God of War Ragnarök Photo Mode to Come After Launch, Santa Monica Studio Reveals

Photo mode will be added as part of a post-launch update, just like with the 2018 version.

Written by Rahul Chettiyar, Edited by Akhil Arora, Siddharth Suvarna | Updated: 27 October 2022 15:35 IST

God of War Ragnarök Photo Mode to Come After Launch, Santa Monica Studio Reveals

Photo Credit: Santa Monica Studio

God of War Ragnarök introduces decapitations to the series

Highlights

God of War Ragnarök releases November 9, on PS4 and PS5
Santa Monica Studio dropped a dev diary video focused on combat, enemies
The game will feature shield variety tailored to parries and blocks

God of War Ragnarök will not include a photo mode at launch. In a tweet, developer Santa Monica Studio confirmed that the in-game photo capture mode for the hotly-anticipated action sequel will be introduced as part of a post-release patch. Present-day PlayStation-exclusives — from Spider-Man: Miles Morales to The Last of Us Part I — are notorious for including an extensive photo mode, letting players mess around with several editing tools, and admire and examine details with added flair. But budding virtual photographers will have to wait longer with God of War Ragnarök.

That said, the absence of a photo mode at launch isn't out of the ordinary for the Santa Monica Studio-helmed GoW reboot series. Even 2018's God of War received the mode about a month after its launch on PS4, as part of a version 1.20 update, which included some UI tweaks for the game. The photo mode at the time included filters, custom borders, logo watermarks, camera pan, and exposure and focus levels, to name just a few. Hopefully, the upcoming God of War Ragnarök improves upon the feature set to deliver a better photo capture and sharing experience.

Photo Mode will be coming to God of War Ragnarök after launch - we'll share more details closer to when we plan to release it.

We can't wait to see all of your captures once it's live! https://t.co/IgSvlnzUbx
— Santa Monica Studio – God of War Ragnarök (@SonySantaMonica) October 26, 2022

Earlier this week, the studio dropped a development-focused video, highlighting combat animations and enemy design in God of War Ragnarök. The 2018 version saw Kratos and young Atreus journeying to the Mountaintops of the Giants, with the latter being quite dependent on your skillset, both in terms of traversal and fight sequences. Amidst Fimbulwinter — a prelude to the titular apocalypse — three years have passed now, with a now teenaged Atreus showing changes in personality and combat styles, serving more as a partner than a liability. “For this game, you will see Atreus moving more independently, on his own, as a companion,” said Grace Pan, gameplay animator, in the dev diary.

“So as Kratos gets more powerful, he's gonna have access to newer combos and newer abilities that will increase the combat depth of each weapon,” explains Steven Oyarijivbie, combat designer, God of War Ragnarök. The grapple is a new feature, allowing Kratos to wield his Blades of Chaos, and use its sharp tips to latch onto elevated ledges and pull himself up, akin to the Batman: Arkham games. Shield loadout also sees an expansion, catering to both parry and blocking experts.

For instance, the new Dauntless is smaller in size, allowing for last-second parries or deflects that build up the ability to toss enemies and stagger them. Meanwhile, the Stonewall is the more brutish choice — slower in motion and absorbs a ton of damage from incoming monsters. Santa Monica Studio has also mapped a new ability to the triangle button, which was intended to call back the Leviathan Axe, via a tap in the 2018 version. Holding it in God of War Ragnarök activates a signature move assigned to the armament, inflicting heavy damage. This is in addition to pre-fall attacks and decapitations, the latter of which is triggered by building up the stun meter.

God of War: Ragnarök is out November 9 on PS4 and PS5.

Is PS Plus better than Xbox Game Pass now? We discuss this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

God of War Ragnarök

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS

Good
Very cinematic
Writing, direction are solid
Character growth defined by your playstyle
Combat does more with less
Variety and diversity
Elemental effects look cool

Bad
Camera is too tight
Companions could have been more helpful
Too much old-school level design
Plays like a loot simulator in places

Read detailed Sony God of War Ragnarök review

Genre Action-Adventure

Platform PlayStation 4 (PS4), PlayStation 5 (PS5)

Modes Single-player

Series God of War

PEGI Rating 18+

More Sony Games

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Further reading: god of war, god of war ragnarok, god of war ragnarok photo mode, god of war ragnarok release date, santa monica studio, playstation 4, playstation 5, ps4, ps5, sony interactive entertainment