Cory Barlog went back to Sony Santa Monica and his beloved Kratos after a brief hiatus. He's now leading God of War's soft reboot, due to launch on PlayStation 4 in early 2018 with several key changes.
That didn't sit well with some at first, though. Speaking with the Official PlayStation Magazine (OPM) UK in their October 2017 issue (#140), Barlog revealed that he got some strongly negative criticism at E3 2016 when the game was showcased for the first time.
Just a lot of people were very doubtful of what we were going to do. "This is not God of War, this is going to fall flat, this is really bad". I said: "Look, I believe in this and if it falls flat, it falls flat, I'm just going to be fully leaping off the cliff".
It's not like I begrudge them for having that fear because they are very worried that no one's going to get this and everyone is going to think that this was just ill-advised. But I think that E3 2016 demo bolstered everybody and ignited their spirit and enthusiasm. I watched some reaction videos and a lot of people had the reaction I was hoping for, which was like: 'Oh my god, that's such an amazing boss and...oh wait, that guy's going to help you...what?'
What I find fascinating about all of this is really not just playing to what's expected, but to always give everybody something to think about while they're walking away.
Barlog really believes a lot in his new take on Kratos, which will even require players to steer Kratos when it comes to guiding his young son, Atreus.
As you move through the game you make choices about what you, or Kratos, wants for Atreus, about how you're going to develop each of these characters. When you really extrapolate, it's like this is about sort of putting loadouts and outfits on characters, but when you divorce it from that, and you're in the moment, you start to realize it's very similar to that moment in Mad Max when he's got the can of dog food and he's determining whether he's going to eat all of it and get the energy, or if he's going to give some of it to the dog, and he's going to do that because he wants to be able to sleep, and if he has the dog and he's well fed he can sleep and the dog will warn him if danger approaches.
It's kind of like, you know, it's sort of, again, like parenting. This idea of making choices for yourself and making choices for your kid, how you're going to sort of load balance.
God of War will delve on several of the nine realms in Norse mythology in Q1 2018. Chances are we'll get more gameplay, trailers and information during the PlayStation Experience 2017 event in December; stay tuned.
