It’s becoming evident that Sony Santa Monica’s God of War Ragnarok is held back by the PS4 hardware, as the game has many masked loading areas that likely wouldn’t have been present had the game been PS5 only.
Game Journalist Gene Park took to Twitter to share some early impressions from God of War Ragnarok, and his takeaway is that the game is very much a PS4 game first, with many “slide through the crack in the wall” loading screens in the opening areas alone.
Park termed God of War Ragnarok as a safe sequel, and stated that it’s hard not to take note of this during the first couple of hours of gameplay. Games during the previous console generation, including 2018’s God of War, had plenty of masked loading areas for instances where they needed to load in a large chunk of assets for the region ahead.
With a much faster I/O sub-system, the PS5 has demonstrated with games like Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart that it is capable of providing a more seamless experience with minimal interruptions due to background loading of assets. However, given that God of War Ragnarok is also required to run on PS4, the level design needed to take this into account. As a result, fans should expect many instances where they’ll be forced to slide through tight spaces for a few seconds before arriving at a new area in God of War Ragnarok.
Previously, new information regarding the resolution and frame rate in God of War Ragnarok on PS4 and PS5 were revealed. Those with early copies of God of War Ragnarok have revealed information regarding the game’s resolution and frame rate, as well as the performance modes that players will be available to choose. Players can choose from a variety of performance settings in God of War Ragnarok, which essentially comes down to four options.
Kratos’ is officially set to embark on his latest adventure alongside his son Atreus on November 9, 2022, for the PS4 and PS5. The pre-load as well as the review embargo date for the game have also been revealed.
