God of War Ragnarok director Eric Williams revealed some details for the game’s updated combat and how it’s different from the 2018 original. According to Williams, the sequel will offer a more diverse and tactically demanding combat than before.
The creative director spoke with IGN about how God of War Ragnarok’s combat system has evolved. The follow-up looks to be building on what came before, including one unbroken camera shot, yet the devs from Santa Monica Studio tried to give players much more freedom in combat to make every encounter deeper and rewarding at the same time.
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“In Ragnarok, what we are trying to do specifically with Kratos, we’re trying to give a lot more expressiveness to the player,” Williams said. In large part, that will come from Atreus, who grew up and became more skillful, thus offering plenty of additional combo moves on the battlefield. “The way [they] link up, he’s grown up a little bit, so he’s got a lot more follow-ups and setups for Kratos.”
Enemies in Ragnarok will also evolve and learn to counteract the new abilities of the protagonist duo. Many will require you to decide on the tactics and choose who has to attack first – Kratos or Atreus. “Creatures then obviously need to have tools to go against that, otherwise you’re going to destroy them,” the creative director explained. Overall, the number of strategies for you to take in combat should rise greatly compared to God of War (2018).
Another thing that will add to your experience will be level verticality, which you might notice in the gameplay reveal. Not only Kratos but the enemies will use height to their advantage, which will increase the variety of gameplay situations.
During the footage, Kratos grappled up the ledge with a chain and then collided with the enemy before jumping down to continue the fight. Such things weren’t possible in the original, as the players mostly faced their enemies in the same plane. Now, there will be new “almost king of the hill-type encounters,” that will change how a player expresses themselves on the battlefield.
All of the above sounds like the right direction for a more flexible and deeper combat system in God of War Ragnarok. As earlier confirmed, the upcoming sequel will be the last installment in the so-called “Norse saga,” and we can only speculate what will come next.
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