The long-awaited return of the PlayStation God of War is drawing ever closer. God of War Ragnarök is one of the most anticipated games of 2022, and if already from the title we are told that Kratos himself will execute the Nordic apocalypse together with his son Atreus, now we have much more clear how and in what way will he unleash his anger and will satisfy its barbarity.
Mihir Sheth and Denny Yeh, the heads of the Santa Monica game’s combat system, have detailed several of the new battle mechanics for God of War Ragnarok through exclusive coverage for the Gameinformer medium. We knew that we will have access to the battle ax and the blades of chaos again. Now we also know that we can breathe fire and ice effects on them.
The gist: the new type of attacks depends on whether we’re using the Leviathan Ax waves Chaos Swords. According to Sheth and Yeh, Kratos can infuse the steel of these weapons with effects of ice (which they call “Frost Awaken”) or fire (“Whiplash”) that not only generate additional damage, but also freeze or burn our enemies alive.
Being, in his words, a completely new set of movements designed to take more and better advantage of the Triangle button on the controller.
In the last game, if you pressed Triangle, you remembered the axe, but if you already had the axe [en tu poder] nothing was happening. If you had the Blades of Chaos and you use the Triangle button, you just pull the ax back.
We looked at that concept and asked ourselves, ‘What if you could do something a little bit different with that button, a whole new set of moves?
In addition to the statements, Gameinformer has illustrated these mechanics with an interesting batch of images in which Kratos can be seen in his sauce taking advantage of the new abilities. However, where it will really be interesting to notice the difference will be at the controls.
In addition to the new combat repertoire that we will have access to in the game, from Gameinformer we are told that Atreus has done his tasks since the previous installment and that will be reflected in the dynamics of the combats. In fact, his colossal evolution in the battles of God of War (2018) already pointed ways.
Does that mean that Kratos will not release weapons in this new installment? Not exactly: although there are still many details to be specified, from Santa Monica they tell us that in God of War Ragnarok The God of War himself will have two types of shield at his disposal: Dauntless and Stonewall.
- The Dauntless Shield It is essentially based on quick blocks followed by counter attacks. As explained, if we use it at the right moment, Kratos will emit a reddish glow, giving us the option to unleash a brutal attack with a stun effect.
- The Stonewall Shield It works in a totally different way: its method of use consists of cushioning blows and gradually absorbing their energy. Once it is fully charged, we can hit the ground causing a powerful earthquake that will knock down everything in the vicinity.
As explained from Santa Monica, each shield has its own advantages and disadvantages. And, while the Stonewall shield seems to be more secure, it has been compensated by making it little by little more unstable as it takes damage, so that if we abuse its use it will cost us more and more to contain the hits or generate openings when receiving a lot of damage at once.
Last but not least, we are already assured that in God of War Ragnarok We will see a greater variety of creatures and threats, so it will be necessary to learn their habits and weak points, even when mashing buttons is a pleasure given the nature of the game.
There are still many things in the pipeline, and it will be time to talk about Atreus’s new abilities sooner rather than later. For now, what we do have clear is that the launch of God of War Ragnarok is scheduled for the next November 9 on both PS5 and PS4. May the Norse gods begin to tremble!