I'm sorry, but you'll never unsee this God of War Ragnarok mod

Kratos without a beard in God of War Ragnarok

(Image credit: Sony/Speclizer)

Modders have already begun to dig into God of War Ragnarok, and the eldritch horror that is beardless Kratos is the first result.

Speclizer previously managed to dig into the game files and unlock an unfinished God of War Ragnarok photo mode, but the modder's latest work is much more upsetting. Kratos isn't even entirely clean-shaven here - there are wisps of moustache hair, and other bits of facial fuzz keep flickering in and out, which just makes the effect that much worse. You can see it for yourself in the footage below, which shows the modded Kratos in a handful of early cutscenes.

The worst part is Speclizer threatening on Twitter that this is just "the first of many mods to come".

I don't really know why I'm finding the Dad of War so upsetting without the beard - after all, he appeared with a much more closely-trimmed goatee in the original God of War games, and the devs have even occasionally shared concept images of a modern beardless Kratos.

More shots from Kratos’ face. A lot of it was added on shaders and textures but this is the base I sculpted before that process. The high res beard was also used to bake the final hair cards later. #kratos #godofwar pic.twitter.com/UxyM49ykXSJune 21, 2018

While you won't be playing this Ragnarok mod without a hacked PlayStation console, beardless Kratos already exists for God of War on PC, where mods are much easier to come by and install. While this Kratos is beardless, he is equipped with the dadliest stache you'll ever see. You can grab it on Nexus Mods.

Speclizer has been pretty prolific in hacking big PlayStation games to discover secrets and make modifications, like uncovering a cut boar hunt and dance sequence in The Last of Us 2 or turning Atreus into a playable character in the previous God of War.

If you want to go old school, this God of War PS1 demake is exactly what you're looking for.

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Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.