10 Ways God Of War PS4 Was Almost COMPLETELY Different
4. The Boat Was Divisive
You might be surprised to learn that the boat that Kratos and Atreus spend so much time in, was quite divisive amongst the team at Sony Santa Monica.
Initially, the developer tried to include swimming in the game, seeing as so much of the open world is water. However it became rather difficult to implement and would have meant sacrificing another element of the journey. As a compromise, Barlog was happy to abandon the swimming in favour of more time in the boat.
A lot of the team still didn't like the boat and figured it would be redundant and dull for players. However Barlog saw it as a literal vehicle for storytelling. As such, the boat became the place where Kratos, Atreus, and Mimir, would do the majority of their talking and story-telling. In a great anecdote, Barlog said he knew the boat was working when they watched a play-tester, who circled his objective for several minutes, just to hear to the story Mimir was telling.