God of War: Ascension

What’s worse than one angry Kratos? Well, four of them we suppose. One of the biggest new additions to the upcoming God of War: Ascension is its surprisingly satisfying multiplayer component. However, speaking as part of an exclusive interview with Push Square, lead combat designer Jason McDonald told us that the mode wasn’t always quite as polished.

“Right after we finished work on God of War III, we tried [multiplayer] because it was something that we hadn’t tested much,” he said. “We just tested some Kratoses fighting each other to see where it went – and we actually got it to place where it was pretty fun.”

The team enjoyed the concept so much that it ended up iterating on the idea and implementing it as a fully-fledged mode. “We decided to see what we could to take it further, and that meant putting the God of War spin on it,” he continued “We wanted to make sure that the same feeling that you get out of the single-player, the brutality and the epic scale, was present online too. “

Ever since the studio announced multiplayer, there's been concern that the single-player campaign would suffer – but McDonald insists that that’s not the case. “The first worry that everyone had is that we’re a single-player studio, and if we’re going to make multiplayer, then we’re going to sacrifice the quality of the campaign,” he explained. “But we didn’t do that. We’ve still provided the same single-player experience that you expect.”

You can read our conclusive thoughts on God of War: Ascension’s single-player and multiplayer modes in our full review. Remember to check back tomorrow for the rest of our interview with the development team.