Sony Studio Marvel Matchup: Sony Santa Monica

A little while ago I wrote about how much of Insomniac Games’ Spider-Man seemed like extensions of concepts they had established in their Ratchet & Clank series here: https://shopping-feedback.today/stories/insomniac-s-spider-man-shouldn-t-have-surprised-me%3C/p%3E%3Cstyle data-emotion-css="14azzlx-P">.css-14azzlx-P{font-family:Droid Serif,Georgia,Times New Roman,Times,serif;font-size:1.1875rem;-webkit-letter-spacing:0.01em;-moz-letter-spacing:0.01em;-ms-letter-spacing:0.01em;letter-spacing:0.01em;line-height:1.6;color:#1A1A1A;margin-top:32px;}

This and thinking about Sony’s desires to make more Marvel games made me want to fantasize about what prominent Sony studios could possibly make. Realisticly most of Sony’s studios should not make Marvel games when they are already successfully making games with original ideas. Nevertheless for each studio I write about I aim going to pick what Marvel game they should make if they had to, why that’s a reasonable choice and how they should do it. I’m starting with an obvious pick, if SIE Santa Monica Studio makes a Marvel game it should be Thor.

The reason why Santa Monica Studio’s Marvel game of choice would be Thor is because they’ve already nailed a game with a Norse setting. Santa Monica Studio’s 2018 God of War is one of the best received games of all time. God of War’s mythology is closer to real Norse mythology than Marvel’s but there is enough in common for Santa Monica Studio to bring concepts from God of War into a Thor game. Furthermore, blending aspects from previous God of War games’ Greek setting into the more recent Norse setting shows that the studio could balance focusing mainly on Thor’s Norse roots but blending in elements of the wider Marvel Universe.

Of course they would try to add new and exciting mechanics to a Thor game but what was present in God of War is already so good that they would only need a few tweaks to make the incredible foundation more suited to Thor. First of all Thor would use his hammer Mjolnir instead of the leviathan axe, it could be used basically the same but hit with a heavier blunt force rather than cutting and piercing. Blunt strikes would also help keep the combat less brutal than in God of War. If part of the appeal of making a superhero game is that it is more accessible it would make sense if they tried to keep a Thor game rated T or lower. Sometimes games use robots or other creatures as enemies to let the violence against them be less controversial but I think using Mjolnir handling like a more crushing leviathan axe could avoid the M rating that God of War has. The other staple in Thor’s combat aside from Mjolnir is lightning powers. The combat in the latest God of War is supplemented by ice and fire effects and Thor using just lightning would seem like less variety but I think Santa Monica Studio could do some pretty creative combat with it when paired with Mjolnir.

Another concept that would transfer nicely is how God of War let players utilize Kratos’ son Atreus to help in combat. In a Marvel Thor game side characters could be used similarly or even be expanded to full characters that could be controlled by a second player. In this approach they could include members of the Avengers but I would rather see them rely on other Asgardian characters like Sif and Valkyrie to make the story feel more like an adventure unique to Thor.

Finally, I’d love to see Santa Monica Studio fill a Thor game with Marvel Easter Eggs but use their creativity to justify their inclusion. It obviously makes sense to include nods to other Marvel characters in a Thor game but I think Santa Monica Studio could do it more naturally than most. There is a tendency for game developers to highlight parts of the world with lighting or certain colours to tell the player where the should go or what they can climb. Most people don’t think much of it but more critical folks sometimes think it takes away from a games realism or sense of exploration. The inclusion of illuminated paths in God of War clearly didn’t hurt the game too much as it’s considered one of the greatest games of all time. Yet Santa Monica Studio went even further by providing narrative reason for why these paths existed in the game. This type of thinking could elevate simple Easter Eggs into more meaningful connections to the wider Marvel Universe Sony is trying to create.