That'll be pretty hard to do if you also want it to closely follow a formula established in 2001. The campaign would have to do some serious heavily lifting in that case, but I guess it could be industry leading in the sense of reinvigorating or rebooting older titles and adapting them to be successful in a new market while respecting their roots, which I would assume is where God of War sits right now.
I Don't think it's really a matter of "closely following" the 2001 formula. It's about recognizing which parts of each game deserved to be carried forward, which ones needed to change, and being honest about which changes haven't been helpful.
If you're tasked with updating a highly regarded product, any design decision that isn't playing to a series strength or eliminating a weakness runs a huge risk of being a bad one.
I think that's the difference between GoW4s impact on its franchise and the last few Halo releases.
I'm hoping that with Infinity, 343 takes a long hard look at what worked previously and
why. Hopefully that allows them to incorporate changes and additions that are widely regarded as improvements rather than fracturing the base.
