Cory Balrog on God of War II secrets, deleted features

Cory Balrog opens his personal Pandora's Box about directing God of War II , Greek mythology, and some surprising features that didn't make the final cut.

**Read the full God of War II review.

GamePro: Do you consider this an episodic sequel to God of War?

Cory Balrog: It could be construed as episodic. To us, God of War has always been considered a trilogy. If the fans are into it, I'd love to finish it off; but each game stands as its own individual tale.

In a battle with the Cyclops, you rip his eye out. One of the unreleased finishing moves showed the eyeball in Cyclops's mouth and Kratos then stepping on Cyclops's head. You know, that was a little too much. It just didn't fit."
--Cory Balrog, director of God of War II

GP: Did you go for more--bigger, badder, and bloodier--to try and push God of War II beyond God of War?

Cory Balrog: That was kind of a big thing for us to make sure that we didn't just become complacent. It's a continuation of the story, but we wanted to enable players to experience more of the epic set pieces that you see in a movies. We want you to do what you see there in real-time now, so there's a lot more that actually happens in game play. There's more animation and a lot more of the brutal finishing moves. Enemies have more animations to them, and Kratos has more weapons. We've added more to God of War, but we have also enhanced what is already there.

GP: Did you rebuild the game engine?

Cory Balrog: It's still the same one we created for God of War. It's funny. When we finished the first game, we were like, "Oh, this is it! We've pushed the PS2 as far as it can go. Look at us!" But in reality, once we started analyzing it, we realized there was more we could do. But because we didn't have to rewrite the engine from scratch, all the artists had a little bit more time to think about things such as higher resolution. God of War II runs faster. Now we get more enemies on the screen at a higher resolution, so everything evolved. With this game we can say, "That is as far as the system can go."

GP: Sounds suspiciously like a company line. Is that really as far as the PS2 can go?

Cory Balrog: I don't think so. [laughs] You can really push the system further. I think the PS2 hardware still has a lot of life in it; it just takes creativity to unlock it.

GP: Were there things that you left out that you wanted to put in, but for whatever reason decided not to?

I think my favorites are still the Sisters of Fate. They are kind of the main antagonists in the story. Towards the end of the game, you see how much they are influencing events."
--Cory Balrog

Cory Balrog: As far as anything that was too over the top or too violent, there were a couple of situations that just didn't fit the character. It was an early, early video I think that might have gotten out on the Internet. In a battle with Cyclops, you climb up onto him and then you rip his eye out. One of the finishing animations showed the eyeball in Cyclops's mouth and Kratos then stepping on Cyclops's head. You know, that was a little too much. It was cool and we kind of had to laugh about it, but it was just a little too much. It just didn't fit.

[In the original version of GOW II] we started out with a huge game! It was massive, like 25 hours of gameplay. It was unrealistic; we're never going to finish this, so we lost a lot of really cool levels and cool ideas, but what I think was great is they weren't as cool as the ones we left in.

GP: How much gameplay would you say there is?

Cory Balrog: I would say we have about 15 to 17 hours. That is what our play testing has been ranging in, but if you go really, really fast there are probably people who can finish in 12 hours.

GP: Can you tell us two or three of the key game play improvements?

Cory Balrog: The combo system has changed. We added new weapons and the ability to swap them in mid-combo, so as long as you aren't doing a special, you can hit R2 and go right into another weapon. It's a fast and accessible system.

Then we added the grapple. One button press enables you to grapple onto different points in the environment and then from there create bigger cinematic action sequences. I would say definitely the larger set pieces directly tie into the game now. When you encounter Atlas, for instance, you are actually climbing onto the joints of this Titan, so he's part of the game play.

GP: And so are there more boss fights in God of War II than there are in God of War?

Cory Balrog: Oh, yeah. I think we have more than 10 bosses.

GP: What are some of the new mythological creatures?

Cory Balrog: We have kind of a new siren. We have griffins and the griffin riders during the Pegasus flying sequences. I love the functionality of those guys and the cyclops trainers. The trainers can actually blow a horn to summon the cyclops. If you don't kill those guys they will just keep on their horns to call in more cyclops. The trainers can actually jump on their backs and control them, too.

GP: Which characters are your favorites?

Cory Balrog: I think my favorites are still the Sisters of Fate. They are kind of the main antagonists in the story. Towards the end of the game, you see how much they are influencing events.

GP: In Greek mythology don't they control human fate?

Cory Balrog: Yeah. Clotho, Atropos, and Lachesis--they are the Three Sisters of Fate. I am a huge fan of that whole concept, so they are pretty cool characters in the game.

GP: And then you have creatures returning from God of War?

Cory Balrog: Yeah, we are bringing back the minotaurs and the Cyclops, of course. But we designed different ones and new variations of those guys.

GP: How about the Medusa?

Cory Balrog: We have her sister, actually, who is extremely upset with Kratos for killing her sister.

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