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God of War Ragnarökincluded a very satisfying and definitive ending, but Kratos' journey never seems to stop. As soon as the Spartan thinks it’s time to hang up the ol' Leviathan Axe, something or someone always finds a way to bring him out of retirement.
Over a year since God of War Ragnarök launched, the game suddenly received a new DLC known as Valhalla on Jul 11, 2025. After receiving a mysterious letter from an anonymous sender, Kratos and Mimir head toward a new location to unravel the truth behind the strange island known as Valhalla while simultaneously discovering a new path toward their destinies.
Review
While Features Editor Eric Switzerreviewed God of War Ragnarök when it launched, TheGamer currently doesn’t have an on-site review for the Valhalla expansion. It has receivedincredible praise from both critics and users according to Metacritic, with manypraising its roguelike elements, incredible combat, and an engaging storythat shouldn’t be missed by anyone who has been following Kratos' adventure from the beginning. Here are some personal thoughts on this DLC that may help you decide whether it’s worth downloading or not.
One of the best aspects of God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla is how well it caters to the experience you want to have. With five different difficulty settings, you can choose whether you want to play it for the story or the challenge. Some of thetoughest bosses in all of God of War await you in Valhalla, and it’s up to you to decide how much Kratos will have to struggle to see the light at the end of this tunnel.
No matter how well you perform, each run often provides you with new story beats revolving around Kratos' life after the events of Ragnarök and a surprising storyline revolving around Mimir and Sigrún. These elements compel you to keep trying, even if you’re stuck on a certain section or encounter.
The power of choice is in your hands during each run as you decide which weapons to upgrade, what trials you want to face, and more. If you decide to test yourself with tougher challenges, you’ll berewarded with greater resources than can be used to upgrade stats and purchase permanent rewards. One of the closest comparisons to Valhalla would be the excellentHades, which also requires you to make decisions that affect your build and chances of success.
If you’re a fan of either the combat or the story from the Norse duology of God of War games, Valhalla is definitely worth checking out. You can access it from the game’s main menu whenever you feel like it, though it’shighly recommended that you beat the game firstbefore starting this quest.
Time Expenditure
God of War Ragnarök tookroughly 40 hours to complete, but Valhalla doesn’t come close to being as long, though you could arguably play it for hundreds of hours if you enjoy the combat enough. If you only want to experience the story content and watch the credits roll, it shouldonly take you approximately six hoursto complete the journey.
If you want to see everything that Valhalla has to offer and complete 100 percent of the game, that should add a few extra hours to your playtime andshould take roughly ten hours.
As mentioned, this roguelike mode is full of endless possibilities. If you’re enjoying it, you could easily double or triple these times as you master Valhalla.
Cost
So, God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla includes exciting combat, a riveting epilogue, and countless hours of gameplay. If you’re worried about this expansion being too expensive for what it contains, the best part about the DLC is that it isabsolutely free to anyone who already owns the base game.
While most expansions can cost anywhere between $9.99 and $29.99, this one was developed by Santa Monica Studios as an appreciation for all the fans who have stood by them since the beginning.
It’s not often that something this substantial launches without a price tag, so if you’ve been on the fence about hopping into Valhalla, the free entry point makes it easy to hop in and decide for yourself if it’s worth your time without spending a cent.
What Players Are Saying
Kratos' Therapy Session, Free Of Charge - Lucas Olah
Story-driven games are some of my favorites, and God of War has always nailed that criteria. Still, once you go through the campaign a couple of times, we tend to be over with them. So, making a roguelike DLC for the series was quite a clever idea, and it revitalized the game a lot for me, with all the arenas and enemies to go through, encouraging you to focus on certain weapons each time you go through Valhalla, and being extremely unforgiving when played on hard difficulties.
That alone is reason enough to try, but God of War enjoys its story, and this DLC just decided to give us an amazing insight into Kratos and his current situation while talking about his past deeds. The story here is excellent, and revisiting moments and enemies from the old games was a blast. I was not expecting to fight Undead Legionnaires, Minotaurs, and more again in this series. It’s the perfect mix of Greek and Norse I wanted ever since God of War 2018 was announced.
Oh, and the best part of what is already a fantastic DLC? It’s free. It’s one of the best gameplay and story experiences in the series, and they didn’t bother to charge us a cent. Not that I’m complaining about it being free, of course.
Why Wouldn’t You? - George Foster
Not only is God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla an excellent epilogue that explores Kratos' character in even more depth than the base game and delivers more of the same great combat mechanics with some fun roguelite twists, but it’s also completely free. If you enjoyed God of War and God of War Ragnarök then you’d be silly not to at least give Valhalla a try - you’ve got nothing to lose!
