God of War, Santa Monica Studio’s latest title, delivers one of the largest story experiences of the year. One common gameplay element which is noticeably absent, however, is a New Game Plus Mode. In a recent interview, the game’s director gave his opinion on the mode. He also explained why such a mode is currently not a feature.
For anyone unfamiliar with them, New Game Plus Modes are common in single-player, story-centric games. It allows players to restart the game with all of the equipment, skills, etc. that they ended their first playthrough with. This allows them to challenge a new tier of difficulty for their second playthrough.
In a recent interview with GamingBolt, Cory Barlog, God of War’s creative director, explained that he had always wanted to include a New Game Plus Mode in the game; “New Game Plus is something I wanted so badly, right? And it is this Sophie’s choice you have to consciously make as you enter the last eight months of working on a game. You have a huge list of features, and so many of these things kind of get pushed down the list.”
Could New Game Plus be Added in the Future?
Barlog went on to explain the knock-on effects of balancing a New Game Plus Mode. As a result, the development team had no time to implement the mode before release. However, that doesn’t preclude them from adding it in the future. Santa Monica Studio recently added Photo Mode to the game via a patch, after all.
“It was on the list,” said Barlog, “we had it in the previous game, but the engine was changed up, so we had to rewrite it. And that relied on the enthusiasm of the programmers to sort of get behind it after we just ran a five year marathon, to jump right in and start on that one. New Game Plus is definitely the same in that we all love that kind of concept, it’s just, we haven’t had the time to get started on any of that stuff.”
Ultimately, Barlog seemed supportive of the idea of including the mode at some point in the future. Fans of God of War may be waiting some time, however; it sounds as though development has yet to even begin.