God of war turns twenty today. Two decades have passed since we first took up the iconic chain blades and began murdering gods left and right.

As one of my favorite videogame series of all time, I’ve referenced God of War on this blog numerous times in as variegated contexts as explanations of cool fantasy tropes like Marks of Magic, or where I could see emerging tech integrate with fictional maps to enrich the reader’s experience.

My What Gods And Goddesses I’d Want to See in a God of War Game Set in Ancient Egypt! is still one of the highest performing posts on this blog, and remains one of my favorite pieces I’ve written for A&A.

But for some reason I’ve never written a review of the first game (or any of the games). So, with all the hubbub Sony is giving this anniversary and rumors of an announcement of a remaster of the first three games circulating, it seemed as good a time as any to blow the dust off my old Playstation 2 and give the game another play through.

I would have been only fourteen years old when this game released and I remember very vividly the awe I had first playing it. For 2005, the graphics were just incredible and the sense of wonder I felt at the sheer scale of some of the levels — say Pandora’s temple which sits on the back of a TITAN!! — was beyond compare. Looking back at some of the other games I have on the PS2, I don’t really see any other games with similar gameplay mechanics (Prince of Persia: Sands of Time is probably closest), so mashing ‘O’ to overpower a minotaur, or the kind of button sequences used in many of the boss fights were also quite new to me.

Of course, at fourteen, the sort of juvenile portrayals of sex and sexuality did not bother me . . . I was a juvenile.

But twenty years have gone by, and I was a bit anxious to start playing the game again. Could it live up to the game I had in my memory? Would I be as impressed at thirty-four as I was at fourteen?

The answer is mostly yes but with some problematic no’s thrown in. Obviously the graphics are almost laughable in this day and age, and generally I’m glad the series has moved away from the over-the-top depictions of sex that these early installments were known for (although as we’ll discuss later, a certain misogyny seems inherent in the series) but I’m happy to say that even with the passing of time, this game is still just fun to play.

It only takes a few minutes to get yourself reacquainted with the graphical limits and once you do, God of War becomes just as much a spectacle as anything else out there in today’s market.

Another criticism I often hear, is that compared to the later games, and games today in general, God of War‘s plot is scant to nonexistent. I suppose this is true to some degree. You can play through God of War’s entirety in about ten hours while the most recent iteration (God of War: Ragnarök) is clocking in somewhere at around sixty hours if you play through all the side quests. However, I’d say its plot is startlingly more cohesive then something like Tomb Raider 1 (although I suppose the ten years — and a whole console generation — separating the two games does not really put them in the same category).

I think a more appropriate critique of the plot would point out the game’s misogyny, and its hypermasculine ideals. Madeline Ricchiuto touches on this in her review of God of War 2018 for Bleeding Cool, paraphrasing the problem with this first game (and subsequent games in the “Greek Era”) perfectly in a single sentence.

“I dislike the games mostly because of their adherence to toxic hypermasculine ideals, their incredibly long rap sheet of throwing women in refrigerators (and treating them like props at best when not killing them to give Kratos motivation), and the tone-deaf storytelling that relies far too much on grand scale and dramatic proclamations to prop up what is essentially a soap-opera plot” – Review: God of War Repeats Too Many of the Series’ Misogynistic Mistakes

Harsh, but true. Nearly every woman in this first installment is either a sex object or dies brutally so that Kratos has an excuse to also murder brutally (I think Athena is the only woman who makes it out alive this go round).

With news of an Amazon television show in the works, and all these rumors of remastering the first games again, it has me wondering if simply a remake (read as REWRITE) of the story could make sense, and what that might look like for our god slaying anti-hero.

Coming back to gameplay, something that always fascinates me about the later games, is how many layers you can pull back from the environment, and how much there is to discover just by exploring. I was pleased (and impressed) to see that this was a precedent set by the original God of War, though obviously to a somewhat lesser extent. But there are plenty of cracked walls to break open and secret passages to swim through.

Speaking of puzzles, the traps in God of War are prime as well. And mostly pretty unique? There is a good deal of block/statue pushing (reminiscent of Tomb Raider mentioned earlier), a few spike pits, and (for any tracking it) one use of a light beam reminiscent of Indiana Jones.

But mostly Kratos’s interactions with the environment involve lifting heavy things (by spamming R2), avoiding spinning floor-saws, jumping on moving platforms and balancing on precarious beams (some with blades attached). These elements — along with the cathartic strain before finally busting open a loot chest — will all become staples of future games in the series, and honestly inspire legions of future platformers. These mechanics may have originated in other places (I haven’t played every video game ever), but for me, it will always be God of War which did them best.

So, Give ‘God of War (1)‘ Another Play Through?

Ultimately, I’d say yes. Despite some majorly problematic themes (which I just kinda had to ignore), I did enjoy coming back to this one. Part of it was surely nostalgia, but God of War‘s primary attraction has always been its spectacle. The sheer awe and wonder which the player experiences while playing. How cool are these chain blades? How brutal was that move which killed that monster?

After twenty years, that wonder is still there. Despite blocky graphics and rising expectations for storytelling in videogames, God of War still delivers on its primary conceit.

It’s just fucking cool.

That’s all I have for us this week. Has anyone played this one recently? How did it feel then as opposed to now? How might we rewrite it a bit to update it to be more palatable to a modern audience? What’s your favorite monster from the game? From Greek mythology in general?

As always leave your thoughts in the comments below, and happy 20th God of War! You’re still a legend round here.