God of War Collection: Lost Atlantis Level Revealed

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With the recent release of God of War: Ghost of Sparta, players now have the opportunity to explore Atlantis on the PSP. But this isn’t the first time Atlantis was going to be featured in a God of War game. Back in 2005, Senior Level Designer Jonathan Hawkins was given his first assignment on God of War II – create an epic experience set in the fabled lost city of Atlantis. Unfortunately, after months of work, Jonathan’s designs had to be cut from the game due to some high-level changes. Afterwards, he went on to create some of the more memorable moments and puzzles in God of War II, such as the heart pounding Grapple Bridge sequence.

In honor of God of War Collection being release in HD on the PSN, we have delved into the Santa Monica Studio archives and found the never-before-seen layouts and sketches of this lost level. In the video above, Jonathan walks us through his designs and the heartbreak of having it cut from the game.

Atlantis_WaterZiplineConcept Atlantis_UpperTower

We hope you enjoy this exclusive behind the scenes look and enjoy playing God of War Collection even more.

In addition to the behind-the-scenes, be sure to visit the PlayStation Store to check out God of War Anthology, where you will find not only the digital version of God of War Collection, but also all the various add-on, video, and other titles that featured our Spartan Warrior, Kratos.

God of War Anthology - PlayStation Storefront

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48 Comments

  • Will that video, various lay-outs and sketches release on PSN? For free or for prices? I’d love to have some sketches as my wallpapers for my Playstation 3. Still awesome nonetheless!

  • ATLANTIS = Where God of War 4 or Uncharted 3 should be. I don’t care which one!!

  • i love god of war! thanks for the free stuff! :D

  • 1st! awesome, but gow 2 was already awesome as it was.

  • Wow, God of War II was already too long, I’m glad they took out a long level, although the Kraken fight would have been cooler underwater.

  • I feel kinda sorry for him.

  • if i pre order the ghost of sparta from amazon.co.uk, the game will come with all dlc’s of pre orders exclusives and krato’s brother skin?
    PLEASE! Answer!!

  • I think they should make a game, or DLC with all the things that did not make it into the GOW games.

  • I wish the PS Blog would post more material like this one. Interesting stuff.

    And, as long as we’re talking GoW, has it ever been officially announced that GoW3 would NOT have DLC? I’m playing GoW:GoS now (GREAT, btw) and all I keep thinking is how this will be the last GoW game I play until the next one is released.

  • He’s hot

  • awesome great video

  • 4 months doing that? it still looked rough, vague and crappy, really. I don’t mean to offense, I know it was “back in the day”, but I’m surprised this was being considered for the final game. I guess the “story” changed because of this kind of lame designs not the other way around.

  • Awesome video! I am a huge God of War fan. Thanks for sharing it, PlayStation!

  • I can’t wait for GoW4! I wonder what will happen to Kratos in his next epic adventure, or if we will be introduced to a new character.

    by the way, this is just my opinion (and I’m probably a minority on this) but Kratos should have some battles that he loses. Maybe he doesn’t die, but he loses the battle. This brings him back down to Earth and shows that he can still be defeated, since it’s hard to connect with someone who seems to be an unstoppable war-machine who never tires.

    Hopefully the developers of the next game will consider this idea. Just a thought form a fan.

  • I was wondering…
    why is the deimos skin integrated in the cutscenes for GOW III
    while the other skins don’t show??

  • Wow, I love the water zipline concept.

  • HOW IS SANTA MONICA DOING RIGHT NOW??
    by the way i am a huge SUCKER for God of War games but i think Santa Monica Studio should do something else than Gow for now.

  • the psp connectivity looks awesome in gow 3!
    remind me of when the Psp made it’s debut

  • I’d like some DLC for GOW 3. I’m gonna beat GOW1 in less than 5 hours! I’m already past the spiked underwater chamber(s), at about 2 and a half hours in! Who thinks I can make it?

  • This is actually old news. They talk about this in the Behind the scenes dvd that came with God of War II and in the Video section of the God of War Collection.

  • I do like that this video goes into detail on what it was, though.

  • @2
    ummm you really should play Ghost of Sparta if you’re asking for Atlantis :-P

    Anyway that video was a real treat, I was always curious about the details of the GoW2 atlantis level among others when it was discussed in the making of videos.

  • Wow that’s a lot of stuff that got cut, I remember seeing some of it in the GOW II behind the scenes but I didn’t think it was that much that they had to cut.

  • @ 14 he lost against Zeus before he did the whole go back in time to defeat him again in 2. And Zeus whooped him at the beginning of GoW 3 too.

  • i don’t see why you can’t release it as a dlc to gow3…

  • Will there be a collectors pack of all 3 games with a bunch of extras??? It would be really great if some sort of collection was released!!

  • You guys should make it as an addon for GOW 3!

  • So why not just polish it up a bit and release it as DLC for GoW3?

    It’s looking pretty bad ass already.

  • Is there a chance that we might see this level in another game. I cant wait to see what Santa Monica studios next game.

  • @28
    Because Atlantis is in Ghost of Sparta.

  • He should make a psn game called Kratos’s epic grapple bridge

  • This was nice to watch….By the way loving Ghost of Sparta on my PSP!

  • Cool concepts. Question though, will we ever get a Bonus Play for God of War 3? Or be able to skip cutscenes, maybe a optional HDD install for that? I just don’t understand why they took those things out, it makes no sense.

  • This would be GREAT DLC! Why not finish it with the God of War 3 Game Technology and make it available on PSN? God of War 3 deserves some more content and levels, not just skins.

  • So I preordered the entertainment pack off Best Buy, but didn’t get any email about the bonus preorder DLC voucher. What’s up with that?

  • This Atlantis level would of been pretty damn cool had it been in the final game. He had all the right ideas, and I agree with TomHoang. It would of been more epic if we got to fight the Kracken underwater but sometimes cuts need to be made and this was one of them.

  • That’s cool. What about playstation’s lost game: Gran Turismo 5? Any updates on that?

  • Damn Barlog was being VERY ambitious with GOW2, so many things he wanted to implement, its a shame that it got cut, but at least Atlantis got added in GoS which is a fantastic game so far btw! I seriously love these videos, as a person who is going to college and is actually working on a game project myself, this stuff really gives me tips and info on how I should approach things, keep these types of videos coming! :D

  • Are we ever going to be able to play this? No even this, just be in Atlantis?

  • will this pack be for free ????

  • I love how Santa Monica is always so open about their development even though they make among the best products in the gaming industry.

    Unlike Square-Enix (for example) who always acts so secret about their projects and ultimately ends up being ‘lesser’ (in my eye’s) of a product then what Santa Monica brings to the table.

  • That was a cool video. Seeing that this level wasn’t efficiently programmed for the PS2, would it be more possible for the PS3 since it is a more powerful system? I think its safe to say that after seeing this footage, another game GOW based or not should be designed from this concept. I think Jonathan created some incredibly intricate puzzles and enough intense moments to make me want to play this level, at least by description. Well, like he basically said, you win some, you loose some. It was still great work in my own opinion. Keep up the good work guys. Ghost of Sparta is a great game and hopefully, you guys will consider continuing the series on PS3 even though GOW 3 was obviously the end of the trilogy. Have you guys ever thought of making a prequel where Aries is the Main Charater?

  • this level would be awesome…

  • is that a bottle of KRATOS wine behind the monitor there lol cool. they should have implimented this in part 3

  • I think I’d cry if 4 months of my life was cut from the final build.

  • I feel robbed of the greatest God of War level.

  • God of War: The Lost Levels DLC for PS3 should be Santa Monica’s next project. We could see this Atlantis level, the sand storm level that was removed from the original God of War, the boss battle that was cut from the Pandora’s box room, and these levels should all be populated by cut enemies. It would be the definition of epic. Also, why don’t we have a blue Kratos skin yet?

  • ITS COOL LOVE THE SERIES PLATINUM ALL 3 BUT I THINK ITS TIME TO MOVE ON TO ANOTHER PROJECT THEY GOT A VERY TALENTED TEAM SO IT WILL BE VERY INTERESTING

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