God of War composer Bear McCreary on Astro Bot’s homage, Ragnarok’s legacy and if he’ll return to the series

“To any given person, I’m the something guy.”

Bear McCreary is a busy man. The American composer sits in his studio in Los Angeles, California, reflecting on an accomplished and eccentric career so far. McCreary, now 49, got his big break on the sci-fi serial Battlestar Galactica, a score for which he’s still heralded today.

He’s worked on dozens of Hollywood blockbusters and independent projects. He scored zombie epic The Walking Dead, and in 2022, he even took his talents to Middle-Earth for Amazon‘s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

But to players, he’s known primarily for God of War.

“I’m such an odd composer,” he tells us. “My career is such that to any given person, I am the something guy, and that’s all they know. But, they might know it so well that they recognize my face or they recognize my name. ‘You’re the Walking Dead guy!’ ‘You’re the Lord of the Rings guy!’ ‘You’re the God of War guy!’

“I’m a bit of a chameleon, you know? I will meet fans of mine who are aware I’ve done other things, but there’s one thing that I’ve done that’s really special to them.”

McCreary has made an impact on disparate fandoms and franchises in a way that few have, crossing the realms between TV, film, and video games with ease. He also composes his own solo records and is set to embark on a world tour later this year. His exhaustive list of credits is as long as it is impressive.

“I’ll tell you a funny story,” McCreary muses. “I was at a concert being put on by my friend Serj Tankian from System of a Down. These metalheads come up to me, a couple of young guys.  They’re almost starstruck and they’re looking at me and they’re pointing at my face and they go ‘you’re God of War, you’re God of War’ and I go ‘yeah, that’s me.'”

“‘You’re the dwarf in the bar in Svartalfheim! man, I never thought I’d meet an actor from God of War, you got to work on God of War, that must have been the best day of your life!'” It had suddenly clicked for McCreary that the fans didn’t know him as the “God of War guy” for his incredible theme, or his essential role in revealing the game in 2016, but from a cameo he made as the dwarf, Raeb.

God of War Ragnarok was released in 2022. The conclusion to Sony Santa Monica’s Norse saga, the game was highly acclaimed when it released, and remains beloved by fans.

“I felt like Ragnarok had a lot to prove, much more than 2018,” McCreary says. “That might sound weird, but in rebooting so much in 2018 and changing the vibe of the games and the camera, and everything else to some degree, there was this sense of it being a big swing. People are going to love it or hate it. It was different.

“Then Ragnarok had to sort of measure up to that. We were not changing everything, it was really such a continuation of 2018 that suddenly I felt this pressure to match the score that I had written for 2018.

“I think fan expectation was that the game would match it. It was a really exciting time, you know? I’m really proud of the game, I continue to return to it, and with the Valhalla DLC, we created a sort of narrative coda to the story, it’s been really beautiful, the whole experience of Ragnarok in particular.”

Sony Santa Monica and PlayStation have announced plans to spend 2025 celebrating the God of War franchise. This includes new merchandise, in-game extras for God of War Ragnarok, and collections of the series’ music.

Sony has partnered with Laced Records to create a 13-disc Limited Edition vinyl set spanning God of War (2005) to God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla (2023). Pre-orders for the limited edition collection are available here. 

In addition to the box set, the soundtracks of the Greek saga are coming to vinyl for the first time.  Limited Edition double LP sets for God of War (2005), God of War II and God of War III will all be released later this year.

McCreary stepped into the franchise during its lowest period. While God of War 3 was highly acclaimed, the God of War franchise was largely stagnant during the beginning of the PlayStation 4 era. The hack-and-slash action of the original franchise was out of style, replaced with cinematic adventures like Uncharted and The Last of Us that had gained popularity at the end of the PS3 generation.

But for McCreary, stepping into a franchise and putting his own indelible mark on it is something he’s becoming used to.

“I have often stepped into a franchise that is beloved, that I’m a fan of, and that had previously existing music. When I met Cory Barlog, and he told me the story of the game he was making, about a grieving father and son with a fractured relationship, and they go on a journey to take the ashes of the wife and mother to the highest peak in all the realms, and their relationship forms a stronger bond, I thought, ‘I know how to do that story’.

“That feels like a dramatic arc that a composer coming predominantly from film and television, who studied under Elmer Bernstein, one of the great dramatic film composers of all time, would be able to do. It didn’t sound like the old games.”

Bear McCreary was intimately involved with God of War (2018) since its inception. McCreary tells us that he composed music that was used when the game was first pitched to Sony. The reboot, which would change virtually everything about the franchise, bar its protagonist, was a huge creative swing for Sony Santa Monica, one that deeply excited Bear.

The game debuted lavishly at Sony’s E3 press conference in 2016 in a presentation that has since gone down as an all-time fan favourite game reveal. When players beg for the return of live events, this is one of the moments many cite as the reason they long for in-person game reveals.

A dark stage covered by a red curtain gave way to Bear, who appeared in front of the assembled media and fans in Los Angeles. When his composition began, few could have predicted where things were going.

“We’re not coming out and playing the Uncharted anthem, or playing the theme to The Last of Us, or playing music from Crash Bandicoot, they didn’t know this. Then you hear it over and over. The curtain parts and you see a little boy playing with toys, and everyone is like ‘what is this?'”

“I get chills thinking about this moment. I’m at The Shrine Auditorium with a 60-piece orchestra in front of me and thousands of fans behind me. We’re all in this together… Kratos steps out of the shadows as an older man for the first time.

“You’ve been hearing the theme for four minutes. You’ve already heard those notes. Everybody cheered, and the fascinating thing is that it felt like we were teaching the audience to hear those notes and expect Kratos. It was one of the best moments of my creative life right there.

“My dream as a game developer, ever since I was a kid, I wanted to feel like there was a conductor performing live, while watching me play the game. That’s exactly what we did. Cory played this game and the orchestra played along in real time. I told Cory later, you lived my dream man, you might have just had the best gaming musical experience anyone will ever have.

McCreary’s theme not only serves as an iconic through line to the second half of the God of War saga, but it’s also become one of PlayStation’s most recognisable motifs, sitting alongside Gustavo Santolala’s finger-plucked guitar or Gregg Edmunson’s swashbuckling Uncharted score.

It was so iconic, in fact, that when it came time for another PlayStation Studio to pay homage to God of War Ragnarok, McCreary’s theme was a key ingredient.

As part of 2024’s Astro Bot, the player visits several PlayStation tribute levels themed after some of the console’s most famous games. Uncharted,  Ape Escape, Horizon, LocoRoco, and God of War all receive loving send-ups, with each game’s music also remixed and rearranged by veteran PlayStation composer Kenny Young.

“I had a chance to tell Team Asobi to their face how much I love their game,” McCreary said. “I met them the day they came into town for The Game Awards. I loved it. I loved the level.

“I probably shouldn’t say this, but I’m going to say it. I had seen it well in advance because my friends at Santa Monica Studios were like ‘you gotta come see this thing!’ because they had been working with Team Asobi on it. While obviously I didn’t work with Kenny on it, there was no need. He nailed it.”

Speaking to VGC in October about Astro Bot’s soundtrack, composer Kenny CM Young told us that he was well aware of the pressure of handling other composers’ compositions in the context of Astro Bot.

“When I was working it out, you are conscious of the fact that this is someone else’s baby, that you are sort of cutting up effectively,” Young said.

“But you know, I think the two things to try and do there is to do it with love and respect, and those are games that I’ve played that I’ve got a lot of respect for too. So, hopefully, that comes across in the music. I don’t think I’ve ruined it (laughs). I’ve tried to keep the essence of what was there whilst changing it to make it fit Astro Bot.”

McCreary told us that Kenny’s work on his music allowed him to appreciate it in a way he hadn’t previously been able to.

“What Kenny did for me is that when I got to the Bot of War level, and you heard those three notes, it doesn’t matter that they were completely recontextualized, it didn’t matter that they had been redone in this fun, robo-electro-pop style. When you hear those three notes, that’s God of War,” McCreary said.

“That makes me so proud, because it really hit me that I made something.  Something distinct and simple, and translatable that could do in all these different styles. I was so grateful, Kenny sort of held up a mirror to what I had written, and it made me feel really good.”

Much like when he joined the franchise, God of War is once again in a quiet period. While rumours persist that a spin-off game will be revealed this year, the Norse saga is over, and what the future holds for Kratos is uncertain. Equally so, for Bear McCreary.

“We were just with the cast at the God of War 20th Anniversary Retrospective Gallery,” McCreary said. “There were exhibits along the wall for all nine games, so it’s this pantheon. I’m looking around the room, and I’m seeing all the artists who have contributed.

“It was quite moving to realize how many people had been involved and that no single person has been involved in all of them in any kind of primary capacity. There’s been a sort of brain trust of people that go back to the first game.

“Coming into that room, I saw the God of War 2018 and God of War Ragnarok sheet music on the wall – my signed scores in frames that I had given to Santa Monica – and it really hit me that I got to contribute to this. Even with the God of War Valhalla DLC, there’s an ending cinematic to that, that really was important to me to score.

“It brings a sort of closure to Kratos’ arc, so I feel like my contribution, starting with E3 2016 all the way through to Valhalla, feels complete. I feel complete. I feel like I told a story.”

God of War is set to receive a big-budget Amazon adaptation in the coming years. Would that be enough to bring McCreary back to Kratos?

“If there’s anything else that needs music moving forward, they’ve got my number,” he replied, laughing. “Everybody’s got my number, I’m here. I’m really proud of what I did.”

Next up for Bear McCreary is a world tour celebrating his career so far, which McCreary assures us will include arrangements from Kratos’s Norse adventure.

“I’m craving that interaction, that live performance,” he told us. “I think that’s why E3 2016 just lives on in my memory, it’s not because of what we did, it’s because we were in the room with all these fans at the same time, you know?

“I’m craving that E3 2016 energy.”

Tickets for Bear McCreary’s Themes and Variations Tour are available now.