Introduction
Inspired by the Greek mythology, the God of War series is one of Sony's most important franchises, first released in 2005. The entire production process of this series was also carried out by Sony's Santa Monica Studio. This part, which is actually the first version of the series, is actually the third part of the story series, which was first released for the PlayStation 2 and 3 consoles.
This episode actually takes place five years after God of War: Chains of Olympus. And now it's been ten years since Kratos became the unquestioned slave of the gods, hoping to erase his terrible past and escape eternal torment. However, the gods do nothing for him.
The main narrative of the game
The first scene of the game begins with a strange image of Kratos. Having reached the highest point of Mount Olympus, he intends to throw himself down and end his life. Kratos believes that the gods of Olympus have abandoned him, so he throws himself off the edge of the abyss to finally end his ten-year suffering and nightmare. Death is an escape from madness for Kratos.
But at this moment, the game flashes back three weeks. Where Kratos has gone to the Aegean Sea for another mission of the Olympians to fight a blue monster called Hydra and banish him to Hades. Hydra or hydra in Greek culture represents a type of multi-headed blue snake. Hydra is the child of the hundred-headed Typhon and one of the goddesses, and for this reason, its number of heads will vary between five and a hundred. This means that each time one of the Hydra's heads is cut off, one or more new heads may appear on its body.
While fighting the monsters, Kratos hears women screaming for help from inside the captain's cabin. This reminds Kratos of his daughter and wife. But since he is locked in the cabin, Kratos can't do anything. On the other hand, fighting Hydra and its monsters is beyond Kratos' abilities.
For this reason, Poseidon, one of the twelve Olympian gods and the god of the waters, comes to Kratos' aid and grants him the power of Poseidon's Rage to help him cleanse the Hydra from the areas under his control. When Kratos reaches the Hydra, it is devouring the captain of the ship. Kratos realizes that the captain has the key to the cabin, but it is too late to get the key; therefore, Kratos enters the fight with the Hydra.
By breaking the Hydra's jaws, Kratos finally manages to defeat the sea monster. Kratos enters the mouth of one of the snake heads to find the captain and remove the cabin key from his neck. After obtaining the key, Kratos returns to the captain's cabin, but he is too late to save the women, and the Hydra monsters slaughter them like animals. This brings back bitter memories for Kratos, which frustrates him.
The sea is now Kratos' only solace. He travels endlessly between Greek ports, following the commands of the gods. No matter how many women he sleeps with, or how much wine he drinks, this deep pain and suffering always weighs on his soul. The torment of killing innocent people and his own family weighs on him. Tired of this constant suffering, Kratos calls upon Athena.
Athena, with flattery and many promises, sends Kratos on his last mission. A more or less impossible mission to save Athens by killing Iris, the god of war. So that he may be blessed by the gods. Upon reaching the port of Athens, Kratos gets off the ship to go to Iris, the god of war. But on the way to Athens, he encounters Greek soldiers who were fleeing from the Minotaur. Minotaurs or Minotaurs in Greek mythology are half-human, half-bull monsters who serve the god of war, or Iris, in the game. That's why we have to fight them.
After battling Iris' monsters, Kratos arrives at a temple of Aphrodite. Aphrodite is one of the twelve Olympians and the goddess of love and beauty. Aphrodite tells Kratos that the gods are pleased with his progress, but his powers alone are not enough to defeat Iris and her monsters. For this reason, Aphrodite grants Kratos the gift of freezing the Gorgons. But it is Kratos who must earn this power.
Kratos must gain this power by fighting Medusa, the queen of the Gorgons. Medusa, who is now a monster, was once a beautiful and attractive woman. However, due to disrespect for Athena's temple, Athena transforms her into a Gorgon, a type of female monster with a body covered in scales. This monster's hair is made of living snakes and has a terrifying face that can turn a person to stone with its gaze. However, Kratos is able to quickly eliminate her with his abilities and gain her power.
As he travels towards Athens, Kratos encounters a vision of the Oracle of Athens. The Oracle asks Kratos to come to her temple and listen to her guidance on how to fight Iris. After passing through the crossroads of Athens, Kratos sees Iris, the god of war, destroying the city of Athens. However, he changes his route to the Oracle's temple. On the way to Zeus, the god of gods, after encouraging Kratos, grants him the power of Zeus' Fury to help him fight Iris.
Kratos finally reaches the Oracle's temple. But before he can reach the Oracle, a group of Iris monsters take his robes. At the same time, the Oracle attacks Kratos, emphasizing that the life of Athens depends on him. Following the monsters, Kratos enters the outer courtyard of the temple. In front of the temple's entrance, he sees a strange old man digging a grave. A man who seems to know everything about Kratos and his sinister past.
But Kratos doesn't have much time to talk to the old man and continues on his way. Following the flying monsters, Kratos finally finds the Prophet, who was released into the air by the Iris monsters and is currently suspended between the earth and the sky by a rope. Kratos must solve a puzzle to save the Prophet.
The Oracle does not give Kratos a chance, and places his hand around his face, watching his soul. The Oracle sees within Kratos' soul a ruthless being who once commanded the Spartan army. One who started with 50 Spartan soldiers and soon gathered an army of thousands of powerful men. Thirsty for power, Kratos would slaughter anyone who stood in his way without showing the slightest mercy. But there was only one person who was not afraid of Kratos: his wife Lysandra, who was also eventually killed by the Ghost of Sparta.
The horrified Oracle removes her hands from Kratos' face and says, "Why would Athena send someone like you to help?" She continues that killing a god is not that easy, and to destroy Iris, she must open Pandora's box and release its energy. According to Greek belief, Pandora was the first mortal woman in the world. Zeus gives this woman two gifts: one, the gift of curiosity, and the other, a box that she is instructed never to open.
That box contained the misery, evil, and suffering of humans. Of course, in Greek mythology, Pandora could not control herself and finally opened the box, spreading evil, misery, and misery throughout the world and among humans. But finding Pandora's box was not and is not an easy task because this box was hidden by the gods in the desert of the dead and to this day no human has been able to find it.
Kratos goes to Athena to guide him to Pandora's Box. She tells Kratos that to find Pandora's Box, he must find a Titan named Cronus in the Desert of the Dead. Cronus is the father of Zeus and a giant Titan who, as punishment, was ordered by Zeus to crawl through the desert forever carrying Pandora's Temple on his shoulders. Athena goes on to say that to find Cronus, he must enlist the help of the Sirens of the Desert.
Kratos travels to the Desert of the Dead and manages to summon Cronus by blowing his trumpet. The giant Cronus approaches the sound, and Kratos seizes the opportunity to attach himself to Cronus's massive torso. Kratos spends the next three days climbing Cronus' torso to reach the enchanted temple of Pandora. At the entrance to the temple, Kratos sees a dismembered man burning the bodies of humans who had previously tried to enter Pandora. He opens the gate for Kratos, warning him to continue his work.
At this moment, Artemis, the daughter of Zeus, appears. She, the goddess of the hunt and nature, gives Kratos a new weapon because she believes that the Blade of Chaos will not be enough to complete Kratos' mission. From this point on in the game, Kratos will also have the Blade of Artemis.
Getting to Pandora's Box is not that easy. Pathos Verdes III was a fanatic who served only the gods of Olympus. He is also the main architect of the Temple of Pandora, who designed the temple based on the ideas of Zeus, god of the sky, Poseidon, god of the sea, and Hades, god of the underworld. Pathos also buried the bodies of his two children in two different parts of the temple. Their skulls together form the key to entering the main part of the temple. That is why Kratos must first find the bodies of the two in order to reach the upper hall.
But that's not all, because to get these keys and open the door to the main hall, Kratos must pass three challenges. The Atlas Challenge, Poseidon Challenge, and Hades. The first challenge, or Atlas Challenge, involves passing through a series of paths full of traps. Pandora's Temple is littered with the bodies of people who tried to reach the box. This scene takes Kratos back to his memories.
We have a flashback to Kratos' story. Years ago, Kratos was the youngest and most famous commander of Sparta who had won many honors for Sparta. He was victorious in every field and won every battle until the day he faced the barbarian army. Kratos' pride would not allow him to lose or retreat. As a result, he was willing to sacrifice everything for his victory. His soldiers, his army, and even his soul.
When Kratos feels that he is about to die and be defeated by the barbarians, in desperation he calls upon Iris, the God of War, and offers her his soul to destroy his enemies. Iris, who has been watching Kratos for a long time, accepts this deal so that Kratos will become her slave. Let's go back to the present. The second challenge is dedicated to Poseidon. In this challenge, Kratos must obtain the Staff of Poseidon to reach the next part of the hall.
Kratos sees a pile of corpses in Pandora's Hall, many of which are strangely not long after they died. Even half-dead people are seen in the corners of the hall and in metal cages. Next to one of the bodies, he finds a letter that reads, "What the gods have asked of me, no human can do, not even Pandora's Box is worth such a terrible price!"«
Kratos, aware of Pandora's traps, uses one of the caged humans as a human shield to reach another part of the temple, where the Staff of Poseidon is located. Kratos also finds the Staff of Poseidon, which allows him to travel underwater. With the help of the staff, he traverses the submerged portion of the hall to reach the next hall and the third challenge, the challenge of Hades, the god of the underworld.
At the beginning of Hades' challenge, Kratos has to fight Centaurs. If you don't know, Centaurs are one of the most famous mythical creatures in Greece that have a half-human, half-horse body. Kratos then has to solve the puzzle of Hades' statue to open a new path to a labyrinth and finally, when he can barely get out, he has to face the boss fight of this stage. The final fight of this stage is a confrontation with a giant Minotaur, also known as the protector of Pandora.
By defeating this monster, Kratos is able to reach the burial site of his second child, remove his skull, and return to the main hall. After completing Hades' challenge, the god of the underworld appears and gives him the Hades Armor so he can continue his journey to defeat Iris.
After completing the challenges and conquering the lower parts of the temple, Kratos enters the next gate and the upper part of Pandora's Temple, where he encounters a Harpy. In case you don't know, a Harpy is a mythical bird-like creature in Greek mythology with a human upper body. Kratos has worked for the gods long enough to know that the Harpy is a sign from his former master, Iris, who is here to warn Kratos.
Kratos tells the harpy to return to his master and tell him that he will not be safe as long as he lives. Now nothing stands in Kratos' path to Pandora's Box. Kratos continues on until he finds Pandora's Chamber, where statues of Poseidon, Zeus, and Hades have been built around Pandora's Box.
Upon reaching the room, Kratos succeeds in becoming the first human to reach Pandora's Box. Kratos must now return Pandora's Box to Athens to use the power within the box to fight Iris. But it seems that nothing is going to go easy for Kratos, because at that moment, Iris, having learned of Kratos' success, throws a spear-shaped weapon from Athens. The stick goes straight into the desert of the dead and passes right through Kratos' body.
For a moment, Kratos feels death next to him, but the image he sees is still the scene of the death of his wife and daughter. Even death cannot free Kratos from this torment. Kratos is again thrown into memories. He entered the village on Iris's orders and massacred everyone, including his wife and daughter. This was actually Iris' trick so that Kratos would have no other attachment to the world by shedding the blood of his loved ones and become a perfect and flawless warrior.
In fact, the same god who once saved his life from the barbarians soon took everything from him. After killing his wife and daughter, Kratos is bewitched by an old witch who forbade him from entering the temple. The old woman covers Kratos' body with the ashes of his wife and daughter, and the ghost of Sparta is born. Meanwhile, Kratos takes his last breath and dies as Iris' monsters take Pandora's Box with them.
Kratos dies and is falling into the underworld. But this is not the end of the story because Kratos is able to stop himself from falling into the river of the dead by hanging on to the body of another person. You may be interested to know that the person Kratos is hanging on to is the captain of the first ship in the story. Anyway, after going through a series of rough paths, Kratos is finally able to reach the highest floor of the underworld. At that moment, a rope falls in front of his feet. A rope from the world of the living. Kratos also grabs the rope and climbs up.
Climbing up Kratos' grave, he arrives right in front of the Oracle Temple, where the strange old man is digging a grave. Kratos was the first mortal to both reach Pandora's Box and escape death. After this, killing a god probably won't seem so hard. So he goes to Iris, and while Iris is distracted talking to Zeus, Kratos throws his dagger, knocking Pandora's Box out of Iris's hands. The box opens and the energy from Pandora's Box comes out. The energy from the box transforms Kratos into a giant creature. The monster that Iris once created now stands before him.
Kratos is now very powerful, despite the gifts of the gods and the power of Pandora. So Iris puts him in a hallucination and shows Kratos part of his memories. The village temple, his wife and daughter, and himself being attacked. When Kratos comes out of the hallucination, the fight continues. He picks up the sword of Athena and the final battle of the game begins with Kratos' anger and hatred.
Kratos does the impossible. Kratos, a mortal, manages to kill a god and avenge his daughter and wife. Athens is saved and the Olympians are back in control. But Kratos is still the same. Athena tells him that his sins are forgiven, but no man or god can forget his terrible past. So his past will stay with him forever.
Desperate to continue his journey and aware that the gods have abandoned him, Kratos climbs to the top of the highest mountain in Greece—the very opening scene of the game—and throws himself down after ten years of continuous suffering. But the gods have other plans for Kratos.
Athena reappears and tells Kratos, "You cannot die today. The gods will not allow one who has served Olympus so well to take his own life. Iris' path was wrong and she was punished for it; but now there is an empty throne left on Olympus." A throne that Kratos must fill. The new God of War!
