Despite his own foreboding feelings and the warnings of the local oracle, Kratos entered the village's temple and slaughtered all within. There, Ares put Kratos into a rage driven by bloodlust, making him kill anyone standing in his way. In one battle, they came across a village that worshiped Athena and put the residents to the sword, and their homes to the flame. Kratos then became Ares' servant, leading his Spartan army in conquering much of Greece. He also granted Kratos the Blades of Chaos, curved blades forged in the pits of Hades that were attached to long chains which were fused to Kratos' arms. Ares, sensing the enormous power in Kratos, accepted his offer and destroyed the Barbarians. However, in a battle against a barbarian horde, his army was massacred, and, in a desperate measure, Kratos offered his life and service to Ares, the God of War, in exchange for Ares defeating the Barbarians. Kratos was a fearsome Spartan warrior and grew his fifty-man squad into an army of thousands via strategy, tactics, ferocity, and conquest. While the player starts the game three weeks prior to this event, Kratos' background is told by the Narrator during the game (revealed to be the Titan Gaia in God of War II). The story is told mostly in flashback, after being framed with a scene from the present wherein Kratos, standing atop the tallest cliff in Greece, laments how the gods have abandoned him and then proceeds to toss himself into the waters below. Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow. The load times are masked by prefetching the next area as the player traverses a long, relatively featureless area. While most epic games suffer from immersion-breaking loading screens, God of War's story mode switches seamlessly from the title screen to FMV sequences, to gameplay, and back, with very little load time. God of War is notable for its movie-like presentation. Throughout the story, Kratos obtains numerous weapons and powers from the various Gods of Olympus, many pertaining to classic Greek myths, such as spells like Medusa's Gaze, or weapons like the Blade of Artemis. He can find Gorgon Eyes and Phoenix Feathers as well, allowing him to increase his overall health and magic respectively. Spread all through the game, and obtainable in various ways, are red experience orbs, which allow him to level up his weapons and magic powers.
For the majority of enemies, Kratos can also initiate a minigame that involves precise button presses, analog spins, or button mashing, to finish off enemies with a bloody special kill. Kratos, the main character in the God of War series, uses an array of both weapons and magic powers to fight many different types of enemies, most of them based on creatures of Greek mythology. God of War focuses heavily on bloody combat and puzzle-solving, much like Prince of Persia: Warrior Within.
In 2007, IGN named God of War as the greatest PlayStation 2 game of all time, on their Top 25 PS2 Games list. Thanks in part to the critical and commercial success of the original, a sequel titled God of War II was released March 13, 2007.
The game is now available in the PlayStation 2's lineup of Greatest Hits.
IGN even named God of War the best PlayStation 2 game ever. It was very well received by critics and fans alike and was the recipient of many awards, including "Game of the Year" honors from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. As an action-adventure game heavily influenced by Greek mythology, God of War was developed by Sony Computer Entertainment's Santa Monica division. God of War is a video game for the Sony PS2 console released on March 22, 2005.