God of War Director Cory Barlog Originally Pitched a One-Shot Camera for Tomb Raider

One of the coolest technical aspects of God of War is its one-shot camera that allows for the game to never break immersion and feature no loading screens. It wound up being challenging to implement, but ultimately the team at Sony Santa Monica Studio got it done. Now we know that director Cory Barlog has had that idea for a while, and actually tried to implement it when he was at Crystal Dynamics working on the Tomb Raider reboot.

“I was sticking to my guns well before I even got back to Sony,” Barlog told Daily Star. “I wanted to do this [the one-shot camera technique] and I had pitched it to Crystal Dynamics when I was there working on Tomb Raider and everyone was like, ‘That’s crazy, we don’t want to do that.’ And, my reaction was like, ‘Yeah, you know, I don’t know if this is the best place for me anyway.’ I was already starting to talk to people about new roles at Sony and then I think I realised this [God of War] is the one I can do it on.” I guess, for me, there was just a lot more creative support and faith with Sony. Like they’d say, you’ve got a crazy idea, we’re going to support you, regardless of how much of a leap off of a cliff it is.”

If you haven’t yet, make sure to check out our God of War preview of the opening hours:

The other big change is that Kratos has a son named Atreus who is central to both gameplay and the story. I didn’t realize it early on, but Atreus is actually the most interesting part of combat encounters. Not only could I command him to shoot arrows at enemies (causing a stun) by pressing the square button, but with careful positioning he could be used to draw the attention of dangerous foes. Since he doesn’t have a life bar to worry about, using your son as a diversion is a hugely beneficial tactic (especially in boss fights).

God of War isn’t just Santa Monica Studio doing something different for the sake of variety (although the series did clearly need a shake up after how dull Ascension seemed). Everything from its gameplay to storytelling has been changed for the better. By doing so, Sony has given one of its biggest franchises new life.

God of War is slated to release on April 20, 2018 exclusively for PlayStation 4.

[Source: Daily Star]

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