The next chapter of Kratos and Atreus’ story is available on PS4 and PS5 in the form of God of War Ragnarok. While we already know we’ll be clashing with the likes of Odin and Thor already, there’s a long way for you to go before reaching that point. Here, we’ll be running you through the 5 things to do first in God of War Ragnarok to set yourself up for an epic adventure.
Choose Your Graphics Mode & Complete Other Various Settings
The very first time you boot God of War Ragnarok, before even reaching the main menu, you’re hit with a ton of different settings to tweak to your preferences. These include things like Puzzle Timing, which can be extended to give you longer to hit certain targets for puzzles. Also, an extensive amount of accessibility options Sony Santa Monica Studios has lovingly included in the game.
Some of these may not be of any interest to you, but you’ll most definitely want to check out the Graphics Mode option if you’re playing on PS5 or PS4 Pro. This allows you to favor either framerate performance at the expense of resolution and visual fidelity, or favor resolution by reducing the framerate down to 30 FPS.
Depending on your own personal preferences, go ahead and change this Graphics Mode. We went for performance, as, even with the hit to visual fidelity and resolution, Ragnarok looks absolutely stunning. The increase to 60 FPS also makes the action buttery smooth and makes for a more cinematic and less jarring experience with the game seamlessly transitioning between gameplay and cutscene.
Watch the God of War Recap
Now that you’ve navigated all of the various settings, you’ve hit the main menu screen. Before you get ahead of yourself and dive right into a new game, we’d recommend watching the God of War recap conveniently placed at the very top of this menu.
It’s only a minute or two long, but it nicely reminds you of the major story beats from the 2018 title that is worth knowing about before you start playing Ragnarok. Again, it’s only a couple of minutes long, but it’s well worth doing if you’ve not played the first game since it was released over four years ago.
You can also rewatch it whenever you want from the main menu in case you need another refresher once you actually start playing the story and can’t remember why Freya is so mad at Kratos, for example.
Select Your Difficulty Setting
Settings sorted and recap watched, you’re now all set to actually start the game. Now you’re given the decision of what difficulty setting you want to play on.
The good news is that, aside from the Give Me God of War difficulty setting, you can switch between the other difficulty options at any given time. Give Me God of War can only be chosen when starting a new game, and you can’t change up to it from another difficulty setting once you start the game.
Even better, Sony Santa Monica Studios has opted not to include a difficulty trophy in Ragnarok’s trophy list, so you won’t have to worry about playing on a specific difficulty if you’re eyeing up that platinum trophy. You could play through the entire game on the Give Me Story difficulty and still get that coveted completion bauble.
Play Through the Opening Story Missions
God of War Ragnarok isn’t an open-world title, really, so for the opening few hours, you’ll be funneled from one location to another on fairly linear paths as you get back up to speed with Kratos and Atreus, learning how they’ve changed over the three years since the events of the first game, and get reacquainted with the combat and traversal controls.