God of War Artist Reveals a Scrapped Drummer Enemy

A Sony Santa Monica artist who worked on the most recent God of War revealed some artwork for an [...]

A Sony Santa Monica artist who worked on the most recent God of War revealed some artwork for an enemy that was planned for the game before the team decided to scrap it from the final product.

Sony Santa Monica senior character artist Arda Koyuncu took to ArtStation to share images of the Drummer with God of War fans and those who follow his artwork. The enemy appeared to be a variation of the many draugr that players had to fight in the Norse landscape, this one a larger female version of the undead enemies. With dreads, four limbs that are blackened towards the hands, and various accessories that adorned the character's model, the Drummer carried a large drum that looks as though it may have been shaped into a heart. Skulls hung from the drum to add to the character that was already sinister by God of War's standards.

Revealing that the original concept for the enemy came from fellow lead character concept artist at Santa Monica Studio Dela Longfish, Koyuncu discussed how the character was made and what happened to the model and other artwork that was created once the team decided to scrap the enemy.

God of War Drummer 2
(Photo: Arda Koyuncu)

"I modeled, textured and made the material setup of Drummer from scratch," Koyuncu said in his ArtStation post. "Later on during the production we decided the cut the character from the final game. I used the props I modeled for the character for different purposes here and there in the game instead."

Koyuncu didn't go into detail about what the enemy would actually do, so there's really no telling what it's effect would've had on Kratos and Atreus and the rest of the minor enemies if it'd been included in the final product. Since it's gameplay would obviously be centered around the drum that it carries, there's a chance that it could've been more of a tanky support-like enemy that either provided buffs to its allies or debuffs to players through the use of its drums. Other enemies like the Revenant in God of War could summon Nightmares to assist them, so perhaps this character was a draugr counterpart that could bring in more enemies until you were able to take it down.

Though it wasn't included in the final game, Koyuncu's comment that its features were used elsewhere give players one more Easter egg to look for when they're playing through God of War again, possibly with the game's New Game + mode that's been revealed.

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