God of War 1

Though I’m not quite yet finished, I have recently been playing the two current God of War games and I have to say I’m having a blast. Though the game can be incredibly frustrating at points it is just enough for me to feverishly keep trying and not give up, while also not giving me an aneurysm. But that’s not what this post is about. The gameplay to the story is fantastic. The use of old Greek mythology is also very creative and fun. What’s lacking from this otherwise stellar story is pathos, and pathos makes all the difference in a story.

Kratos is the character you play as in the story so lets go into a little backstory. Kratos is this bloodthirsty spartan army leader when he takes on some barbarians and his army is decimated. Right before the leader of the barbarian horde is going to enact the final blow on Kratos, Kratos calls out to Ares and says he’ll be his servant if he can deliver him from death. Ares kills everybody except Kratos and his Spartans.

Kratos is now the leader of Spartans under the command of Ares. He goes about killing pretty much anybody and everybody. Eventually this catches up with him and though an old oracle warns him, in his blind fury Kratos murders his wife and child. He then feels bad and swears not to be Ares servant anymore. Ares points out that he was just trying to get Kratos to be a better warrior but KRatos is pretty set on getting revenge. In fact unquenchable revenge is ultimately what powers the main character and the story.

Kratos then becomes a servant to the other gods and sets out on a quest to kill Ares. After you kill every monster and person (regardless of they’re innocence) Kratos eventually kills Ares and becomes the new god of war.

The second game opens with the rest of the gods pissed at Kratos because he’s being a complete douchebag like Ares before him, sending out armies to destroy everything. The gods take away his powers and Zeus delivers the kill blow, however the Titans intercede and blah blah blah.

http://earlvagary.wordpress.com/2009/04/27/no-pathos-for-kratos/