God of War Features ‘Secrets and References Hidden Everywhere’

Fans looking for references to previous titles will find quite a lot in the new God of War. Director Cory Barlog went on record to state that the game has “secrets and references hidden everywhere” in the game. He says that some of the God of War secrets are “really interesting” and “are [a] really deep cut.”

“I’m a lunatic when it comes to that stuff,” revealed Barlog to the PlayStation Blog. “There are secrets and references hidden everywhere. And I mean literally everywhere: We’re talking about physical packaging, menus, load screens when you hit the Options button, and stuff like that. That’s one of the things I hope for a long time after, people saying ‘Did you know…?’ I think that’s awesome. That’s the fun part about making games. There is a lot of complexity, but that complexity allows us to hide things that are really interesting and some that are really deep cut.”

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: PlayStation Blog]