Considering that Kratos was walking around with a little kid in God of War’s first E3 trailer, players could be forgiven for not being excited about Atreus when the game was first announced. However, Sony Santa Monica has posted a video showing the kid is far from a helpless burden.
Many games that involve adult players escorting children around are used to having to deal with renewed frustrations as they play; kids being kids, they can’t fight, can’t run as fast as you, and often fill the time between encounters with inane chatter. Atreus, however, doesn’t appear to be that way.
The game’s E3 2016 trailer showed that Kratos was teaching the boy to hunt, and he’ll put it to good use over the course of the game. He’ll drop kick enemies, hold them in place while Kratos turns his attention to other threats, and will shoot arrows to harass enemies that Kratos is fighting.
Along with that, he can read Viking runes, so he’ll be useful at translating the various Norse writing that he and Kratos will be encountering over the course of the game. And finally, what makes him the best; he’ll try and keep out of Kratos’s way.
During the 15 minutes of gameplay that Sony Santa Monica released earlier this week, Atreus managed to keep out of the hands of most of the enemies they fought, only being caught once and hit once. He swiftly recovered as well, meaning that if he’s hit, you don’t have to waste valuable time picking him up again.
Considering that he’s the son of a demigod, Atreus likely has something special about him that’s going to be making him important in the story, and in the sequels as well. Players will just have to find out what when God of War comes out on the Playstation 4 and Playstation 4 Pro on April 20.
