God of War has been such a massive and game-changing franchise, that it’s almost equivalent to Halo, one of the most-notorious Xbox releases. Can you blame it? It’s balls-to-the-wall, action-packed, kill ‘em up, blood and gore, the insanity that has you tripping through Ancient Greek Mythology, killing gods and pretty much-destroying worlds.
Not only that, but from a technical point of view, God of War has been pretty innovative, being one of the first games that basically did away with loading screens, and that goes all the way back to the PS2. Similarly, the scales of the environment are awe-inspiringly grand, and really put your actions into perspective. Finally, we can’t really forget the Quick Time Events that were popularized by this franchise to the point where it’s become a meme.
Whether you hate it or love it, God of War has had a massive amount of impact on the games industry.
Now, if you’ve been thinking of picking up the most recent God of War, you might be wondering if you should have played the previous games. Heck, you might be wondering what the previous games were. Well, I’ve thanklessly collected all the God of War games on this nice little list and recapped their stories so that you’re ready for the new game.
As such, just be aware that there are a metric ton of spoilers ahead (except for the latest God of War game), in case you wanted to go out and play the games yourself.
God of War Playstation Games
#1 God of War
Platform: PS2
Release: 2005
I remember when I first played this game as a teen, and it pretty much blew my mind. It wasn’t often that you got a really fluid hack and slash, with gore, adventure, and pure awesomeness all around. It’s no surprise that this game spawned a huge franchise.
Heart-Wrenching Story
In case you aren’t familiar with the story of Kratos, it’s actually a pretty sad one. Kratos used to be a pretty famous and badass Spartan warrior, conquering almost everybody he came up against. Unfortunately, his luck did run out, and he was defeated . . . or at least, he was about to be before making a deal with Ares to save him, in exchange for being his servant.
Of course, Ares seeing the potential of Kratos agreed to the deal. Over the course of serving Ares in his capacity of just being an unbridled killing machine, Kratos was tricked into killing his own wife and daughter. While that in and of itself already sucked, he ended up getting cursed to be haunted by his actions for the rest of his life, by fusing their ashes to his body, which is why he’s covered in white.
Given the fact that Kratos’ most favorite skill is killing things, he embarks on a long journey to go and kill Ares. This ultimately takes him through a massive romp of greek mythology, cities, and monsters. I’m not going to go so far as telling you the ending, but suffice to say it’s pretty heart-wrenching.
Honestly, this is what makes Kratos so interesting, because even though he’s so much of an anti-hero, he’s still relatable, and you can’t help but feel bad for the guy.
Extremely Gory Combat
This is massively juxtaposed by the combat of course, which is just as gory as you’d imagine, even for a PS2 game. At the time, the Chains of Chaos as a weapon were pretty sweet, since they allowed to effectively fight at a variety of distances. This was equally helped by how fluid and easy the combat was, as at the time it was pretty normal to memorize strings of combos and moves.
The enemies were also reasonably unique at the time, and the boss fights were both spectacular and larger than life. Even the first boss fight you get into, the hydra, ends with you implying it down on a ship’s mast after a pretty tough fight. While the average mob was somewhat easy to kill on the lowest difficulties, the game still threw enough of them at you that the game remained challenging.
Adding to the melee combat were the powers you could use, ones that you usually got by killing a god first, like Medusa’s head. You also had the power of Sparta, which basically made you invulnerable for a little while. Not only that, but your weapons and skills were upgradable, as were your health and stamina, so the progression system was a lot of fun.
Sure, nowadays the original God of War may seem outdated, but at the time, it was one of the most kick-ass games of its generation.
#2 God of War II
Platform: PS2
Release: 2007
Given how awesome the first game was, God of War II had a lot to live up to and I’m happy to say that it manages to deliver. If the first God of War was about a man becoming a god, then God of War II is about a god becoming a man.
God Becoming a Man
The story picks up basically where the second left off, with you replacing the previous god of war Ares and being a complete murdering lunatic. In one of your destructive fun-times, you send your Spartan army to Rhodes to pretty much kill everybody and destroy everything. Not content on watching from on high, you decide to jump down and include yourself in the fight, although not before Athena gives you a prophetic warning.
So, you’re down there, fighting your heart out, and suddenly a mysterious eagle pops up, brings the Colossus of Rhodes to life, and makes it really, really hate you. Unfortunately, the only way to kill it is by charging up the sword of Olympus with your ‘god-power’, which turns you back to a mortal, although you do manage to kill it. At that point, it’s revealed that the mysterious eagle is actually Zeus, and he’s got a bone to pick with you.
Being the vengeful god that he is, Zeus kills you and sends you back down to hell and that’s pretty much where the game starts proper. I’m not going to go into the specifics, but, you end up killing some magical sister, get control of time, go back to when you got betrayed, get involved in a massive fight with Zeus, almost killing him but killing another god instead and then subsequently going back in time and bringing the Titans back with you to invade mount Olympus and the Olympic gods.
Ok, so maybe I lied a little about the specifics.
The Original Game – Only Much Better
In terms of combat, God of War II is more of the same but so much better. All the great fluid attacks and mechanics have been brought back, and there are even some really cool new weapons and abilities to take advantage of. The enemies are equally fun, and boss battles are somehow even more cinematic than before (I mean seriously, you fight a mountain-sized statue, some kind of hippogryphs, and the god of gods himself.)
If that wasn’t enough, God of War II also has a lot of content even after you finish the main story. For example, you get a series of different challenge modes that throw a variety of difficulties and annoyances, such as killing enemies without taking a hit, or killing a certain series of boss mobs. There’s even a sort of ‘training’ mode where you can set the type and number of specific enemies so that you can practice (or just, you know, murder a bunch of mobs).
There’s also a NewGame+ mode, although it wasn’t called that at the time, where you can apply certain urns (read buffs) to your game. These run the gamut from unlimited magic, stamina and tons of orbs. There are even some really cool costumes to unlock (including a fish one . . . literally, it’s a fish costume).
All in all, God of War II not only lived up to the hype of the first game, but it managed to surpass it by being bigger, better and just more badass.
#3 God of War III
Platform: PS3
Release: 2010
I’m not really sure how they managed, but God of War III is even more awesome, epic, and murderously insane than the previous two games. If you thought that they really couldn’t go much further in the story of God of War II, then oh boy are you in for a shock.
The Grand Finale
This time, Kratos’ actions affect the whole world (of Greece), and are pretty insane overall. Picking up exactly where you left off in the previous game, you are now climbing Mount Olympus with the Titans to kill the pantheon of gods. Of course, this process doesn’t go all that well, as is the norm for Kratos, and he gets cast down into the underworld again.
⚠️ [Heavy Spoilers Ahead] ⚠️
Unfortunately, he does end up losing pretty much all his powers, abilities and weapons, but thankfully Athena’s astral form intervenes and kindly gives you the Blades of Exile . . . even though you killed her in the previous game. Of course, you were always destined to fail beating Zeus the first time, as it turns out that you need to put out the flame of Olympus, which is the source of Zeus’ power.
As you go through killing everything in a 360-degree radius, you run into some of the other gods of the pantheon, and then immediately kill them dead. As you do, the world reacts and becomes very much apocalyptic and not that nice. For example, killing Poseidon floods everything, and killing Helios (the god of the sun), the skies turn black, with no sun to be seen.
At some point in all this you find out that to extinguish the flame of Olympus, you need Pandora, as she’s the only one who can do it. So, you go find Pandora, take her with you to Zeus, have a brief fight when he tries to intervene and then finally see Pandora extinguishing the flame, at the cost of her life. Underneath the flame lies Pandora’s box itself, and when you open it, you find nothing. Sad trumpet.
Funnily enough, Gia decides that this is the moment to intervene after having been presumed dead. Fighting Zeus . . . ermm, inside her, you manage to deal with both of them a killing blow. Unfortunately, your victory is short-lived because Zeus’ ghost isn’t happy, and he managed to kill you. Sort of, you go inside Kratos’ psyche and finally divest yourself of the guilt for killing your family, get back into the real world and finally kill Zeus for good.
That’s when Athena decides to come back and promptly informs you that you have hope inside of you and to give it back to her. Of course, at this point, there really is nothing left for you, so you commit hara-kiri and release hope to the rest of humankind . . . all 12 of them.
Phew, what a story, and it ends one of the most awesome sagas in the games industry . . . or does it? You’ll have to wait and see.
⚠️ [Heavy Spoiler End] ⚠️
Even Crazier Combat
Now that we have the story out of the way, let’s talk a bit about the combat, which as a pretty awesome follow up to the previous game. The really big thing now is that you can finally switch between weapons on the fly, without having to go into the menu. This means that you can chain a bunch of attacks between different weapons, and although most of them function as your standard blades, it’s still pretty awesome.
Of course, if you’re expecting just more insane button mashing, you do get that . . . up to a point. As the game progress and you get to later levels, things become increasingly difficult, and you really have to be on top of your game when it comes to timing attacks and defenses. If you aren’t careful, you can easily get knocked down or killed by enemies just because you decided to attack with reckless abandon.
Also, I should mention that the puzzles in this game are even bigger in grandeur than previous games, and even the scale of the environments is pretty mind-boggling. Graphics are also pretty awesome, although not as great as modern graphics or the remaster (more on that later). Post-game fun stuff also makes a comeback, and they’re much the same as the previous one, so no point going through that again.
At the end of the day, God of War III is the pinnacle of its trilogy, and totally worth a play, especially if you love the franchise.
#4 God of War: Ascension
Platform: PS3
Release: 2013
You’d think with how awesome the previous God of War games were, this one would have nowhere to go, and the truth is . . . you’d be right. Unfortunately, God of War: Ascension is considered one of the worst, if not the worst installment in the franchise. Of course, that’s not to say that the game isn’t good, it’s still a God of War game after all, but unfortunately, it isn’t focused and feels like it’s in an existential crisis.
Why Are Prequels Never Good?
The game’s story takes place before the first God of War when you are still tied to Ares as his servant and actually, takes place just after you get tricked into killing your wife and daughter. Of course, that’s not chill at all, so you decide to break your oath to Ares, which ultimately leads you to be captured by the furies (no, not furries, that’s something different).
The narrative actually jumps between two points in time; before you get captured by the furies, and right after when you manage to escape. I won’t get into the specifics of this as I did for other games, because it’s a bit of a mish-mash and confusing to run through, but the gist is that Kratos is attempting to escape from, then subsequently kill the furies that are trying to hold him captive. While you do that, you meet Ares’ original son, Orkos, and find out some small details about the event that sparked Kratos’ infinite blood-rage.
As for the combat, it’s pretty much more of the same, with very little innovation. You can still switch weapons on the fly, except you don’t get different weapons, but instead get different elemental versions of your normal blades. There’s four in total, and each changes the combat style and attacks slightly, but it’s not enough of a variation to make them their own distinct weapons, which is what they were going for, I guess.
The only big addition in this game is probably multiplayer, and this is actually the first God of War game that has multiplayer, so that’s cool. Unfortunately, the multiplayer itself is nothing special, and mostly involves a mix of PvP and PvE fights against bosses. There are also a few multiplayer factions that you have to gain respect with, and that unlock different and interesting weapons (which begs the question, why weren’t they in the main game?)
Overall, Ascension suffers from what I call ‘A stop-gap game’, as in, it’s a game that’s basically made to say ‘ok, we did something’. If you don’t know, the 2018 God of War comes out right after this and it’s just so incredibly better that it makes previous games like Ascension look bad. All that being said, it’s worth a play, especially if you’re going to pick up the God of War Saga.
#5 God of War (4)
Platform: PS4
Release: 2018
Wow, where to even start with this semi-reboot? It’s such a big departure from the traditional God of War that you’re used to, that it’s almost like a completely new franchise and yet . . . it’s not. The 2018 version of God of War reimagined Kratos and the gameplay itself to something novel and incredibly engaging.
A Story so Amazing We Don’t Want to Spoil It
Now, this is where I’d be going over the story, but with this game, I’m not. So far my philosophy in telling you the story is bringing you up to speed for this exact game. The story is so amazing, heartwarming, attention-grabbing and all-around badass, that I would do a massive disservice to you by spoiling it for you.
The only thing I will tell you is that Kratos is no longer in the world of Ancient Greek gods, but instead has jumped into the world of Norse gods. This also adds a massive change of pace, as Kratos is no longer the blood-driven murder he once was, but is now a bit more subdued. You also now have a son, called Atreus, who actually plays a significant part in the game’s mechanics.
Speaking of mechanics, let’s talk about combat for a second since it’s very different from previous games.
Awesome Combat Revamped & RPG Elements
For starters, it’s no longer about just going out and mass killing groups of enemies, but instead, the combat is more RPG and dark souls-y, where parrying and timing your attacks becomes more important. To help along with that, you have a new weapon, the Leviathan Axe, which is incredibly powerful and awesome to wield. While you can throw the ax and have it rush back to you in midair like Thor’s hammer, you can actually upgrade the Axe significantly with a variety of different buffs.
This RPG-style system is also brought to Kratos himself, who now has stats that you have to keep track of. Different weapons, armor, and talismans add or subtract from those stats, and so it becomes especially important to keep your gear up to date, which is fine since they all look increasingly more awesome. Similarly, Kratos now has skill trees that provide him with different and new ways to fight, such as special parries.
Again, I’m not going to go too deep in it, as the journey of finding all this out is incredible and tons of fun.
One of the many RPG additions we liked were treasure hunts for gear and items. If you find yourself stuck doing those, make sure to navigate to our list of God of War treasure maps for some friendly advice.
Honestly, if you’re a fan of God of War, then this game is a must-play if you haven’t already. If you have some free time, just grab the latest PlayStation and thank me later.
If, on the other hand, you’re just getting into this franchise, then this is the best God of War game. Newcomers to the franchise shouldn’t have to worry about previous stories too much, as the game acts as a semi-reboot, so you don’t need the backstory. That being said, it’s certainly nice to have, and it will crop up from time to time, so knowing what happened previously will help with the enjoyment.
God of War PSP Games
#1 God of War: Chains of Olympus
Platform: PSP
Release: 2008
The first God of War games on the PSP, this was an excellent portable version of Kratos for you to carry around and for on-the-go murder. Now, granted, even the best PSP games are quite old, (and the console no longer supported), but this was an awesome game at the time.
Another Prequel…A Good One?
Story-wise, it doesn’t do anything different then ascension did, putting you within the 10 years of servitude that you had to Ares. You are sent to the city of Attica to protect it from a Persian army, but as you’re successfully succeeding by killing the Persian king, the sun falls from the sky and everything goes black. Apparently, Helios has been kidnapped and it’s your job to save him since all the other gods have fallen asleep . . . I don’t know, maybe they have an early bedtime.
Anyway, you go find Helios’ sibling, since that’s the standard operating procedure when you can’t find somebody. In this case, you find Eros, his sister, and she tell you that the Titan Atlas kidnapped her brother and you need to find the primordial fires to awaken Helios’ horses. You do, and the aforementioned steeds promptly take you to the underworld, since apparently they are also tracking dogs.
Of course, this wouldn’t be a God of War game without some form of underworld shenanigans, and you find yourself head to head with Persphone. She gives you a deal to renounce all your powers in exchange of being with your daughter, which you take. And that’s it, the game ends there with you spending happy eternity with your daughter.
Hahahaha, just kidding, you almost immediately abandon your daughter to go back to mercilessly killing things. In this case, it’s Atlas who is trying to destroy the Pillar of the World, which would also destroy Olympus. You end up binding Atlas to the aforementioned pillar and it now becomes his burden and then you turn around and kill Persephone.
So yeah, pretty much standard fare for God of War.
Impressive Gameplay
In terms of combat, it’s a bit of a ‘tighter’ or smaller version of the main games on the consoles. You get a couple of different weapons in the form of a shield and gauntlets, which alter the combat somewhat, but it’s not anything too drastically different from the standard blades. You also get three new abilities, versus the four in other games, although they’re still pretty fun.
Even though Ascension didn’t have challenge modes, Chains of Olympus does, with a total of five different challenge modes, or trials, each with their own specific tasks that are surprisingly challenging. You also get the full gamut of other unlockables such as costumes, concept art, and a bunch of behind the scenes stuff. So there’s certainly enough motivation for replayability.
Overall, Chains of Olympus is a much more compact version of the traditional God of War games, and it’s really good. Honestly, it’s surprising that they managed to fit this whole game on the PSP with the same quality and fluidity of previous games. The best part is that it actually works really well on the PSP, even though there’s one less joystick to work with.
Of course, very few people have PSPs, so thankfully this was ported to the PS3 for you to play.
#2 God of War: Ghost of Sparta
Platform: PSP
Release: 2010
The truth is, when it comes to the PSP God of War games, they’re mostly just a more compact experience of the console franchise. This was true for Chains of Olympus and it’s definitely true for Ghost of Sparta. Again though, that’s not necessarily bad, as the PSP was meant for handheld gaming, so being able to have shorter bursts of gameplay is important.
God Wars: Return of the Kratos
When it comes to the story, Ghost of Sparta takes place between God of War I and II, with Kratos replacing Ares as the god of war.
The game starts off with a series of flashbacks, showing us that there was a prophecy, as there always is, that the death of Olympus would come from a strangely marked boy. Trying to stop the prophecy from happening, and thereby making 100% sure it happens anyway, Ares and Athena set out to find the kid. As it turns out that kid is Deimos, Kratos’ brother, who gets kidnapped by Ares and given to Thanatos, the god of death.
Kratos escaped just barely while defending his brother, with Athena stepping in and stopping Ares from killing him. In tribute to his brother, Kratos marked himself with a similar marking, the famous red swirl that we’re all familiar with.
Back in the present, Kratos begins to have weird visions of Atlantis, a weirdly marked boy, and an old woman. Beset by those visions, you embark on a journey to Atlantis at the consternation of Athena, who is . . . one second let me check . . . yeah, she’s dead and his friend now apparently. Anyway, you head out across the seas to Atlantis and get attacked in the process by Scylla, and a pretty cool boss battle ensues.
Reaching the temple, you find out the old woman is actually your mother, and she tells you that Deimos is in fact alive *gasp*. She also has the propensity to turn into a huge monster that you immediately kill. Thankfully, before she dies she gives you a pretty good lead: go look for your brother in Sparta.
At this point, there’s a whole bit where you’re at Sparta, but I won’t go into it since it’s your typical god-stomping romp through an ancient Greek city. Suffice to say, you need to go back to the now sunk Atlantis so that you can get into the Domain of death. Finding your brother, and finding that he’s super-angry at you for taking so darn long, you get into your typical brotherly fight to the death, with Thanatos intervening at the last moment and taking Deimos to Suicide Cliffs.
As you’ve probably guessed by the name, Diemos throws himself off the cliffs, but you manage to save him, and together they fight Thanatos. Unfortunately, Thanatos manages to kill Deimos, and Kratos, in turn, kill Thanatos. Athena appears to apologize for the mess up, but you’re not having any of it, and leaves while she whispers under her breath ‘Sorry . . . brother’. Bet you weren’t seeing that coming.
The story basically ends there, with Kratos back to brooding on his throne . . . of war? I don’t know. Either way, that’s basically where God of War II starts off from.
Skins and Challenge Modes
As for the combat, well it’s about what you’d expect from a PSP God of War game. You mostly rely on your blades, although you do get Kratos’ old Spartan weapons, which is a shield and a spear, so that’s pretty cool. There’s also a new rage meter which takes the form of a ‘fire’ meter and just . . . fire everywhere.
Post-game unlocks are pretty fun, and the same as the other games, with new skins and challenge modes, including one where you have to kill 4 bosses without getting hit even once.
All in all, Ghost of Sparta is an interesting game, a sort of aside from the main series that gives you a deeper glimpse of Kratos, without actually breaking the mold. You’ll be happy to know though that this game was ported to the PS3 in the God of War Saga, so you can still check it out.
Special Mentions
#1 God of War: Betrayal
Platform: Mobile (Java ME)
Release: 2007
This game is actually really interesting, I mean, if you’ve ever wanted a 2D, side-scrolling God of War game, this is it. What makes it even more interesting than that though, is that the game was made on the Java ME platform, so it only worked for phones that supported that back in the day (so we’re talking phones with buttons here). The game and story are actually pretty short here, with the overall playtime being around an hour or two.
Not Canon
In terms of story, it takes place between the first and second God of War, although I should stress here that the game has never been officially made part of the cannon, so nobody is really sure if it is or isn’t. Either way, as Kratos, you’re going on a rampage through Greece when you come up against a beast called Argos, which was sent by the gods to put a stop to your shenanigans.
Unlike other games, you don’t actually kill Argos, although it dies through the hands of an unnamed assassin, who then throws all the blame on you. Of course, you’re having none of that, and you pursue this unknown assassin through Greece, although constantly being slowed down by the minions of Hades. At some point, you Zeus sends Ceryx to tell you to cut it out and chill a little, but you just kill Ceryx anyway because at this point, why not?
Of course, this means that now you’ve really ticked off the Gods of Olympus, and the assassin has gotten away, so you’re basically back to sitting on your throne waiting for the inevitable to happen.
As I said, the story certainly is pretty short, and maybe a little bit disjointed. Don’t worry though, you aren’t missing out on much lore anyway.
Mobile Game Combat 🥱
Now, in terms of combat, the game is surprisingly true to form. You get two weapons; the Blades of Athena and the blade of Artemis, which are broken down into short and long-range attacks respectively. Since you the phones at the time couldn’t really register multiple simultaneous inputs, a lot of the action was automated, so for example, the jump button would launch you in the direction your facing.
Even though the platform had a lot of limitations, the devs still manage to make the gameplay smooth, and I have to say, the animation is just insanely awesome. Honestly, the whole aesthetic of God of War is retained really well in this little mobile chunk.
#2 God of War: A Call From the Wilds
Platform: Facebook
Release: 2018
Another interesting little game in the God of War franchise, this one is a short text-based game that was released through Facebook (of all things). More specifically, this covers the Norse mythology part of the franchise and focuses on Atreus.
As Atreus, you go out with your mother for archery and rune training, after which you hear the telepathic sounds of a deer crying. Going out in search of it, you find it covered in blood and then get jumped by a couple of draugrs. Unfortunately, you don’t manage really well against them and are almost killed before being saved by Kratos.
Finally, before returning home, you and Kratos fight a revenant.
#3 God of War Saga
Platform: PS3
Release: 2012
The God of War series was just way too awesome to let so many of the installments of the game sit on the PS2 and the PSP, so I’m really happy that Sony decided to bring the five main games on the franchise to the PS3. This meant that all the games essentially got remastered with higher fidelity graphics, so they don’t look too dated (I mean, there’s still only so much you can do).
The games included in this saga are God of War I, II & 3, as well as God of War Chains of Olympus and God of War Ghost of Sparta. All of this has been ported with a pretty sweet level of detail, and I can certainly see the effort put into bringing them to the relatively modern console of PS3. If you’re looking to play the main games in the franchise, and still have a PS3 lying around, this is a great collection to pick up.
#4 God of War III Remastered
Platform: PS4
Release: 2015
You might think it’s weird that they chose to only do a remastered port God of War III to PS4, but honestly, God of War III is really awesome on its own, plus the God of War Saga already brought a lot of the games in the franchise to the PS3. Actually, this remaster was done as a 10th year anniversary of the franchise, which is an interesting little fact.
While the remastered port didn’t change much of the base game, it did bring it up to full 1080p gaming screen support, as well as 60 frames per second. I have to say, it’s almost a completely new experience, as everything just looks better and the combat is just way more fluid. Also, all the DLC that was released for God of War III was also released as part of this remaster, so it’s a pretty sweet deal, even with the new God of War out.
Conclusion
And there you have it folks, a quick(ish) recap of the God of War franchise. Hopefully, this should have caught you up with the lore so that you’re ready to go into the new game with confidence.
So good luck, and I hope you get the biggest kick out of it. Oh, and by the way, try not to kill all the gods.