The Ghost of Sparta stands in the middle of the battlefield. Scenes of carnage and mayhem surround him. Blood flows across the warzone like a river and human bones lay broken and cracked like shattered earth. Ragged bits of flesh flutter in the wind.
He is a monster, a man and a myth. He was the fury of Ares blade and the human embodiment of Athena's honor. But now he spits on their perpetual arrogance. Unlike mortal men who fight for the favor of the gods, Kratos swings his blade in pure hatred and defiance of their immortal existence.
But what made Kratos this harden warrior? Sony Computer Entertainment's Santa Monica Studio will explore Kratos' expedition into madness and his endeavor to redeem his sins with the upcoming God of War: Ascension. The game will introduce gamers and fans of the franchise to a more human Kratos than previously depicted.
But one of the most intriguing aspects of the new game is its multiplayer component. Ascension will feature a multiplayer game mode for the first time in the series' history. The new mode will feature a narrative that isn't foreign to the series. It is about humans selling their sells to one of four deities: Zeus, Hades, Ares, or Poseidon. Each god offers his human warrior a different fighting style that will be put to the test against other players and mythological beast.
In a recent interview with Game Informer, God of War: Ascension game director Todd Papy discussed the game's multiplayer mode.
"It's one of those things where we felt like we could do it, and players would be surprised with how it feels," Papy said. "We felt like we could do something special and new to the franchise as well as to the multiplayer genre that's different than an FPS or some of the other melee games we've seen."
Papy says in the interview that Capcom's four-player brawler Power Stone influenced some of the elements of Ascension's multiplayer mode.
"We look at Power Stone and how that stuff worked," Papy told Game Informer. "A Lot of what we're doing right now is, 'Okay what do we feel makes a sticky multiplayer? 'Part of that is looking at other multiplayer games that are out there right now and also saying, 'Okay, what feels right for our game?' That took a long time to come up with and find the formula."
While most of new regarding the multiplayer mode has focused on team oriented battles, Papy says that the multiplayer component will also have a free-for-all mode for gamers who like to battle on their own.
"We do have free-for-all modes," Papy said. " Basically, we've taken the Hercules map from God of War III and now you can play in there. We have Hercules in there and he messes around with you guys a little bit. It's a two-to-four player map so the fighting is a lot more intense, you can't run away really."
According to the Game Informer interview, gamers won't have to worry about the multiplayer's narrative being to complex. He told Game Informer that the story has to be light so that players can switch allegiances whenever they want.
"We want to make sure players can switch allegiances when they want to, so it's pretty hard to tell a story dealing with Ares and then all of a sudden you can switch to Hades," Papy said. "We didn't want to deal with that just yet, and if we ever do another one of these, maybe that's something we can focus on."
God of War: Ascension will release on March 12, 2013 for the PlayStation 3 as an exclusive title. Check out the game's most recent trailer below...