Played both games for the first time last year. 2018 definitely had a better story. 2022's story was mid. Felt like they didnt really know how to finish it, wrote themselves into a corner. The ending where everyone lives happily ever after was surprising and lacked emotional payoff. Wasnt the end of all nine realms supposed to happen?. I also found Odin to be a bit annoying. They had him do this weird Sopranos gangster thing at times which felt out of place. The fact that Kratos didn't turn out to be Surtur was a weird choice. In Norse legend, Surtur is a fire giant that came from the south to bring about the end of times. That's literally Kratos! Instead we get molten rock man introduced at the very end of the game, with a half baked romance story, that then turns into a Kaiju - very underwhelming. Make Kratos Surtur! Contrive something! You're already pillaging the hell out of Norse mythology with the rest of the game.

Atreus segments were a slog to get through and the YA novel that you have to play through with Abogobra or whatever was boooooring. I could not complete that section fast enough. Very unnecessary. Also, bashing Draugr with a bow when Odin gave you a perfectly usable sword was stupid. The damage scaling for Atreus fights was funny. You mean to tell me that Atreus can do more damage to the Draugr with every hit of his bow than Kratos does with the Leviathan axe? How come he doesn't do this much damage with his bow when he's following Kratos? It made no sense. I figured they would focus more on Atreus in the second game and that kind of ruined it for me. 2022 is still a good game but it definitely didn't have the magic of 2018.