Where do you want Santa Monica Studios to go next?

[Oscorp]

With the reviews of God of War: Ascension coming out and the surprisingly mild scores it gets compared to its predecessors, is this concept starting to get old?

Even though the disappointing scores, I love everything I've seen from the game and I think that I myself will enjoy it more than God of War 3. But I can see that moving on with something else might be good for the studio. I'm not sure what there is to do if they're to make another God of War game.

And now with the PS4 coming up, it might be a good time to start with a new IP.

This begs the question: what do you want them to do next? Continue with GoW or something else?

I myself love what they do with God of War so much, that while I want to see them do something new for the PS4, I also want them to keep many things that make the GoW-games so great. Here's a list of what I'd want in a Santa Monica Studios game:

* Keep it linear. Don't fall into the trap of free roam. A linear game fits Santa Monica because that way they can show you exactly what they want, make it more cinematic, have the great visuals they are famous for, have the game be more exciting etc.

* Keep it hack 'n slash. Santa Monica are so great at this (they're the best out there if you ask me), I don't want them to start making another shooter.

* Keep the tone of the God of War games. With that, I mean the brutality and anger, the epicness, the scale, the style, the mysterious feel and so on.

* Don't base it off anything that's already existing. Make something out of completely original ideas. That way, the imagination has no limits.

* When it comes to style and set, I want a mix of GoW-like fantasy and present time. Mysterious monsters and characters, magic, dark feeling, no gun wielding protagonist but using super powers of some sort, ancient architecture mixed in with new etc.


I guess one can say that what I'd want is basically a God of War game but with a new protagonist, new story, new weapons and powers, set in a completely original world based on nothing but Santa Monica's own imagination. Not completely ancient, not completely present day or future, but a mix of some sort.

Now I'm very interested in what's on your mind!

 

[Jick]

What I wished for was that Santa Monica would already be working on a new IP, maybe even for the PS4, instead of insisting with GOW. Don't take me wrong. Uncharted 2 might be my favorite game, but God of War is my favorite franchise. It's because I like it so much that I don't want to see it being exhausted and, in my opinion, I feel it is. We already had a prequel with Chains of Olympus so I feel Ascension is truly unnecessary.

As for keeping it linear, I agree. I like linear games way more than free-roam. Some people talk of linear like it is a bad thing.
I also like the idea of basing it on something new and even with mixing the fantasy of GoW with something contemporary.
As for keeping it hack'n slash, well, I'm willing to see what else they can do. If they make it like that again, then I hope it plays differently. One of the reasons I'm tired of GoW is because of the gameplay. If they want to go with something different, like a shooter, but one that is different from all the others, then I'm ok to. My mind is always open to new ideas.

 

[Havok83]

That says it all

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

Some ideas:

-a new character action game
Sony SMS has a lot of experience here. No sense throwing 100% of their expertise out.

-a new protagonist or multiple protagonist
A new playable male character, or perhaps you can choose from at least two. Maybe they are brother and sister or something. They better be likeable, which Kratos is not.

-a new mythology
Greek mythology is out. Some other religion (or entirely original concept) is in.

-design choices
Branching paths, optional missable missions, multiple endings, etc. Not exactly Zelda or Beyond Good and Evil but a little more in that direction.

Or they could just reboot or continue Heavenly Sword. That's another avenue.

 

[Oscorp]

I know this is an impossibility but I'd love to see a Santa Monica Studios take on Wolverine.

 

[Soapy]

I personally feel that God of War has been "old" since the second one. I loved the first one, but everything after it has just seemed kind of boring and played out to me.

I would definitely want them to hand God of War off to someone else and go in a different direction with a new IP.

 

[Oscorp]

As I said in the GoW thread, now that I've played the multiplayer in GoW:A, I must say that it's really, really fun and much deeper than I expected! Sadly though, the single player experience is very disappointing to say the least.

So I've changed my mind a bit. I want SMS to focus entirely on a multiplayer game next time. They've run out of good ideas for singleplayer but they seem very inspired when it comes to multiplayer. We need multiplayers that differ from the usual shooting games.

 

[Oscorp]

Skip what I've said before, I'm all for a Norse based game!