With just under a month until the release of the next installment in the God of War series — aptly named God of War — Sony wanted to talk a bit about Kratos’ new weapon. In a departure from the previous God of War games, the iconic Blades of Chaos will be absent, though Kratos will not be defenseless by any means. In a new video, several of the game’s developers talk about the new Leviathan Axe and how it will change gameplay.
From early on in development, Kratos was going to wield an axe. Aside from the obvious differences between his former blades and an axe, there were some other initial concerns from some of the team. One of the first mechanics built for the Leviathan Axe was for Kratos to throw it. Since his weapon is no longer bound to his wrists that brought up the point that he’d be literally throwing his weapon away. I kind of doubt the game would be that much fun if you simply had to run after your axe after each time you threw it.
Thankfully, a pretty simple fix presented itself: Kratos can recall the axe after he’s thrown it. The God of War series has already been full of magic and godly powers so it’s hardly a stretch for Kratos to have that sort of ability. That decision opened up new gameplay options as well, where Kratos can trip up enemies, aim for specific body parts, and conveniently this worked very well with the new camera perspective of the game as well.
Upgrades are handled via a pair of Dwarven blacksmiths, and work slightly differently than previous games. Here the axe can take on different looks, where the head of the axe will be shaped differently, the handle can be changed, and it looks as though runes can be added in order to make the axe more powerful and augment its abilities. Unlike in previous games, you’ll just simply mix and match the abilities that you prefer on the axe and use the ones that you like, or the ones that will work best in whatever situation you might find yourself in.
But enough of me rambling, you should check out the video where they go into greater detail about the Leviathan Axe.
God of War will be available on the PlayStation 4 on April 20th, 2018.
