The second video in Sony Santa Monica’s series detailing the development of God of War Ragnarok is now available. This time, the focus is on combat, from the animations to the difficulty tuning. Check it out below.
As combat designer Stephen Oyarijivbie notes, one of the most challenging parts of the job “isn’t the technical implementation of creating a creature, but it’s navigating that line between frustrating and engaging.” The goal is “make something that makes players lean forward and focus and try hard against that enemy, and feel good about overcoming that. But we don’t want to make them feel defeated if they can’t figure something out.”
All nine realms are available in the sequel (though not immediately from the outset), and each has a unique theme and enemies. The development team heard feedback on more mini-bosses and enemy variety and has leaned into it. Players have battled the Dark Elves in Alfheim, but now they’ll go up against Light Elves.
Combat has also been heavily improved. New abilities are showcased, including a sick move that launches an enemy into the air with the Blades of Chaos before grappling and detonating them. The Blade Grapple is also useful, expanding on traversal and increasing the overall speed of combat. Building up the stun meter also leads to different means of decapitation. Atreus will also be more aggressive this time, and there will be more mini-games and puzzles involving both father and son.
God of War Ragnarok is out on November 9th for PS4 and PS5. Check out the latest screenshots here, along with details on new gameplay features here.
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