God Of War: Ragnarök finally shares gameplay details a year after its reveal

metro.co.uk:

The combat designers for God Of War: Ragnarok have explained some of Kratos’ new techniques and their approach to the sequel’s combat.

Sony has kept God Of War: Ragnarök tightly under wraps ever since its announcement. Even though it’s out in just a few months, there has only ever been one trailer with actual gameplay in it and the rest have all beenpre-rendered.

While there still isn’t any new gameplay to watch, some new details have been shared courtesy of combat designers Mihir Sheth and Denny Yeh, both of whom also worked on the 2018 game.

With the sequel, the team obviously wanted to expand on the combat and make it more varied. Not just by incorporating new enemy types, but by giving players more tools to work with and tailoring to different playstyles.

Perhaps the best example of this is Kratos’ different shields. In the last game, you only ever had one shield and upgraded it through the course of the story. In God Of War: Ragnarök, however, you have two shields that each have unique traits.

The Dauntless shield comes with a parry ability that can reflect attacks and stun enemies when performed correctly. The Stonewall shield, meanwhile, is designed for those who prefer to tank hits, since it can’t parry and instead absorbs attacks to charge energy. Once full, you can unleash a shockwave.

‘Kratos plays with his food. We tried to create systems you want to engage with that are fun, very playful, lots of different routes,’ Sheth told Game Informer.

‘And when we looked at the combat in the last game, we were like, ‘We can push this further; we can find new toys and ways of playing with enemies and strategies.’ That’s been the guiding principle more than anything else.’

This also extends to Kratos’ weapons. We already know