The PlayStation 2 is one of the most important game consoles, because it’s where the current triple-A landscape was born. Third-party giants like Resident Evil and Monster Hunter took shape here, and the console’s first-party lineup made its creators into A-tier names.
Look no further than the original God of War, which just turned 20 years old. Sony Santa Monica’s hack-and-slash title was pretty impressive back in the day, helped by an alluring demo that dropped players into the action right away and showed them what it was all about: slinging blades, killing everything in sight, and finishing off mythological creatures in increasingly gruesome ways. By that point in the PS2’s lifetime, the console’s big action game was Devil May Cry, and while there was some overlap in terms of style and ridiculousness, Kratos’ adventure appealed to a different (but maybe equally juvenile) audience.
So players fell in love with God of War, and thus a franchise was born. Sony Santa Monica has led the charge on mainline installments like God of War III—which turned 15 earlier in March—or the more recent Norse duology, while the late Ready at Dawn made spinoffs like Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta, which built out Kratos’ life before and between the first two games. Despite a generally consistent quality, it eventually felt like the two studios were trying to milk the franchise for all it was worth. (And if that didn’t tip you off, the failed go at a movie adaptation would’ve done it.) By the time 2013’s Ascension rolled around, Kratos didn’t seem to have any more gas in the tank, despite III’s ending indicating he could (and would) come back to kill again.
And come back he did with 2018’s God of War, a soft reboot that saw Kratos with a son, a wicked axe, and a new pantheon to brutalize, as well as plenty of opportunities to reflect on his past sins and the murderous adventures that made up his Greek era. Given everything Kratos did and killed during those earlier games—God of War III is basically a disaster epic brought on by a slasher villain—it couldn’t help be a strange ask to buy into him not just having another kid, but wanting better for the young Atreus during their trek through Midgard to scatter his late wife’s ashes. But the approach resonated with fans and newcomers, largely thanks to the lead performances of Christopher Judge and Sunny Suljic.
Throughout its 20-year life, God of War has been defined by its eye for spectacle. The series has always painted Kratos as a force of nature whose presence inevitably devastates everything around him. For as much time PlayStation’s first-party lineup has devoted to cinematic greatness, this particular series achieves that feat more often (and with more fun) than most. From fights against titans and dragons, to one-on-one brawls against gods that play out like the love child of shonen fights and wrestling matches, the series is packed with one moment after another that makes experiencing them a complete blast. Other action games have tried to match that scale or combat of Kratos’ adventures, and generally do a good job at it—Bayonetta, Darksiders, and Dante’s Inferno all came out just months before God of War III—but as with anything that’s been around long enough, Sony Santa Monica’s formula hits a particular sweet spot that’s allowed the franchise to survive more console generations than its other PS2 peers.
With a TV adaptation in the works and other mythologies clearly up for grabs, God of War certainly isn’t lacking for a future. The prospect of Kratos fighting every mythology in sight has been desired for a long time, so it’s easy to imagine Sony Santa Monica just doing that, not entirely unlike Assassin’s Creed or Call of Duty. (Just without the reliable frequency, since making the Norse games sounds like quite an endeavor.) Alternatively, it’d be nice to see the studio put what it’s learned from this franchise toward something new. Like Naughty Dog or Insomniac, it’s been such a reliable contributor to PlayStation’s ongoing success it could afford to shelve Kratos for a few years. That appears to be the case, according to a former developer’s 2024 LinkedIn post, so here’s hoping that’s also successful in its own way—and when it comes time for Kratos to return, it feels as big a deal it did when the reboot was first revealed.
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