The grand finale of the lengthy PlayStation State of Play yesterday showed why it was that lengthy, with a 20-minute gameplay (“gameplay”) preview of a new, non-mainline God of War entry, God of War Laufey.
Laufey is Faye, Kratos’ dead wife, who we see put to rest in the first game of the reboot. But as it turns out, we’re not playing a prequel; we’re instead playing a parallel story where Faye wakes up in “the afterlife of the gods” and faces off against at least two gods of war from other religions, with likely more to follow.
And she is aided by a talking gelatinous cube named Frank, voiced by Jack Quaid, fresh off his turn as Hughie in The Boys.
Yes, this is as confusing as it sounds, and as bizarre as you think it might look, between the cube and his friend, talking sword ribbons, bouncing around the battlefield, absorbing and bumping enemies. And he stands(?) alongside Faye in the cover art as well. Here’s what we know about Frank (Phranque) per the PlayStation blog:
“A curious cosmic cube with an earnest disposition. He will do whatever it takes to protect his friends and the creatures of the Everywhen.”
The cube’s existence has been mocked on social media since the God of War Laufey preview went live, some classifying it as a “quirk chungus,” character, shorthand for a cringey millennial comic relief-type creation.
While it is obvious there is going to be some lore explanation for the cube in the game, as if it is “cosmic,” it is no doubt some core element of this cosmic afterlife location, but as a combat aide, we’re certainly in different territory than commanding Atreus to shoot arrows at people.
It’s distracting and weird. It is very hard not to judge a book by its cover here, the idea that there needs to be some jello block of comic relief. No matter the explanation, it is very hard to imagine this feeling tonally appropriate for a God of War game, where the rest of the trailer has Faye locked in an epic battle with a dead god. In the background, bounce, bounce, bounce.
The core concept of Faye in this strange afterlife is cool, and obviously, the idea of finally fighting other religions’ gods is great. This seems like a better idea than just “Atreus’ next journey,” which seems like it could have been a different spinoff. But this preview shows a few problems, namely, things are becoming almost a parody with overly cutscene-y fights. Character modeling feels like it’s getting worse, with Deborah Ann Woll’s performance hindered by “clay”-looking animation. And…a cube. I don’t like the cube.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
