Valhalla takes place after the events of Ragnarök, as Kratos seeks out the titular hall of heroes due to a mysterious invitation. Once inside, he finds himself faced with combat arenas built from his memories that repeat as he ascends through Valhalla. Old vistas and enemies are a decent enough framing device, and an effective way to unpack Kratos’ nearly 20 years of baggage, Valhalla actualizes that idea without having to be tied to his relationship with his son Atreus.
Even on standard difficulty, Valhalla whooped my ass a few times thanks to its frugal use of healing items and stations. Though I gained various currencies to buy perks after each run, I constantly felt like I was scavenging for resources to buy temporary health bursts, or falling back to the beginning of a run to tweak my build to survive a difficult fight. Valhalla always feels like it’s giving me just enough to scrape by, and it makes for a thrilling challenge, especially in its escalating final boss fight that kept me on my toes at the end of each run.