There’s nothing like showing up on a Friday and finding one of the biggest games of 2007 waiting on your desk. We played through the E3 build of God of War II several times and recorded it all. Plus, we talked with director Cory Barlog about the demo and what hints it gives about the full game.
Game Informer: Can you set up where the demo takes place within the final game? It appears to start directly after Kratos jumps off the griffins.
Cory Barlog: Actually, we sort of strung that together just so that the demo would make a little bit of sense. Fighting the griffins and being up in the air on Pegasus leads you up into another level, which then takes about an hour. When you get to the actual demo level you’ve been playing for about three and a half hours.
GI: Will the griffin hopping scene be a playable sequence in the final game or will it just be a cutscene?
Barlog: No, that’s all playable. What you guys have is the super early version of what we were doing on the Pegasus stuff. With that one we’re really shooting for a pretty fun, fantastic, thousands of feet above the ground, fighting experience to really fill that roller coaster ride. It’s actually gone way beyond what you guys have seen, and will go even further in the next few months.
GI: The big stone minotaur in the demo, he seemed kind of planted in one place. Will he be able to walk around in the final game?
Barlog: Yeah, he’s actually an AI character that is going to be used in several different situations. Sometimes he’s used in a blocker sort of way like he was used in the demo. It’s like that little surprise moment. Unfortunately, the surprise moment really only works a few times. The first time it’s like, “Oh my god, that’s awesome.†We won’t be able to get that everywhere. But he’ll also have the ability to navigate around. It sort of ratchets up, so that the first time that you encounter him you’re like, “Oh that’s cool. He was fun. He was easy.†We turn the heat up a little bit, and then turn the heat up a little bit more.
I love the idea of having a guy that feels big. Like, “Wow, this guy’s a boss.†And then you realize, “Wow, this guy’s actually a guy I’m going to fight multiple times. He appears in multiple places. He’s not even a boss.â€
GI: Is there an official name for the sluggish Medusa boss that appears at the end of the demo?
Barlog: Yeah, that’s Uriel. That’s Medusa’s sister. And she’s pretty f***ing pissed at Kratos for killing her sister. It’s going to be good times.
GI: In the last game, the gods of Olympus helped Kratos along and gave him new powers to defeat Ares. Since he’s basically out to get the gods themselves this time, who is going to help Kratos upgrade? The Wind Bow indicates a focus on elemental powers…
Barlog: The gods have actually turned against Kratos, and Kratos is replying in the only way that he can, which is just to kill them. So the benefactors he has now in this game, we’re not really releasing specifically who they are yet, but they tie directly into the overarching story that directly connects to the first game as well. I can’t really say who it is, which is lame, I know, but it’ll be very cool. It really ties into the overall story. We are doing a more elemental base on the magics. So that is a good call on that one.
GI: You’ve spoken in the past about being able to integrate magic and weapon swapping smoothly into combos. Can you give a specific example of a particularly impressive combo someone on the design team has been able to pull off with this new setup?
Barlog: The things we’re working on now, I can’t really give you the specific weapon yet, but probably very soon. What we’re really aiming for and what we’ve been doing in our test beds lately is the ability to do like a “square, square, hold down triangle.†So you jab the guy and then launch him up in the air. While he’s up in the air you can hold down L2 and then ram on the square button to get a couple volleys of the Wind Bow, hold down the square button to get a nice charge shot of the Wind Bow, and then be able to hit R2 before the guy hits the ground, pull out your weapon and get a nice big hit on him, and then you can quickly tap R2 again to put the weapon away and continue the combo. The combo meter stays throughout that entire thing so you’re able to really rack up the points.
It’s going to be great. But if you don’t care about that kind of stuff, you can just hit the buttons and have a great time. Usually you’re going to have to figure out some sort of strategy. But if you want to kick up the difficulty levels a little bit, and actually really care about those combos, it’s all put in there so that the finesse play can really surface.
GI: So the red orbs will really be flowing this time around, right?
Barlog: The red orbs are definitely going to be flowing. There’s a lot of stuff to upgrade so it’s going to be good.
GI: Can we expect more than one alternate weapon this time around?
Barlog: Yes. I can’t give you the specifics. But I can say with absolute assuredness that, yes, we can expect more than one. And the acquisition of those, it’s not one of those things like, “Oh my god. This makes the game!†This isn’t one of those marketing things that we put on the back of the box or anything like that. But from a gamer’s perspective you acquire all the weapons by having to deal with someone who has to use that weapon against you, and you kick their ass and take it from them, which all happens in gameplay.
There’s no cutaway to a cinematic or something like that. It all happens in gameplay to be able to take that back and really have the vindicating moment of getting beat down by this person with the weapon and then take it back from them, and then be able to kill them with that weapon, and then it goes right into your inventory and is immediately available.
GI: So there really won’t be any sort of “sword in the stone†moments. It’ll all be something you’ve previously interacted with.
Barlog: Yeah, in really cool ways. We’re putting a lot of stuff in with those great little surprises. You know, little nuances where you’re like “Awesome! I’ve seen this before. Look at that. I can totally interact with that. And now I can take this. This is great.†I want to build up that true sense of that suspension of disbelief within the game so that you’re just so into it so things feel very natural when you run across them. But when you really step back and think about it, it’s so good. This feels like the right way to do it. There’s no going into a menu to acquire something or anything like that. It’s all happening within the experience. It’s in the game world.
GI: It kind of reminds me of when you’d run across that giant sword in the first game and then you end up using it against Ares.
Barlog: Yeah, that same mentality is going into it, but even more so because it’s characters you’re directly interacting with and fighting and having it used against you. We’re absolutely pushing that sense of immersion.
GI: Can you think of any sections of the new game off the top of your head that will be as damningly difficult as the vertical spinning blades in Hades from the first game?
Barlog: Yeah, we’re actually bringing the Hades blades back. We have an entire level where it’s like, “We dare you to quit. We dare you!†(laughs)
No, there is a lot of effort going into every single level to make sure that everything is play tested as heavily as we did in most of the other sections. The Hades blades were the eleventh hour of the eleventh hour kind of thing, where we were like, “Alright, I think this is going to work.†And we just didn’t have the time to play test it and put it through the ringer the way that everything else was. So it was definitely a misstep on our part – a misstep that we absolutely don’t plan on ever repeating again.
GI: With elections right around the corner, politicians are really ramping up their case against video games, passing laws, etc. How has God of War managed to avoid the heat even though it arguably has more over-the-top violence and nudity than the Grand Theft Auto games?
Barlog: That’s an interesting question. My feeling about this is that it’s fantasy violence. We’re not trying to emulate the real world. I don’t agree with any of the political platforms that any of these people are standing on. To say that games are the instigating factor for anybody committing some act of violence. But our game has stayed under the radar in the fact that we’re making this brutal, semi-comic book take on Greek mythology, but it’s also still very period piece, very much separating itself from the real world. We’re not out shooting any cops or anything. So I think it doesn’t make as strong a headline for people. But the reality of it is, eventually we’ll probably end up as a target just because everybody will always eventually end up as a target when [the politicians] get bored or they feel that there’s an election coming around as you said.
I think that we will probably, even in this one, maintain that separation from some of the other games. Specifically, because there are just so many realistic, current time games out there and those seem to be the sexiest ones. Putting a clip of GTA on the news just can incense the less educated people who don’t understand that it’s really not some sort of killing-training simulator.
GI: Yeah, it’s really going to be hard to convince some senator that a kid’s going to make some chain blades at home and start running around town smacking people with them.
Barlog: Right, it’s like they’re going to go try to find a minotaur, and it’s going to be like, “Man, there have been three minotaur deaths in the last three weeks.†(laughs) “These are an extinct people.†I think it’s all totally silly, but in the end there’s really nothing we can do about it.
And I think Jack Thompson’s star is fading. He’s just grasping at straws at this point and just hoping some lawsuit will stick. “Please! Somebody! Let me win!â€
GI: Have political pressures forced your team to rethink any design choices they are making with God of War II?
Barlog: No. I don’t think we’ve been caught up with any of that stuff. And I say that now as the “head down†game developer who’s not really paying attention to what’s going on anywhere else in Sony. So perhaps that could arise, but I’ve never experienced anything but total creative support from Sony.
They gave Dave [Jaffe] everything he needed to make a game and I get the same vibe with this one. We never do anything to be gratuitous or to shock people for the sake of shocking them. It’s about putting players in the experience that we want to create – creating an emotional moment that may require things that are considered taboo in the political world. But we don’t back off on that stuff. If it fits, it goes in. It never feels like, “Hey, let’s put it in because it would be funny.†Okay, yeah, then maybe we’ll start to rethink those things. But as far as observing the political climate, I don’t think we ever make design decisions based on that.
GI: Obviously, a ton of publishers shoot to get their games on store shelves before the end of December. Do you think God of War II’s early 2007 release date is an attempt to distance it from the pack or even keep clear of the PS3 launch?
Barlog: I obviously have the view that the holiday rush is a terrible time to get caught up in stuff. It’s like if you’re a really great game sometimes you can get lost in the shuffle of so many games coming out. But for us the decision was 100 percent based on, “Look, I want to make this game great.†There are things we need to do with this so we have to release when we are releasing in order to get all we want. Otherwise, we’re just shortchanging people. I don’t think we should ever, as game makers, be like, “Alright, we have to release in the holiday season regardless of what happens to the game.†It just makes games collectively look bad. It’s great that Sony’s really supportive of that concept. I mean, I’m sure they probably want to get it out at Christmas, but they know that having a better game is far more important.
It has broader reaching ramifications. We really put out quality games, and we care about stuff that we put out – not just a release date, but the actual product that ends up out there into gamers’ hands. I hope that we continue to stick to that because I know I’ll keep fighting for that.
GI: Nintendo is releasing their next Zelda title on both Wii and GameCube. A lot of people would argue that the God of War franchise is similarly important to Sony’s agenda going into the next generation. Did that announcement have any effect on how you guys plan to release God of War II? Is there a possibility of higher-res graphics on the PS3 or maybe a couple extra features?
Barlog: Not really. To us, and this sounds really cheesy but I swear I totally mean this, there’s a lot of love that goes into this game. And, for us, to just release God of War II on PS3 with 720p support or something like that and maybe a few extra features, I mean, me as a gamer, I’d be like, “Yeah, that’s kind of cool. Alright, whatever.â€
But I would much rather have a bigger and better God of War that really utilizes the next-gen hardware. Personally, I would want to release a big, PS3, punch-you-in-the-face God of War III. If we were ever going to do something like that, I wouldn’t want to just say, “This is God of War II: SE that’s Blu-ray, and it has a few extra features, but it’s basically the same thing that you played.â€
With that I wouldn’t feel as gratified as a gamer, which is why we’re focusing on the PS2 side. There are a lot of people who dug the first game, and we’re wanting to give them the same experience as quickly as possible. By “as quickly as possible†I mean as quickly as this game can maintain the same level of quality and get it out there. If we had gone to the PS3, we’d be writing a whole new engine, we’d be doing all of this new stuff, which would put a huge gap between the first game and the second game.
It’s definitely not something where, I think right now, we’re like, “Oh, Zelda’s coming out on the Wii so we’re going to do a PS3 version.†Who knows? Maybe they’ll have something good. But to me it would feel like kind of a bummer. I’d be like, “Oh, they have a GameCube version. I’m just going to wait for the Wii version.†Then I get a Wii and it’s the same thing. I guess if I was planning on buying the Wii, then it works out really good. I definitely don’t think I would want to do that. I want to focus 100 percent on making God of War II PS2 off-the-charts good.
GI: So, just to be clear, there are no PlayStation 3 enhancements?
Barlog: As of right now, no. It’s going to be playable on the PS3 with PS2 backwards-compatible functionality….that’s a mouth full. (laughs) But no, there aren’t any plans for any sort of specific enhancements. Maybe we will use the tilt sensor in the menu system. You can select things in the menu with the tilt sensor. That would be sweet!
GI: If you have a completed game save on your memory card and play God of War II with it, will there be any bonuses?
Barlog: That’s definitely in our plans, but specifically what the benefit will be, we have not yet decided on what it’s going to be.
GI: Will there be a different benefit if you beat it on God mode?
Barlog: That’s something that’s being tossed around. There are a lot of different ideas of how we would connect the two together. But it is definitely something that is further down the line for us. We are just focusing on the main experience and having the backseat plans like, “Okay, this is how this is going to tie in.†I think if we went too early and started planning that, we might end up crippling some things by focusing too much on it.
But those little things, we love those. Those are the cool, old school, fun little gamer bonuses where you’re like, “Oh!†But not everybody’s going to notice that, but the people that do notice it are going to be like: “Yeah, that is awesome!†We want that same reaction with any sort of carryover that we have.
GI: After you guys cleaned out pretty much every gaming award out there, now that you’re the director, does that put any pressure on you?
Barlog: Pressure? Come on, no… (laughs) First time director being in charge of God of War II? That’s no pressure at all. I think the best way to say it is that every single second of every single day it’s not ever far from my mind. It’s a huge amount of responsibility, but I worked a lot on the first game and I put a lot of myself in the first game which, I guess, is kind of the reason I ended up where I’m at. So I keep trying to fall back and say, “I’m good, I can handle this. It’s all good.†But there is definitely a level of expectation, especially when we are going to be releasing when next-gen is in its full… like, “Everything is next-gen! Here we go.â€
So there’s a level of expectation. Look how well the first one performed. We’ve gotta make sure that everybody paid attention and gets into the game as much as they did in the first one. But I try to block it out as much as possible, which is a futile effort really. But I think we will deliver that next step that people are expecting, if not some sort of next-gen next step. I have never really been a fan of the idea that every game has to reinvent itself on the sequel. To me, when I love something, I want some more of that and I want new stuff inside of that. I want to expand on what I experienced in the first game. So with this one, I just never am allowing us to fall below that bar that we have created. That’s pretty much our starting point, which is a pretty daunting task. I would say the pressure’s pretty high on that one.
GI: Can you ballpark about how many boss battles you think you’ll have in the final game?
Barlog: I would say anywhere between two and 787. I think the best answer to that is that we totally recognize that boss battles were a blast in the fist game and we fricking loved making them. I want to be able to play this game when it’s done and have a ton of great experiences in there that revolve around those fun boss battles. So we are putting a lot of attention into that to make sure that we keep ratcheting up the level of delivery. So it’s like, “That’s awesome. What’s next?†and then something else even bigge “That’s awesome. What’s next?†It’s just really bombarding the player around every corner with something that’s just amazing. So boss battles are big for us.
GI: So in comparison to the first game?
Barlog: More. For sure more.
GI: Twice as many?
Barlog: More! It’s for sure going to be more – more variety as well. It isn’t just a repeat of what we had in the last game or what people are expecting us to do. We’re really mixing it up and surprising the player. That’s the big thing. I really like the idea of people saying, “Oh, I never would of thought they were going to do that.†You know, like four-way sex scenes (laughs)… six-way sex scenes! You know, we’re just going to go for it all.
I’m just kidding. We’re not going to do six-way sex scenes. That would just be insane. We would absolutely have to use the tilt sensor for that.
