God Of War exploded onto the video game scene in 2005 and was released on Sony’s Playstation 1. With it’s comfortable game controls, insane battles, and an extremely epic and interesting story, it was an instant hit with gamers all around the globe.
MAIN CHARACTERS
Although the game is peppered with iconic characters throughout, there are some that remain prevalent throughout the series.
KRATOS
In God Of War, you play as Kratos, a captain of the Spartan armies in ancient Greece who seemed unstoppable. However, at the moment he is about to be executed on the battlefield, Kratos is forced to call upon Ares, the Greek god of war, to extinguish his enemies. Ares grants him the power to do so, and equips the warrior with the Blades of Chaos, a pair of blades on chains that were seared into his flesh. Kratos begins an onslaught of epic proportions before descending upon a town of people who worship Athena.
Unbeknownst to our hero, Ares has placed Kratos’s wife and daughter in the town, whom he accidentally kills in a spree fueled by blood lust. When he realizes the mistake he has made, an oracle permanently paints his skin with the ashes of his victims. Kratos blames Ares for the death of his family, and vows revenge on the god, and that is where our journey begins.
ATHENA
The goddess of wisdom, Athena, makes her presence known throughout the franchise. She appears to help Kratos in his struggle, both in finding relief from the torment of his past, and to guide him on his quest for vengeance. Kratos is reluctant to trust her, as he has renounced the gods for betraying him.
THE TITANS
These enormous giants are one of the foundations for Kratos’s journey, because many of them have ill feelings for the gods as well. After a great war centuries earlier, the gods emerged victorious and bound the remaining titans in chains for eternity. When they here of Kratos’s quest, they do whatever they can to aid him.
ARES
As mentioned before, Ares is Kratos’s main focus of hatred. And although he only appears throughout the first game, he is a repeating character in the franchise’s story line. After all, had he never tricked our hero into killing his family, none of this would be happening.
ZEUS
The ruler of all the gods becomes the main antagonist, as his hatred for Kratos grows and grows. He becomes hell bent on destroying the betrayer, throwing trickery and obstacles in his way any chance he can get. Zeus rules from the high peaks of Mount Olympus, and watches as our hero thwarts him time and time again.
OVERVIEW
GOD OF WAR 1
As Kratos begins his journey he is quickly thrown into his first battle (The Hydra). After disposing of the beast, he becomes tired of serving the gods, and calls upon for Athena for help. The goddess tells him that the only way to emerge victorious is to kill Aries, thus sending him on a journey to find Pandora’s box.
He traverses the desert of lost souls, where he is told that the Temple Of Pandora lies on the back of Chronos, a great titan who has been punished by Zeus.
After climbing to the temple, Kratos is faced with an array of dangerous traps, and puzzles on his way to find the box. When he finally does, he leaves the temple, only to find Ares waiting for him. Ares kills Kratos before he can open the box and casts him into the depths of Hades. But our hero is diligent, and fights his way back to the surface and back to the box. Upon opening it, he is granted god-like powers and the final battle is ready to begin.
After defeating Ares, Kratos is still not rid of his nightmares, and he realizes that the gods have once again lied to him. He tries to kill himself, but Athena stops him, and grants him a place on the throne as the new god of war.
GOD OF WAR 2
As Zeus grows tired of Kratos’s disobedience to him, he lures the warrior into a battle where Zeus strips him of his powers and kills him. But don’t worry, the game isn’t over (in fact this game is significantly longer than the other two), it is just the beginning. As Kratos once again fights his way out of Hades, his vengeance takes a new face: Zeus.
Our hero is determined to defy the sands of time, and works to travel back to the moment Zeus murdered him so he can turn the tables. Standing in his way are the Sisters of Fate, a duo who control time. However, Kratos is not alone his intentions, as he encounters a slew of enemies that are also seeking the Sisters’ compliance. One such enemy is the leader of the Barbarian army that was just about to kill him before Ares granted him his power!
After slicing his way through several landscapes, Kratos finally comes face to face with the Sisters, but they don’t plan on letting him pass. An epic, three-part battle ensues and the Sisters throw any form of deviance and psychological warfare at him as they can muster, including fighting him on the same battleground as he fought Ares in the first game. After defeating the Sisters, Kratos is now ready to exact his revenge on the god of gods.
Zues is obviously bewildered at the god of war’s return, but he is ready to take him out himself. Another epic battle between the two erupts, and Kratos needs to use stealth like reflexes in order to defeat him. He takes the Blade Of Olympus from Zues, but just as he is about to kill him, Athena throws herself in front of the blade and Zeus escapes. As the goddess lay dying in Kratos’s arms, she reveals to him that he is in fact Zeus’s son, and that destroying him would not destroy Olympus, it would give Kratos the power to take the throne.
Seeing his opportunity to get his revenge on the gods, Kratos travels back to the great war, just before the gods beat the titans and takes the giants back to the present day. The game ends with Kratos on the back of one of several titans, climbing Mount Olympus.
GOD OF WAR 3
This is what it all comes down to. Kratos is not only going to take on Zeus, but ALL of the gods! He begins by taking down Poseidon, the god of the sea, in a long battle to start the game off. When the god is killed, it floods the world, and after a brief standoff with Zues, Kratos is thrust back to the underworld where he will confront Hades. After killing Hades, the souls of the underworld are released.
The theme here is that with each god that we kill, the effects of that god are no longer valid in the world. When we kill Helios, god of the sun, world is cast into darkness. We also encounter less god-like figures, such as Hercules where we engage on a battle of sheer brute strength.
We then encounter Pandora, who instructs Kratos that she needs to find her box to restore order to the world. After helping raise her temple, we discover that the box is empty. Kratos attacks Zeus as he laughs at his failure. After defeating the god, however, the spirit of Zues returns and kills Kratos.
But the warrior is able to come back after the spirits of his deceased wife and child help him to forgive himself for his sins. He reemerges, where he is able to (literally) beat Zues to death with his bare hands. However, the world is still cursed by Pandora’s box being opened in the first game. Athena (her spirit) insists that if Katos returns his power, she can use it to rebuild the planet. But with his quest for vengeance over, Kratos refuses, and impales himself to keep her from obtaining it. Our hero has fallen, but so has Olympus.