As part of the ongoing God of War Ragnarök coverage, today Game Informer provided a brief but juicy look at Svartalfheim, the realm of the Dwarves that will be featured in Sony Santa Monica's upcoming game.
Lead level designer James Riding said:
We wanted to evolve the gameplay in the level spaces – more variety and verticality. In Svartalfheim, you’ve got a lot of places that you go to all within one realm. It’s so much content.
It was a little lonely in the last game. So, specifically with Svartalfheim, we’re trying to show this lived world. There are things here besides just you two.
Level designer Jon Hickenbottom added:
We wanted to show off the dwarves and what they’ve been doing here. They’re using water to propel and move things. Even throughout the different biomes, you can see the dwarves creating huge environments. And then when Kratos comes in, it’s like, how does he bend the environment to his will?
According to Game Informer's Jason Guisao, Svartalfheim will feature sprawling cities like the fabled Niðavellir and amenities like artificial water channels and mine pits. These will factor into the puzzles of God of War Ragnarök, with Kratos needing to use his weapons to get across the environments. For example, the Leviathan axe can freeze geysers, while the Blades of Chaos can dismantle pots. Atreus will also help his father deal with out-of-reach devices.
Svartalfheim was not featured in the previous game, as lore explained that Odin had locked the path to avoid the risk of an alliance between Dwarves and the Vanir, the enemies of the Aesir gods.
However, God of War Ragnarök includes all of the Nine Realms: Alfheim, Asgard, Helheim, Jötunheim, Midgard, Muspelheim, Niflheim, Svartalfheim, and Vanaheim.
The game is set to launch for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on Wednesday, November 9th.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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