Current Events > Where do I begin with the God of War series?

(+) Yeah! (+)

It's been on my backlog to play and I wondered where to begin, specifically with the games that are before the PS4 game.

I know that there is God of War Saga that has the first 3 games plus digital downloads of the PSP games.

I know that the PSP games got a collection release on PS3 on their own as did the first two. I know that God of War III had DLC. Is the DLC included with God of War Saga?

Is it best (or cheaper) to get the two collections separately and buy III on it's own? I know that Ascension needs to be purchased separately.

---

1, 2, 3, GOW PS4. You can ignore the rest.

---

GoW Accession is the only good one

shhh, nobody tell him :3

---

Depends on what consoles you have. 3 is on the PS4, 1 and 2 are on PS2 and 1, 2 and 3 are on PS3.

---

2 is the best game in the series

LordFarquad1312 posted...

Depends on what consoles you have. 3 is on the PS4, 1 and 2 are on PS2 and 1, 2 and 3 are on PS3.

I have a PS3 and PS4. I know that basically through the collections, all can be played on PS3.

---

Irony posted...

1, 2, 3, GOW PS4. You can ignore the rest.

This right here is the best answer. You can play the PSP games if you want, and if you do definitely play them in release order (in between 2 and 3). They're very underwhelming compared to the numbered installments though, but if you just want more from the series then it might be worth playing.

Ascension was a huge mistake, I regret playing it. I played it just so I can say I played every GoW game, but I highly do not recommend it at all. They screwed up the combat mechanics so bad, it's just not fun at all.

Edit: Also, if you have PS Now all the games are available through there, that's how I played them.

I was thinking of playing in release order. What is underwhelming about the PSP games?

---

Bump.

---

Unpopular opinion, but I actually prefered the PSP over 1 and 3.
I think the short length helps them.

---

You can actually play them on your PS4 also since its on PS Now and PS Now is 10 dollars a month. Used to be 20..

What's wrong with Ascension?

---

SonicZack posted...

I was thinking of playing in release order. What is underwhelming about the PSP games?

Nothing really. It's just more of the same and they're not really essential.

If you like GOW1-3 they're still worth playing.

---

ApherosyLove posted...

What's wrong with Ascension?

iirc from my experience playing the hard mode of it. no stun on enemies but they can stun the hell out of you, tacked on multiplayer, archimedes trials or whatever it was called being too much. But these were the complaints i remember way back then.

---

Just play God of War 2018. No need to play the previous ones, really. The only great one is 2. The others are just okay.

---

Start with the first, and go through the trilogy. I believe they've all been remastered. They are short games. Then everything in God of War 4 will make sense, and you'll enjoy it that much more.

---

my two cents are that if you want to play the ps4 one but are afraid you need to know the story, dont worry about it.

all that is important is that kratos is an edgelord spartan warrior who was tricked by ares to kill his family, he gets mad & tries to kill ares, then while hes at it he basically decides to kill basically every other greek god too

---

Romulox28 posted...

my two cents are that if you want to play the ps4 one but are afraid you need to know the story, dont worry about it.

all that is important is that kratos is an edgelord spartan warrior who was tricked by ares to kill his family, he gets mad & tries to kill ares, then while hes at it he basically decides to kill basically every other greek god too

I can be a completionist in some regards which is why I want to play the first 6 games before proceeding.

---

Romulox28 posted...

then while hes at it he basically decides to kill basically every other greek god too

Thats not what happened.

---

just start with dad of boy. tbqh, the plot of the previous games is a rehash of every greek myth you've ever heard of but the MC gets pissed off and murders the gods involved.

---

Honestly? Watch a longplay of 1, play 2 and 3. If you like how 2 plays, play the PSP games. Then play PS4.

---

ViewtifulGrave posted...

Thats not what happened.

Thats the outcome and what youre expected to know going into gow 4, you dont need to know about the Titans or whatever

---

The story really isn't anything to write home about, it's basically just a series of events the gods put in to effect to perpetually piss off a man who can kill literally everything put before him because reasons.

So pick a game and go with it, they usually give you all the important backstory bits in game anyway.

Romulox28 posted...

Thats the outcome and what youre expected to know going into gow 4, you dont need to know about the Titans or whatever

Kratos only wanted Zues. The other gods tried to stop him. Kratos didnt just wake up and decide to kill the gods.

---

the new God of War doesn't hit nearly as hard if you haven't played the previous main entries. Or at least GoW1, I guess.
---

ViewtifulGrave posted...

Kratos only wanted Zeus. The other gods tried to stop him. Kratos didnt just wake up and decide to kill the gods.

this

He didnt kill athena on purpose, he trusted her until the very end of 3. He also only killed gods that betrayed him like Hephaestus, he also cucked him by smashing Aphrodite and left her alive cuz all she wanted was sex. I dont remember what other gods he didnt kill off the top of my head but he wasnt just killing them cuz they were gods.


---

As a fan of actual Greek mythology, I never had interest.

---

I still need to play GoW 4. My recommendation to you is to play GoW 1-4, and then from there you can decide if you still want to play the other games that are a part of the series.

GoW Accession can most likely be skipped. As someone that just played the game it was disappointing. The story telling was a mess, and the combat was by far the weakest of any GoW game.

For the God of War Saga collection it may, or may not allow you to play the PSP games. My copy of it had expired codes for the PSP games.

---

Spiritlittle posted...

Just play God of War 2018. No need to play the previous ones, really.

This is false if you want to truly understand why Kratos was such a fantastic character in 4.

---

foxhound101 posted...

I still need to play GoW 4. My recommendation to you is to play GoW 1-4, and then from there you can decide if you still want to play the other games that are a part of the series.

GoW Accession can most likely be skipped. As someone that just played the game it was disappointing. The story telling was a mess, and the combat was by far the weakest of any GoW game.

For the God of War Saga collection it may, or may not allow you to play the PSP games. My copy of it had expired codes for the PSP games.

Was it purchased new or used? I believe if new the codes still work if expired.

---

SonicZack posted...

I was thinking of playing in release order. What is underwhelming about the PSP games?

Well, I just didn't think they were as engaging as the numbered installments. They're both extremely short, both play as stripped down versions of the console games which makes them less fun to play, and the second one (Ghost of Sparta) had way too many repetitive sections (sliding). Overall, Chains of Olympus was much better than Ghost of Sparta, but it was also shorter. Ghost of Sparta had the shitty fire power thing that was really stupid, in addition to the awful sliding sections.

But if you really liked 1 and 2, I still recommend giving them a shot since it's just more of the series, but don't expect to be too impressed. I'm a huge Greek mythology fan so I loved seeing what else they could pull from the Greek mythos and make it into video games, so it was worth it to me in the end.

Ascension though... ugh. Since you have to go out of your way to buy it because it's not packaged with any of the others (guessing you don't have PS Now), I personally don't think it's worth getting at all. Terrible combat mechanics and just isn't fun, such a massive disappointment especially since I played it right after 3 which was my favorite of the whole series. You can tell the gameplay took a huge nosedive in quality because they added shitty multiplayer in this game lol.

Also, they sell a God of War Origins collection on the PS3 that has just the PSP games, I think those are on disc if you don't want to risk the expired download codes on the Saga collection not working. Try to play the PS4 remastered version of GoW3 if you can too, the visuals are noticeably better and gameplay is smoother.