God of War: Ascension 'pulls back' on violence against women

But it's not about making a statement, says a Sony Santa Monica staffer.

Sony Santa Monica is looking to "flesh out" Kratos' character a bit more. That entails "pulling back" on some of the violence against women in this year's God of War: Ascension, according to David Hewitt, the studio's game design manager.

In a chat with IGN, he noted how Kratos might execute enemies in a violent fashion, but it's always with the intention to keep moving forward -- to keep trudging toward his ultimate goal of revenge. Kratos doesn't enjoy or relish in any of the violence; it's all business to him. But the violence toward women is something the team did want to address.

"I think where this has been an issue is with violence against women -- the team’s pulled back from some of that and assessed that a little more carefully," said Hewitt. "There are certain things that carry a different kind of resonance that we don’t want to get into.

"This isn’t about statement-making in that regard. It’s about fleshing out this character."

Hewitt's comments are interesting, considering God of War fans definitely love the onscreen violence Kratos creates. It's also intriguing due to the recent conversations spawned by the "rape theme" in Crystal Dynamics' Tomb Raider reboot.

Hewitt discusses this and other things about God of War: Ascension in the full interview, so head over to IGN to check it out.

Staff article by Jonathan Davila (July 20, 2012) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this news article, you can update your bio from the Settings page.