God of War III pitched as FPS; struck down

by James Ransom-Wiley on Oct 2nd 2009 12:42PM

Okay, picture this: Ripping off Helios' head ... but from Kratos' perspective. Pretty gripping, right? "Genius" even! At least, that's how art director Ken Feldman described his failed pitch for God of War III as an FPS to game director Stig Asmussen. "I tried unsuccessfully to convince Stig to make God of War III a first-person shooter," recounted Feldman in an interview with CGSociety. "Unfortunately, he didn't see the genius in the idea."

You know Ken, we're not really seeing it either. But then, true genius is often only recognized in hindsight by us casual thinkers. Now ... if next year's sequel had been "God of War Resort" -- bundled with the Motion Controller? ... Brilliant!

[Via MCV]

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Tags: concept, fps, god-of-war, god-of-war-3, god-of-war-fps, god-of-war-iii, ken-feldman, sce-studios-santa-monica, scea, Sony-Computer-Entertainment-America, sony-santa-monica, stig-asmussen

Reader Comments (91)

Well, it could be cool to rip off the head of Helios from a first-person perspective, but I doubt that it could work as a full length game. Perhaps maybe for certain sequences.

that's what I was thinking while reading this. Maybe a points throughout the game, but the entire game, no way.

An L1 option in the top of the screen during some scenes maybe?

Sometimes dipsh*ts think they are geniuses. Thankfully this time someone smart was around to say "what? no you giant idiot."

A greek mythology FPA (First Person Adventure a la Bioshock and Metroid Prime) would work great... But not for Kratos' plot.

Save it for the next series, if they do one.

i think a better example would be oblivion becausr really, both those games were mostly shooters

Yeah, I agree with Wayne. Zeno Clash was a FPA though, unless you just decided to only use guns.

Right, Oblivion, completely spaced on that.

But... I kinda lean to that being an FPRPG so... But yeah, it would also fall under the FPA classification.

We need more first person adventures/experiences in this industry. We have so few with the bethesda RPG's, metroid prime, Mirror's Edge, Bioshock and F.E.A.R., it'd be nice to see another entry into the gameplay style.

Don't we have enough FPS? Does everything have to be FPS? Up next.. SUPER MARIO FPS.

Mario ENTIRELY in FP wouldn't work to well...I mean he ALWAYS has things coming up behind him...

Can you imagine trying to get by a Boo and have to keep turning around so he stops coming at you? you would go DIZZY!

next? shit, that was YEARS ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieci57RNILU

Alternatively:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p0Yap5iG6o

I can see the atomic koopa shell spitting BFG now!

SO PICTURE THIS: Mirrors edge but with giant chain blades.

It could work.

And then you would vomit because you're constantly doing comboes with 720 spins every 5 seconds.

See, the thing is, Mirror's Edge didn't really work. And I think it had a lot to do with the fact that it tried to force a FPS perspective into a game concept where it doesn't fit very well.

Don't mean to offend those who enjoyed Mirror's Edge -- it had a lot going for it, and it should be applauded for trying something different. Some people really dug it. But from a sales standpoint, it fizzled. Which means it didn't resonate with enough gamers to make the experiment worthwhile. Not many developers are going to want go out on the same limb after seeing what happened with Mirror's Edge.

I kinda see where he was coming from. The only game that kinda pulled off hand-to-hand first person combat was Breakdown for Xbox. It did get a little nauseous when pulling backwards kicks and the shooting was horrid. Very underrated game though.

I hate melee weapons in FPS'. This would have been terrible.

"I tried unsuccessfully to convince Stig to make God of War III a first-person shooter. Unfortunately, he didn't see the genius in the idea."

maybe because there's NO genius in the idea?

Unless the "genius" would have been actually doing melee well in an FPS, of course...

I reply to myself just to get the email... I am lonely ;)

too bad it reply failed.

Thank Zeus no one listened to Feldman. Combat with Mirror's Edge was a step in the right direction, but it has a long way to go. There is a certain excitement in seeing a ripped and angry Kratos tear apart monsters. ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlkOx3v-uCo

I can't believe so many people are so against the idea. I'm not saying it's guaranteed to work, but why not consider it? So many people are so willing to accept the status quo and say THANK YOU for not making a first-person GOW - why? See it/play it before you judge it.

And to the person who complained about the Metroid Prime games - you must be kidding. The pre-Prime Metroids were amazing, but to call the Prime Trilogy anything less than spectacular is ridiculous. And remember - you don't have to like it to say it's spectacular. No, really. I can't stand Fallout 3, but that doesn't mean it's a shitty game. It means it's not my cup of tea.

The notion of taking one of the best action platformers of all time, god of war, and turning it into a shooter is mind boggling and moronic. This is a scenario in which you have an idea and KEEP IT TO YOURSELF. I wish I could've been a fly on the wall in that conference room when the idea was pitched and summarily shot down. I bet some facial expressions were priceless.

God of War shooter. Yeah that's a great idea! How about a god of war kart race while we're at it.

"God of War shooter. Yeah that's a great idea! How about a god of war kart race while we're at it."

If GoW was a Nintendo IP, you betcha.

FPS is easily my favorite genre, but no, just no.

How word FS perspective work? He spins around and jumps around to the point it would be very disorienting. What a horrible idea. With that style gameplay, they'd either made you sick, or they'd water down his powers... both bad ideas.

It's actually been done before, and I think it can still be done well as a GOW franchise (presuming Kratos doesn't die in this last installment, or if it's a prequel).

The game I'm referring to is Condemned and Condemned 2.

I don't know what significance Ken Feldman had before now, but if he suggested that it's time to let him go

I think people would be more open to it if it was introduced in a new game, not popular series where people have a certain set of expectations. You will just piss off most of your fanbase.

This wouldn't be such a bad idea as a spin off game or an extra feature within GoW3 (having the choice between a 1st and a 3rd person camera during gameplay), just so long as the gameplay doesn't change to pure FPS in first person mode. First Person Brawlers would be pretty cool actually.

So will Feldman be collaborating with Yahtzee on his new ambitious project, "Mankind Has Yet to Recognize My Genius"? ;)

and what would he be shooting with?

First person would be cool ONLY if they took the Mirror's Edge route and made the camera view chane a lot in correspondence to his movements. I'd be down with that.

Yeah, first person shooter set before the advent of gunpowder! Awesome!

part of the fun of GOW is watching kratos swing his blades. i don't want a GOW:condemned.

Interesting idea, but I dunno how well it would've worked. Then again, everyone thought a first-person Metroid was absolutely nuts, and that worked out pretty well.

Genius!!! :-P

Theres so much criticism of the higher-ups of game publishing companies. Lets just take a moment to thank them for all the incredibly stupid game ideas they've rejected over the years.

I want a first person Wolverine game.

A shame, it would have made me actually want to play this game. GOW3 is already too same-y to the other games for me to stand any longer.

Previous 50 Comments

God of War III pitched as FPS; struck down

Reader Comments (91)

Posted: Oct 2nd 2009 12:56PM Tre said

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