God of War Laufey's combat revives aerial combos and soul magic

Laufey — Faye — takes the lead instead of Kratos, and the next God of War looks no less violent, with crunchy, fast-paced fighting at the fore. As the Golden Hand of the Jötnar she proved more than a match for Thor, and her combat feels in some ways more God of War than modern Kratos: quick, fluid and unusually mobile.

Kratos himself learned moves from Faye — his Leviathan Axe was originally hers — and she appears to have picked up tricks from him too. Her style bridges the original PS2 trilogy and the closer-shoulder scraps of the 2018 and Ragnarok entries. So far she’s been shown wielding a sword wrapped with a talking ribbon, slashing and spinning hands-free with magic, and using launcher attacks to lift enemies into the air and continue combos before slamming them down.

The footage seen so far leans into a Devil May Cry 5-like rhythm, and the roughly 20 minutes of gameplay appears relatively early, leaving room for more extensive aerial combos and weapon variety.

god, war, laufey, faye, kratos, leviathan axe, golden hand, jötnar, aerial combos, soul magic