God of War Almost Cut Atreus From the Game Entirely

The upcoming God of War title isn't even out yet, but the early reviews are in and they are phenomenal. Apparently the Norse restructuring and the relationship between father and son were the magical touches needed for the popular PlayStation franchise but you might be surprised to hear that Atreus, Kratos' son, almost didn't make the cut.

It turns out that Sony wasn't too sure how fans would react to the much younger tag along, much less one that played an intricate part to the overall narrative. In a recent interview with GameSpot, Cory Barlog, the game's director, touched on how different of an experience the game would have been if Sony went with their cut to cut Atreus from the game entirely:

"It would have been very different. The early phase when they told me, "Man, this might be too hard, too expensive, we're already looking at so many challenges, it's maybe too much." When I went back and said, "Alright, fine, if it was not with Atreus, what would it be?" And, it would have been a very, very different game? The comparison I made was, "Alright, it's gonna be All Is Lost with Robert Redford"; it's gonna be one character who talks to himself occasionally, but generally, it will be very silent and everyone will talk in old Norse, so that you won't understand anything anybody's saying."

Thankfully, Sony saw that the game wouldn't quite hit that same level of feels if Kratos was just walking around talking to himself, and that Atreus as a companion just made sense regarding the overall storyline. "I think that threat was enough for them to go, 'Okay, we'll take on Atreus.' So, it was kind of the creative director, passive aggressive, 'Oh, yeah? Well, we'll take all the toys away.'"

For that, we thank them because so far the critics have been raving about what the younger blood has to offer throughout the experience and it means good times are ahead when the title fully releases for PS4 on April 20th!

Interested in what we thought of the highly acclaimed game? Check out a small part from our full review below:

"God of War has grown up. For the first time, I am able to empathize with Kratos as he partakes in the human experience, truly capable of feeling and displaying emotions beyond the rage and spite which used to define him. Here we find Kratos as a stoically mourning husband and father, bent on fulfilling his deceased wife's last wish. Her desire is for Kratos, and their son Atreus, to deliver and scatter her ashes from the top of the tallest peak in the realms. Thus the father and son leave their once-secluded home, and set off for a great mountain in the distance.

Impossibly large temples of stone and precious metal, brilliantly glowing crystals and magical effects, and technically mind-boggling set-pieces that your brain will struggle to comprehend all suggest a game that would have been impressive on next-generation hardware. Playing on a PS4 Pro, I had so many stop-and-stare moments wherein I sat and wondered how this was happening on a home console."