God of War’s Director Explains How Cut Content Impacted Atreus’ Story
God of War’s emotional, character-driven story may well go down as one of the greatest in gaming’s recent history. However, even a story as well-constructed as that of Santa Monica Studios’ latest title is not immune to getting cut. Speaking in a recent interview, the game’s director, Cory Barlog, explained how one cut almost derailed a major part of Atreus’ character development.
Atreus’ Emotional Development
Asked whether he wishes he could have done anything differently, Barlog turns to a particular point in Atreus’ story. That point occurs around the midway part of the game; after the events of his sickness and the recovery of the magic chisel.
“He goes through that period of time where he starts to realize ‘we’re Gods, I can do whatever I want’.” explained Barlog; “Now in a real human life that takes a few years to develop… We didn’t have that kind of time, but we did have a lot more time than what’s allotted in the game. That was a section that we ended up cutting a good two hours out of. So, there would’ve been about 110 minutes maybe of Atreus getting more and more of a, as we call it, jerk mode… We had to shift everything back. He starts becoming a jerk right when you get to the boat…”
Barlog’s comments show that even a game like God of War is vulnerable to cuts made later in development. Cuts such as these can disrupt the previously well-constructed pacing of a good story. It’s certainly testament to the game’s writing team that the loss of two hours of content didn’t impact things more negatively.
“If you kind of B-line right exactly where you’re supposed to go,” continued Barlog, “you end up accelerating through that. And it does feel very abrupt. It’s something we saw the whole time, but realized there’s just nothing we can do because we had literally cut out an entire level.”