New God Of War Footage Shows Old Man Kratos Has Still Got It

One of the big new games on the horizon for the PlayStation 4 is God of War. Everyone was expecting to see more of the game at this year's E3 and Santa Monica Studios absolutely delivered with a blockbuster trailer that aired during Sony's press conference.

The trailer starts with a boat in the water. The camera pans up to the older and grizzled Kratos. The battle-worn and hardened warrior is with his son, Atreus.

The two of them are on a great journey, but so far the creative director, Cory Barlog, has not said exactly why the two are on this great journey, but the clips begin to possibly reveal why.

In the previous interviews Barlog revealed that only Atreus can understand what the Norse gods are saying. Atreus remarks how his ability to communicate with the gods makes him cursed in the eyes of his father.

The dynamic of the trailer seems to center around Kratos and his son making this perilous journey to a special location. One of the interesting things that Barlog revealed during one of the E3 sitdowns was that the boat we see in the trailer actually plays a huge role in the overall gameplay of God of War. How big a role? Well, it will apparently be similar to The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker and how Link used the raft to travel between the isles.

We don't get to find out exactly how many locations are going to be in the game, but we do know that there are at least several. Additionally we finally get to see the combat on display in God of War as Kratos fights multiple enemies. Even though we briefly saw some of the combat in the original E3 demonstration from the E3 2016 press conference, this year we were able to see some kill moves, Kratos' use of his mystical axe (almost using it like Captain America's shield), and some other really awesome AOE magic abilities to completely take out various enemies in the surrounding area.

The combat is a lot more intimate this time around, compared to the other PS2 and PS3 God of War titles, while also still maintaining the hard-hitting, visceral combat system that we see in the newest PS4 and PS4 Pro title.

Throughout the trailer we learn that Kratos' new wife helps guide and chide him and the way he deals with his son Atreus. His son isn't just there as window dressing, though. Atreus will be playable in some small capacity with the bow and arrow gameplay.

Some of the larger than life bosses also appear to make a return, and we're teased with a few hints at what we can expect from the game. Santa Monica Studios expects to launch the game in early 2018. No exact release date has been set yet, but expect a release date to get ironed out no later than the PlayStation Experience later this year. God of War is currently available for pre-order over on the PlayStation web portal.