Gameplay

God of War is a third-person action video game, focused on the player using melee attacks, magic abilities, and combinations of the two to defeat foes. The player controls Kratos' movements, including jumping, swimming, and climbing, as well as his attacks. Kratos' primary weapons are the Blades of Chaos, which can be used in a number of different types of attacks, varying in power, speed, and range of damage. Throughout the game, Kratos also gains the abilities of several magical artifacts, such as the head of Medusa that can be used to turn foes into stone. Damaging and killing an enemy will release one of three types of orbs: red orbs can be redeemed to power up Kratos' attacks, and green and blue orbs immediately restore Kratos' health and magic, respectively. As the player fights, a meter reflecting the "Rage of the Gods" begins to fill; when the meter is full, the player can activate the power by simultaneously pressing the L3 and R3 buttons. Kratos is engulfed by electricity, and the power of his attacks are temporarily increased. Should Kratos lose all his health, the game is over, but the player has the option of restarting at the last checkpoint; the game will also offer the player the opportunity to attempt the game at a lower difficulty level if they have restarted from the same checkpoint several times in a row. The lower difficulty only changes the enemies skill, and does not help in the many puzzles throughout the game.

When certain enemies, in particular certain boss battles and larger foes, are low in health, the player can initiate a special Quick Time Event killing sequence as indicated by a marker over the enemy's head (the Circle button symbol). This starts a sequence of moves by Kratos that will display a controller button or an analog-stick action briefly on the screen during the attack; the player must hit that button or move the analog stick as indicated within a short time for the killing sequence to continue, otherwise the sequence will be broken and the enemy will grab Kratos and toss him away. However, if the player successfully responds to each sequence, then Kratos will finish off the enemy in a bloody and spectacular fashion, and gain a higher yield of orbs. Most bosses can only be killed using these "fatality" minigames, increasing the cinematic feel of the game.

In addition to the melee aspects of the game, the player will also need to solve environmental puzzles, such as sliding boxes or statues around to depress switches, turning levers to open doors, or similar moves. Chests are scattered about the levels, and can be opened to reveal orbs, gorgon eyes, or phoenix feathers, the latter two can be collected to expand Kratos' health and magic capacity, respectively. Destructible environmental objects can also be broken to retrieve red orbs. Each of Kratos' abilities can be improved using the red orbs; each of the abilities have several levels that improves that ability's effectiveness as well as introducing new combination moves the player can use.

Most of the foes in the game are inspired by creatures from Greek mythology, including Medusa, the Minotaur, and the Lernaean Hydra, among others.

Plot

The game begins with the main character, Kratos, committing suicide by jumping off a cliff into the Aegean Sea. As he plummets to the rocks below, the game's story is told through a series of flashbacks. The story of God of WarSpartan army who sets out to kill Ares, the god of war. It is the goddess Athena who requests him to destroy Ares, as his army is attacking her patron city Athens. But since Zeus had previously forbidden the gods from directly declaring war against each other, only a mortal can stop Ares. Kratos however, is already motivated by revenge; as the game progresses, Kratos' backstory is gradually explained, revealing that he had formerly been a murderous servant of Ares and had received from him his weapons, the Blades of Chaos (which, along with Kratos' recurrent nightmares, continue throughout the story to serve as a reminder of his past), but had renounced his service to him after the god tricked him into killing his own family. revolves around Kratos, a former captain in the

The game starts on a ship, beached on rocks in the Aegean Sea under seige from the Hydra. Kratos defends the ship from several of the undead, while simultaneously fighting the many heads of the Hydra. After arriving at Athens by ship, and fighting through it, Kratos learns from the city's oracle that the only way to defeat Ares is to use the legendary Pandora's Box, which can give any mortal the power to kill a god. However, the Oracle explains that the Box is hidden within the Temple of Pandora, carried on the back of the last living Titan, Cronos, who has been commanded by Zeus to endlessly wander the Desert of Lost Souls as punishment for his past actions. Kratos travels to the Desert to find Cronos, and upon doing so, gains entrance to the Temple after scaling the Titan's back.

Much of the game takes place within the Temple, inside of which Kratos must solve numerous puzzles and overcome hordes of hostile creatures to reach Pandora's Box. Ultimately he retrieves the magical artifact, but as he does so, Ares learns of his success and kills him. After doing so, Ares sends harpies to claim the Box for himself. Kratos meanwhile, falls into the Underworld, but he manages to fight his way back into the world of the living.

After escaping from the Underworld, Kratos recovers Pandora's Box from Ares (who threatens to usurp the other gods of Olympus), and opens it. The powers unleashed cause him to grow until he is the same size as Ares, and the two engage one another in battle. When Kratos has the upper hand, Ares traps him in an alternate dimension in which he is seemingly reunited with his family, but is forced to defend them against clones of himself. After saving them, Ares strips Kratos of his Blades of Chaos (and the magical powers he had acquired during his journey), and uses the Blades to kill his family. A distraught Kratos is returned to the battleground and, after finding the ancient Blade of the Gods nearby, succeeds in finally defeating and destroying Ares.

Despite his victory, Kratos is informed by Athena that the gods cannot rid him of his frequent nightmares of the past (since none can forget his atrocities), and had only promised to forgive him for his sins. Thinking all his troubles have been in vain, Kratos attempts to commit suicide by throwing himself off a cliff, bringing the story back to the beginning of the game. Athena, however, intervenes and takes him to Mount Olympus where, because of his services to the gods, he is offered to become the new god of war. Kratos' magical abilities are restored, and he is given new weapons, the Blades of Athena.