The 2018 version of God of War brought the franchise into a new action-adventure territory. Previously it was of the classic hack ‘n’ slash genre. This sudden change had fans worried the series could become something they didn’t like, and even someone that had worked on the IP before had this concern.
In an interview with Game Informer, God of War III‘s director Stig Asmussen, now at Respawn Entertainment where he is working on Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, revealed he was skeptical that this new iteration could work for both the old and new fans. It was so rooted in the hack ‘n’ slash genre and had such an iconic, well-formed character that it would have been hard to turn the tables at that point.
“Of course. It’s brilliant. I’m proud of that team,” Asmussen said of the game.
“It’s a little bit painful playing it when you didn’t get to work on it,” Asmussen added. “It’s going to be interesting to see where they go with it. I was skeptical when I first heard about where they were taking Kratos, where [director Cory Barlog] was going with it. [Kratos] is a lunatic, but it worked. It was the right time for it, too. It was exactly what God of War needed.”
There are discussions about which game deserved the 2018’s GOTY between Red Dead Redemption 2 and God of War. However, one of the things you won’t ever be able to deny is that Santa Monica Studio nailed it and that a minimal amount of players had faith that would happen.
