Many things are changing in the new God of War. Sony’s Santa Monica Studio is reimagining combat, moving to Norse mythology, and taking the narrative in a different direction. Those are the large-scale changes, but the game also explores new territory for Kratos in smaller ways, like having him traverse some of the Scandinavian wilderness by boat. Though this isn’t a revolutionary feature by video game standards, why boats are prominent in God of War – and how they enhance its storytelling – might surprise you.
Kratos and Atreus use boats for the same reason the rest of us do: They can’t swim where they want to go. Despite his limited experience exploring underwater in previous games, swimming is not part of Kratos’ repertoire in this God of War. Creative director, Cory Barlog, explains why: “As we started looking at, first, the crazy amount of investment for full 3D swimming to be awesome, and, second, to have a character follow you in in full 3D swimming, the programmers kept giving me that look.”
Ultimately, the team decided that its resources would be better spent in other areas, leaving swimming as a challenge to tackle in potential follow-up titles. However, Kratos and Atreus still needed a way to cross water. “I started investigating this idea of a big Viking longboat, and then realized you could really continue the narrative throughout,” Barlog says. “You can slow traversal down and you can change the pacing and interaction style and point of view. All while having these moments that you probably couldn’t get in any other situations.”
), ob sie belanglos sind kann man natürlich noch nicht sagen.
