Support NeoGAF

[IbizaPocholo]

God of War Was Almost a First-Person Game

Over the last 16 years, God of War has become one of PlayStation’s biggest franchises, but the series might not have been as successful had it gone in a different direction. Original God of War game director David Jaffe revealed in a recent installment of his “Gabbin + Games” YouTube series that...

comicbook.com

Original God of War game director David Jaffe revealed in a recent installment of his "Gabbin + Games" YouTube series that he had initially planned for the game to be a first-person adventure! Inevitably, the team settled on the third-person perspective that has been a staple of the series since 2005, but the game was almost a significantly different experience from the one fans got to enjoy on PlayStation 2.

"For a long time, for about four… ehh, three months, I was seriously considering going first-person. And the game I was looking at was a Dreamcast game (I think I'm pronouncing it right, it's called Maken X). It was not the world's best game but it was one of the few games where I saw melee combat done well in a first-person perspective, and I thought that would be a really cool way to differentiate ourselves... but I think ultimately, it just became difficult to get the kind of emotion and combat and sort of just character building that I was hoping to do. So, I can't fathom that idea surviving long enough to even pitch it to Tim Moss, the lead programmer. I think when it came to Tim, it was a third-person game," said Jaffe.

 

[A.Romero]

Good call making it third person.

 

[Protocol7]

Happy they stayed with 3rd person.
What a let down if it had been in 1st person...

 

[stranno]

Biohazard as well. Until Shinji Mikami played Alone in the Dark and said: yeah, let's copy this.

 

[jigglet]

What a let down if it had been in 1st person...

what would it have been a letdown from if it was first person from the get go?

 

[MidGenRefresh]

Happy they stayed with 3rd person.
What a let down if it had been in 1st person...

I don't know man, Sony could use some first-person games to spice their catalogue up.

 

[Great Hair]

what would it have been a letdown from if it was first person from the get go?

first person (non vr) is boring, narrow FOV and in this case, kratos first person is somewhat an oxymoron. There is a reason nintendo ain´t making mario an fps ..

 

[Rippa]

Thanks to the universe that they saw the light and made it third-person.

If it isn’t a competitive shooter, First person can go to the toilet for all I care.

 

[jigglet]

first person (non vr) is boring, narrow FOV and in this case, kratos first person is somewhat an oxymoron. There is a reason nintendo ain´t making mario an fps ..

I never said I wanted first person and I agree with it being third person. But the words he used was “let down”, compared to what? If it was first person it probably wouldn’t have been a hit and you probably would have never even known about it. If it never appeared on your radar what is there to be let down by.

 

[chaseroni]

First person is just bad game design...

 

[sainraja]

Biohazard as well. Until Shinji Mikami played Alone in the Dark and said: yeah, let's copy this.

But the need for them to make it first person never died — seeing how the mainline series now are in that perspective. Which is just a shame.

 

[MDSLKTR]

The game was probably too difficult in first person.

 

[DevilHunterX0]

Should have checked this out as well. Breakdown, XboX, 2004

 

[Bakkus]

davidjaffe Is this true or was it more of an idea which gained a bit of mileage?

 

[TintoConCasera]

Hey, a first-person action melee game can be awesome too. Imagine something like Dark Messiah mixed with the over the top action of Bulletstorm... I would play that.