God of War’s Norse Setting Won’t Feature Vikings

I smell a sequel already! God of War will not feature Vikings in the next God of War game and I think I know why.

As seen in the exchange on Twitter between a God of War fan and Barlog, the director is asked if the legendary vikings Ragnar Lothbrok or Bjorn Ironsides would be making an appearance in the game due to the title being set within a Norse environment. Barlog apologizes to say that he doesn’t “see them appearing” since the next installment in the series apparently occurs “well before” the beginning of the Viking Age.

It's possible that they might make Kratos or his son the first Viking which will be established at the end of the game or some time during the second. It's like when Kratos was the head of the Spartan Army when he was a God of War. That's my opinion at least. What do you guys make of this?

The gameplay they showed from God of War bored me to tears, which has never happened seeing any God of War game's gameplay.

Fine by me. If the legacy of Kratos is that he overthrew the Greek Gods and served as the harbinger of the Nordic era (possibly father of its Gods and legends), I would have little creative disagreement. It's an interesting premise and revitalizes the narrative stance the previous games wore down.

A comparison might be to say, "______ story takes place in Bible times, so there are no Christians."

God of War takes place in the time of legend that Vikings later refer to in their families poems and such.

As to his son, I doubt his son is the first Viking. He *could*, however, become one of the Norse gods.

Or interesting gameplay.

I am still tearing up.

When god of war comes up this E3, avert your eyes man !

Avert your eyes :'(

Agreed. All I got from what they showed was basically: TLOU with Kratos in Scandinavia with Gimli's axe as a weapon. zzzZZZZZzzzzz

After reading this I dont know what to say. I'm calling a 9/10 from Gamespot nonetheless because of emotional relationship of dad and son

Barlog responded to people complaining that the demo was too mellow, saying that the goal was to show how it was different, what they were adding to the franchise, but then insisted that it's still the God of War we all love with bloody action and epic backdrops and such.

It would be wise for him to prove that this E3. Okay, we see how it's different... now prove to us that it's still God of War.

Maybe they listened to reviewers complaining there was not enough story in God of War and that Kratos wasn't relatable because he is always angry ?

I mean of course he is always angry. If the gods hated me that much, I'd be pretty pissed off too :P

I'll take the way God of War was revived over the way Gears of War was.

I didnt need to relate to him anymore than anger. I loved the fact I was going to fire up some GoW and get to slaughter shit. There's no doubt that since TLOU Sony is making the cinematic emotional thing part of their forefront.

You're a cow. Did you think we didnt know?

On paper, dramatic change sounds like a boon.

In actuality as someone who adores RE4, that game is more an exception, most major changes have usually been for the worse, and that's usually because the game loses some serious meat in terms of its gameplay, RE4 being the exception is a product of its action gameplay actually being tight, nuanced, and varied for its entire run. Halo 4's mp was completely overhauled, the mp community hated it, Splinter Cell was overhauled, and saying that entry is hated on is under selling it, Hitman Absolution made significant changes in direction and focused more on making 47 a character, and people hated it. I'd continue, but you get the jist.

Whatever Gears of War's short comings in single player, it's multiplayer has stayed relatively strong, and best of all The Coalition at least seemed more focused on highlighting the better aspects of Gears mp mechanics. But at the least, sure, I will gladly agree with you that "More fucking gears of war" only kept my attention for so long, before I moved on to stuff that was a fresher experience for me.

But, this take on God of War? Doesn't look like it's a more nuanced and thoughtful progression, in fact it's kind of sickening how many different alterations have been made for a story/cinematic reason to provide gameplay that is far more clunky looking than it should be in this genre. But that type of stuff only matters to people who worry about things like, the gameplay in this medium apparently. And after Uncharted 4 finally fixed its shooting mechanics and paired it with some of the best combat spaces for a cover shooter like that, only to offset with it some mind numbingly dull stretches of effortless gameplay doesn't exactly have me excited for how God of War 4 is gonna handle shit, especially about a character who is atrociously written as Kratos.

Oh, please. Gears 4 was solid, but it's just another Gears game. Aside from your character being skinned differently - Marcus' son instead of Marcus - it's identical to the others. At least with God of War, someone's doing something differently.

That's one of the appealing things about the series I think, it's unapologetically masculine. Much like 80's and early 90's movies. The closest comparison is probably Conan (no not the forum one) where the entire movie is simply about the idea carving your way past the establishment.

Nowadays men are suppose to be ashamed of that and get haircut like Russell Brand, if a woman doesn't have her legs covered up and if it doesn't appeal to wankers who read Polygon it's not with the times.

@uninspiredcup: Agreed. I never got upset about the fact Ryu Hayabusa had no real characterization in NG or NG2. It was great fun putting combos together and slicing sheeot up. GoW was a revenge tale. I didnt need Kratos to be an in depth, layered character.

I didn't say otherwise sunshine, but doing something different isn't inherently a virtue. You can easily different, and have it be shittier. And this while certainly looking pretty, focuses on what trying to humanize a piece of shit, and then taking a game that was at least fluid but shallow and turning its mechanics into something more shallow and less fluid by comparison? Under some false pretense of "doing something different".

Resident Evil 4 was at least innovative at the time, not just different. God of War 4 is what, lets turn God of War into more like Last of Us? Woooooooooo truly beacons of creativity there. More to it, hell, if you really wanted to do "something different" why not just make a new ip or at least a new character?

TBH, there's not much exciting me about this new GoW. I'll wait to play it, but damn... That gameplay reveal...

Does the game really take place in Scandinavia, though? It could be in Gaul or just the mountains of Macedonia during the winter... Has anyone confirmed this?

Being in Scandinavia would be a VERY weird local for a God of War game, especially with no Norse mythology. Besides, the climate in Europe was much colder then (~1000 BCE, i.e. ancient Greece) than it is now. Therefore, it's very possible it could be in the central belt of Europe.

I keep forgetting that this game is even in the works.

"we", who? Your inbred cousins in your little pro trump pro microsoft basement cult party?

No way. Greek Mythology and Vikings are just separated by what ? Some 3000 years of history LOL

But Kratos is a deep character. Most of the industry might have forgot, the first God of war was well known for story telling and Kratos personality, who is a Champion of the gods but murdered his own family . Seed redemption but was tested, used and betrayed. He rages for the sin he bear and the Gods rejected his dead.

The second game broke every storyline from the first game(Kratos and Athena? Your life is a joke dude), yet Kartos did found his redemption in the third game.

God of Meh.

Not really an issue. you hardly interact with any humans in any of the god of war games. it's mostly about crushing "demons" and interacting with the godlike beings and as long as it's not just "enter room, kill all bad guys, move to room 2" I'll be fine with it. I just wanna see Thor & Loki in it is all I ask.

God of War series is an awesome game, one of my favorite series and I'm a sucker for anything relating to ancient Gods as a whole. Especially Greek mythology. The new one looks different and interesting, am willing to see what they have to offer before I give my judgement. But what I find funny is how one of Sony's biggest game studio ( santa monica) depends a lot on God of War series. It's like they are scared of trying something else.

@Zero_epyon:

I hope it has zombies.

Norse mythology is connected to Greek mythology. According to Norse myth, the Asgardian gods were not native to the Norse lands, but were Trojan migrants from Troy (in modern-day Turkey). Rome had a similar founding legend, that Rome was founded by Trojan refugees from Troy.

That's a good point. He could become Odin...

@Zero_epyon:

Tyr is a God of War in Norse mythology.

The boy's name is Atreus.

A-tyr-eus...

Hmm. We'll have to see.

I've no expectations when it comes to Norse mythology, but I know God of War, I'll probably be hard to please since I mostly want a return to the God of War 2 days in terms of tone and gratuitousness and excellence in game design. God of War 3 onward gave the series a substantial face-lift but it regressed in every way that mattered to me.

This game definitely looks different, the demo had about as much walking sections as I'd expect from The Order 1886, hopefully that's just the demo. If they make the game a proper violent beat-em-up with satisfying combat, good boss battles and loads of filler combat, I'll be happy. If there were one quality I'd like to see make a return to the series, it's the series' over-the-top unapologetic baseness. I doubt we'll get that. Since this is such a radical change for the series, I'm open to whatever it becomes, as long as they do it right. Just don't make it a movie game that goes overkill on walking sections.

@lamprey263:You mean all those overkill looooooooonnng hallways in the first two games? They took minutes to cross with no fight scene,no cut scene, not even dialogue.

Like I said, God of war was a story telling series(in action genre), those walking sections was place to build up emotion(hype, sorrow). I find most people now a day said otherwise.

@R4gn4r0k: "The gameplay they showed from God of War bored me to tears, which has never happened seeing any God of War game's gameplay."

Agreed.

@Jag85: Interesting could you provide any links to your information that you posted?

@jg4xchamp: Oh, so you played this new God of War extensively to know that whatever gameplay changes they'll bring are utter shit? :v

What a complete waste of such a rich mythology.

@lamprey263: You should edit your sig that says: PLEASE don't buy an Xbox Scorpio lol.

Looking forward to it. Was tired of the old games and combat will be fine. Bring it.