History of God of War (2005 - 2018)

welcome back everybody my name is Nick 930 and to celebrate the release of the new Norse themed god of war we're gonna be taking a look back at the history of God of War [Music] [Music] God of War is a third-person hack-and-slash adventure game that focuses heavily on Greek mythology or rather the brutal elimination of everything having to do with Greek mythology in each game you play as kratos a Spartan soldier hell-bent on seeking revenge on the gods of Olympus for betraying him each game also has a heavy emphasis on melee combat fixed camera angles contextual button prompts and epic battles against massive enemies so to kick this retrospective off let's head back to 2005 with the initial release of God of War for the Sony Playstation 2 Santa Monica studio is a subsidiary of Sony interactive entertainment began in 1999 and started work on their own proprietary engine called the Connecticut game engine this engine was used to develop Santa Monica's first game Kinetico a futuristic racing game that received pretty average reviews using the same engine Santa Monica began working on an action-adventure game set in ancient Greece with a heavy emphasis on various mythological elements when initially revealed at an e3 presentation in 2004 Santa Monica revealed that they were making a hack-and-slash game that blended elements from games like Devil May Cry aegyo and Capcom's Onimusha they wanted to build a game about Greek mythology but with more mature themes including sex and violence something that other games often avoided for the sake of sales the initial build of the game was inspired heavily by old action movies from the 60s like jason and the argonauts with several similar skeletal enemies like these stop-motion ones in the film eventually this idea and several other basic ones were scrapped for being too cliche and God of War took on a personality of its own including its main protagonist Kratos Kratos was a powerful Spartan soldier that led armies to conquer entire regions in ancient Greece but after suffering a major defeat against an army of barbarians Kratos is nearly killed and pleas for his life from the God of War Ares Ares saves his life but dooms him to a life of servitude marked by the blades of chaos two large blades attached to either arm by chains seared into the flesh eventually Kratos mistakenly kills his own family a truck set up by Ares in hopes that it would unlock Kratos his true potential Kratos obviously not happy about this mouse to kill Ares which is where the game's story officially begins credos fights his way through tons of mythological creatures including the multi-headed Hydra Minotaur Cyclops Gorgons and eventually the God of War himself upon defeating areas Kratos is granted the title of God of War and given a seat in Olympus but despite helping Athena take out Ares he has not given the reprieve from his dark memories that haunt him something that will play into this hatred for the gods in the future God of War is a brutal unforgiving game with a heavy emphasis on hack and slash gameplay combos and plenty of gore and other mature elements right off the bat you're given a pretty good understanding of what to expect as you rip enemies apart with your bare hands and pull a hydras head through a ship mast the game utilizes fixed camera angles and multiple arenas with a variety of enemies to fight through often connected by a series of difficult platforming and puzzle solving the combat is simple to learn but difficult to master there are light heavy and grapple attacks all of which can be combined for unique animations and attack patterns which need to be understood to deal with a large variety of enemies in the game some enemies are simple grunts that require multiple hits to dispatch while other enemies can move around rapidly or even block attacks some enemies like the Gorgons have special abilities that can freeze crews in place making him susceptible to being killed instantly by a follow-up attack the game's difficulty scales rapidly and can be unforgiving with checkpoints only appearing before major sections and health only being given to the player through occasional chests and by killing specific enemies in addition to basic weapon attacks Kratos can also acquire various powers from the gods that want to succeed far as range from large a ohi's like Poseidon's rage range lightning bolts from Zeus and even a secondary weapon that's slower but deals heavier damage all these abilities and weapons can be upgraded using red orbs which are awarded to the player for killing enemies opening orb chests or by destroying various environmental pieces like old wagons and bottles these upgrades aren't essential to keep the game from becoming too difficult encouraging players to explore each environment and experiment with different weapons you can also upgrade your health and power meters by locating hidden chests with Gorgon eyes or Phoenix feathers which are also incredibly important if you want to stay alive longer God of War comes from an era where developers thought QuickTime events were cool ways to get their players to experience something more sin Manek so god Evora is completely loaded with them from opening chests to doors to pulling the head off medusa this game never seems to let up and it almost feels like Santa Monica wants you to destroy the controller and while the concept of QuickTime events hasn't aged very well kind of war does succeed in bringing the player closer to the action but one thing that haunts me to this day are the game's platforming sections these sections can be very frustrating especially when considering the game's fixed camera angle design makes it difficult to judge distances a lot of the platforming players basic jumping from one ledge to the other but other more difficult areas require you to balance across thin boards or avoid getting hit by fast-moving spike traps one of the most frustrating segments comes much later in the game where Kratos finds himself in the underworld and forced to climb too large spinning towers with spikes one wrong move can not create us all the way to the bottom to start over again and it also didn't help that the climbing mechanics felt very awkward but despite this minor annoyance this game still has aged remarkably well and it's a lot of fun to play even today in terms of visuals God of War was a step ahead of its competition with some beautiful graphical design and an ambitious 60fps target even on the original ps2 and while the ps2 did accomplish this to some degree it wasn't the most stable experience with frame rates often fluctuating from 60 down to as low as 34 textures by today's standards are low res and basic but the game still boasts some cool effects like reflective surfaces on some of the Powis floors and very detailed environments God of War was massively successful earning a 94% on Metacritic and becoming one of the Sony's flagship titles for their PlayStation platform which is an interesting step forward considering previous mascots to the Sony brand were more child friendly like Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon Kratos marked the beginning of a new era for video gaming where developers began to understand that their audience was growing up God of War success also attributed to Sony's PlayStation 2 becoming one of the best-selling platforms of all time only further reinforcing god of War's identity as a must-have for any PlayStation owner because of its commercial success it was only a matter of time before Santa Monica announced a follow-up to their action-adventure blockbuster God of War 2 released in March of 2007 at the very back end of the PlayStation 2 his life cycle and was a direct follow-up to the story and gameplay from the original 2005 classic it features most of the same elements that made the original game such a critical success including a focus on a cinematic experience fun but challenging hack and slash gameplay fixed camera angles QuickTime events and massive battles with mythological creatures and God of War 2 the player once again takes the role of Kratos directly after the events of the first game and it's driven by rage to wage war with a spartan army after identifying Kratos as a potential threat Zeus intervenes and tricks Kratos into sacrificing all of his power into the Blade of Olympus and then uses that blade to stab and kill kratos but being as this is a god of war game and Crais is just that pissed off he once again finds a way to escape the underworld and sets off on a journey to find the sisters of fate to go back in time to the point where Zeus betrayed him the story takes Kratos from the city of rose to the temple of LA Kiss's where a majority of the gameplay takes place and there's a couple of interesting cameos from other popular mythological characters like Perseus Yuri Ali and even Icarus after killing the sisters of fate Kratos uses the threads of Destiny to travel back in time to the moment where Zeus betrayed him and they have a showdown on top of the summit of sacrifice but after mistakenly killing Athena one of Creed OSes last allies on Mount Olympus Kratos decides to go even further back in time to the Great War of the Titans and encourages the Titans to help him with an assault on Mount Olympus in the future is an interesting twist on a well-established mythology and it's a fun albeit incredibly over-the-top storyline that ends up wetting the player go with a massive cliffhanger God of War 2's gameplay remains mostly the same as the first game with near identical controls and gameplay design and some minor additions like new combat moves new powerful abilities and a bit more variety in weapons the combat segments are significantly more difficult this time around with a larger varieties of enemies thrown at the player that requires expert knowledge of their strengths and weaknesses and many of the arena's are combined with difficult obstacles now any mistake in their combat can result in an instant death making this game one of the more difficult entries in the series new to God of War 2 is the ability to stop time which is used in a few of the games platforming segments you can also glide using it curses wings something that developers originally intended to be a feature in the first game graphically God of War 2 made some marginal improvements with a larger scale improved reflective surfaces better water simulation and a more vibrant color palette but the PS 2's Hardware had been pushed to its limits at this point and despite targeting a 60 FPS framerate again the game was struggled to maintain solid performance and there was an obvious need to move on to more advanced technology for the next entry in the saga God of War 2 also received high scores from critics and fans alike making it one of the best titles at the PlayStation 2 had to offer and somewhat of a swan song for the platform as the industry moved on to the new generation of consoles its unique cinematic story solid gameplay mechanics and improvements over some of the minor gripes from the original game and made it one of the most popular entries in the series only a few short months after God of War 2 released a mobile game called God of War betrayal released and is the only game in the franchise designed as a 2d side-scrolling game this mobile game featured its own unique story that had Kratos sacking cities across Greece as the gods tried to intervene despite it being a mobile game the game's signature QuickTime event finishers and combo based gameplay all remained intact to some degree as well as the franchise's over-the-top gore this mobile game received decent reviews but was met with a few criticisms for not being as fun as the main entries to the series which is understandable considering mobile gaming hadn't really taken off yet and while Santa Monica was hard at work at the sequel to the main saga Sony hired another studio ready at dawn to work on an exclusive PlayStation Portable God of War experience titled Chains of Olympus Chains of Olympus was a prequel to the God of War series and has Kratos serving the Olympian gods in hopes that they'll free him from his nightmares while doesn't necessarily push the plot forward at all in the main scheme of things it still has some interesting stories to tell after battling classic characters like cherrim the ferryman on the River Styx and Persephone queen of the underworld kratos finds himself sacrificing a chance to be with his deceased daughter to save the world from collapse Atlas still bitter after the events of the Great War attempts destroyed the pillar of the world which would effectively destroy Mount Olympus and the gods however Kratos intervenes and forces the Titan to hold the world up for eternity which is a fun backstory and gives more insight into Kratos and Atlas's interaction in God of War to the gameplay remains the same as the core god of war experience but with two unique weapons the Sun shield and the gauntlets of Zeus which are insanely powerful weapons that make the endgame a bit too easy new powers are also introduced as well as the ability to upgrade all these things and many of the same standard enemy types make appearances this PSP game received two very high reviews in line with the other main entries to the series but some criticize that the game was shorter and had fewer boss fights than standard entries Chains of Olympus will be the last time we heard from Kratos for a few years as development for the next main entry for the Sony Playstation 3 continued my vengeance finally in 2010 Santa Monica studio released the much-anticipated finale to the God of War epic God of War 3 God of War 3 was a massive step forward in almost every department especially the visual design oddly enough the studio didn't build God of War 3 from the ground up and instead utilized the same Connecticut game engine used for the first two entries this allowed the developers the freedom to focus on the game's visuals and creating new content without having to worry about the games animations movement and brawl gameplay the graphical fidelity was increased substantially thanks to the power of the PlayStation 3 with character models like Kratos going from only 5000 polygons and older games to 20,000 polygons in addition to some new texture techniques and shaders that enabled for a much more realistic image the improvements of the game's visuals also set God of War three apart aesthetically from the other entries with a more realistic color tone and darker appearance blood finally appeared realistically and the game's gory finishers became much more difficult to watch the game's story takes place immediately after the cliffhanger at the end of God of War 2 with Kratos leading a charge on Mount Olympus to slay Zeus but soon after defeating Poseidon Kratos finds himself thrown back into the underworld for probably the fifth time now I believe and is forced to seek out the flame of best to defeat Zeus this adventure has craters take down some of the most prominent Greek gods and heroes including Hades Hercules Hermes Helios and of course Zeus himself making it the single most ambitious game in the franchise the gameplay remains identical to what was in God of War 2 with many of the same moves and combos making a return and some minor adjustments to the gameplay including chests now offering both blue and green orbs and health and power upgrades only requiring 3 collectables instead of the traditional six God of War 3 took the franchise's signature cinematic moments to a new level with high fidelity action sequences and incredible spectacles that rival games available today the game received overwhelmingly positive reviews with many citing that has sent the series off on a high note but Sony Santa Monica wasn't done with their Spartan god-killer and the franchise wouldn't die with Zeus releasing soon after God of War 3 Ghost of Sparta was another prequel game previously only available for the PlayStation Portable device Ghost of Sparta 's plotline was originally planned to be the plot of God of War 2 and sees Kratos looking for his long lost brother damos in the domain of death in flashbacks featured throughout the game it's revealed that when Kratos and Deimos were children the gods feared that the destruction of Olympus would be delivered by a marked man who they believed to be damos Ares kidnaps damos and as Kratos attempts to stop him Ares gives him the scar over his eye to honor his kidnapped brother Kratos tattoos his body with this signature red mark making him the true marked one that will bring destruction to all of Olympus the actual gameplay takes place several years later after Kratos becomes the God of War and sees him seeking out the truth about the fate of his family the plotline is interesting it goes to Sparta as it gives a lot of cool background information that explains where Kratos got a scar and why he has a huge body tattoo the story also reunites Kratos with his mother and adds a lot more depth to a character that previously just shouted and killed anything that pissed him off the gameplay remains the same with a few minor enhancements like the ability to string together air attacks and the game itself received critical acclaim though it's not as highly regarded as other entries struggling to find a way to preserve the popular PlayStation mascot after 6 Tesla ending the course storyline Santa Monica revealed God of War ascension the first main entry prequel game and the first game in the franchise to offer its own competitive multiplayer mode God of War ascension takes place before the events of the first game of the franchise and shows the events that lead up to Kratos turning against Ares but to break a vow with a god Kratos needs to destroy the three Furies who would brutally punish those who truly deserved it there's a lot of interesting mythology and ascension that I personally had never heard about and it was a very interesting unique storyline that took Kratos to some strange places but ultimately the story does little to push the main story forward a sections gameplay and overall game design feels drastically different from the other entries the game's UI elements have been altered in an attempt to make things like contextual button prompts appearing like they belonged in their world but this made it a bit more difficult to identify as a player the game's weapons and power system have also been reworked with Kratos now having the ability to switch seamlessly between different blade types that would affect enemies in different ways a rage meter had been introduced that fills with each consecutive hit on an enemy and could be activated when filled to unleash a powerful attack there are also occasional secondary weapons lying on the ground that can be used temporarily to attack enemies but they were often difficult to use enemies in Ascension Arbor want lists and you often find yourself being hit from multiple directions without a chance to defend yourself unlike past games trying to chain together combos is much more difficult than past entries as your attacks rarely interrupt enemy attacks and Kratos his signature blades feel significantly weaker than they usually do on top of this the game's fixed camera angles are poorly designed with many scenes zooming out way too far in an attempt to show the massive scale of some of the set pieces while the large set pieces are impressive the camera angles made it even more difficult to focus on the combat and I often found myself losing track of Kratos during fights some of the game's platforming had been enhanced in ascension with Kratos now able to climb handholds much like uncharted or Tomb Raider games and the game cinematics seem to offer more story and character than we had seen in the past got a 4 had finally started to evolve and ascension while not the best entry in the franchise was likely the catalyst for the shift in creative design but before we move on we should we talked about ascensions multiplayer such as multiplayer is designed with a sort of rock-paper-scissors mentality with various classes featuring different strengths and weaknesses to each other players would bow each other with a similar control scheme as the single-player onset arenas often backdraft with mythological elements unfortunately the god of war gameplay desperately translate very well to multiplayer and the supposedly thoughtful design devolves quickly into a button mashing free-for-all with lots of respawning and needless leveling up Ghana for ascension was a definite low point for the God of War franchise despite earning an 80% on metacritic and the franchise would go dormant for several years before we saw the likes of Kratos again and despite all signs pointing to the death of the franchise a new entry to the series was announced at e3 2016 showing a much older Kratos and set in an entirely new Norse mythology backdrop the new god of war aims to change a lot of signature elements to the God of War franchise doing away with things like the fixed camera angle and the mindless hack and slash gameplay God of War aims to put the player closer to the action and goes for a far more cinematic approach in line with what we've seen in the reboosted games like tomb raider Kratos appears to have significantly more character this time around as he trains his son how to survive in this brutal new world it's still unclear how this game connects to the older games but we'll have to find out when the game releases this Friday and that's the history of God of War so far I hope you guys enjoyed this video and if you liked it don't forget to Like and subscribe for more videos posted like this every week

Channel: Nick930

Views: 35,127

Rating: 4.9454722 out of 5

Keywords: Game, Gaming, PC, Console, VR, Virtual Reality, Top 10, Review, Benchmark, Tutorial, News, Quality, God of War, Franchise, Retrospective, Analysis, Story, Gameplay, Footage, Series, History, Retro, Look, Back

Id: dawNUeIOVAY

Length: 20min 2sec (1202 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 18 2018