One of the topics that Barlog touched on is the mythology that God of War is based on. Barlog revealed that the developers in fact considered three different mythologies before deciding on creating a story that is informed by Norse mythology. The other three candidates were Egyptian, Inca, and Hindu mythology. After the first round of elimination was over, only Egyptian and Norse mythologies were left to be considered for the game. There was a 50/50 percent chance on either of the two being selected, but in the end, it was Barlog himself who cast the final vote in favor of the Norse setting.
As an indication of how seriously the Egyptian setting was considered, Barlog revealed images of explorative concept art that was created to visualize an Egyptian God of War. The image from the Devcom conference below shows a sphynx and a masked warrior similar to the soldiers of Anubis in The Mummy or the Ushabti in Warhammer.
As is seen in this image above, Atreus is also present, but like his father, his outfit is clearly inspired by Egyptian gear. In the image below, Barlog shows off the evolution of Atreus from a young Egyptian boy to the Norse Atreus that we know now, which apparently also “scared many people.”
Finally, Barlog mentioned that the team at Santa Monica had three years of content, which we can assume might have included the Egyptian content as well, but only two years of content was good enough to turn into a game. According to Barlog, there were constant discussions on what to keep and what to cut, but judging from the high sales and critical acclaim of God of War, the developers sure made the right choice by sticking with the Norse setting.
God of War is available now for PlayStation 4.
