With the release of God of War a little over a week away, fans have a pretty good idea of what Kratos' new adventure through Norse mythology is going to entail. From showing off the game's crafting and customization to interviews about the father-son relationship at the core of the new story, Sony and Santa Monica Studios show no signs of stopping the constant flow of information.

In an announcement today, Sony gave more insight into the God Of War difficulty options. From easiest to hardest, these options are "Give Me A Story," "Give Me A Balanced Experience," "Give Me A Challenge," and "Give Me God of War." While the first three modes are pretty standard in terms difficulty level progression, the mode "Give Me God Of War" is where things get interesting, locking players into the extreme difficulty the entire play through.

While in the first three modes players will have the option of changing the difficulty level during the game, this will not be available in "Give Me God of War". If players wish to change the difficulty in this mode they will have to start a whole new game. "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." Says Sony, "Don’t be sorry, be better?"

For reference, when describing this difficulty level Sony said it was for “those who wrestle polar bears in their undies” and from what is understood that is putting it mildly. In this mode Kratos will be significantly weaker while all enemies will be given a significant buff. Not only that but the developers have looked at individual encounters and enemy behaviors to try and make the interactions as threatening as possible.

Taking away the ability to change difficulty is an interesting idea on behalf of Santa Monica Studios. "Give Me God of War" is a mode designed to give players the ultimate challenge, one that supplies no safety net. Similar to other notoriously difficult games like Dark Souls or Bloodborne, games the new God of War has already seen combat comparisons with, it becomes a matter of learning from ones mistakes and adapting accordingly. Basically "Give Me God of War" forces players to sink or swim, and sink you will, a lot.

Sony also announced that the game will include what it described as an "immersion mode", in which all unnecessary information will be removed from the games HUD. Intended for those who wish to stream or capture the game, the mode is also useful for those simply looking for a more immersive experience, something Sony and Santa Monica studios have tried very hard to give players in the new title.

God of War is already looking to be quite the experience for gamers, both those who are fans of the franchise and newcomers. Sony and Santa Monica Studios seem dead set on delivering something different to what has come before and locking players into an ultra-hard setting seems like another piece of that puzzle. Luckily fans wont have to wait much longer to find out just how difficult the game can get. How much of a shock to the system can it really be? Cuphead only came out less than a year ago.

God of War is set to launch on April 20, 2018 for PlayStation 4.