All Of The God Of War Games, Ranked From Worst To Best

God of War is about to do something it hasn’t done before: center someone other than Kratos. Before we head into the Everywhen as Faye with God of War Laufey, we thought we’d take a look back at over 20 years of god-slaying and navigating Kratos’ dysfunctional family tree by ranking all the previous games from worst to best. Don’t yell at us if your fave is low on the list. Simply swear vengeance upon us and take out a pantheon of gods on the way.

God of War: Sons of Sparta

Mechanically, the 2D, sidescrolling Sons of Sparta maybe wasn’t the kind of treatment I want God of War to get but narratively, yes, please, may I have another. I thought turning GOW into a metroidvania was cute, but the gameplay got tedious after a while. However, I adored that the narrative conceit of the game is Kratos telling his daughter Calliope a story about his life as a child. I have so much grief for Kratos’ first family because they wield so much narrative power over this entire franchise but we know so little about them. Regardless of the gameplay, I’m glad Sons of Sparta exists so I can get my “Kratos being a good dad to his FIRST child for a change” fix. — Ash Parrish

God of War: Ascension

The last PS3 God of War is absolutely a relic of a pre-live-service era when companies were bolting multiplayer modes onto the sides of their most lucrative ships, so it’s not super surprising that the bulk of Ascension feels a little underbaked. The prequel is still full of the kinds of incredible, cinematic set pieces and twitchy action that make each God of War at least memorable, but its hack-and-slash combat feels narrowly focused on Kratos’ iconic Blades of Chaos, with you shifting between different elemental affinities instead of different weapons that would have more tangibly changed up your playstyle and the flow of combat. That final boss fight against the Kraken and the Furies still whips pretty hard, though. — Kenneth Shepard

God of War Ragnarok

God of War Ragnarok would have been incredible as two games instead of one. Yeah, the frustratingly bloated and overly long sequel is still rock solid, with fantastic action and some incredible moments, especially for Kratos and Atreus, who remain the heart and soul of the series’ Norse mythology games despite the ever-expanding cast. Still, it’s hard to not get wistful thinking of what this story might’ve looked like if it’d had a bit of breathing room. Ragnarok’s Valhalla DLC, meanwhile, shows exactly what a hypothetical scaled-back sequel could have looked like by giving Kratos a roguelike therapy session that’s laser-focused on one character instead of a dozen, which helps the core action mechanics shine through in a way that base Ragnarok didn’t, having a bit too much noise going on to let that action sing sometimes. It’s a shame because so many of Ragnarok’s narrative threads, such as Angrboda seeking out the remnants of the frost giants and the inner machinations of Thor’s family drama, are genuinely compelling, but it’s all fighting for attention in a game that’s trying to wrap up a trilogy’s-worth of stories in a second game. — Kenneth Shepard

God of War: Chains of Olympus

The PlayStation Portable was one of the earlier attempts at a handheld offering console-level experiences, and God of War: Chains of Olympus was certainly one of the best examples of a studio making it happen. Ready at Dawn pulled off a handheld God of War remarkably well, creating a Kratos experience that was pretty comparable to its console brethren and that you could take on the go. Though it isn’t quite as narratively illuminating as its sequel, it’s still a truly impressive feat for 2008. — Kenneth Shepard

God of War: Ghost of Sparta

Ghost of Sparta, Ready at Dawn’s second Chaos Blade swing at a handheld God of War game, is just as solid a game as its predecessor. What gives it a bit of an edge over Chains of Olympus is how much we learn about Kratos in the prequel, including the introduction of his brother Deimos, who adds a whole new wrinkle to Kratos’ dysfunctional family tree. That guy is an onion of layers to peel back, and Ready at Dawn was cooking every time it got the keys to the kitchen. — Kenneth Shepard

God of War (2005)

Remembering the original God of War 21 years after its 2005 launch feels quaint in a way that makes me uncomfortable with my advancing age. I remember when this game came out; I played it then. But viewing this game now, in the context of what the series has grown into, is bewildering. Voiced by T.C. Carson and equipped with a double jump, this Kratos is a completely different person in a completely different type of game. OG God of War bleeds mid-aughts edginess. The game’s opening shot features a morose Kratos yeeting himself off a cliff, and every female character has her breasts out, just because. That said, the original God of War was a great action platformer with the kind of bloody, violent combat we craved in the mid-aughts. — Ash Parrish

God of War III

God of War III felt big enough to shoulder the weight of being the “last” major game in the franchise at the time. It contained a “resolution” to Kratos’ story that featured some pretty interesting commentary on the nature and purpose of hope, even if it wasn’t executed that well. God of War III is the franchise’s first flirtation with the “Give Kratos a lil guy to look after” mechanic as Pandora, she of the famous box, tags along for part of your adventure. Chatty sidekicks who help you open doors were already a thing by the time this game came out in 2010, but I wasn’t sure how well the famously dour Kratos would work with the bright and chipper Pandora. And y’know what, he did pretty good. There’s a moment when Zeus hurts Pandora and the camera cuts to Kratos who’s wearing the biggest, ugliest frown, as though all the sliders on his face model were cranked all the way down, and I believed it. I was on his side. — Ash Parrish

God of War II

God of War II improves on the original in every way with a bigger story and bloodier combat. I really enjoyed the smart, narrative way the game depowers Kratos to set him up to receive new weapons and abilities. Fighting the Colossus of Rhodes, the opening battle in God of War II, is one of the greater gameplay sequences of the PS2 era. Incredibly cinematic and bombastic— you’re fighting the Greek mythological equivalent of a Gundam after all— the fight really conveys what a godly struggle should be, a neat escalation of the mortal battles of the first game. — Ash Parrish

God of War (2018)

God of War’s Norse-themed reboot was risky. It changed everything we knew about what it meant to embody Kratos, primarily by acting as a metatextual critique of what the series had once been. A somber, shame-ridden Kratos has retreated to the Nine Realms after slaughtering the Greek pantheon, and rather than flaunting those acts, he attempts to hide them away from his son Atreus before confronting his past and choosing to believe that how things have been is not how they must be. The original God of War games were very much of a different era, one in which edgy, violent excess sold copies. As tastes have changed, God of War had to as well if it was going to thrive, and the 2018 reboot does so not by pretending what came before didn’t happen, but instead by using Kratos’ decade of rage as a springboard to become something greater.

And boy, did it become something greater on the mechanical front, too. Kratos trades his Blades of Chaos (initially) for an icy Leviathan Axe that makes the game feel heavier and more challenging, and the series adopts RPG-lite elements to offer more chances for player expression than the original games were ever capable of. With this reboot, Santa Monica Studio sought to reinvent everything God of War ever was, from its ethos to its best-in-class combat, and it succeeded. — Kenneth Shepard