God of War

About

God of War is an action-adventure video game series created by David Jaffe and loosely based on Greek mythology. The series follows Kratos, a violent anti-hero who initially sets out to defeat Ares, the God of War, before becoming the God of War himself, causing the other Olympians to betray him. The series has become a flagship title for the PlayStation brand, with seven games across multiple platforms. An eighth installment is currently in development and it will be a reboot based on Norse mythology.

History

David Jaffe and SIE Santa Monica Studio began development on God of War in 2002.^[1] Jaffe is quoted as saying he owed Capcom a debt as he was inspired by the Onimusha series. The game was unveiled at SCEA Santa Monica Gamers' Day 2004 and officially released on March 22nd, 2005.

The game proved very critically and commercially successful, leading to several sequels on the Playstation 2 and 3, including God of War II (2007), God of War III (2010), and God of War: Ascension (2013). The game's first entry on the Playstation 4, God of War (colloquially known as God of War IV) will come out in 2018 and will be focused on Norse mythology instead of Greek (trailers shown below).

Portable Games

There have been two portable games released in the God of War series, God of War: Chains of Olympus (2008) and God of War: Ghost of Sparta (2010).

Reception

God of War has been a massive commercial and critical success for Sony. In June 2012, the company reported that the series had sold more than 21.65 million copies worldwide. (as of April 2016, Sony has not released updated sales data). Every game in the series has scored highly on Metacritic, scoring between 80-94/100. The original God of War received over a dozen "Game of the Year" awards, while God of War II was similarly been called one of the best action games of all time. The portable console games were also well received and were considered some of the strongest handheld games of the era.

God of War (2018) Release

On April 20th, 2018, God of War (colloquially known as God of War IV) was released for the Playstation 4.^[5] The game received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics, scoring a 95/100 on Metacritic,^[6] making it the highest-rated original, non-remastered game in Playstation 4 history. It was praised for its stunning visuals, combat mechanics, and revamp of Kratos to be a more mature character.

Online, hype for the game appeared on many social media platforms. Director Cory Barlog uploaded a video of himself getting emotional while reading the very positive feedback to the series (shown below). IGN's review of the game on YouTube gained over 2.1 million views (shown below, right).

On Reddit, a thread about the game's art-style, particularly it's commitment to a single shot, gained 16,000 points.^[7] Another thread showing a Kratos cosplayer selling the game gained over 51,000 points^[8] (shown below).

Online Presence

God of War has a large, dedicated online fanbase, with over 2.6 million Facebook fans.^[2] The game's subreddit^[3] has over 2,500 subscribers. The game also has a strong fan art community. On DeviantArt, ^[4] the God of War tag has over 96,000 results (examples shown below).

Search Interest

External References