Bear McCreary was ‘shocked’ when Cory Barlog revealed the direction he wanted the God of War soundtrack to take

God of War (2018) composer Bear McCreary admits he was ‘shocked’ when game director Cory Barlog briefed him on what direction the soundtrack would take. Speaking to VideoGamer ahead of his upcoming Themes and Variations tour, the award-winning American composer, who has also penned scores for the likes of The Walking Dead and Godzilla: King of the Monsters, revealed Barlog wanted a score that captured the sadness Kratos’ would feel at the loss of his wife, rather than the frenzied, aggressive God that dominated the earlier games.

“When I met Cory Barlog, the director/writer, he told me the story of a grieving father and his estranged son, taking the ashes of their deceased wife and mother to the highest peak of all the realms, per her dying wish,” he said. “I thought well I could do this. This sounds like a show, it sounds like a movie… this is what I do.”

He continued: “They wanted something emotional and surprising to a fan base that was used to more aggression and bombast in the score, to put it lightly. I was a fan of the Greek games, and was sort of shocked by this, honestly. As a fan of God of War, I was shocked by what Cory was telling me… excited though.”

McCreary then went on to get hired before the game was greenlit, where he was tasked to create a score to a ‘vertical slice’ of the game, which would then be used to pitch the title and get backing for full production to start. However, despite the team loving his initial Kratos theme, it wasn’t long before the composer was back to the drawing board, tasked with penning a theme that balanced the God of War’s underlying aggression with a character arc that saw him feel and express other emotions.

“I was a fan of the Greek games, and was sort of shocked by this, honestly. As a fan of God of War, I was shocked by what Cory was telling me… excited though.”

Bear McCreary

“In that vertical slice I wrote a theme for Kratos that was everything Cory asked for and he loved it, the whole team loved it” he said. “After a year, it just becomes clear this isn’t working, and they said, ‘look we love that theme but it’s not working, you got to toss it. We need to do something else that can play his suppressed rage.’ It was playing sadness, but I think we all realised that Kratos is on an arc, where to even for him to recognise that he is sad, for himself to have that self realisation, that’s later in the game.

He continued: “He’s so cut off from his emotions, that this music that is so emotional is almost getting ahead of his character arc. It’s breaking the story. So I was very sad to delete that… in the trash it went. And I wrote a new theme, that I was hoping would be stoic and powerful but reserved, slow ponderous.”

This then became the iconic Kratos theme in the game. Thankfully, it proved to be the right decision and upon the now iconic unveiling of the game at 2016’s E3, with part of the soundtrack finally unleashed to the fan base, McCreary experienced the ‘greatest night of his creative life‘ as audiences around the world leapt off their seats in excitement.

“Watching the reaction videos [of E3], watching the reaction videos as the game came out, to Baldur’s first appearance, to finding the Blades of Chaos, to finding out about Freya and, like, people were sharing their reactions.,” he said. “And I was so grateful for those YouTube videos because it’s, like, I don’t get to be in the living room with you. So thank you for sharing that experience.”

Bear was speaking to us ahead of his Themes and Variations tour that will see him go around the world showcasing his most influential work. Visiting Europe and North America, you can grab tickets on his website.