God of War Notes

New game on Normal

Kratos stands on a tall peak, he tells us the the Gods of Olympus have abandoned him. He jumps in to the abyss.
A voice over tells us that after 10 years of suffering he seeks peace, death his escape from madness.
A Kratos hits bottom the screen goes black and we are now in flashback.
Three weeks earlier.
The Agean sea
Kratos is a champion of the Gods here on a mission to kill the hydra.
Game proper starts on a ship, soldiers attacking. usual light and heavy attacks with square and triangle.
Grab with circle, X to jump.
L1 to block. R2 for actions.
We go under deck now.
first boss battle with a hydra head in the corridor of the ship.
Bash it until a circle appears above it's head, then do quicktime viciousness to it.
We meet a man in a cage who would rather die than be saved by Kratos.
another hydra head attacks on a deck filled with Harpies.
Basically another beat it until it's health goes down encounters.
We balance along some poles to another ship.
Here we encounter a puzzle of sorts. A box needs to be pushed along a deck to the other side so that we can jump up.
Only there are archers in the way that can destroy the box.
You have to time it neatly so that the arrows do not hit the box.
We then have to retrieve the captains key to open a door, a woman can be heard calling from within.
We climb the mast hitting soldiers as we go. Then slide on a rope to the next ship.
Here we meet Poseidon in glowing god head form. He wants us to kill the hydra.
He gives us a blue magic lightning blast called Poseidon's rage.
Now we are into the main boss battle with the Hydra. It has three heads. The two on either side need to be worn down of their health then pinned by cutting a rope above them which brings objects down on their head.
Once this is done with both of them then you can climb up to the main head. This is worn down by attrition and occasional quicktime.
The hydra ate the captain and once it is dead we have to climb into it's mouth and gullet to get his key.
We slide back down a rope to the other ship.
We backtrack a little to the door that was locked, Inside the women have been murdered.

Kratos sets sail in service of the Gods. He is haunted by visions, he asks Athena when she will relieve him of these nightmares.
Ares is attacking Athens, Athena wants Kratos to go and kill Ares the God of war.
Athena wants him to do this and she will stop these visions.
The boat arrives in Athens. We get to do a sex minigame.
Then fighting on the docks
We encounter some minotaurs.
Then some gollums with big maces.
We come to a room that is very tomb raider. Jumping and puzzling, clambering on the walls.
In the next room Aphrodite appears to Kratos and tells him that he will need more power to defeat Ares. The head of Medusa the Gorgon would be useful, however he will have to lop it off her first.
Medusa can turn us to stone if we stay in her green gaze long enough.
This is a fairly simple fight but a hard one.
After we get the gorgon head we have to prove we can use it. Pressing L2 holds up the gorgon head, we can train it on the foes using the left stick. Pressing square fires the green stone beam.
In the next area is a large emplaced crossbow. We can use it to break a door and open a secret area.
We then have some passageways and some secret rooms for items.
We have to go out onto a balcony and knock over a statue which lets up up to the next area.
Here we fight gorgons and minotaurs.
Then we fire an arrow with a rope onto the next area and shimmy along the rope fighting enemies.
We are back inside the area where we shot the captapult. Now there is another door to shoot down. Behind it are four Minotaurs.
We are now behind the gates we could not get through. The oracle of Athen's appears and tells Kratos to go to a temple to the east where she will show him how to murder a God.
As we reach the end of thhe bridge we can see a huge figure in the distance, it is Ares stomping around on the battlefield making a mess of the opposing side.
We progress and come to a puzzle. Minotaurs attack with large hammers. There is a plate in the middle which is a pressure plate to open a door. We have to use the Medusa head to freeze a minotaur on the pedastal then run before he unfreezes.
We come out onto a street and have archers, minotaurs and gorgons to deal with.
We climb up some large stairs to Athen's town square. Civilians are running wild as Gollums attack. Three of them to deal with.
We are now chasing a woman up some stairs.
She jump off the balcony rather than be rape or whatever she thinks Kratos was going to do to her.
Her body has some signifigance though as we have to go and investigate it.
She has a key. we had to go all the way back down and now back up to get the key.
The way back is littered with enemies again though. Some gorgons and new soldiers with shields that can only be broken with the third stage of our heavy attack.
At the top the key opens the door and we progress.
We come to a room with new enemies these are wraith like beings who can hide under the floor and pop up to get you.
They float around and are fairly fast at surrounding you.
We go upstairs in this area and have to fight larger gollums with maces and these wraith in groups of three.
We then have to go across three pillars in a tomb raider style, some archers can be taken out by going the long way to make it easier.
We then have a puzzle room where we have to take a large emplaced crossbow down a corridor, into a room where a cog that turns with a switch can be used to turn it around to face the door which needs to be broken down. We have to move the crossbow on and off after each turn of the wheel.
In the next room we meet Zeus who gives us his power to help us. We get Zeus' fury.
Down on the Dpad for this one, holding L2 and aiming locks onto enemies and then pressing square sends lightning bolts their way.
I go up a ladder onto the roofs and there is much extra loot to search out. I come to a man who is keeping a bridge on his side by holding onto a lever. He is an easy zap for the lightning and the bridge extends.
We come to a cut scene and find the Oracle of Athen under attack and kidnapped by harpies.
She asks Kratos to find her.

The temples of the Oracle
We see the harpies take the oracle into the vast grand temple.
Loads of Harpies and gorgons arrive for a fight.
After it's done a man appears in cut scene and seems to know Kratos.
He tells him that Athen's may just survive. He is digging a grave and tells Kratos it is for him.
Inside the temples we have a puzzle. There are walkways above the temple floor which we need to cross, however the harpies can easily knock us off. There is an endless supply of harpies coming from two cracks in the walls. There are two statues up on the altar that can be pulled down and placed in front of the cracks to prevent the harpies coming in. Mopping up the remaining ones you can negotiate the precarious climb.
In the next large area we find the Oracle and the harpies hang her from a rope high up where it is hard to get to her.
This puzzle here shows the ingenuity of the game designers. The fact that we probably couldn't do what you need to do to solve this puzzle in other games shines. However the kind of outside the box thinking needed here is normally discouraged as you but up against other games shortcomings. You have two pedastals that you can move and a lift which takes you up and down from the higher level. The jump to get to some vines which will allow you to climb up is too much. Placing one pedastal allows you to bridge the gap but it is still too low. What you have to do is place one pedastal on top of the other, using the lift. With this done you can reach the clamber fest that takes you to the oracle.
The oracle looks into Kratos' soul and finds that he is a monster consumed by his lust for battle and the glory of war.
She tells us that the only way to defeat Ares is to obtain Pandora's box. We have to go out into a desert to obtain it.
There is monument with the Omega symbol on it. Obviously something we will be coming back to later.
We also find the ledge that we saw Kratos jump from in the future.
We run across a large statue holding a blade and enter it's chest going down some spiral stairs.
We are now in the sewers of Athens. Soldiers, minotaurs, gollums and archers to fight in large groupings. Nothing but a corridor sllugfest here.
We go up another spiral staircase and come out onto a bridge, which is the road to Athens, weren't we here earlier? Oh yes we were, it was where the oracle first spoke to us.
We are back seeing Ares stomping around the battlefield, he has moved and is closer to the city.
The place i explored before when I was here the first time is now open. The door with the Oracle seal wide open.

Desert of Lost souls
Through the door is the desert. An Athena statue starts a cut scene. She tells us that the desert is only crossable using the Sirens. Kratos must seek them out.
The box is hidden in a temple which is situated on the back of Cronos, the last titan. Sentenced by zeus to wander the desert forever.
I find my way in the desert which isn't entirely empty there are ruins. I hear the siren song and find one, but it vanishes. Athena's statue is by a door and she tells Kratos that the three sirens must be killed to open it.
I find one and while they are annoying to hit, they are not hard.
Killing one releases it's soul which flies to the door.
After finding and killing the other two the door opens.
Inside here is a puzzle with a huge rotating wheel of death. You have blocks you can shove in it but they are just ground up. I finally get the idea that I have to go the other direction and place the block against the far wall so I can jump out of here. The wheels got smashed somehow anyway which made it easier, soldiers run interference.
We come to a huge horn which we blow, this makes a path through a sandstorm.
We come to Cronos, however the horn we blow to bring him close vanishes and Sirens appear ready to avenge the three we killed earlier.
Loads of Siren's later the horn reappears.
Blowing the horn brings Cronos, In cut scene we see Kratos jump aboard and climb to the temple on his back.

Temples of Pandora
At the temple we find a man buring bodies at the gates. He tells us that these are the people who have died trying to get the weapon of the gods. He warns us to turn back or end up on the pyre, reluctantly he opens the gate for us.
Now we get some new spiny horned gollums with large toothed blades. Two at once.
After three of them we go up the stairs and into the temples, for some wraiths and archers.
There is a book and a carving of Athena.
The book tells us that only one man can get the ultimate power, all else will perish. Of course that will be us.
We enter the next door which takes us to the rings of Pandora.
There is a door with a skull keyhole. This seems to be a series of concentric rings.
I find a corridor and we have slamming spike walls to avoid.
Inside a lever makes a switch drop down back in the rings.
Pulling a lever which pops out here brings a crystal into focus and makes a light ray shine down the corridor onto the door.
The lever back in the rings now turns the entire rings so that the doorway can lead onto different corridors.
I find a carving of muses, there are two missing.
In the next corridor we find Atremis, a God, she offers us the blade she used to slay a titan. The blade of Artemis is ours.
We ge to fight loads of soldiers and gorgons.
This room is large with three stories. There is a switch at the top. It lowers a weight into a pit.
In the next room are gorgons and archers. A carving here shows two warriors figting over Pandora's box.
Their shields are missing.
There is a pedastal in the middle of the room which flips you into the next room if you are standing in the right place. We need a weight.
There is a weight in the next corridor, you have to aim it and kick it and then when the pedastal is weighted you will be flipped into the next room.
Here we fight some soldiers and climb up a ladder which takes us back into the previous room above it. Here we get a shield with a picture of Zeus on it.
I go back to the room where the weight dropped as it seems the only option for progress, I climb back to the top and find you can shimmy down the rope. Down here there is a rope to climb along and soldiers to fight whilst on the rope. The next shield is down here.
When you grab the shield a spiked wall starts moving along the narrow ledge, you have to kill an large amount of soldiers before it impales you.
In the next area I find a large amount of whirling blades crisscrossing the floor. Two levers open the gate but it is timed. I go through a side door and find a long clambering section. In the room at the top of here there is a room with an opening trap door floor, you have to kill a bunch of shield soldiers and Sirens against a time limit. If you do this you get the handle of Atlas.
Back to the room of the blades and it seems that speed is off the essence. Pull both levers and run for it.
You shimmy along the ledge here. In the next room two minotaurs make life  hard.
We put the handle of atlas on a crank and make a statue of atlas raise the world on it's shoulders.
I them climb some stairs to the top of the statue, soldiers in the way.
A lever makes Atlas hurl the world at a door we could not pass.
The door leads to a dias out over the wilds. There is a tomb here. We open it and find the son of the architect of this temple Pathos Verdes.
His skull seems to be the one we need for the door back in the rings.
The tomb moves aside and a ladder is found underneath.
We are now in the back corridors of the temple. Kratos sees some dead soldiers and this sparks a cut scene. We see Kratos at the head of a spartan army. He is fighting barbarian hordes with huge odds against him. The Spartans are overwhelmed and Kratos is about to be killed. He calls to Ares the God of war for help in his moment of need. The scene stops here and we have yet to find out what happens, we know Kratos still lives, so what did Ares do and what did he ask in return. Kratos has been in service to the Gods for ten years now, was that all that was needed?
The tunnel comes out in the area where we needed the key. The key lets us into the next ring.
There is a huge roller going around and around in this ring.
The inner ring can be accessed though, it is filled with water. Looks like we need to drain it.
The ladder up to a lever is highlighted by a camera it's just getting to it that is hard.
I think I have to climb onto the top of the moving roller and balance on it long enough to get around to the ladder.
Yes that is what you do, it's finicky but with a bit of practice and a few deaths I manage it. The ladder falls down halfway and trips a switch which takes the roller down a trap door and out of the way.

The challenge of Poseidon
I go through a few featureless corridors until I come out onto a pillared Dias. A dog appears, it looks small, however it transforms into a huge three headed hell hound.
The problem here is that lots of the little ones appear and quickly transform as well. If you aren't careful you end up with four of the huge cerebus dogs to fight. The secret is to ignore the big dog and take out the little ones quickly The poseidon area attack is good for taking out a few at a time. There is a limited amount of little dog spawns. Once they are gone you can take care of the lone big dog.
We now have a trek along a cliff on the side of the temple, fighting gollums, dogs and archers.
I come to a room where there is a cylinder that turns around, it pauses only long enough for the door to face some treasure chests in alcoves, you can grab the orbs, but only if you don't waste a second. If you do you get trapped and spiked.
The door opens onto an area where you can see two huge chains which are moving slightly. Some soldiers here to fight.
We can slimb up the rock face here, we can see that these chains are part of the harness that keeps the temple on Cronos' back.
Some minotaurs to fight then we come to a long corridor with cages filled with soldiers high above. The lever here would suggest that pulling it would be a bad idea as it might release the soldiers. Well we are here for a fight so I may as well.
Oh, the crank is missing it's handle.
I progress along the corridor until we enter a smaller room at the end. There is a dead soldier, he has left a note saying that he could not do what was asked of him here. There is a flame burner type affair and a sign from Poseidon asking for a sacrifice.
The pressue pad in front of the door when stood on after the burners are turned on with a switch moves the burners into the centre of the room slamming and burning the person standing on the switch. Looks like we need an enemy to take the fall here.
Back at the crankless crank we place the one we found in the room there and turn the lever, one of the soldiers in a cage is dropped down. We now have to push him up the corridor, however this is made darn hard by a slope and lots of soldiers.
Eventually I get him into the room and toasted by the burners. The door opens.
In the next area I find poseidons trident, this allows Kratos to dive underwater now. He can also breathe underwater with impunity as well.
We have to go through a pipe underwater, there is a dash move which can break fragile walls in the water, by pressing R1. We then have to surface in a cave and fight a load of dogs.
There is a lever here which opens a secret door back in the posiedon room.
Through this corridor is an underwater maze. I find a room with a dias and lots and lots of soldiers. This is a tough fight to complete. Pulling the lever when it's done opens a carving of Poseidon in the maze. There are Nyads in the maze, they don't do much yet.
I find a semi secret room and some soldiers to fight. In this room hidden behind vases and a wall is a muse key.
I go back to the area where the carving was opened with the switch and move forward until I find a save point.
we now go down into a place where the view switches to a side on 2d style and there is a sweeping obstacle moving along on chains, this grabs Kratos and crushes him if he gets in it's way, we have to move along the corridor avoiding it.
We go through some more underwater corridors and come out into another large room. There is lever and a large statue.
This is the temple of Amphitrite, Posiedon's wife. She know  how to get out of this room by a secret way. There is a timed step obstacle to get up to her statue.
The secret way out is to go down below the steps as they rise and there is a secret elevator in one of them. Through a tunnel and we are back at the rings of Pandora.
We can now gain access to the underwater bits of the middle ring. There is a tunnel in the floor which leads to another room.
We come out into a large rather ominous hall. Lava flows along the sides in channels.
There is wooden door with a lock shaped like a minotaur. At the other end of the room a laver fires flaming wooden logs at the door, they don't even dent it.
A secret wall lets us into a side corridor.
Down this corridor we come to another  large room.

The challenge of Hades
This room has a picture of Hades on the wall as well as various statues of him. we tirgger the picture of him and have to accept his challenge to sacrifice blood on his Altars. There are two glowing circles on the floor now and centaurs fill the room. Killing around five of them in each circle opens the door behind the picture.
Now we have some moving floor panels that need strict timing to pass.
I find a carving of the architect of the temple.
This is a medium sized maze with lots of monsters lurking. Gorgons, centaurs, soldiers and archers. There are a few small puzzles here involving sliding blocks. The last puzzle is a corridor with a huge rock rectangle slamming back and forth inside it. There is a door at the end that says it won't open until all in the maze is dead. Only I think I have killed evrything. I notice a door here and it's very hard to get into because of the moving object. I persist and manage it to find two hidden soldiers. Killing them opens the door. We are now back in the altar of Hades room. The statue rises from the water when we stand on a pressure plate. We can now turn the statues head. This goes back to starting position quickly though. We have to go down under the water to the statures base and pull a lever, this turns on a light that shines from Hades' mouth. Turning the statue head now makes a door open.
In this corridor there are a never ending parade of flaming balls. They roll down the corridor three wide and you have to run around like a loon avoiding them. The room at the far end has a cruel joke for you. There are eight doors in the corridor and only one of them is the way out.
We now appear in an area with two doors. The higher area takes you to a rope bridge, this is impossible to pass as archers can knock you down with one hit. After much swearing I tried the other door and found it led to the archers, which I took great glee in smashing.
Now the rope is easy. You are then put into a dias with a lock in and loads of minotaurs, soldiers, archers and centaurs.
We are now high above the statue in the Hades temple. We have to balance on beams and avoid moving blades. This is a really bad game design, and checkpoints would have helped immensely.
The top of this room is littered with balance beams and it's a real maze. Eventually after much swearing i manage to get past and come to a wheel which opens the lock we saw earlier, the minotaur one.
We follow some steps and are back at that room.
There is something big behind the door and it wants out to get us.
It's a huge armoured skelton minotaur. It attacks us in a classic boss battle here. We can stand on the stage at the end of the room and hit it once we have worn it's armour down a little it runs back and we have to circle it and then do some quicktime. This is done twice before all it's armour is gone. We then wear it's health down and spear it with the log to finish.
I climb some stairs and enter a shrine with a coffin, here is the second skull key, the head of the second son of the architect.
Back down the stairs to the minotaur room and there is a chat with Hades. He gives us a new weapon, the army of Hades.
This is used by pressing up on the Dpad. It releases a bunch of souls that attack your enemies for you. They last only for a short time.
We go back now to the inner ring of Pandora. The skull key makes the water drain out. Now we have to make all the rings match and shine the beam of light onto the other crystal at the other end. It seems days ago since we first found that crystal.
The maze is finally aligned and on using the light beam the statue of Zeus rises up from it's place. We use it like an elevator and are taken up to the higher level of the temple.

Temple higher level.
Here we meet satyrs, who look more egyptian than Greek.
We progress along the bridge here and a Harpy is in the way. A cut scene starts. It shows Kratos about to be killed by the Barbarians. He calls to Ares and Ares comes to Kratos, he offers him a job as his sidekick. There will be a price though. Kratos agrees. The blades of chaos are given to him and their chains burnt into his body. Ares slaughters the Barbarian hordes for the Spartans.

The cliffs of Madness
We start on cliff edges then across a rope and into a cave. Lots of soldiers, archers and satyrs.
There is a room with spiked floors, you have to move a block quickly to get up to a ledge. the time is just too tight, whatever is in there will have to stay there.
I go up through more cliffs and more enemies.
I find a statue with two missing necklaces.
There is a ladder leading down to more cliff areas and caves.
Inside a cave we have to fight monsters then do a jigsaw puzzle with giant rocks.
It's not a hard puzzle we just have to turn the blocks the right way by using a pulley and a dias. Then we just have to make a solid wall of bricks and the door opens to the necklace of Hera.
A ladder drops down outside so we can progress.
Now we are clambering around on the cliff walls. I pull a lever and it shows me that something has happened in another nearby cave, I think.
I have to go back to the box and spike puzzle. I eventually do it and I get the second necklace. Backtracking through the level at least the monsters don't respawn. I put the necklaces on the statue and the bridges start to move.
At the top another flashback. Kratos is servant to Ares now and leads an army that is unstoppable, cruel and heartles Kratos kills for the glory of War, it makes him inhuman and cold. He attacks a village that has pledged to Athena for Ares. He is warned by an oracle not to go into a temple, He does and slaughters everyone within including his own wife and child.
Horror stricken at what he has done and become Kratos vows to kill Ares.
We climb up some cliffside and fight some monsters, then swing across a gap and up in a lift.

The architects tomb.
This is a large area, there is a gap filled with moving platforms and razorblades. A pressure plate opens one half of the bars on a door in the distance. I manage to get across the gap but not nearly quick enough. I do some exploring of the other side. There is a weak piece of ground, a statue which can be dragged to the other pressure point. I do this. I then open a door on the other side of the building. This takes us up through a corridor to the roof. We have to fight a lot of gollums, dogs and soldiers here. We can then climb up and use a crane to swing a block out over the weak piece of ground, dropping the block from the crane opens up a new area. There is a pressure switch here as well.
I need three blocks it seems. There are two on this side, One is attached to the crane. I move the statue down the hole to the third pressure switch. I then move the crane block to the second switch.
I now only have one switch to push, the timed one. Is this the only way, to make it against the clock?
Yes it is, and it's easier than i thought.
Inside we find the architect dead. He killed his wife who thought he was being a fool for the Gods.
The head of the architect's wife is the key to a skull door.
Through this door we come to a temple shaped like Zeus' head. Inside it seems is the final goal, Pandora's box.
This is a hard fight to get to it though. A long hall with rollers at the sides. The floor is always moving in different directions and you need to keep away from the rollers.
The enemies here are harpies and archers. They are in large numbers and there is no respite as they seemingly endlessly respawn. They don't though an eventually you get let out of the hall.
The room with the box has three statues of Zeus, Hades and Poseidon. Athena appears and urges us to return to the city with Pandora's box and kill Ares.
The floor of the room is a lift and we are back at the door of the temple.
Ares learns of Kratos' success and hurls a spike all the way from Athen's to the templee doors and spears Kratos stone dead.
As he dies we get a flashback. His wife and child dead at his hand, Ares taunts Kratos and tells him that he is now a better warrior without a family to anchor him. Ares tells him that he is now death itself. The oracle of the village curses Kratos to eternally wear the ashes of his family on his skin, which turns him white, the Ghost of Sparta.
Kratos falls into the river Styx but manage to grab onto some bones and stay out of the river.
We now have an extended platforming sequence on the bones of some huge animals.
Spining blades and pillars with roatating blades that are really really annoying.
We have a fight with lots of satyrs to raise platforms.
Then onto a platform where a rope is lowered from above, climbing up the rope takes us up to the bottom of the grave that the old man was digging for us at the temple of the Oracle.
Inside the temple we fight gollums and minotaurs.
Through the temples until we come to the oracle in the garden. She has been hurt badly and dies telling Kratos he is too late.
We go through the tunnel and come out onto the cliffside.
Here a cut scene starts. Ares is standing holding Pandora's box ans shouting at Zeus taunting him.
Kratos knocks the box from his hand and goes down and opens it. He grows to Ares' size.
Now we have a boss battle with Ares in a dias made of a lake with little villages all around us.
Ares grows spider like legs from his back and strikes with them, he also uses an axe and a hammer. He fires fireballs as well. Using magic and normal strikes I wear his health down and then get to some quicktime. It does not kill him however as he sucks Kratos into a void. Kratos stands in front of the door to the temple where he killed his wife and child.
Inside we fight versions of Kratos in massive numbers. We have to stop them getting to the wife and child and killing them.
This is fairly hard work as there are a relentless amount of Clones.
After defeating them all you are back with Ares. However Kratos has no blades or Magic. He grabs the huge sword that was part of the statues and attacks Ares.
This is another hard boss battle in the sea dias.
L1 to block at all times here and hold L1 and press square seems to be the only attack that is quick enough to get any hits in. Ares blocks most other attacks and a lot of his attacks cause damage even if you are blocking. He uses his claws and a rock attack, also some sword swipes.
After defeating him Kratos sticks his sword through his chest and Ares Dies.
Kratos asks for his memories of his atrocities to be wiped and Athena refuses. He then decides to jump from the clifftop as we saw at the start. Plunging into the sea Kratos does not die. He is lifted back to the top of the cliff and a gateway to Olympus opens.
Kratos goes through a enters a golden temple. Here is the throne of the God of War, Kratos sits and becomes the new god of war. The credits roll.
10 and a half hours playtime.
78% of the trophies on one playthrough on normal mode.