Major spoilers ahead in this review. You've been warned.

For the purpose of reviewing this game, I'm going to go ahead and review each of its constitutive games individually before posting my overall impressions of the franchise.

God of War: Chains of Olympus

Happily, my copy of the game came with a working code for downloading both of the original PSP games on my PS3. Originally launched in 2008 on Sony's mobile platform, the game is short, but provides a decent gameplay experience that seems to know how to deliver a tight story that ties in well with the rest of the series. In keeping with the tradition of the rest of the franchise, Chains provides tight action gameplay with a staggering scope that feels all the more impressive for having been a handheld game. The game's story, in which Kratos must investigate the disappearance of Helios after defeating the Persians, currently at war with the Greeks and hauling around a basilisk and Efreet, he finds that Atlas has escaped Tartarus at the aide of Persephone, and thus both the titan and the goddess come into Kratos's crossfire.

What Chains of Olympus does so well is provide a story that still feels immense in scope without bogging down the experience by overstuffing it with pointless puzzles and long platforming sequences, which is often my issue with the franchise on the whole. This plays much more like a condensed version of God of War, and even though the story is short, it still delivers on climactic action sequences that expand Kratos's history and confirmed kill list. The enemies aren't so varied as other franchise titles, but the brevity of the game prevents this from ever feeling like it's a terrible burden.

Ultimately, this game feels like a refreshing improvement on the franchise's sometimes bloated gameplay, and while it would be hard to justify a full $40 for a game this short, I should say that if the franchise were to have adopted a model that released these shorter sequences at a lower price point, it would probably be better for it. This isn't to suggest that the series itself is bad, but merely that the repetition of the franchise's gameplay can mean that games tend to overstay their welcome instead of leaving a craving for more. In any case, this one gets a 4/5 from me.

God of War

Being the original, this game comes loaded with a lot of nostalgia for games of the past and specifically for this era of gaming, with hyper-violent protagonists, light plot twists, and inventive level design showcasing the platform's processor. Coming back to the 2005 "classic" was a blend of delightful nostalgia for some of the game's elements (action combos, powering up items, solving certain puzzles) with groan-inducing frustration (platforming elements). Indeed, whereas the action of the original is seldom surpassed by the many, many clones of the franchise, its platforming elements are perhaps the most redundant and outright silly of them all.

In a brief story breakdown, Kratos, named "the Ghost of Sparta" by friend and foe alike, is on a war path for Ares, the god of war, who has offended the gods with his hubris. Vowing to defend Athena's beloved city of Athens from the rampaging god, Kratos is told to seek out Pandora's Box, which will grant him the power of the gods. It's eventually revealed that Kratos used to work for Ares, but after murdering his wife and children for the glory of the god, Kratos can no longer stomach his past and wishes for the gods to rid him of his memory. Athena promises him that this will come to pass, and so Kratos sets out to kill a god. Through a number of trials in which Kratos must face off against multiple enemies, including Pandora's temple itself, Kratos manages to get the Box before being murdered by Ares. Since death is but an illusion in these games, Kratos is resurrected from the pits of Hades, and manages to take on the power of the gods to slay Ares and take his place on Olympus.

While the story is rudimentary, the game clearly establishes that scope is its narrative device, and the interconnectedness of the game's level design makes it feel like a more complex adventure than it ultimately is. While the HD remastered graphics are here noticeable and pretty, the cutscenes are just as muddy as they were in 2005 and show no visual update, which is disappointing in an otherwise technically proficient game. The game's controls are also showing their age, as evidenced by the unforgivingly short quick-time prompts, which assume in some places that you must practically be prescient to survive.

Still, God of War does what it does fairly well, even if it does suffer from bloated platforming sequences which are more frustrating and impractical than they are fun. There are little bits of humor sprinkled throughout, though, that illustrate that the unseemly nature of Pandora's Temple was created by a madman whose only desire was to build something so frustrating as to never allow anyone through. This is enjoyable, but the superficial nature of some of the game's elements (like the platforming segment in the Underworld) do tend to stand out when there seems to be no reason for much of the platforming design save to make you frustrated.

In retrospect, the game is still playable, but its rough edges are certainly far more clear here with the distance of a decade to allow for some perspective. A solid 3/5 for this one seems fair, with the honorable mention that the story here is probably the most coherent for the franchise.

God of War: Ghost of Sparta

The second PSP title for the franchise, Ghost of Sparta, which came out in November 2010, is a much tighter game than its console predecessors. Delving into Kratos's backstory, Ghost reveals that Kratos has a brother, Deimos, and drops the hint that both he and his brother may have been sired by none other than Zeus. When a prophecy alleges that a "marked one" from Sparta will end up destroying all of Olympus, Ares and Athena both intervene to take away Deimos, who has some kind of birthmark similar to the tattoos that Kratos wears. Kratos's story of his search for his brother is wedged between the story of God of War and God of War II, in which Kratos has now taken the place of Ares, though is not yet a fully-fledged god. Suffering from strange visions, he heads to Atlantis to uncover his hidden memories, which leads him to find his mother, Callisto, and the discovery of his long-lost brother, Deimos. What follows is another tale massive in scope, though not necessarily as memorable as the others in the franchise. Notable appearances are, of course, Poseidon, Athena, and Thanatos, who serves as the game's final antagonist. After Kratos kills the god of death, Athena offers to take his memories and turn him into a god, but Kratos refuses and instead takes on his godhood with a deep and biding anger, which he will then release in God of War II.

Ghost of Sparta is perhaps the best written of the prequel games, even if it isn't *quite* a prequel. Its narrative feels far sharper than Chains of Olympus (which opens up more plot holes than it seems to fix), and its gameplay, while ultimately not so memorable, does weave in more figures from Greek mythology to make Kratos feel all the more connected to the fabric of Greek myth. It's also interesting because Greek myth is, by and large, a family drama, and involving Kratos's mother and brother both firmly establish this chapter as the one in which much of the family drama becomes most clear, especially with the allusion that Kratos might be Zeus's son. Given that this game came out hot on the heels of God of War III, it isn't quite so surprising that this chapter seems much more interconnected than Chains of Olympus or even God of War II.

As regards the rest of the game, it's merely lackluster. While it definitely improves on Chains of Olympus by providing a bit longer a tale and a much better story, the rest of the game seems to be an unremarkable experience. The platforming sections are a bit more absent here, the puzzles less complicated, and while the boss fights are more pronounced and epic than in the previous portable installment, it tends to just fade into the rest of the franchise without standing out as truly remarkable.

Still, without feeling bloated, the game offers a quite excellent ride, and deserves at least a 4/5.

God of War II

Released in 2007, God of War II takes up the mantle of its predecessor in order to weave an even larger tale of Kratos's rage against the gods. Standing front and center here is Zeus himself, serving as the game's primary antagonist after he betrays an angry Kratos who is hell-bent on making Sparta and its inhabitants the sole rulers of Greece. After Kratos's untimely betrayal, he teams up with Gaia to release the Titans and take on Zeus himself. In order to take on Zeus, however, Kratos has to retake his godhood, which was stolen from him via the Blade of Olympus. To do so, Kratos decides to take on the Fates and travel back in time to the moment of his betrayal. Things go wrong, though, in his final confrontation with Zeus, and Kratos manages to slaughter Athena. This only further enrages him, and so he recruits the Titans and brings them directly to Olympus.

As a game, this one is certainly better than its predecessor in terms of the way it handles elements like puzzles and platforming, while it takes the action-based gameplay of the original and adds minor nuances so as to make the game a bit more engaging than before. The story also broadens its scope, leaning even further into the notion of being an epic. This is likely the game's major flaw, however, as this installment serves less as a standalone game than it does a set-up for the sequel, a sequel that would take three years to make.

This being my second playthrough of the game, I found it to be a much smoother playthrough than the first time. Many of the elements that bothered me the first time around still bother me (the platforming elements are really terrible, and the quick time events are unforgiving in their inconsistent timing), but the other elements of the game--particularly its story and the refinement of the combat system a bit--stand out as much better on the second playthrough.

Still, what is noticeable about God of War II is just how easy it is to become fatigued on the franchise. By no means is this game the worst of the franchise (thanks to God of War: Ascension), but in comparison to the other titles on this anthology, it's likely the weakest of them. This may simply be the curse of the sequel, though it's honestly hard to say. There's a lot to like here, but there's also a lot to bemoan here, as the game still suffers from bloat, backtracking, and extremely punishing enemies who can seem to take advantage of excessively slow recovery animations.

Moreover, whereas the themes of the other games seem to want to put more emphasis on Kratos's evolution--Chains conflates revenge with duty, God of War is about vengeance and regret, Ghost is about the bonds of blood--God of War II is really all about anger and pure, seething rage. In fact, so heavy-handed is Kratos's anger that some of the story beats are almost entirely lost, like the realization that Zeus is actually Kratos's father, which is alluded to directly with several lines but lacks significant delivery because so much focus is given to the aggressive tone of Kratos's revenge.

Altogether, though, it's a solid entry in the series that gets a lot right, but still demonstrates that it needs further refinement, something that would ultimately come in the later installments. I give it a 3/5 in its execution.

God of War III

The grand finale to the Greek mythos, God of War III, released in 2010, represents the most accomplished title in the series. The game tries to tie in together all of the series' myriad themes, playing up angles in the story to accentuate the fall of the Olympian family, ranging from other demigods like Hercules through the grand majority of the Olympians (although figures like Dionysus and Demeter never show up in the series, and Aphrodite never gets murdered). The story here takes Kratos's journey for vengeance to the very end, boldly proclaiming so at the very beginning of the game. But Kratos's vengeance is here underlined by a final message in the form of hope, as Kratos's vengeance has consumed the world and left it mostly barren.

The conclusion to the storyline is confusing at best, and it remains somewhat unclear as to what is meant by the concluding few scenes. There are a number of theories that I would have that would make thematic sense (the ghost of Athena, for example, I believe to be just another of the many evils of Pandora's Box released by Kratos to defeat the gods that had so consumed many others, and his tragic self-sacrifice at the end is a simultaneous relinquishment of the power of Hope and atonement for his inner rage, which is why his "rebirth" on the stone phoenix is so crucial to the conclusion of the story), but that's an entirely separate argument for another time. Still, despite the ambiguity, this game's conclusion would fit in wonderfully with the rest of the series. It is a fitting conclusion to the franchise's Greek mythos, and weaves in so many different elements of Greek mythology as to feel both familiar and fresh at the same time.

It also has the most variety to any of the previous games, and the action here is impeccable. It was a short ride (only about 6 or 7 hours of gameplay for me), but well worth the trek and included some genuinely "epic" storytelling with a visual feast of provocative imagery and imaginative settings. Even the settings that had been visited before in the series here seem fresher, newer, and more exciting than ever before. The voice acting is also totally on point, with some veteran voice actors performing the various characters' dialogue, and even Kevin Sorbo shows up to "reprise" his role as Hercules for the game.

In short, the game is both enthralling and compelling, and is hands-down the best of the franchise. This one gets a 5/5 from me.

Series Overview

It's not hard to see that the God of War series is the pinnacle of action gaming. It has solid elements in every single one of its games, even if it can sometimes stumble over particular aspects like platforming or clear storytelling. I believe the story itself as it unfolds across all of the games is quite interesting and involves a great deal of excellent reference to the actual Greek pantheon of gods and mythology. Still, when played chronologically according to the story itself, the whole mythology can feel as though it stutters and stops as it tries to build up momentum to the grand finale. Much of this has to do with the fact that there can exist some major plot holes between games (especially as regards the prequels' relationship to the first game), and that the prequel games virtually strip any of the rest of the series from any real narrative tension about whether or not Kratos can take down a god (he does so in Chains of Olympus, which also comes on the heels of his having killed the Furies, which even the gods supposedly fear for their power).

But these quibbles aside, God of War as a whole is a quite excellent attempt at putting together a stylish game universe that can remain both familiar and new with each installment. There's a reason why it's one of the most popular series for its genre, and why so many other games have wanted to copy its formula for their own success.

Where the series goes from here is an interesting question, but on its own, these five games (and Ascension) are some of the best options available for the genre. It gets a definite 4/5 from me, being that they aren't perfect, but are much enjoyed.