The God of War franchise has become a major staple in the PlayStation brand, and it’s hard to imagine how the gaming landscape would look without these immensely popular games. The franchise introduced a crude and gory artistic direction to the hack and slash genre that immediately resonated with players, and quickly built a dedicated fanbase. While the God of War series has been a gaming mainstay for much of my life, they mainly flew under my radar. As a young kid, I just wasn’t into video games the way many others were, and frankly, the God of War games were outside of my age range since I was like… 4 when the original came out, so the series just never grabbed my attention.
E3 2016: An Unforgettable Revelation
Fast forward to E3 2016; that all changed. I was sitting on my couch watching E3 casually eating some Cheetos. When the atmosphere in the room changed, the lights dimmed, and the beginning of an entire orchestra concert began. The voices of the choir rang deep, viking-like tones, the instruments began a somber yet strong song that had everyone in the room lean forward. It was there that we got to see our first look at the New God Of War. Only this was not the same God Of War that I had seen on my friend’s Playstation 2 all those years ago; Gone was the angry, blocky man, and instead, we were introduced to an older and more broken Kratos. One that had clearly been through a lot and had many traumas weighing him down. It was depressing and surreal, and I was hooked.
The Emotional Odyssey Unfolds: Nostalgia and Discovery
So when God Of War came out in 2018, I instantly fell in love with it: the semi-open world, the characters, the story, the revised combat. But, no matter how much I loved it, I couldn’t help but feel I was missing some context for this character. Why was he running? What had he done to warrant the hatred of all the Gods? Why was he so broken, and what regrets was he holding from his past? I had so many questions and I wanted answers. So with the recent success of God Of War: Ragnarok and its recent free DLC Update, I decided it was time to go back and experience the game that started it all and helped define the entire Playstation Era.
This article is based on the video I made on my youtube channel TheLateGame, you can find the original video linked here.
The Genesis: Development and Release
Development for God of War began in 2002, originally titled “The Dark Odyssey,” and was eventually released on the Playstation 2 in 2005. The Santa Monica Studio poured immense love and care into the game, with the initial idea originating from the creative director David Jaffe. While Jaffe conceived the primary idea and story, the Santa Monica team drew inspiration from classic Greek tales, films, and books, shaping not only the game’s tone but also Kratos himself.
Sony fully embraced Jaffe and the team’s ideas, granting them complete creative freedom and a substantial budget. This freedom was crucial as the team aimed to tell a compelling story with powerful, brutal, and liberating combat, providing players with the “Feeling of a God.”
Telling a cinematic story in 2005 was a rare sight, but the risk paid off. The game was universally acclaimed, becoming one of the best-selling PS2 games, winning numerous awards, and spawning a franchise that continues to thrive today.
The Gameplay Odyssey: Combating Gods and Monsters
God Of War’s story aside, it has gameplay that I still found fun even today. The Hack and slash combat may seem fairly simple at first glance, but there is depth to be found. This is largely due to the enemy variety and combos. You will come across a multitude of monsters such as Harpies, Minotaurs, Cyclops, Goblins, wraiths, sirens, and so many more, each having their way of being dealt with by the player.
Luckily, Kratos has several abilities to be used on these enemies throughout the game, given to you by the various Gods. It keeps the game fresh every time you get a new ability to learn. My personal favorite ability being Poseidon’s rage, an AOE attack that lets you electrocute any enemies around you. I found it incredibly useful, and it was my main ability I used for the majority of the game. For many of the monsters, the abilities act as a rock-paper-scissors effect. Certain abilities are geared more towards certain monsters, making your combos more fluid, and your abilities feel better. They really do make Kratos feel more powerful, and you feel a sense of progression as you master these combos and level up your abilities.
The combat also utilizes Quick Time events, primarily being the way to finish off enemies after you have weakened them. While it takes control away from the player for a second, it gives you a very cinematic and brutal animation that will leave you feeling satisfied once it’s completed. These animations are usually short and didn’t really hinder the experience, in my opinion.
Navigating the Mythic Realms: Level Design and Exploration
There are 6 major locations in God Of War. Each location offers plenty to become a memorable part of the game. Each of these locations has plenty of enemies, secrets, and set pieces to keep your attention. The thing that surprised me the most was just how cinematic a lot of these levels felt. The game takes its time to give you some incredibly visual moments that surprised me on such old hardware. The battles raging in the background, the massive monsters during gameplay moments, all of these things helped to really make the world feel a little more alive than I was expecting from a game that’s close to being 20 years old, and it was easily the biggest standout for me.
Along with amazing level design came plenty of things to do in these levels; there are constantly enemies to fight, puzzles to solve, and secrets to find. Exploration is more important than I was anticipating. While it is nothing compared to modern-day exploration, it was nice to go digging around levels for the hidden chests throughout the game. These chests were always a welcome sight as they would increase health, magic, or grant you XP that you can use to upgrade the abilities that were discussed earlier. Combining all of these elements made the levels stand out and feel memorable.
Conclusion: A Timeless Odyssey Revisited
Overall, I ended up enjoying this game more than I was originally planning. The emotional story mixed with brutal and fluid combat, paired with the cinematic and chaotic levels really gave me an experience I haven’t felt while gaming in a long time. It was fun and enjoyable, but so simple compared to modern video games that I couldn’t help but think of it as comfort food.
Something I want to do with my blogs is to give my final recommendations on a game at the end of each discussion. Letting you know definitively whether or not I think the game is worth visiting for newcomers; and honestly, God of War is worth playing today. It might show its age in its simplicity but overall the game was fun, the graphics are still good, the story is engaging, the set designs make this a must-play for any gamer wanting to delve into the past like me.
With that said, I hope you enjoyed reading the article and will continue to follow up with our other posts in the future as they come. Feel free to check out the video version of this essay on my YouTube channel. I am very excited for the collaboration that I will be having with FragFriend moving forward, be sure to check out the other great articles and talent on this site!
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Great read! Loved the video too. Keep up the good work.