There will be violence, but there is the possibility that the game could say something about that as well. In the recent trailer Kratos says something to his son about closing his heart to the suffering of his enemies. But here's the thing--old kratos wouldn't even acknowledge that his enemies are suffering, and then there's the fact that the kid says that not everyone is bad and that's something that Kratos is starting to understand, but also starting to understand how he is viewed--as a brutal heartless person, when deep inside that's not who he is.
He's wondering if he can raise his son to be hard, but not to be a monster. Violence is inevitably going to be part of the game, but it's not just there because--it seems like there's a story element attached to it. It's not like "hey, rip off helios' head and use it as a lantern! push this random guy who is begging for his life into a spike pit so you can move on in this puzzle!" I really hope the game gives you more options in how you can accomplish goals, I get the sense that Kratos isn't just brutal for the sake of being brutal and there are no repercussions to his actions.
I have faith that they can pull it off, but I'm also cautious. I could be wrong and the game could be trying to touch on these things but ends up overshadowing the message with spectacle, but from what I'm seeing, this team has faith in the intelligence of their audience(especially as evidenced by the removal of QTEs, opting to have you actually press the buttons you think you would need to press instead of telling you in a jarring way with a big button symbol)
