Plot and its Influence
The main character will be Faye — Kratos' wife and Atreus' mother. After her death, she awakens in Everywhen, a special afterlife where gods from different mythologies go after their demise. Here, they constantly fight each other for power.
The project's plot is closely tied to the Norse duology. The story begins immediately after the heroine's death and her arrival in Everywhen. There, she must remove obstacles for a plan she prepared for Kratos and Atreus while she was still alive.
Perhaps Faye will be able to influence the world of the living, and her actions in Everywhen will reflect on the events of the 2018 and 2022 games, tying all the threads together. But most likely, she will have to stop an evil, all-powerful god who wants to escape Everywhen and destroy Kratos — for example, Zeus or someone new.
It is important to note that God of War Laufey is not a spin-off, but a full-fledged continuation of the series. Given that we will see creatures from different mythologies, the game should explain how this universe works: why different mythological dimensions exist, how they are connected, and so on. Consequently, it should pave the way for sequels, moving the plot, for example, to Egypt.
The existence of Everywhen allows for the development of Kratos' storyline. For example, he could atone for his sins by meeting again with the gods he killed from two mythologies. A good move, considering that at the end of God of War Ragnarok, the Spartan chose the path of redemption.
Everywhen could also explain the franchise's mysteries, such as the rift in space from Ragnarok. That hole that Odin so desperately wanted to look into. The rift could have led to Everywhen, and the actions of the father and son that caused it to close could have been the reason for the desire to destroy them.
In Ragnarok, the Allfather said that the crack "whispered" things to him that he didn't understand, but knew were true. Odin believed that if he looked into it, he could gain absolute knowledge. This aligns with what is said in the description of God of War Laufey about Everywhen: "it is the source and end of all magic, a dimension beyond known worlds."
But Everywhen also threatens the entire franchise because it doesn't align with the series' main feature — the destruction of gods from different pantheons. What would be the point of killing them if they don't disappear completely, but end up in a separate world from which they can escape?
Moreover, this dimension does not fit with what was shown in the Greek saga. Back then, Kratos died and was able to return from the underworld himself, but that was a normal underworld for that mythology. Why didn't the God of War go where other gods go after death? Questions that demand answers.
Everything else will depend on how the authors handle this and what they decide to do with this location. If Everywhen only appears in Laufey, after which it is either destroyed or permanently blocked, it might work. If Everywhen remains accessible for future projects, it could devalue them.
Along with the new protagonist, the overall tone of the game will change — it will become lighter, which is also evident in the secondary characters. The network is already actively discussing Faye's companion character — a gelatinous cube named Phranque. He will be voiced by actor Jack Quaid (Hughie from "The Boys").
The character looks ridiculous and cracks jokes, which seems strange for "God of War." And this is a risky move for the developers, as many fans of the franchise were unhappy when Kratos' character changed significantly in the 2018 game. Then the Spartan, from a ruthless god-killing machine, turned into a "whining old man," making the atmosphere less severe than before. Now it will be completely different, along with the new main character. It seems necessary, but it will again hit the franchise's image. The situation is similar to Everywhen — everything will depend on the script and the developers' approach.
By the way, one of the game's writers is Alana Pearce, who also worked on God of War Ragnarok. And here doubts arise, if we recall the not-so-successful plot of the 2022 game, which turned the terrible Ragnarok, which two games had been leading up to, into a dull hour and a half of running around Asgard. Although of all Sony's major games in the last five years, I have the fewest questions about Ragnarok.
Visual Style and its Problems
Along with the change in narrative tone, the graphics also changed. The new visuals also became lighter, brighter, and more colorful compared to the cold Norse games. Now the color palette consists of orange, purple, green, and blue.
Although I can understand players' dissatisfaction, as this palette has already become synonymous with failures of recent years like Avowed, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, or Forspoken.
The main problem with the graphics was Faye's appearance, played by actress Deborah Ann Woll. You might have seen her in the recent Marvel series "Daredevil: Born Again," where she played Karen Page.
If you directly compare the actress and the character, the question arises: why does Faye look much worse than Deborah? As with Mary Jane in Marvel's Spider-Man 2, when the character's appearance differed greatly from the actress (Stephanie Tyler Jones) for the worse. With this, Sony has set a new trend for its games and follows it even when the "agenda" has moved aside.
These changes in character appearance reminded me of my experience drawing in a hyperrealistic style. Back then, I approached the realization of color, light, and shadow incorrectly, overdoing them significantly. As a result, the drawn person looked much older, as all the tiny wrinkles on the face caught the eye. It's the same here, only now it's done intentionally. And the pores that are visible when the camera zooms in on the face only exacerbate the problem.
The reason, I think, was not only the "agenda" but also the rejection of stylization in graphics. After all, PlayStation's power now allows for high-polygon models and high-resolution textures — so why hold back?
But if "photorealism" used to become outdated in a few years, Faye looks bad even before the game's release. But the characters in the original The Last of Us, for example, are still beautiful even 13 years after the game's release. This is because the artists there worked with light and shadow correctly.
In addition, another "disease" of Sony is the stretching of character faces. It was the same with Mary Jane, and judging by the footage of "Wolverine," Jean Grey will also suffer from this. Changing the shape of the face further affects the perception of age: it begins to appear older and more sickly, making the character less attractive.
Gameplay that (Cannot) Get Better
Laufey's gameplay is similar to that of the Norse duology: it's a hack-and-slash with an over-the-shoulder camera and the ability to perform various combos, parries, and dodges. After all, Faye is a strong heroine who once fought Thor on equal terms.
But unlike her husband, Faye is more energetic. She can jump and move freely through the air. Something between the Greek trilogy and the Norse duology.
In combat, she will use a sword and the "Golden Hand of the Jotun," which allows her to rip enemies' souls from their bodies. And in boss fights, players will also have to study opponents' attacks, memorize timings, and act carefully.
Judging by the video, the battles look good, and the staging with the signature seamless transitions is as breathtaking as ever.
But there's a problem. At first, the battles will be engaging, but once you get used to the mechanics, the game will turn into a simple monster-mashing, as it appears from the outside. I'll draw an analogy with Final Fantasy XVI: it had magnificent staging and cool battles, but the combat system deflated after two or three chapters, without developing further.
The battles in Laufey resemble the Devil May Cry series — the benchmark for modern hack-and-slash games. In DMC, everything is built on combinations. Without them, fights become monotonous and quickly boring. Here we can recall Final Fantasy XVI again, whose combat was handled by Ryota Suzuki, who also worked on DMC 5. And in FF16, the combinations were very bad, because skills recharged for a very long time.
Therefore, the developers of Laufey need to think everything through very carefully: create many opportunities for combos and balance them so that the dynamics do not drop and playing is fun. In any case, no revolution or even evolution should be expected, most likely.
Conclusion
God of War Laufey looks lively, but too much hints at serious problems with the project: a controversial plot, a visual style that everyone is tired of and that smacks of games from the "agenda" era, as well as an overly standard combat system, even if it has potential.
The success of this game will depend too much on the writers: on whether they can correctly tie all the threads of the project. So that there are as few lore questions and negative consequences for the series in the future as possible, and the franchise does not devalue itself. Otherwise, we will get an analogue of Marvel's "multiverse saga," where the stakes will be zero.
I would like God of War Laufey to be a quality game. But looking at the development team, led by Ariel Lawrence, who has worked at Santa Monica for a long time but has always been in secondary and tertiary roles, hope is dwindling.