God of War: Laufey Trailer Reaction - Episode 281

PlayStation dropped the God of War: Laufey gameplay trailer at State of Play this month, and Matt and Alex were EXCITED.

In this episode, they react live to the reveal before unpacking what they saw. From Faye's combat style and the weight behind her character design, to the introduction of antagonists Sekhmet and Begtse, the return of Bear McCreary, and the tantalising threads connecting back to the 2018 game. They also get into the online criticism that followed the trailer, and why it doesn't hold up.

If you want to watch along, the full trailer is over on our YouTube channel https://youtu.be/4mx7dih_Vdk

Note: the live reaction segment has been lightly condensed for audio.

Episode tags: #GodOfWar #GodOfWarLaufey #Faye #PlayStation #StateOfPlay #Sekhmet #BearMcCreary #TrailerReaction

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Transcript

0:20

Everyone, welcome back to another episode of Gaming the System, the podcast where three intersectional feminists examine gaming and games through a feminist lens. Today, I'm your host, Alex, and I'm joined by Matt. Before we get started, if you want to support us, you can subscribe to our Patreon at patreon.com/gamingthesystem for some exclusive content, or you can send us a one-off donation via PayPal to our email address, wearegamingthesystem@gmail.com.

Speaker 3 0:54

Hello, it's Jem here. I'm not in this episode, but I have been editing it. Just wanted to give you a quick heads-up before we dive in. What you're about to hear is Alex and Matt reacting live to the God of War Laufey gameplay trailer from PlayStation State of Play. Uh, because this is the audio version rather than video, I've condensed the moment-by-moment watch along, the bits where they're actually reacting to what's happening on screen, so that it flows a little better without the visual content. I wanted to keep it in, because honestly, it's just really fun to hear. And Matt and Alex, being such massive fans of God of War, are having the most exciting 40 minutes. So it's really entertaining to listen to them and hear their thoughts on it as it happens. But if you wanna watch their reactions, you can find the video on YouTube.

Alex 2:00

Hello and welcome everyone to Matt and I reacting to the God of War: Laufey gameplay trailer showcased at PlayStation's State of Play for June 2026. Here we go. Matt, play

matt 2:15

Sounds very tropical Ca-caw, ca-caw Oh, the sound design is so good.

Alex 2:24

It is so good

matt 2:25

footsteps and, Bring it down Ah, the first button.

Alex 2:31

So good. It looks so good

matt 2:36

That, the facial animation and the quality is, that is, that is, feels like it even needs another step up. crazy Where is she? What's happened? What's occur- ah Oh, that looks painful Holy Oh, we can jump Oh, we can double jump and she spins. Ah. Ben McCreary back

Alex 3:12

Yes, he is. I love him. So good

matt 3:17

Ooh, water flowing upwards

Alex 3:19

Mm-hmm. spot

matt 3:21

Ooh Ah, heavy attack. Oh, she's fast Oh, she parries Oh, that's awesome Imagine how good the haptic feedback's gonna feel on this

Alex 3:36

I can't wait These remind me of, The Last of Us

matt 3:40

Yeah This is proper old school God of War gameplay I want to pet the weird thing

Alex 3:51

I know. It's so weird, but so cute

matt 3:52

Hmm, that armor style looks familiar

Alex 3:55

Mm-hmm. I was thinking that as well

matt 3:57

Play fetch. Play fetch with the sword

Alex 4:01

Elixir's eye

matt 4:02

Would you put on a skeleton's clothes?

Alex 4:05

No,

matt 4:07

I don't think I would. we can slide. That's cool And we get more color coming in It did look like the Atreus mask And it also looked like The Mask from The Mask movie Oh

Alex 4:20

also Loki as well, incidentally

matt 4:23

What's gonna be on the other side? Oh, hello Uh-oh Ooh This is very Lord of the Rings-y No! Leave the animal alone Whoa.

Alex 4:34

Mm-hmm.

matt 4:35

What are you I think I, I have an idea of where we might be Oh, that idea's just changed

Alex 4:45

Cool

matt 4:46

Oh, oh, oh.

Alex 4:47

Eh.

matt 4:49

Wow Way is shut Oh. I want one

Alex 4:55

Yeah, you're right

matt 4:57

No way Planet

Alex 5:01

So good

matt 5:03

Oh, we got a I love Yay She's got arms like Cassandra from

Alex 5:10

Mm-hmm.

matt 5:11

Assassin's Creed

Alex 5:12

That's right

matt 5:13

Oh, that looks cool

Alex 5:16

Velkommen! Looks like so much fun

matt 5:20

Oh, we've got a cube ally square to cube we've got awesome finishers

Alex 5:28

Yeah

matt 5:29

Oh

Alex 5:29

combat as well

matt 5:32

Oh, we've got in-air finishers well That's cool. Look at that awesome dirt and grit all over her Whoa

Alex 5:42

Mm.

matt 5:44

Oh, he can fucking phase in and out Oh, big finish Maybe not Whoa Holy fuck.

Alex 5:53

It's so good. Give it to me now.

matt 5:57

so

Alex 5:59

Okay

matt 6:01

Holy shit.

Alex 6:03

Yeah

matt 6:04

Oh my God. that shouldn't be legal. How epic. How beyond words, even though I'm gonna try and find enough words. I'm never gonna stop talking about it, even though I have no words to describe it. that was spectacular. And Just where to start with it. it's a perfect starting as minimal as possible

Alex 6:32

Hmm

matt 6:33

just creeping up in the awesomeness of just that first bit, which is the very beginning of the first game, to just the detail on her face

Alex 6:49

It's incredible.

matt 6:50

in Wake Me Up

Alex 6:51

the new came, when the new game button came up, I was like, it's happening. It's happening." It was so good.

matt 6:59

it's the

Alex 6:59

5:00 in the morning the day after the State of Play 'cause the day that it was happening I was at a wedding, so I couldn't watch it, and I'd forgotten that it was on anyway. Then found it, obviously, when I'd woken up really early, and I was like, "Oh my God, I need to watch this." So I was trying to watch it. Tom was asleep next to me, and I was just, making all these noises, waking him up. Like, ugh, there were so many moments where I jumped 'cause obviously, like every God of War game, there's loads of jump scares where you come out of things, and you get pulled out, or you get attacked suddenly. those were all there. I mean, the combat is amazing. Like, it feels much faster and more fluid, a bit more like a Fury, or a Valkyrie even is what I meant to say. it reminded me of Valkyries. it's just, she's just so cool. She's just so cool. And her hair, and the way it was floating around her shoulders so naturally, and, like, ugh, it was beautiful and long. she's so athletic and strong, and

matt 8:03

And the wei- the weight of when she was punching those, when those things grabbed her arm and she was punching them. And I'm so glad that for, for once again, we see a muscular woman, someone who it actually looks like if they punch someone, they'd actually make an impact. When we were playing Lara Croft and she's jumping off of things and then they collapse, because she's jumped on them. You're going, "She, she, she weighs like a feather.

Alex 8:36

Yeah

matt 8:36

should be able to effortlessly jump from thing to thing in these ancient places." And just the posture of those arms and legs and just the aggression of it being fluid and having that God of War punch that you feel at any time you hit something.

Alex 8:58

Yeah, it

matt 8:58

I-

Alex 8:59

it looks like they've improved the combat again from iteration to iteration. they're just taking all the good bits from each of them and being like, "Let's do some, sprinkle some more good bits on top." be really great. what else I noticed also, did you see on her arm she's got loads of cool magic stuff, like all on her arms and legs, little bits, you know, where the magic comes out of her hand.

matt 9:25

Yeah

Alex 9:26

color. very cool. I haven't yet worked out what the whole deal is with a bit of mask in her hand. Not sure why. the mask on the armor, not sure how that links. But yeah, the armor looked familiar. I was trying to work out if it would've been crafted by Sindri. I can't, I can't even... And also, like, I've been watching other bits and pieces obviously since watching reveal, and we know, we both know Alanna Pearce, not personally, but, she was a writer on this game. and some of her ideas, she, she had no idea they were doing a 20-minute gameplay reveal. She named The Everyone, so that name is down to her. and she also pitched that the character of Rue, the ribbons on the sword, be, played by a Kiwi, a New Zealander, which is very cool as well.

matt 10:24

that is a trope that New Zealand, New Zealanders are getting, crowbarred into. That's

Alex 10:30

Oh, really?

matt 10:31

not a revolutionarily revolutionary idea. But hey-ho, it looks fabulous, and I have no reason to doubt that the narrative's gonna be incredible because

Alex 10:43

I'm intrigued as to what Phrank is. It's spelt P-H-R, not F. I've read that as well. So, at first I was like, Phrank not a very god of war name, and then realized it was spelt P-H. so that makes sense. But yeah, I'm intrigued to find out what is the mystery behind Phrank and Rue and the sword, 'cause obviously there's a lot more behind the sword as well. yeah, I mean, obviously we haven't even talked about the two main antagonists that we've met, I think, Bagster, and Sekhmet. Very, very excited

matt 11:22

she looks rather Egyptian.

Alex 11:25

Yes,

matt 11:25

I don't know if that's me being racist, but she looks very ancient Egyptian

Alex 11:29

one of the, pantheon of Egyptian gods and goddesses. She is often depicted as a lioness. she is essentially a warrior god, hence the god of war. represents, the god of war of Egypt, She's basically, an incarnation of, I think, Ra. have to read up on it, 'cause it's been a while since I've studied Egyptology. I also noticed she had an eye on her, chest, like a bit of jewelry. and I wonder if that's It could be several types of eyes. It could be the Eye of Ra. It could be the Eye of Horus. I was even wondering if it could be the Eye of Odin, but then I was like, why would Sekhmet be

matt 12:08

Love

Alex 12:09

But, there was eyes everywhere. On, like, the cage trailer that Faye was put into, were eyes on each side, all sorts of things. And then I've learnt that, Bagstie, but he is essentially a Tibetan god of war, which is

matt 12:28

We're gonna have the God of Wars

Alex 12:29

insane. I'm so excited.

matt 12:31

Oh, the implications

Alex 12:34

he was so cool. And the way he had that massive flaming, I don't know what weapon it was, 'cause it had a funny end to it,

matt 12:41

was like one of the orc swords from Helm's Deep

Alex 12:44

Yes, Yeah.

matt 12:45

Urakite, sorry

Alex 12:47

and then we know that Bear's doing the music for it. Very happy about that. He's done a reaction video to the trailer where he talks through each bit of the music, and he said that he used Tibetan throat voice, male throat choir for the bit when Bagstie appears on screen, which is very cool as well. I knew he'd be amazing, obviously, but he's very excited about it as well.

matt 13:14

can you imagine, imagine working at a game studio like Sony Santa Monica?

Alex 13:20

Yeah

matt 13:20

they haven't fired anyone. They've put out the most, not just technically ambitious, but ambitious in literally every area of it. And they manage that without crunching their staff, without mass layoffs. They are one of the best managed studios that exists and has ever existed. To be able to, just in this demo, this 20-minute gameplay demo... And it is gameplay. This isn't a cobbled together trailer. It is 20 minutes of the things that exists that can be played in the game now. And if you compare that to any other, game that has come out, that kind of thing is incredibly rare. And if it is, it's something, if it's a shooter, the gameplay loop's gonna be really simple. Whereas with this you've got, you wake up, you've got magic things, You can make armor out of things that you find. You can double jump. You can dodge in the air. You spin when you do a double jump. And then the sword, the uniqueness of that, the melee punching things, those incredible finishing moves

Alex 14:47

amazing.

matt 14:48

just

Alex 14:49

Well, the combat's always so fun in God of War. It's so, it feels so powerful. It's really... I don't doubt it's gonna feel the same, if not better, for this. the first time I watched it when the giant lion/lioness came down for Sekhmet, I laughed with joy I was just like, one, this is amazing and awesome. Two, it relates directly to Sekhmet and my knowledge of Sekhmet. And three, it's just so typically God of War. Had God of War written all over it. Like, it's so cool. And then in the big fight with Baksti where she's getting thrown around, that really reminded me of Kratos' fight with the stranger, when he gets thrown around in that. And I was like, "Oh, we are so back. We are so back."

matt 15:36

just like with, like, God of War, where the original series would always start with the most massive set piece ever, and then the reboot had just started with this squirrely little

Alex 15:47

Yeah

matt 15:48

boulder. And then this one, the first thing is the tiny clip from the first game,

Alex 15:57

Yeah

matt 15:58

then just focusing on her face.

Alex 16:01

I know

matt 16:01

That's the first thing that they bring up that is a mind... If they'd just done that 20-second thing, that would've been enough.

Alex 16:11

pretty excited,

matt 16:12

Yeah

Alex 16:13

We should address the, criticism from some pockets of the internet. it's all bullshit. Quite clearly, this is amazing, and I love it, and they're

matt 16:24

And they're not gonna change it. They're not gonna stop. They're not gonna suddenly go, "Oh no, we're this, we're actually, we're going to kowtow to these people because they know what's best." Fuck that. Bullshit. This is, this is the way. This is just like what's the original series of Star Trek did. You go, "We're gonna take this thing which is controversial, and we're going to do it and treat it like it should be treated," as if there is absolutely no question of it just being like this anyway. And she's a god. She led the rebellion against Odin. She is a Kratos' equal.

Alex 17:01

Yeah

matt 17:02

That's why they got on so well, and the first time they met, they fought each other. They beat the shit out of each other, and he said that she fought beautifully. They have to have, like, 'cause Kratos appeared then. We have to have an, an evil phantom version of Kratos where she has to fight Kratos

Alex 17:20

I just, I'm excited also about the overlap with the original 2018 God of War, because now I'm gonna go back and this is why I want to play them again, 'cause I'm like, "I need to pay really close attention to all the bits with Faye, where Faye is mentioned in reference," because I feel like we're going to be crossing over into those. Like the bit in Alfheim she mentioned, "This is not the light of Alfheim," when Kratos goes into the light, and poor Atreus is stuck there for hours all the...

matt 17:50

Time.

Alex 17:51

Yeah.

matt 17:52

Time

Alex 17:53

I think that's gonna cross over. There's gonna be other bits as well, but it's So exciting

matt 18:00

Crazy, crazy. And just every part of it is revolutionary. 99% of it is. If it's not technical revolution it's... Just having her look the way she does, that is vanishingly rare. The only properly, like, even though they're not like defined muscles, that would be another step up. Just having women with big arms are so rarely, shown anywhere. And so when you see them, you just go, "It looks awesome. She looks badass."

Alex 18:39

Yeah.

matt 18:40

if you come at it from a, "Oh, well, she doesn't look the way I want her to look," in terms of attractiveness, she's stunningly attractive if you just took that bit from her in the start where she's up in those rags. You just go, "Holy shit, she's phwoar"

Alex 18:59

Yeah

matt 18:59

wanna look at it from that angle, they've got that box ticked,

Alex 19:03

う ん。

matt 19:04

and they've, they've done the Quentin Tarantino where they, you show one of her feet, and you go, "Well, so they're, they're giving the, the feet fetish people

Alex 19:14

Yeah. I

matt 19:14

as well."

Alex 19:15

more do you want out of life really? I mean, come on.

matt 19:19

Exactly.

Alex 19:20

Oh

matt 19:20

And I just, you know how much I love violent women. This is, the mixing of the perfect thing. So you're bringing in the awesomeness of the game and then the awesomeness of them choosing this direction of just having a woman being the next step in this franchise. That's a revolutionary thing. And then if you just take all of the cultural and social stuff out of it, the way everything looks, the animals, I appreciate this so much because it's so rare. The silence in between characters in a scene where you've got... So that scene where she's just being dragged along and then stopped and then the, Did he say his name's Bagsy?

Alex 20:11

Bagste, I think. It's B-A-G-T-S-E, I think.

matt 20:16

It sounds a bit like Bagster and Bagste.

Alex 20:18

Yeah

matt 20:19

Anyway, he appears and they just look at each other and then that Sekhmet appears

Alex 20:25

Yeah.

matt 20:25

she just looks at

Alex 20:27

Did you notice her hair was all like dreads? It was very African.

matt 20:32

Oh, I can't wait to, I could watch

Alex 20:34

Of course, of course." Like, because we're so used to Egyptian gods or an Egyptian people and, in representations of ancient Egypt being Westernized. so I was super excited to see that as well.

matt 20:47

God, I can't imagine it

Alex 20:48

hot take for you, Matt. I saw Raul Kohli, who is Alanna's partner, on Instagram about a tweet that Domino's did on X. like quoting the God of War: Laufey trailer and saying, "God of War without Kratos is like pepperoni pizza without pepperoni."

matt 21:11

Twitter. Oh God, that's so pathetic.

Alex 21:13

I know.

matt 21:15

That's so pathetic

Alex 21:15

know. But clearly, yeah,

matt 21:18

Ja

Alex 21:18

can get in the bin. So there's your tip from us.

matt 21:20

They're gonna fire that idiot because

Alex 21:23

Yes. I mean, how stupid do you need to be?

matt 21:27

And that is, goes, 'cause that's split, women, the incel stuff and the women having, not just being this sexy one shape piece in the corner, that still is, that's a massive red hot cultural issue. And that is the opposite of what corporations want to engage in. They want everyone to be buying their pizzas from Domino's oh, yeah. they want everyone to buy it. They want the incel and the feminists to be eating on tables next to each other. Companies are really happy doing Pride stuff because people who are sporting Pride are happier people. They're gonna come in, and they're just gonna, eat your food and enjoy themselves. Whereas you have a group of, like, men's rights activists coming in. They're gonna be shit company, and just miserable. And throwing your-- if you're gonna throw your lot in with one group

Alex 22:31

Exactly

matt 22:33

That's just a terrible decision.

Alex 22:35

There we go.

matt 22:37

ugh, yeah

Alex 22:39

yes. But otherwise, super hyped and very excited. I'm gonna go watch it again another 10 times after this.

matt 22:48

Well, you could just take, just take a couple of... If you took random screenshots throughout that, you'd see so much stuff. Like, just looking at Sekhmet and looking from top to bottom,

Alex 22:59

Yeah

matt 23:01

from the nails and the chin and the hair

Alex 23:04

Yeah. she had the fake beard, and all Egyptian gods and pharaohs, even the female ones wore fake beards because it was a sign of godliness and kingliness, power. So they've got that on there as well, and the ears are a bit like, the mummy masks and stuff. There's so many cool things. I'm just... knew as soon as we got those little hints that there might be some Egyptian things coming at the end of Ragnarök, was be so excited, and I am very excited. Ugh, just can't wait

matt 23:39

I wonder if we're finally going to be told who blew the bloody horn

Alex 23:44

Oh my God. We could be. We could-- We're

matt 23:48

desperately nearly,

Alex 23:50

find out

matt 23:51

nearly 10 years

Alex 23:52

is this gonna join up the dots?

matt 23:55

Yeah.

Alex 23:55

gonna be so exciting

matt 23:56

I'm certain that there's I didn't think that this was gonna happen. I thought that the next game would be Atreus and Angrboda,

Alex 24:04

Yeah.

matt 24:05

and then they would interact with Faye at some point, So I thought that was the way we were gonna explore Faye.

Alex 24:12

Mm-hmm.

matt 24:13

But then the, is it Valheim? You know, like with the dude with the massive sword jumps off your ship and attacks the harpies in Ragnarok when you're in

Alex 24:26

Oh, Yeah. when you're on this, in the sky bike,

matt 24:29

Yeah.

Alex 24:29

you?

matt 24:29

He jumps off and then you go down and then you can go and find him and it opens that en- that entire area

Alex 24:34

and

matt 24:34

single player one.

Alex 24:35

a huge area.

matt 24:36

And we see all the references to Faye all through it just are so rich with possibilities. The way that she and Thor fought to the point that that was the other bolt of lightning, the frozen lightning. that was Faye. And so what's gonna,

Alex 24:58

Matt.

matt 24:58

what's gonna happen?

Alex 24:59

making me so excited. I just wanna play it all again now. My God. Well, there we go. We've had a very exciting episode. I think the most exciting episode we could possibly have ever done this year. thank you, Matt, for joining me. I'm really glad that you've managed to not get spoiled and hold off and be patient

matt 25:19

Hmm.

Alex 25:20

today, thank you for that.

matt 25:22

And I'm very, very glad that, I've got you to, to

Alex 25:27

about,

matt 25:27

just share this with rather than it just being in... I would've exacted this way internally, and then you can't... My mum and sister, they game, but I could go and tell them, and they're just, they're, there isn't...

Alex 25:42

Not,

matt 25:43

there's so much richness and value

Alex 25:46

Yeah

matt 25:46

finding people who you can talk like this with,

Alex 25:50

Hmm.

matt 25:50

you don't have to, you don't have to give the context and go, "Right, this is, this is the way this works, and this is the way this works, and then this is what's happening." To just be able to... So yeah, just

Alex 26:04

I'm excited.

matt 26:05

ah,

Alex 26:06

ah,

matt 26:06

ah

Alex 26:08

Wonderful.

matt 26:08

Oh my god

Alex 26:09

you again for, for joining me, and thank you everyone for listening. I hope you enjoyed the big reveal as well. we'll be back next Thursday for more from Gaming the System. like, comment, subscribe, et cetera. Tell all your friends, and we'll see you again soon. Bye.

matt 26:26

Bye-bye