I’ve stopped going to the cinema to watch superhero movies – what used to be the realisation of a childhood dream to see my favourite characters and stories actualised on the big screen has since been reduced to a series of diminishing returns in which little risk equals the biggest reward. As the Disney execs rub their fingers together at the sight of another blockbuster hit, I shake my head in disbelief as another lazy, two- and half-hour long advert for the next film in the series daftly and half-heartedly plods along. Blockbuster set-pieces have been replaced with pop-culture references and in-jokes; top class acting and voice acting has been stripped for safe faces to slap on the posters; and the eager wait for the climax or final fight has since been reduced to a post-credits teaser for a film three years away. Continued financial growth in Hollywood begets laziness, and the tired format of AAA superhero movies is the star-studded epitome of this problem – a problem that has seemingly trickled into the AAA video game industry in recent years.
Santa Monica Studios God of War is one of few exceptions – a stellar couple years of first-party exclusives for Sony has secured itself as a console and publisher intent on delivering high-quality, polished AAA content that warrants a £50 price tag. My time with God of War was so adrenaline-fuelled, emotionally driven and just darn fun to play that I spent a lot of the hours wishing that there were a way to play it on the big screen in place of the current slew of superhero movies and other AAA Hollywood titles that flood our cinemas week after week. Major big-budget video games have learnt a lot from Hollywood – series like Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid and Uncharted have all taken notes from some of their big budget movie predecessors – and in the same light video games have since inspired recent Hollywood efforts. It is by no coincidence that studios are always finding ways to reinterpret popular video games as films – there is brilliance in their storytelling and execution that seems ready-made for cinema. All the series mentioned previously have either seen movie treatments or have movie treatments in the works, and however poorly executed some of these may have been, it shows that there is a clear understanding that much can be learned from paying close attention to what’s popular in both the AAA video game industry and Hollywood. Bearing this in mind I started thinking, What have Santa Monica Studios learnt from other successes in their five year hiatus from God of War? And furthermore, what could studios like Disney and Warner Bros. learn from God of War to inject some excitement into a rapidly tiring and lazy formula I have come to know and hate?
God of War creates not only several stunning set-pieces throughout its thirty hour or so story, but it pretty much writes the rulebook on how to keep players engaged. The narrative puts its foot down on the pedal within the first hour of gameplay and doesn’t let up until its ultimate climax. This aged and weathered Kratos is not the one we have known from previous games, and that is made very clear from the start – he is more decided in tone, more focused, and although his words are numbered, they hold much greater gravitas than his younger years in Sparta. Now living a life in hiding in the realm of the Norse Gods, the passing of his wife Faye has left a rift between an already tested relationship with his young son Atreus. His wife’s final wishes are for her ashes to be spread on the highest peak in the realms, and the promise to fulfil this wish is the game’s narrative backdrop and singular motivation for Kratos and young Atreus to make this journey together. The story immediately sets up an end goal, a problem, and a test for both titular characters. Both Kratos and Atreus want to see passing Faye’s final wish granted, however – Atreus has lived a relatively sheltered life and Kratos sees a weakness and lack of training that will involve forming a closer relationship with his son if rectified – something that for several reasons he has avoided until now. This end goal is always in sight as you progress through the story, and although you may stray from this goal from time-to-time, there is a strong narrative hook that continually draws you back to fulfilling Faye’s dying wish. As well as this, the relationship between Kratos and Atreus is not only tested regularly but as time passes, they become closer, and subtle cues in dialogue and gameplay make the player constantly feel that they are helping nurture this bond. Boss fights are not the sole responsibility of Kratos and his new (and incredibly satisfying to use) Leviathan Axe, but Atreus plays an important role in both the combat system and the blockbuster level set-pieces. Each passing sub-plot and boss defeated sees a fragile relationship tested, and ultimately made stronger through the cooperation of two people learning to work together for a common goal. It is this relationship that is the true stand-out achievement for Santa Monica Studios – their success in grounding a character so heavily shrouded in mysticism, lore and the pursuit of violence through the introduction of Atreus, who not only forces him to adapt and think differently, but who gives him vulnerability and weakness. As young Kratos would see it fit to die with honour on the battlefield or in the pursuit of revenge, the Kratos we play in this God of War would die not for honour or revenge, but for the life of his son.
Outside of the main narrative, there is a constant looming threat of Odin the “Allfather”, contextualised wonderfully through nuggets of information scoured from the various realms you visit – it seems that Odin and his kin have little to no time for the lives of mortals or other creatures, and this is made apparent through the various stories told. Shrines and passages translated by Atreus, whispers of spirits held in purgatory through unfinished business with the Gods – and when the brilliantly Scottish Mimir is introduced – whimsical and often macabre stories are all told to contextualise events, locations and characters. The world-building here really makes this new God of War universe feel alive, and makes the player believe that there are much bigger and more complicated events going on outside of your main quest – and that your presence in Midgard is perhaps more pertinent to the future than originally believed. Leading up to the final climax of the game’s main narrative, there are still so many questions left unanswered, and the surrounding world post-game feels expansive and living – not simply an explored landscape full of undiscovered collectibles as several developers are wont to leaving their worlds feeling. The post-game content adds a significant level of difficulty for those looking for a greater challenge, and rewards players who dig deeper into the game’s lore and expansive side content. I left no stone unturned and still had questions unanswered – not frustratingly so, but in excitement at what the inevitable next game in the series could bring. Kratos and Atreus’ story is in a very different place from the PlayStation 2 days and is certainly far from over – something that seems odd to write in 2019, fourteen years after his story first graced consoles.
So – let’s say Disney have taken my advice and asked Santa Monica Studios to help pen Avengers 5 in three years. What invaluable information has the studio learnt over the last five years and then innovated on, that can be transferred over to the creatively withering formula of the superhero movie format, in the hopes of revitalising it?
The first point that I believe was really paramount to the success of God of War’s narrative, and would be invaluable for Hollywood production companies to bear in mind when they are executing vast cinematic universes – a succinct and engaging story that has a clear goal, a clear finale and although questions are left unanswered, the player/viewer never feels like they only experienced half a story. Disney seem to think it is acceptable to – in the two most recent Avengers movies for example – to tell half a story with the promise that all will be revealed in the second part. Cliff-hangers are an easy way to create suspense and hype, but the magnitude that recent Marvel efforts have used them is simply exploitative. Santa Monica Studios started with a simple goal – fulfil the dying wish of a woman whom a father and son both loved – and despite all the events that transpire that central goal is never far out of view; the mountaintop a constant reminder of what brought them on this perilous journey in the first place. When the game’s heart-breaking finale plays out, this new chapter in the God of War universe comes to a close, but it is by no means the end of the book. Point number one, Disney take heed.
Expanding on what Santa Monica Studios have done here, there is an artistry to exposition – especially in video games – that helps contextualise what is often a much wider and inexplorable world. Much of Kratos’ backstory has already been set up – the new God of War is accessible to new audiences, but it derives a lot of its narrative beats from the understanding that this is an alien and inexplicably difficult situation for the Kratos we know from previous games. Nonetheless, the world he now inhabits is new to audiences (although centred around Norse mythology), it is both refreshing and exciting but leaves many lingering narrative threads. However as previously mentioned, the exposition here is executed so well that the story unfolds naturally and organically – the introduction of Mimir partway through the game a clever move on the part of Santa Monica Studios. Mimir adds not only some well-timed comic relief, but as a Dwarf knowledgeable on all things Norse, he stands as the perfect storyteller to contextualise myths and legends whispered throughout the realms. I believe taking a note out of Lollipop Chainsaw’s playbook here – a flawed game but through its clever “zombie head belt attachment trick” one that managed to make dialogue snappy and witty between characters whilst keeping the gameplay tight and engaging – God of War never feels exposition-heavy, and relationships are tested and nurtured naturally; new characters introduced gracefully. The Last of Us and Telltale’s The Walking Dead are clear inspirations here as well, and I think staff at Santa Monica Studios saw how perfect the introduction of someone that made Kratos vulnerable would be to take the series in a refreshing new direction. This again serves as some worthwhile advice to those studios embarking on long drawn-out cinematic universes – exposition needs to be tight, characters need to be introduced carefully and organically, and relationships need to be tested over time, never with the assumption that audience members know who the characters are and what they’re all about. The most recent Avengers could have benefitted greatly from this advice; often character introductions rely on popular culture and expected audience understanding to write the relationships themselves; it is not inherently funny or interesting that Drax the Destroyer and Spiderman are meeting for the first time – use their strengths to your advantage and think about how this interaction would take place. How do their personalities mesh or clash – not what already established character tropes can we recycle in place of well-constructed dialogue? This style of storytelling is inherently lazy and is something that needs to be rectified going forward into the uncharted territory of potentially lesser known licenses and faces on-screen, that won’t garner the same audience acceptance. Looking at how exposition can be written and then unfold smartly over time is a good start.
This third piece of advice comes as a bit of a no-brainer considering Santa Monica Studios penchant for including them in their games – set-pieces. When Kratos and Atreus fight Hraezlyr the dragon in one of the game’s earlier significant boss fights, the studio takes full advantage of what could have been a very difficult sequence to fit on-screen and to make enjoyable to play. Santa Monica Studios have a brilliant intellect when it comes to fitting very large baddies into small spaces, making them engaging and enjoyable without feeling like you’re simply an ankle-biting nuisance, slashing away mindlessly at the feet of a hundred-foot ogre. When you do eventually whittle down the boss’s health Kratos kills the Dragon in spectacular fashion ending in a Buster Keaton-esque sequence as the creature falls to the ground beside him. Santa Monica Studios know they are fantastic at making these sequences work, and the newfound power of the current generation of consoles allows them to achieve so much more, likely executing ideas that have been floating around in staff members heads since the PlayStation 2 days – its fantastic to see them make full use of them here. Big summer blockbusters invented these sequences, all the way back to D.W Griffith’s 1915 The Birth of a Nation – audiences are taken aback by wonderfully rendered and shot sequences that defy reality and subvert expectations. However, the lazy paint-by-numbers formula of present day Hollywood movies has lost its charm and resonance – the monster sequence in The Force Awakens that stars not one but two actors/choreographers from the fantastic Taiwanese The Raid series, yet fails to capitalise on this in an interesting way. Doctor Strange failed to meet the standards it set itself with the wonderfully animated hallucinatory experience Stephen Strange has when he first meets the Ancient One – the fight scenes have the consistency and flair of wet toilet paper as we see two men with the ability to manipulate time and space engage in good ol’ fisticuffs. Point number three – look at what makes your skillset, characters, and situations unique and exploit them to the nth degree – this is Hollywood after all.
Finally, and possibly the most important piece of advice going forward for Hollywood blockbusters and cinematic universes – sacrifice. God of War has always been associated with themes of vengeance, sacrifice, death and honour – and the most recent offering plays with these themes in an intelligent and subversive way new to the series. Kratos has spent his life killing, and although there may be plenty of difficult fights in the game, it is humility that comes most difficult at times for Kratos and Atreus. As the game comes to its final moments and Kratos and his son have learnt the importance of this, their actions create a situation in which it seems that nobody wins, despite them making what they believed was the right decision. There is no binary yes/no answer to the most difficult questions and situations, and often player choice in video games can forget this principle – often a choice can negate a more powerful ending that is tailored to the story. Santa Monica Studios narrative effort echoes Irrational Games’ Bioshock Infinite, which showed the futility of free player choice whilst crafting a story that unfolds under the nose of the player. This was ultimately one that was more engaging and affecting than one that offers the player a series of obtuse binary choices. Sacrifice for the greater good is often not a simple yes and no, and people are always likely to be hurt no matter which path you choose – it is how you move on from these decisions that will define you. For too long characters in superhero movies have come away unscathed, unharmed and unaffected by events that unfold in previous films. The finale of the most recent Avengers film refutes this, but when actors are signed on to do films five years in advance, it all but entirely removes any sense of dread or fear as to the future of beloved characters.
It is not the saving of a ferry full of people in a shiny new suit that defines Spiderman, it’s the people that he couldn’t save and the suit that he couldn’t bear to wear that created the iconic, complex and thoughtful Spiderman from the comics. Santa Monica Studios know that it is not the evil dragons slaughtered, corrupt gods slain and belligerent ogre heads crushed that define the titular character we have come to know over the last fifteen years, but those he killed that could have been saved – his ashen skin a constant burning reminder of his mistakes, and the driving motivation for a better life for his son.
Because of this close attention to detail, narrative intellect and understanding of core video game principles, God of War is an inspired love letter to what makes games great and marks the setting of a new bar for AAA entertainment – your move Disney.
Brandons Video Game Takeaway 