God of War is a video game series created by Santa Monica Studio, an exclusive title for the PlayStation consoles (with the exception of God of War: Betrayal).
Individual games have their separate entries, see under the name of each game
It tells the story of a Spartan warrior – Kratos – and his adventures in the world of ancient Greece.*
The series consists of the following games:
The following releases are compilations of previously published titles:
- God of War Collection, 2009 for PS3, 2014 for PlayStation Vita (contains God of War and God of War II);
- God of War: Origins Collection, 2011 (in: God of War: Chains of Olympus and God of War: Ghost of Sparta);
- God of War Saga, 2012 (in: God of War, God of War II, God of War III, Chains of Olympus, and Ghost of Sparta).
The story revolves around Kratos, a Spartan general who pledged his soul to Ares, the god of war. In order to understand the process of reception of mythology in this game, a fairly detailed summary is required. It demonstrates how the creators of the God of War took the world of Greek mythology as the scenery for their game and invented a very involved and entirely different story but one still in keeping with the reality of this fantastic world.
The game begins with a cutscene – i.e. a video sequence, stopping gameplay and player’s agency for as long as it lasts – that shows Kratos, defeated by his own crimes and unable to live any longer, casting himself from the mount Olympus into the sea. Before he dies, the story rewinds to three weeks earlier, during Kratos' quest to free Athens from Ares, who attacked it with his minions. Because of Zeus' prohibition of divine intervention, Kratos is the one asked to save the city. He agrees on one condition – that he'll be granted redemption for his terrible deeds. As the player proceeds with the plot, Kratos' bloody past is revealed in retrospections. These, along with the rest of the story, are told by an omniscient narrator – in God of War revealed to be the Titan Gaia.
KRATOS' PAST
When Kratos and his army lost a battle to barbarians and the hero was about to get killed, he pledged his life to Ares in order to save himself from death. Eager to serve, he quickly became the god’s top agent. He kept roaming Greece, massacring people with his Blades of Chaos, forged in Tartarus by Ares himself – until he fell for a trap set by the god to make him a perfect warrior without bounds and human limitations. As Kratos was about to destroy another village for the glory of Ares, he ignored the local oracle's warning not to enter her temple and slayed everyone inside it. When the fury that had blinded him faded, he discovered that among the victims were his wife and baby girl – the only people he had lived for, secretly transported to the village by Ares. As Kratos left the temple, the oracle cursed him with the ashes of his dead family, to be forever seen as a proof of his terrible deed – resulting in his pale-white skin. Since that day, he has been known as the ghost of Sparta, due to the ghostly color of his skin.
Soon after this event, Kratos left Ares' service and set out on his quest to redeem his humanity. He pledged his loyalty to the Olympic gods, hoping to be released from nightmares haunting him since that terrible night at the temple. His quest for Athena – to save her city – is to be the last one after 10 years of service, for which the gods promise him redemption.
GAME'S PLOT – A quest to save Athens
The player's first objective in the game is to kill Hydra – a powerful sea monster – on behalf of Poseidon. Then, the god of the sea grants Kratos his magic powers and the hero proceeds with his quest. During the game, the player can collect different types of items – phoenix feathers and gorgon eyes. After collecting a certain amount of these, Kratos’ magical energy – also known as mana – and health increase. They are not relevant to the story in any way.
As Kratos arrives in the port, he fights through hordes of Ares' minions and mythical creatures, among which there are: Harpies, Minotaurs, Gorgons and Cyclops. After reaching the city, Athena points him to her oracle, who was in danger from Ares' servants. In return for her life, she would tell him how to kill a god.
Roaming the streets of Athens, people react to Kratos with fear and panic – they would rather die than be saved – or even talked to – by a monster such as him. He experiences distrust, unwillingness to cooperate and aggression. The player learns to see him as an anti-hero.
Kratos reaches the oracle's place, meeting a strange gravedigger on his way. The man seems to be mad, as he keeps digging a very deep grave, while everyone around him dies by the hands of Ares' undead soldiers. Kratos ignores him and proceeds further. Finally he finds the oracle of Athena and saves her from the minions of Ares. As she touches his cheek to sink into his memories, she quickly backs off, saying "Why would Athena send one such as you?" In reply, Kratos grabs her by the throat and pushes her away, scared to let anyone into his troubled mind.
Bound to serve her goddess, the oracle reveals the truth about defeating Ares – Kratos has to find the Pandora's Box and consume the power lurking in it. Pandora's Temple – and Pandora's Box in it – is attached to the back of Cronos who roams the Desert of Lost Souls as an eternal punishment for his crimes against the Olympian gods. Kratos reaches Pandora's Temple and starts exploring it in order to find the infamous Pandora's Box. He fights different mythical beasts – Sirens, Satyrs, Centaurs, Cerberi and their offspring; he obtains different items – like Poseidon’s Trident that allows him to breathe underwater and two Musa Keys that open the door to a secret room. He also completes minor quests for Aphrodite, Artemis, Hades, and Zeus and in return is granted their powers and weapons, e.g. Medusa's head and Zeus' bolts (Zeus’ Fury). On his way he meets people on the same quest – to find Pandora's Box – and stumbles upon dead bodies of those who failed. In the Temple, he wanders into a room dedicated to Amphitrite and a labyrinth with a giant Minotaur in it.
After he retrieves the Pandora's Box, he gets it out of the temple and at this very moment, Ares throws a broken column in his direction. As the object reaches Kratos, it kills him instantly; impaled, in his last moments Kratos thinks of his family. Then, his soul falls into Hades.
Falling down to the Underworld, Kratos has to tear through Hades' harsh environment, but finally finds a single rope hanging from the top – as he climbs up, he discovers himself in front of the oracle's temple, coming out of the same hole that the madman he's seen before was digging. After a few words, the gravedigger transforms into an eagle and flies away – which means that it was all along Zeus helping Kratos in his quest to save Athens.
THE LAST PART – Killing Ares
Kratos rushes towards Ares, standing before mount Olympus, threatening the gods. In his monologue, the god of war reveals his true motivation behind his attack on Athens – he's jealous that Zeus has granted Athena his trust and favour, while not doing the same for him.
Kratos throws Zeus' bolt at the chains that hold Pandora's Box and releases it from Ares' grasp. As he opens it, the power of the gods fills his body, making him able to fight Ares.
During the duel, Ares throws him into a mysterious portal. To his surprise, Kratos finds himself in the same temple where he killed his family – and as he turns around, his wife and child are there, about to get killed by his own clones. He keeps defeating the copies of himself until he's the only one on the battlefield. Relieved to see his family saved, he's suddenly lifted into the air and the Blades of Chaos – carved into his skin all those years ago – are torn away from his arms and point to his wife and child. He watches them die once again.
When he's about to submit, he spots a fractured metal blade, which was formerly used as an ornamental bridge inside Athens. As he removes it from its post, he uses it to finally defeat Ares.
THE END – The reward
As Kratos defeats Ares, the gods fail to deliver his expectations – a monster such as him cannot be forgiven. In this moment, he understands that there's only one thing that he can do. He climbs (?) mount Olympus and with the words on his lips: "The gods have abandoned me, now there's no hope," he casts himself into the sea, in hope of ending his miserable life. To his despair, he survives. Athena lifts him all the way up and places him unharmed before the entrance to the gods' domain. She explains to him that now, when Ares is gone, there is a vacancy on Olympus – and that the gods agreed to make him the god of war, as a reward for saving Athens.
After all his labours, Kratos becomes the new god of war.
* The newest title in the saga has introduced the world of far north and Norse mythology, presumably to replace the Greek environment.