The new God of War looks great, and it looks exactly like the kind of breath of fresh air that the series has needed for years for now. It’s a departure from everything that has come before, in terms of setting, structure, gameplay, and even what the game sets out to do.
A lot of people have noted similarities between God of War and The Last of Us– and in an interview with EPNdotTV, writer and director Cory Barlog admitted that The Last of Us has enabled game developers to tell the kinds of stories that they would not have been able to otherwise.
“The Last of Us is an amazing game, Naughty Dog is an unbelievably talented team, and to be compared to them is awesome,” he said. “But for me the influence is a lot more like the transition from Resident Evil 3 to Resident Evil 4. And the expansion and the audience being ready for more mature stories, and not mature as in ‘mature,’ but really as in dramatically challenging people, to dig a little deeper, not handing all the answers to them.. yeah, Last of Us did pave the way for that. And I feel like I am happy for that. it feels like we are entering an era when gamers are longing for this. These are exciting stories as creators to tell.”
Barlog also teased the possibility of there being scenes from older games in the new game, playable in the new style. “Maybe [players could end up playing scenes from previous games in the new engine in God of War], I don’t know,” he teased.
God of War is due out exclusively on the PlayStation 4 in 2017.