When the new God of War game releases on PS4 next month, it will come with big changes. The new game in the franchise won't just take the action to a Norse setting (a departure from its Greek mythology setting), nor will it introduce Kratos' son Atreus who will join his father on the adventure, the new God of War will also allow players to give themselves a greatly increased challenge.

The new God of War will feature four difficulty settings in total. These difficulty settings include: Give Me A Story, Give Me A Balanced Experience, Give Me A Challenge, and Give Me God of War. While the first three difficulties are fairly self-explanatory, most players won't be prepared for what the Give Me God of War difficulty throws at them. The in-game description for the setting reads as follows "Give Me God of War is for those who want the game as difficult as possible, requiring god-like reflexes and strategy."

In an interview during a recent God of War press event, game director Cory Barlog elaborated on this new difficulty setting further, telling Rolling Stone's Glixel that "We did a ton of stuff to make it a genuine challenge, not a cynical increase. Enemies are all changed up. We changed the attack patterns of things; it’s hugely different.” In fact, this new difficulty setting is so tough that the game even creates an entirely separate save for players who decide to enable it.

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Moreover, players will be unable to change the difficulty again once they select the Give Me God of War difficulty, which perhaps explains why the game creates a separate save. The game's combat has already been compared to Dark Souls, suggesting that this ultra-hard difficulty really is tough as nails.

God of War is already a pretty lengthy game. In an interview that took place at the PlayStation Experience 2017 event last December, Barlog also revealed that God of War will take around 30 hours to beat. Although it is unclear whether this time solely includes main missions or whether this includes side content too, that's still a pretty hefty amount of gameplay that is going to keep players entertained for quite some time. It stands to reason that the difficulty options could increase this gameplay time even further, giving players an additional challenge once they've completed their first playthrough.

God of War releases on April 20, 2018 exclusively for the PlayStation 4.

Source: Press Start, Glixel