Controversial Gaming Talk: Why God of War Needed this Change.

Oh boy. I know I'm heading into controversy on this. But hear me out:

Let's go back to 2005. God of War came out & while it didn't have anything groundbreaking, the game was still great with fast combat, a good setting, interesting platforming & puzzles, great visuals. Despite the fact that it may seem a bit archaic now compared to future entries, it was still a good starting point for the franchise.

Let's move forward two years later to God of War 2. This is a lot of people's favorite in the franchise & to they're credit, they have good reason. The game not only improved on the things from the previous game, but it also added to that, including more variety of weapons, puzzles & locations. The game also wanted to go further into making Kratos that tragic hero.

A year later, we get not God of War 3, but a prequel to God of War, God of War: Chains of Olympus. The game came out on the PSP, meaning not a large amount of people wouldn't have played it until a remaster came out many years later. On another note, because it was on the PSP, there was less production value into the game. Even though the game worked properly & played great, it did little to nothing into adding to the God of War franchise besides clearing up how Atlus knew Kratos in God of War 2.

We not cut to 2010 with God of War 3 and if God of War 2 wasn't your favorite, this game was. The game looked amazing, the combat was just as fluent, if not more, than its predecessor, combat was more brutal & cinematography was great. The only real issue with the game was its story. The story felt like the team was writing themselves into a corner, especially brining back Pandora's Box. On top of that, this game also solidified Kratos as probably one of the most unlikeable protagonists in gaming history where he's literally going through to destroy the entire world just to get revenge on Olympus.

We then cut to months later with God of War: Ghost of Sparta, which took place before God of War 2 and, again, another game for PSP, which was at this point dying out. This was probably the game where people started to notice the gameplay in the game was running its course. Ghost of Sparta did nothing really new for the franchise & the only real story element it brought to it was trying to explain Kratos' hatred for the Gods & adding in his brother. (To be fair, his brother didn't come out of nowhere. It was explained in a developer extra in God of War.)

Then we get to this game. In 2013, we got God of War: Ascensions, and this was the epitome of a cash grab. This was another prequel that took place between Chains of Olympus & God of War. At least in the other side games, there was some kind of element to the story that connects to the others, despite how little it was. The story for this game, however, not only came across as uninteresting, but it served nothing to the God of War franchise and you can skip this game and you wouldn't miss much.

The combat was also butchered with a new rage meter they added. But the problem with this was in order to do most of the basic combos you could do in previous game, not only did you need to fill that rage meter, but you also had to not get hit or you'll lose that. This made the combat feel stilted and you had often found yourself in these, "Hit, Hit Dodge. Hit, Hit, Dodge," situations. The weapons were also uninteresting as they tried to make them more elemental-based, but all of them resembled the Blades of Chaos. The only reason this game was made was just for the multiplayer and while I found it fun & interesting, the rest of the game felt like it was unneeded.

CONCLUSIONS:

Between all of these games, we've had 6 God of War games. It felt like the developers knew the formula was running its course & tried to find a way to make it different from the other games and it showed. The God of War franchise needed this change because there's only so much you could do with the same formula.