God of War Ragnarok’s Combat is “Considerably” More Brutal Than its Predecessor, Developer Says

If there’s one thing God of War games have always been synonymous with, it’s the sheer brutality of their combat, which, of course, was something that was very much true of God of War (2018) as well, in spite of all the radical changes it made to the series’ formula. God of War Ragnarok is set to expand upon its predecessor’s foundations in more ways than one, and it seems that the combat’s brutality is one of them.

Speaking in an interview with Vandal, God of War Ragnarok’s combat designer Mihir Sheth confirmed that it’s going to be a much more visceral experience than its predecessor, a lot of which is down to executions on enemies being much more violent, with Kratos using his weapons on them in a variety of ways.

“We’ve increased the levels of brutality in God of War Ragnarok considerably, and I think that’s something that makes certain aspects of the game more fun,” Sheth said. “In God of War 2018, when you get the Blades of Chaos you don’t get many chances to see these weapons do the kind of things that they did in the classic God of War. The way they took down enemies was very brutal and that It ‘s something that we wanted to bring back in God of War Ragnarok, so the system that allows you to stun the enemy and grab them with R3 to execute them is much more brutal now and uses much more the ax and the Blades of Chaos to perform the executions.”

Of course, the 2018 title wasn’t exactly lacking in this area, but a new God of War game kicking things up a notch where violent combat is concerned is always welcome news.

God of War Ragnarok is set to launch for PS5 and PS4 on November 9.