Naughty Dog game director has clarified that the masked loading areas God of War Ragnarok aren’t due to a PS4 hardware limitation.
Kurt Margenau, game director at Naughty Dog, took to Twitter to share his thoughts on an earlier statement from game journalist Gene Park regarding God of War Ragnarok being held back by slower data streaming and loading capabilities of the PS4 hardware.
According to Kurt, developers often use ‘squeeze through tight spaces’ sections to valve the player in to the next area, and to prevent them from going backwards. Similarly, characters giving each other boosts to higher ground are for preventing the player from leaving the combat space before any immediate threat has been dealt with. Your AI comrade can’t boost if they’re busy shooting and trying to say alive, he said.
Kurt added that any time you’re preventing the player from moving forward or back, you are naturally helping with loading as well. Any valve means you can clear out the level behind from the memory and start loading in the level ahead. Though, this is only the case once the ‘squeeze through’ section is finished.
Based on what Kurt said, these ‘squeeze through’ sections are more for dramatic effect, and for wanting to close the player into a tight area before popping them out into an open space. It also guarantees that the player enters the next space from an exact angle, likely for cinematic purposes, with an animated sequence that transitions them out of the ‘squeeze through’ section.
Kratos’ is officially set to embark on his latest adventure alongside his son Atreus on November 9, 2022, for the PS4 and PS5. Previously, new information regarding the resolution and frame rate in God of War Ragnarok on PS4 and PS5 were revealed. The pre-load as well as the review embargo date for the game have also been revealed.
