The God Father

Sony Santa Monica studio’s creative director Cory Barlog discusses the challenges, hurdles, naysayers and triumphs of his attempt to modernise God Of War as we go handson with the nearfinished action epic.

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VERY FEW GAME FRANCHISES AND EVEN FEWER HEROES IN THOSE SERIES ARE AFFORDED THE OPPORTUNITY TO GROW OR AGE. VERY FEW GAME SERIES MANAGE TO SPAN THREE GENERATIONS OF CONSOLES. VERY FEW DEVELOPERS ARE GIVEN THE TIME AND TRUST NEEDED TO PURSUE SUCH EVOLUTIONS. BUT THEN, VERY FEW SERIES ARE GOD OF WAR, AND VERY FEW HAVE A LEAD AS ICONIC AND MAGNETIC AS KRATOS.

But times have changed, and the angsty, tortured, anti-authority antihero is moving with the times, much as his makers have. “We as developers here have grown,” Sony Santa Monica creative director Cory Barlog tells us. “I personally feel a lot of parallels in the fact that he left Greece and wandered, and I feel like I left Sony and I sort of wandered, and during that time I learned a lot.” Barlog returned to the studio in 2013 after a few years away working with Avalanche and Crystal Dynamics, having started out as animation director on God Of War, working his way up to writer and game director through to GOWIII before he left in 2010.