here's a take both reddit and 4chan will dislike. GOW 2017 is the best GOW and Ragnarok is fucking terrible.

despite the cutscene walking the actual gameplay of 2017 is by leaps the best the franchise had ever had. the story is also very good. its basically a story about Kratos choosing to retire. accepts the horrible things hes done, DOESN'T try to claim that he's redeemed, just that he knows it was wrong and that he'll never act that way again. then he focuses his energy into letting Atreus live how he wants to live and supporting him. it all makes sense. also Baldur is an excellent rival, he chews scenery.

Ragnarok fucks the whole thing. now that subtle, well done choice on Kratos's part is just too fucking subtle. needs to be the leader of the viking avengers and they're gonna do a big team up and take down Odin forever. there's like 9 new characters and they're all fucking horrible marvel quip lords. Odin sucks. Atreus sucks now too. apparently it was written by different people and you can absolutely tell, they have no idea what made the first one work.