Santa Monica Studio has finally confirmed that God of War: Ragnarok will have a Photo Mode. However, it won’t be available at launch.
Santa Monica made this reply on Twitter to a media preview that mentioned that the game still did not have Photo Mode right now:
“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!”
While Santa Monica did not elaborate as to why Photo Mode did not make is not going to make it for launch, this response indicates their intent to make it as good as possible, instead of releasing a half-baked or unfinished mode.
Now, you may be wondering; what’s the big deal? Doesn’t the PlayStation already have its own Share feature? It’s true that the DualShock 4 and the DualSense already have their dedicated Share buttons, for the express purpose of sharing photos, and/or gameplay for games on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.
However, on God of War: Ragnarok’s predecessor, the 2018 God of War, Santa Monica Studio has followed the lead of other games like Super Smash Bros for Wii U, and implemented an advanced version of photo mode, that’s really built for creatives.
It’s taken for granted that you can move the camera around in the middle of gameplay while the game is paused, so you can take photos of Kratos and/or Atreus in flagrante delicto, as they say. Taking it further, you have a range of settings available, which are a step above what would be on your phone camera filters, giving you an ideal environment to ‘take’ photos and enhance them to the best that they could possibly look. This includes settings like Depth of Field, Focus Distance, Film Grain, Field of View, Focal Length, Exposure, etc. You can actually also choose to remove either Kratos or Atreus from the picture, or both, if you wanted to. Another setting allows you to make Kratos smile, as you can choose between a few preselected facial expressions for your shot.
Of course, many God of War players may have never even messed with these features, but as is the case with other games, they have proven incredibly popular with the people who do use them. It also adds up to other features Santa Monica is adding to God of War: Ragnarok, such as the accessibility features. There are also the four distinct graphical modes that give you PC like flexibility in how you experience the game on PlayStation. It all adds to the total value of what is already shaping to be one of the biggest AAA releases of this console generation.
God of War: Ragnarok will be releasing on November 9, 2023 for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.
Source: GameRant