Ragnarok: Fall of Men

Ragnarok: Fall of Men is the first entry in the Ragnarok series. It revolves around a young warrior of the atheist group, who sets on a conquest to break the chains that the gods have on them, while also protecting his group from the terror of the theists.

Gameplay
Ragnarok: Fall of Men is very much an Open World Action Adventure. You explore a vaste nordic landscape in third person perspective, crossing the frontier and discovering new locations beyond your horizon, while alos fighting divine beings and other mortals. Fighting in Ragnarok is based on using your agility. Evading attacks from opponents and striking when the time is right, but also tackling collosal beasts require patience, agility and problem solving. Each beast has a weakness that has to be discovered for it to be able to be beaten, rather than being a repetitive bullet sponge.

Exploring the world is done with some mild and puzzling platforming. Players need certain equipment to scale mountainsides and require a special insight on what path to take to the top. It is possible to not have the required equipment to get somewhere, effectively shielding the player from reaching it until acquiring that certain equipment. This opens up branching choices of expanding your map, as some locations require you to focus on gathering equipment for it to be reached, making you choose on what to unlock first.

While collosal beasts are mostly part of story missions, encounters with enemies from the theist clan are dynamic and can happen any time. They can attack camps of your group, you can encounter them in the wild or you can attack a camp of them. Engaging in such fights and winning makes you obtain loot, higher skill levels and give you a more notorious reputation. However, losing makes you lose supplies, your notorious reputation and decreases some advancements in training skills. Players are forced to choose their battles, deciding wether or not they have a chance to win.

The notorious reputation is a very important factor. As you are on your journey, the theist group is a major obstacle and challenger. Your reputation is a key factor for their stance in battle. If they are afraid of you, they might decide to retreat in battle, while if they think you are weak, they'll start swarming you. Killing high ranked individuals, mobs and raiding campsites increase your notoriety level, as well as certain story missions, where you have slain a divine being or god they worshipped.

Plot
You assume the role of Vali, a young warrior who lost his nearest family during a raid of the theist group. Filled with vengeance, Vali volunteers to go on a conquest to kill the enemies. However, during the first battle, the theist group was aided by the incarnation of the God of War, resulting in a staggering loss of Vali and his allies. Yet, Vali managed to surprise the incarnation and mortally wound him, accidentally absorbing some of the God's power in the process. The theists fled after their god died and Vali was brought back to his hometown, being greeted as a hero, without them knowing that Vali has become a halfgod.

That night, a wolf delivers an message. The message tells them to go to a temple in theist territory and contact the gods. Vali and the otehr warriors are send to there and try to contact the gods, but fail. When the others decide to leave again, Vali stays behind when a voice says he should stay. The voice explains to him that he has become a halfgod and that the Pantheon is also divided in the conflict. Some gods want to give the humans more freedom, while the majority still wants to rule over them. The voice asks him to find a temple in the far frontier and kill the god waiting for him there, as he is the only one able to break the chains. Left with many questions, Vali returns to his fellow warriors, telling them he needs to seperate with them and go the other way.