God of War: Ascension devs “pulled back” from violence against women

The God of War series is probably best known for its gloriously gratuitous guts ‘n’ gore, but if there’s a line in the bloody sand, it’s drawn in front of women. There’s fantasy violence, and then there’s an uncomfortably loaded resemblance to reality, and the people over at Sony Santa Monica would rather avoid any of that in God of War: Ascension.

“The team has a set of rules that define those sorts of things very clearly,” design manager David Hewitt told IGN.

“Where it shows itself is how the combat designers and animators have designed Kratos’ moves. He’s always leaning forward, he’s always moving forward. He’s seeking revenge and he’s after his ultimate objective and he will tear through enemies – rip them in half – as quickly as he can. But there’s not a lot of flourishes, there’s not any kind of enjoying the moment. There’s nothing about this that he’s enjoying.”

Understandably. I’d be pretty pissed if I’d sold my soul to Ares and been tricked into murdering my wife and little girl in return. Let’s have no more of that.

“There are some things we’ve pulled back from. I think where this has been an issue is with violence against women – the team’s pulled back from some of that and assessed that a little more carefully,” Hewitt explained. “There are certain things that carry a different kind of resonance that we don’t want to get into. This isn’t about statement-making in that regard. It’s about fleshing out this character.”

Besides, this game is supposed to be all about Kratos seeking “freedom, redemption and clarity”, so it makes sense to forget about that nasty business with Poseidon’s Princess.

God of War: Ascension is out in March 2013.