God of War 4 was truly a masterpiece. It won so many game of the year awards and is regarded by many as one of the best PlayStation games of all time. It was refreshing to see Santa Monica Studio re-invent this classic hack-and-slash game.
Before this latest installment, the God of War games always focused on Greek mythology. It was a very successful recipe, featuring some iconic battles with ancient deities. Despite being so successful, these games were starting to experience fatigue.
That’s why Santa Monica Studio pivoted to Norse mythology in God of War 4, a risky move at first. Sure, they could have gone the same route using Greek mythology again. The studio wanted to take a gamble, fortunately.
To describe this gamble in full detail, a documentary was made about the making of God of War 4. It will be available on YouTube here pretty soon. Called Raising Kratos, this documentary follows Cory Barlog and his team of developers.
The trailer highlights the creative process that went into shifting to Norse mythology. Thinking about this risky transition, you have to appreciate what Cory and his team did. They portrayed Norse mythology better than most games have done in recent memory.
The creatures and gods in this latest installment are truly memorable. At the end of the game, we see Thor himself looking for Kratos after he has dispatched his brother and nephews.
Thor and his father Odin are some of the most iconic figures that have been depicted over the centuries. Being able to battle them one-on-one — presumably in the sequel — is such an exciting thing to contemplate.
God of War 4 was a huge commercial success and has many gamers looking forward to some sort of sequel reveal. We might have gotten it at the end of the Raising Kratos. It concludes with a never-before-seen CGI clip of the game. This could be the developers teasing an upcoming announcement.
The studio also gave PlayStation gamers a free God of War theme, which featured a canoe with the words ‘Ragnarok is Coming’ on the side. There is still so much to discover in this new lore. It’s all so exciting and the sequel couldn’t come out soon enough.
It’s intriguing to think about how the developers can improve upon a nearly perfect game. They did such a phenomenal job with God of War 4, and judging by their momentum, the sequel is going to be just as good if not better.
