Back when it was in development, God of War director Cory Barlog was "adamant" not to make the game into an open world title. In an interview with Venture Beat, Barlog says that the team at Sony Santa Monica Studio couldn't possibly go toe-to-toe with existing open world blockbusters -- and it's not something that it wanted to do anyway.
"I was adamant that we couldn’t make an open world game. The cost of entry and the expectation level is so high that we’d never compete. We just don’t have the infrastructure and the systems. I don’t want to do that," Barlog explains.
"To do these things, to do the complexity [Ubisoft and Rockstar] have, you just need a lot of people. For us, not only do we not want to invest in that aspect of it, but to me the world needed to feel large, and not empty, but with surprising moments of discovery. It could feel like there were areas where there’s not a lot going on, and then all of a sudden an entirely new level opens up that you weren’t directed to, that you just discovered," he continues.
Barlog also goes into detail about why he wanted the term "wide linear" to catch on, as it better describes God of War's not-quite-open structure. "Once we started saying wide linear -- I didn’t have a term for it. One of the level designers actually started saying that. That was a good way to describe it, because I kept saying, 'not open world.' That’s the worst way to describe something, to say what it’s not. It’s better to give a good picture." Fair play.
Are you glad that God of War didn't end up as an open world reboot? Recall your axe in the comments section below.
[source venturebeat.com]
Comments 27
We have enough of this openworld stuff. He praises Ubisoft but their games are made up with 75% filler. You could lose 10 hours of "gameplay" looking for this stuff and it does add nothing for me. 😁
maybe ps5 can achieve this epic journey masterpiece.word up son
I'm not sure about wide linear but it feels a lot like a Zelda game, I'm glad it didn't go open world as we have far too many of them and most detract from the gameplay or give you pointless errands rather than add anything meaningful to the game. Linear, wide or not is not a bad thing and plenty of great games and most of the best games I've ever played are built like that
ENOUGH WITH THE OPEN WORLD... BOOOY!
Game is a razors edge from perfection. Glad they went the route that they did!
It was a smart choice, and it paid off. God if War put every open world game released last year to shame.
(Every. Single. One.)
It didn't need to be open world, it was great as it was. It felt quite open anyway, what with the little coves and stuff you could land at and explore.
Done right though, an open-world God of War game on PS5 could be immense. I'm thinking with Fallout 3-style quests and choices.
Imagine wandering off and finding a little village up in the mountains somewhere, where the villagers are being terrorised by a monster. So you go and find the cyclops in his cave, but he says the villagers have actually been terrorising him, so you can decide whether to kill the cyclops or the villagers, or both.
Or you can climb up on that cyclops' back and go lay the smackdown on the yokels together.
"the world needed to feel large, and not empty" you listening Ubisoft?
@Flaming_Kaiser just 75%? The worst thing about their games is they seemingly only have a couple of hours gameplay that is copy and pasted across the entire map and weirdly across their games, leaving them feeling far too similar to one another.
Open Worlds usually fall into 3 categories
1. Ubisoft, which consists of repetitive markers, camps and towers spewed all over the map as some kind of checklist.
2. Rockstar, a good story but one in which you have absolutely no say and any deviation form it's script is met with failure. Pretty look but don't touch worlds where the yellow dot is king and must be obeyed at all times
3. Bethesda, put plenty of quests and objectives literally everywhere and let you discover them with meaningful rewards and some impact on the world. Unfortunately this peaked with the likes of New Vegas and Skyrim and has been watered down ever since, oh and hope the game doesn't fall apart in your hands.
There are a few exceptions such as The Witcher 3 which takes the best bits from each and Yakuza which has a small but well detailed and interactive world with plenty of fun things to do
I don't think gow is wide linear, wide linear is like uncharted 4 madagascar ride. Gow is hub-based like tomb raider 2013, there's one central place, and from that place players can go anywhere to complete the quest.
I'm glad they went the route they did. Game of the Year indeed.
Im very glad this wasn't open world. It meant that everything in the game had a purpose and there was no filler. This game was perfection and would have been much worse off for going open world.
The game is fantastic as it is. Open world is like online: not required for a great game.
If you try too hard to make an open world game, you end up with LA Noire with an empty city, boring side missions and zero replay value.
It was a good call. The game was as close to perfect as I've seen this generation, completely blew away my expectations and made the previous games in the series pale in comparison. Really hope we get a sequel sooner rather than later as I'd love to see Kratos tussle with the rest of the Norse gods!
@carlos82 Yeah, (3D) Metroidvania is what I would call it. Linear, but with branching paths and a bit of backtracking (not a bad thing by the way); and very much like the (good) Zelda games.
@Gremio108 Sounds like The Witcher to me lol. Have you been playing Thronebreaker?
Open world doesn't necessarily mean better.
@carlos82 Maybe i was a little too nice. I think without the boring stuff in Assassins Creed Syndicate i would have had a nice time and i would have been big enough.
Same with Horizon Zero Dawn i love that game to bits. But i think with a smaller map more compact story it would be even better. You know what i take it back but only because the combat is great. 😁
A little more story missions would be great because i love the story plus the sidemissions when you have a conversation with the NPC's is always fun. 😁
I thought it was Naughty Dogs that used the term wide linear before.
Since too many games are going open world now, it's nice that some are sticking to linear.
All hail wide linear. I love it.
@Octane Yeah I've basically just described The Witcher 3 there haven't I?
Also Kratos should grow his hair out. Maybe put it in a ponytail. And Atreus should become a female elf
@JJ2 Same, I could've sworn the term wide-linear was used first to describe Uncharted 4 when it came out.
There are to many open world games so I am glad GOW isn't one. Saying that i still haven't played it(it's next on my massive 'to play' list after I have finished Detroit. Or I might play Spyro because I like to mix up the types of games I play. MY GOD, THE PLAYSTATION BRAND IS AMAZING AS ALWAYS)
Open world structure has some excellent potential but as it stands, by far the majority of them don't come close to the level of story telling in a game like God of War.
Copy and pasting near identical side quests over and over which have so little substance, only serves to artificially extend game play, and often just feels like a waste of the player's time. Not something I'd celebrate.
@Flaming_Kaiser I loved Horizon and that's one where the open world befenited it's gameplay with that magnificent combat and giant robot dinosaurs. Even the crafting didn't get in the way as you could fill your ammo in a second mid fight as opposed to another game I played recently where you had to make camp and craft every piece of ammo individually and painstakingly slowly 😉
I've not played God Of War or Assassin's Creed Odyssey yet but if i was given the choice of one of them I'd opt for Ubisoft's open world game. That's just the way I roll, baby.
Open world games can be great, as “Horizon: Zero Dawn,” “Breath of the Wild,” and—yep—“Red Dead Redemption 2” attest. In those cases, the open worlds make sense, and they helped the games feel uniquely atmospheric and immersive.
On the other hand… This notion that every AAA game needs to be open world is silly. There is no formula that guarantees a great game—developers should do what makes the most sense for the story being told, rather than applying a cookie cutter template to everything. A game that’s unnecessarily open world just feels tedious and repetitive - moreso than other mediocre, non-open world games.
In short - I think the developers here made the right choice for the game, and I hope more AAA game makers are willing to deviate from the current trend of making everything open world.
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