative moments if not in exploration, while God of War featured much fewer. Not as much time is spent in God of War Ragnarok’s Midgard as players may have previously believed, and it would be easy to assume that the sheer number of realms players go to would depreciate the quality that each possess. That is in fact false, with Svartalfheim being the first realm to demonstrate how much polish and detail went into each of its realms.

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Midgard Was the Meat and Potatoes of God of War 2018

God of War spent almost all its runtime establishing the foundations for Midgard. This realm is characterized by its snow-capped mountains and Lake of Nine, where players indulge in almost all activities and optional content. If players want to get anywhere in the game, they need to first traverse this lake’s intricacies to find a Mystic Gateway. If they are trying to leave the realm, they need to make their way onto Tyr’s Temple and access the Realm Table past Brok and Sindri’s shop. But along the lake are also the Shores of Nine, which house supplementary content in far corners for players to pursue. These include wayward spirit requests, Realm Tear encounters, and God of War’s iconic Valkyrie boss fights.

This content is fun and adds to the lore while Mimir is a traveling companion on Kratos’ hip, but it is also essentially all the content players are offered aside from God of War’s challenge mode realms of Muspelheim and Niflheim. That was completely adequate for God of War in 2018, but God of War Ragnarok surpasses that amount of content in its first explorable realm alone, with multiple others afterward retaining the same quality and quantity.

God of War Ragnarok’s Svartalfheim Alone Outshines 2018’s Midgard

Interestingly, Midgard is a wasteland in God of War Ragnarok due to Fimbulwinter. In the beginning of the game, Midgard is only used as a narrative plot device in the game’s opening sequence and when Atreus visits Freya. Midgard is eventually traveled to again as an openly explorable realm, though its absence in the game’s former half creates a greater emphasis on other realms instead.

This gives Svartalfheim a chance to exceed expectations as God of War Ragnarok’s first explorable realm, and it does not disappoint. There is a wonderful point in Svartalfheim’s narrative progression where the game tells players that if they look to the right of a body of water, that is where their side content will be, while the main campaign content is on the left. Having this distinction is great for anyone who enjoys participating in side quests early to gain rewards and explore, and it is reinforced by players’ compass navigating them to which content they would like to pursue.

Between the Aurvangar Wetlands, the cavernous Jarnsmida Pitmines, the dwarven town of Nidavellir, and the Bay of Bounty’s Lyngbakr Island, Svartalfheim excels in level design, supplementary content, and graphical fidelity. Being the first actual realm players explore, God of War Ragnarok’s Svartalfheim makes a far better impression as a single realm than God of War’s Midgard did throughout that entire game.

God of War Ragnarok is available now for PS4 and PS5.

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