Announced during The Game Awards 2023, God of War Ragnarök’s Valhalla DLC went live earlier today and it has no business being this good for a free DLC. When it was announced, the team at Sony Santa Monica called it a gift to the community, and what a gift it is. Valhalla features a lot more than just a simple roguelike mode where players take Kratos through a gauntlet of fights, unlocking bonuses along the way to make each run easier. While this gameplay loop forms the mode’s foundation, Sony Santa Monica has also blessed us with a good amount of story content and a surprising amount of dialogue. Fans of Kratos and Mimir’s banter will find much to enjoy in this DLC.
The core of Valhalla has Kratos fighting through a series of random encounters and in true roguelike fashion, they progressively become more challenging. But Valhalla also explores Kratos’s tumultuous past as he tries to look to the future. It manages to tie together past God of War games in an unexpected way. Players can choose from five difficulty settings, and there are several types of currency that can be earned with each run. Some currency can only be used to unlock upgrades available for that run, while others unlock permanent upgrades to make subsequent runs easier and more manageable. Bonus rewards are earned on higher difficulty levels.
At the start of the first real run, players must select a shield type and Spartan Rage to take into battle. On subsequent runs, the setup can be changed prior to entering Valhalla, or players can proceed with their previous setup without having to stop. In other words, the game doesn’t force you to select for each run. The journey of Valhalla takes Kratos and Mimir through familiar environments, and in between battle arenas you’ll get to enjoy conversation between the two of them that ties into the story. Progressing further reveals more about Valhalla’s mysteries and why Kratos is there.
The DLC offers considerable depth, with the upgrades and skills taken from the base game so most of them are familiar. There are some other surprises, which I won’t spoil, and cosmetic equipment to collect. While I haven’t completed all of the DLC, I highly recommend it to all God of War Ragnarök owners. If you were dismissing Valhalla because you thought it was just a roguelike mode with a gameplay loop purely centered on combat, know that there’s more to it than that.
I do want to commend Sony Santa Monica for bucking the trend by releasing the Valhalla DLC for God of War Ragnarök for free. This is the type of content paid DLC should offer (although many don’t) and the fact that it doesn’t cost anything certainly deserves some recognition.
