God Of War 4 Just Took A Major Step Forward

We first knew about God of War 4 being in development back during E3 earlier this year when Sony's Santa Monica Studios unveiled some true next-generation gameplay and cinematic combat for the popular hack-and-slash franchise. Well, after a long period of quiet, they've recently taken a major step forward in development.

Writer and director of the upcoming God of War game, Cory Barlog, posted a response on Twitter to a comment stating that they've given up on the game due to a lack of news. Barlog's response was interesting, insofar that he states that the whole game is playable and that he just finished an entire playthrough with his leads.

This means that the game is at least in a finished alpha state, where all of the core mechanics are in place and all of the functional level interactions have been completed. Whether or not they're wholly functional without glitches is a completely different story, but the fact that this newest God of War is playable from start to finish is a great piece of news.

Someone also asks if the game is only going to be 10 through 12 hours long, and Barlog simply replies "No". Now I don't know if this means that the game is longer or shorter, only that it's not 10 through 12 hours long. We can't deduce a darn thing from the context of Barlog's "No", other than that it was short and snappy, and therefore we can assume that he was not amused at someone's labeling of the game as being "10 through 12 hours" long.

Technically it could be short... like five or six hours long. It could be a God of War game centered around a tight little story between father and son, introducing us to what could possibly be the next playable character in the franchise. Alternatively, it could be 15 through 20 hours long... a sprawling adventure featuring a great journey through the age of the dying Greek gods, and the birth of the ravenous Norse giants.

We do know that the game is set between the worlds of Greek mythology and Norse lore. Exactly to what extent will this crossover play into the overall story arc of the game? I'm not sure, but during the E3 press interviews Barlog did say that Kratos' son could understand what the Norse giants were saying, but Kratos could not. There's a lot of story opportunities available there that could make for a really cool adventure in the upcoming God of War... reboot? Sequel? Resequel? Rebootquel?

Anyway, many gamers have already begun estimating due dates on God of War 4 going gold. Some people have estimated that this means we could be seeing the game finished as soon as early as late 2017, or as late as early 2018. There are already people proclaiming a fall 2017 release or a March 2018 window.

Some people began asking Barlog about this newest God of War taking advantage of the PS4 Pro's visual capabilities and really making sure the game pops visually. If the E3 trailer is anything to go by... the game will definitely pop. And now that we know it's playable from start to finish, we just have to wait soundly for a release date.