God of War is already looking like a work of bloody, battered art. However, Kratos’ fourth main-series game isn’t just eye-poppingly good to look at; it’s going above and beyond in the technical department too. The director of cinematography for God of War confirms that the game will not only come without loading screens, but also without a single camera cut.
In a video for PlayStation, Dori Arazi reveals that the concept of implementing a system which allowed God of War to run seamlessly without a single pause in motion looked “impossible” at first.
Now, though, he’s proud to unveil something that he’s even going as far as saying that “a player wouldn’t have experienced anything like this far before.” It’s all going to be in one single shot, no change of camera angles, no loading screen, plus cinematics will be going directly into gameplay, and vice-versa. It’s impressive, to say the least.
God of War is aiming to pull off something that is often talked about (how many times have we heard developers brag about a lack of loading screens?) but never implemented to this scale. The only thing I think it comes close to would be the extraordinarily iconic Rope or, more recently, Birdman. Both were designed to look like they were filmed in a single shot; God of War will be the very first video game to attempt it.
While the “Herculean effort of communication” surely gave the team and Arazi many a sleepless night, this might just represent a massive leap forward for video games. This is unprecedented – and gives us another reason to get to grips with Kratos yet again on April 20.
