Kratos is old and has a son in ‘God of War’

The video showed Kratos living in a forested area covered in snow, accompanied by his son Charlie. Hundreds come at you at a time, reminiscent to how they’re portrayed in the World War Z movie, and… you shoot them, a lot. After several years in development this quirky adventure game that has no shortage of style is finally in the home stretch. A new Kratos was revealed Monday as the ice-breaker to Sony’s stacked E3 keynote. Just because Kratos has a beard now doesn’t automatically put him up there with the lumbersexual appeal of Hot Ryu.

We’ve already told the story of The Hulk. “I realised early on that we had to make changes in every aspect of the game”, he explained. That Kratos, who churned the gods of Greek myth into a bloody butter, hasn’t entirely disappeared but he’s certainly a little mellower in his Norse myth form. Which, could either be a good or bad thing.

Showcasing a reformed Kratos teaching his son the art of hunting, God of War has never looked or felt so incredible. In other words, the weird and wonderful mind of Kojima is back in action, and you should definitely be excited. This sort of subtle, contemplative detail was unexpected, but wholly appreciated.

Don’t get us wrong – we quite dig the new, kinder Kratos and we’re quite interested to see how Santa Monica Studios is going change the usual God of War formula which we hope will be for the better. There’s a single button dedicated to your son, and its use depends on the context. He teaches the child to hunt and even kill a giant troll which literally was under a bridge. As you progress through the game, that becomes second-nature to the boy, and it’s clear that your knowledge has been passed on. It also confirmed that the system wouldn’t be shown off at E3, leaving us wondering what the company’s presentation would contain. No load screens, no cinematics, no fades to black.

Barlog ended the interview by saying they’ll talk more about God of War “very soon”. “Not something I want to drive, but something he’d want to work on”.

Bearing that in mind, it’s interesting to note that God of War’s lead level designer Rob Davis recently stated to the fine folks over at VG 24/7 during a behind-closed-doors showing this morning that the demo being shown this week is running at 30 frames-per-second. The gameplay, on the other hand has been reimagined completely.

Of course, this isn’t the first time that Kratos has been a father.

Right from the get-go, it was apparent that this was a very different God of War game. E3 is one of the biggest gaming shows of the year, and it usually brings big announcements like this with it – and in this case, it’s the return of a PlayStation exclusive series that has sold more than 21.5 million copies as of 2012 since it first appeared on the PlayStation 2 in 2005. In our opinion, this is not Kratos, but someone with similarly superhuman combat ability and a god-like muscular body. Why, we don’t know, but whatever the reason the former God of War has just doubled up on his manliness.