God of War Removes Most User-Interfaces With Immersive Mode

Publish date: 2023-12-17

'God of War' HUD-Free 'Immersive Mode' Explained

“God of War,” the part-sequel-part-reboot of the storied God of War franchise, will feature the ability to remove nearly all user-interfaces from your view of Kratos‘ world, leaving just the absolutely necessary HUD elements for the game, its heroes and villains to soak up your attention, the developers recently announced.

Players will be able to hop into the settings menu in the game at any time and turn on immersion mode, which “will cut things down to just the minimal absolute necessary HUD elements.” That mode can also be changed on the fly at any time.

The game also has the ability for players to go in and customize which of the HUD elements they want on or off, by using the touch pad on the Playstation 4. “This will enable players to truly customize their experience by adjusting visibility to HUD elements like enemy health bars, compass and enemy off screen indicators,” according to the developers.

The “God of War” blog post also added a bit more detail about the difference between the upcoming game’s four modes:

Give Me A Story: Lets you experience the story without too much of a difficult gameplay challenge. You won’t be taking a gondola to the top of the highest peaks in all the Norse Realms, but you will have a far greater margin for error in enemy encounters.

Give Me A Balanced Experience: The mode we’d recommend most players start with. The name says it all. We’ve tuned it to deliver a balanced, challenging playthrough.

Give Me A Challenge: Is harder and less forgiving. It is recommended for players who find action games extremely intuitive, and for confident long-time God of War series veterans who’ve beat past games on harder difficulties.

Give Me God of War: Is the sort of thing reserved for people who wrestle polar bears in their undies. Maybe not quite that, but it’s the most difficult mode in the game. We haven’t just made you weaker or enemies stronger; we’ve looked at enemy behaviors and placements in encounters as well, tweaking everything to make it as threatening as possible. Best of all, you cannot change difficulties once you start a game on this mode, so if you suddenly realize you’re in way over your head, you’ll have to start a new game. Don’t be sorry, be better?

While “God of War,” the eighth game in the franchise, is a sequel to third-person 2010 action game “God of War III,” it is also a reimagining of the classic God of War stories, which have always taken place against a backdrop of Greek Mythology. “God of War” finds Kratos in an Icelandic setting taking on the gods, demigods and creatures of Norse Mythology. He no longer wields his iconic dual-chain blades, instead using a magical axe and this time he has a son in tow.

“God of War” is due out on the Playstation 4 on April 20. Variety’s review of the game will go live at 3:01 a.m. ET on April 12.