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First Look: Santa Monica Studio’s New God of War on PS4

L

Loudninja

Member
Everything, everywhere changes.

Change is an essential part of life. In creative development change is often the explosive spark that transforms good enough into truly memorable.

Several years ago we at Santa Monica Studio began the journey of creating a new God of War. All of us recognized a special honor and responsibility to create a different and better and truly more memorable experience than before. I realized early on that we had to make changes in every aspect of the game.

I knew I didn’t want to simply reboot the franchise, starting over with a retelling of the origin story. I wanted to reimagine the gameplay, give players a fresh perspective and a new tactile experience while delving deeper into the emotional journey of Kratos to explore the compelling drama that unfolds when an immortal demigod makes a decision to change.

For Kratos, this change means breaking the cycle of violence, distrust and deception that his family, the Greek pantheon, perpetuated for so long. That cycle drove a whole host of bad decisions – the ill-fated deal with Ares, the murder of his family and a rage fueled descent into madness and vengeance that ultimately ended with the epic destruction of Olympus.

It also means learning how to control his rage, the intensely turbulent monster that lives within him, steering him down ever-darker paths. Kratos needed to figure out how to put the monster back in the box, how to control when he does and does not let that monster out.

Kratos’ rage has provoked a ton of bad decisions in his life, so I was fascinated to see what would happen if he actually made a good one. What would that look like? How would he struggle with this very difficult and unfamiliar road? And more importantly, why would he do this?
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The last question was answered in my own life with the birth of my son, a tremendously transformative event that had me thinking about all kinds of change in life. It is hard for human beings to truly change, but one thing that can really motivate us is the thought of being responsible for a life, and especially the life of our child. The weight of that responsibility drives the instinct to protect, to want to prevent the mistakes of our past being delivered upon them. There is no end to the lengths we will go, no adversity we will not overcome, to be better… for them.

Once the decision to change was made, things got really interesting for Kratos and for all of us here at SMS. The road to creating a new God of War is a seemingly endless climb up an impossibly enormous mountain, filled with countless gut-wrenching failures and joyfully sweet successes.
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http://blog.us.playstation.com/2016/06/13/first-look-santa-monica-studios-new-god-of-war-on-ps4/
 
Honestly sounds like a far more nuanced and interesting take on the franchise. I didn't really have any excitement for this title but non-rage monster Kratos is a thousand percent more interesting and the gameplay really piqued my interest.
 
This feels like a brave new direction for the series.


Very excited to see where it goes -- even if the combat obviously needs work.
 
Is it weird that I think Kratos' son is gonna be the main character? Like they'll kill Kratos off and age the son up after a time jump?
 
I'm liking this new take on GoW. I knew it was Kratos as soon as I heard his voice.

It looks a bit like Hellblade, but better.
 
I enjoyed what I saw. I never played GoW before because I didn't like how the camera was position. I benefit from developers leveraging this new style of gaming creation that I can only describe as "The Last of Us" or "Uncharted 4" -esque.

I'm really excited.
 
Literally all people did before this was complain that GOW is tired and overdone and that they needed to revamp it. Now they change it and people are mad that its not GOW.
 
Kind of looked like Dark Souls with a God of War skin. I'm interested. Doing a new God of War in the same style as the old ones wouldn't have really done it for me at this point.
 
This was the best direction they could have taken while also keeping Kratos, and I'm genuinely interested now.
 
I like the change. I'm farrr higher on a redesigned God of War than I would be if they regurgitated the formula. That's one of my huge problems with Gears of War.
 
Fuck that looked good.

If you had told me yesterday that I would be fucking pumped for the new God of War, Resident Evil, and Call of Duty games after Sony's conference, I would have laughed in your face.
 
This sounds good. I don't like the earlier God of War games, really. They feel samey, like you use the same punishing combo on groups of bad guys and then do some sub-mediocre platforming all while Kratos is the most stereotypical rage-filled badass trope of a character ever.

Everything about this, from non-total-rage Kratos to RPG elements in leveling up skills, looks WAY more like a game that I want to play.
 
After 5 or so games of the same schtick I'm glad they're bringing this series in a new direction, would've bored me to tears if it was a repeat of previous games.
 
This sounds really refreshing. Honestly the trailer had the chops (in terms of acting and pacing) to back up the somewhat lofty ideas so I'm cool with it. The delivery was tasteful and good, and while I've never given much of a damn about Kratos as a character, I could definitely feel what they are trying to convey. A naturally coarse and evil man trying to change and act good, with mixed results.
 
The nuances of human expressions was up there with TLOU. Kratos just reaching out to pat his son on the back but then withdrawing his hands said more than David Cage could say with an hours script. Perfect.
 
Kratos has always one of gaming's most intricately crafted characters, representing a wide range of emotions such as rage and anger, as well as anger and rage.

It's about damn time they continued Kratos' story on the next generation of consoles.
 
I'm interested in ideas that a studio known for their gameplay would somehow drop the ball on this game. I get that the trailer clearly highlighted the superior narrative and new direction but I really can't see them fucking the combat up at all.
 
I'm torn.

On the one hand, it looked mildly interesting with the open world.

On the other hand, the combat, the main reason I personally play GOW, has been slowed down and neutered horribly.

I'm hoping these are just the tutorial chapters and Kratos jr. takes over and is inspired to become a fast whirlwind of death afterwards. I'd be fully backing this if either ends up being the hero.
 
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