God of War Ragnarà¶k's designers want you to express yourself (with violence)
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Loading... - David Smith
- 28 Oct 2022
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With 2018’s reimagining of God of War, the team at Santa Monica Studio had a very particular design problem: making the combat feel right even with a very zoomed-in perspective. And it worked. Despite the game’s close-up camera, which isn’t common in action games, controlling Kratos in battle felt appropriately heavy and satisfying. For the sequel, the upcoming God of War Ragnarök, that main problem has already been solved. So the designers took on a different focus.
According to lead combat designer Mihir Sheth, one of the main goals with Ragnarök was to give players more ways to express themselves with Kratos’ murderous abilities. “We’re expanding choice,” Sheth tells The Verge. “But we’re more interested in how players use all of the tools that are available to them.”
I’ve been able to play through the first four hours or so of the game, and this idea of choice is present very early on. In the original God of War, you spent most of the game wielding a trusty ax that let you wallop enemies and recall it just like Thor’s Mjölnir hammer. (Somewhat ironically, one of the main antagonists in Ragnarök is Thor himself, and he does indeed wield the Mjölnir.) It wasn’t until later in the game that you got Kratos’ iconic Blades of Chaos, which are essentially big knives attached to chains. But in Ragnarök, Kratos has both weapons right from the beginning, so you can switch between them even in early battles. Read More...
