When discussing the biggest releases of 2022, the first two titles that come to people’s mind are Elden Ring and God of War Ragnarok. Both experiences quickly sold millions of copies worldwide and were successes for their developers and publishers.

As expected, the two games competed for the GOTY category at The Game Awards, where Elden Ring won more than six awards, including Game of the Year. This didn’t prevent God of War from winning more awards, with a total of 9.

Both open-world games are true masterpieces, with mechanics and characteristics you won’t find in other games. In this article, we will show some of these characteristics and compare both games side-by-side to see which one is the best option for you.

Take a look at all categories to ensure you make the right decision when choosing one of them. From the combat mechanics to the gameplay content, each game is unique in a certain way, making it a challenge to decide a clear winner.

• Release Date: February, 2022

• Developer: From Software

• Platforms: Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Microsoft Windows

Elden Ring was developed by the same creators of Dark Souls and is the first game from the company to feature an actual open world for the player to explore. The Lands Between features a series of different landscapes and well-determined regions that can be identified by the creatures found and the overall looks of the place. It is one of the best dark fantasy universes ever created and a true masterpiece from From Software.

The story of Elden Ring revolves around the main character, fully customizable, who is referred to as “Tarnished.” Your objective is to seek the Elden Ring, a powerful object that has the power to change all the Lands Between according to its owner’s wish. For this, you must defeat the current Elden Lord and ascend to the throne. Don’t think this task will be easy. All Lords will do everything possible to stop you and preserve the current order.

The storytelling follows the same formula from the Dark Souls games, where the self-contained story is more present on items and dialogues than during the campaign’s main dialogues. If you want to understand everything around you, prepare to spend considerable time exploring the map.

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• Release Date: November, 2022

• Developer: Santa Monica Studio

• Platforms: Playstation 4 and Playstation 5

The conclusion to the Norse saga of God of War is one of Santa Monica’s best works to date and brought numerous improvements compared to the previous game, including better graphics and smoother combat. The 2018 title followed a completely different direction from the classic PS2 and PS3 titles, and Ragnarok keeps this more RPG-like gameplay.

GoWR continues the story of Kratos and his son Atreus and takes place immediately after the previous game's events. This time, you have the attention of Odin himself: The father of all.

What seemed like the end of your life as a killer of gods becomes your biggest challenge as Ragnarok starts. You must fight for your life while protecting your son, who is one of Odin’s main targets on this battlefield. You will also learn the truth about Loki.

Be careful with whom you trust. You’ll make numerous friends along the way, but some of them might not be telling the truth.

Even though the title doesn’t feel like it has an open world, the map is considerably bigger than the previous one, allowing you to travel to almost all of the nine realms. This makes exploration much more fun, and the side quests are more diversified than ever.

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Now it’s time to directly compare both titles in a series of aspects to see which best fits what you’re looking for. Make sure to take a look at all categories below to check which game is better in what and why.

Here are the main aspects you should consider when comparing Elden Ring and God of War: Ragnarok:

Combat

One of the first aspects players compare between both titles is the combat. Even though God of War: Ragnarok is also considered an RPG, the two titles have completely different elements and battle systems.

Elden Ring offers the player over 200 weapons to fight against creatures, including melee weapons, bows, and spells. This creates a variety not often seen in video games. Fans can create infinite combinations and personalize combat to best suit their style.

On the other hand, God of War has incredible combat animations but a small variety of weapons to use, making combat less versatile when compared to Elden Ring. If you don’t like the Leviathan Axe, you’ll have a tough time playing this GoW since it’ll be your main weapon, along with the Blades of Chaos. You can equip different runes to your weapons that allow you to perform different attacks, and they can be upgraded to deal even more damage, but all of that doesn’t even get close to Elden Ring’s variety. It wins in animation smoothness but loses in variety since you’ll be playing for dozens of hours with the same three weapons. Overall, Elden Ring takes the win when directly comparing the combat of both games.

Mythology

Another fair comparison point is both game’s mythological inspiration. While God of War: Ragnarok takes a Norse universe approach, Elden Ring features numerous Celtic elements in its narrative and universe. 

Since both have European roots, it is natural to find common elements between them, like the runes, for example. Both games use runes to increase the character’s strength, thanks to a common characteristic in Norse and Celtic cultures. 

When comparing the overall mythological universe, God of War: Ragnarok takes the advantage. The game uses these elements as part of the story and not only as an inspiration for the mechanics. All gamers who like history and, especially, mythology will love to explore the world of Ragnarok. Everything from famous gods to folklore creatures is accurate to make you feel like a character from that universe.

Elden Ring uses the Celtic elements as inspiration to build the universe, but the characteristics of this culture don’t have drastic impacts on the story or its characters. The universe is much more inspired by classic dark fantasy elements and the aesthetics of the previous From Software games.

Story

Both games have completely different narratives, reflecting almost every storytelling aspect. Elden Ring follows the same way of telling the story of the previous From Software games, where you have more of a deep lore than immersive storytelling.

To fully understand the universe you’re in, it is necessary to deeply explore the Lands Between and its secrets. From the side quests to the items you find, each one tells a little bit about this big world and why you’re doing what you’re doing.

On the other hand, God of War takes a much more direct approach to your journey. The game will explain every aspect of what’s happening, and everything is focused on making the player feel like part of the narrative. You can easily understand what’s happening if you played the previous title. If you’re looking for an interesting story with charismatic characters, the creation from Sony might be a better option.

World Exploration

Even though God of War might look like an open-world game, the exploration is way more limited than Elden Ring. For the player to be free to travel across realms, they’ll have to make considerable progress on the story, and the main questline is still linear. The main focus is the narrative experience rather than the exploration.

On the other hand, Elden Ring has a real open world where players can explore every inch of it from the first minute of gameplay. The massive map features hundreds of hours of content, including dungeons, NPCs with side quests, and many other activities you can do.

Elden Ring will also reward you for exploring this enormous land with many rare weapons and even secret boss encounters. Even though you might find some mini-bosses and hidden items while exploring GoW’s world, the exploration doesn’t feel as organic as in Elden Ring.

Thanks to this, Ragnarok loses when comparing the exploration possibilities. From Software’s first open-world game will give you an enormous amount of content to explore and have fun.

Enemy Diversity and Bosses

Both games have a considerable number of different enemies to fight against. But Elden Ring still boasts a crushing number compared to God of War. 

The Norse mythology title reuses numerous enemies from the previous game, like the Light Elves. This considerably reduces the number of new creatures the game presents, but you’ll still find many of them.

On the other hand, Elden Ring features more than a hundred different enemies to fight against. The game also introduces 84 bosses to fight, some of which are true challenges. God of War also has boss fights, but the number is lower than half, saving these encounters for climax moments to surprise the player.

If you’re a casual player, you’ll definitely have a hard time with Elden Ring’s bosses, but once you defeat them, you’re rewarded with feelings of joy and pride for the achievement. If you’re looking for enemy variety and boss encounters, this is the one for you.

Platform Availability

This category might be a decisive factor for many of the players. If you don’t have a recent console from Sony (PlayStation 4 or 5), you’ll need to stick with Elden Ring. Even though the previous title is already available outside the Sony ecosystem, this is not the case for this one. It is still exclusive, so make sure to have a Playstation console if you want to play it.

On the other hand, Elden Ring is available for numerous platforms, including the two latest generations of both Xbox and Playstation consoles. Whether you want to play it on the Xbox One or PC, for example, The dark-fantasy RPG is your only option.

Thanks to this, Elden Ring clearly wins this category, being available on more platforms. Unfortunately, the game is not cross-platform, so if you’re playing on a PC, you won’t be able to play with a console friend.

But Who Wins?

Both games take completely different directions in various aspects, so the best option will depend on what you’re looking for. Considering all the information above, Elden Ring is still a superior title when directly compared to God of War: Ragnarok, whether because of the platform availability, combat, or many other aspects. It delivers a much more complete experience that will please even the most picky players.

Even though God of War has a much more detailed storyline and plot twists, the narrative focus makes it more of a visual experience with drastically lower content volume when compared to Elden Ring. From Software’s title will keep the player busy for hundreds of hours and has more content than any previous game from the company.

Moreover, Elden Ring might be the only choice if you have an Xbox or PC since Ragnarok is still exclusively available for Sony’s most recent console generations. If you’re looking for a challenge or a game that you can spend day and night playing without repeating a single activity, the dark-fantasy RPG will be the perfect addition to your library.

More than just which game to go with, it is also crucial to find out the best deal so your game plays smoothly and for the best price. There are several market options, including the official store of each platform and numerous websites available throughout the internet.

Among all the options available, we highly recommend RoyalCDKeys for purchasing your video game keys. We have over a thousand titles available from all genres and platforms you might be looking for. 

Whether you want to play Elden Ring on Xbox or God of War on PlayStation, we have everything you need in one place. Check our homepage and stay tuned with the most recent releases of the gaming world. This way, you can play everything you want and save money.

Whether you choose to challenge death against the Elden Lord or hunt the gods that want to hurt your family, both games are incredible adventure titles and deserve mutual respect for their development quality. The games are different in numerous ways, so choosing the right one will depend on what you seek.

Elden Ring gives the player absolute freedom to create their own character and explore the Lands Between. At the same time, God of War delivers a narrative experience like no other, keeping the player immersed throughout the entire journey.

Now it’s time to choose which fantasy world you’ll visit first: the unforgiving Lands Between or the powerful Asgard. Each one reserves a different surprise for the brave players.

Remember that both games, along with thousands of others, are available at RoyalCDKeys for a special price. Now, grab your weapon and prepare for the battle of your life.