What’s the beating heart of every new God of War game? It’s not ancient, revered Greek myths being broken down into a stupidly violent, melodramatic soap. Nor is it the always amusing three in a bed QTEs. No, it’s the screen-dominating, claret-filled boss battles that have always been the soul of Kratos’ adventures.
In the teaser trailer Zeus asks his allies - what he refers to as 'brothers' - to rally together to defeat Kratos, so what monsters and gods will the Ghost of Sparta get to garrotte in GOW III? Here are a few educated guesses of who and what could appear in Kratos' PS3 adventure.
Possessing the same evil gene as Hitler, Darth Vader and Walt Disney, Hades is the ruler of the Underworld and would provide Kratos with a truly hellish undertaking of a scrap. Sometimes pitted as Zeus’ arch nemesis, in GOW he’s actually the divine bearded one’s ally. And, considering the fallen God of War always seems to have a jaunt through Hell chiselled into his itinerary, we could see this being the penultimate battle in the trilogy’s last act.
Fighting a near Titan-sized Hades – as seen in several of the last title’s cutscences – would mimic and surpass the ferocity of the Minotaur battle from the original game. The enslaver of departed souls might even conjure the dead to help him best our Albino-esque anti hero, so we could possibly end up fighting old bosses we've already killed – we wouldn’t say no to another tussle with the Kraken.
A mythological beastie that nearly made the cut in GOW II, the Chimera below was designed by GOW concept artist, Andy Park. Personally, we’re getting a bit sick of murdering Minotaurs and would be happy to see the Chimera come off the bench and replace the man-bull. The creature, composed of equal parts lion, goat and snake, would make for an engaging new enemy.
Three distinct sets of animal characteristics would also mean you could have three different types of QTE to slay the monster. It would work like a particularly unwholesome version of rock-paper-scissors – use the goat horns to impale the lioness’ body/the lioness’ claws could be commandeered to slit the goat’s throat/the snake could be wrapped around the Chimera to constrict the whole body. A welcome dose of variety from gouging out Cyclops’ eyes, don’t you think?
The battle that would make every fanboy of Greek mythology – all two of them - mess their loin cloths; Hercules vs. Kratos would be the ultimate mortal battle, pitting the legendary strong man against the fallen god. We don’t think the concept of Kratos gutting the mythically famous figure is that far fetched either.
After all, he’s already killed more heroes than Sylar, having brutally bludgeoned Theseus, skewered Perseus and dewinged Icarus in the last game. As long as the fight doesn’t revolve around a QTE competition of flexing and lifting weights, we reckon this could be a brilliantly brutal battle.
The main hero of Homer’s Iliad and the key figure in the Trojan War, Achilles was the perfect solider, sporting cunning, incredible speed and a perfect jawline. What’s more he’s invulnerable – well except for that pesky spot on the back of his heel. Only being able to attack one part of his body for a short space of time may sound infuriating – we still have nightmares about the split second timing needed to QTE Perseus in the last game.
If the fight was properly paced, though, it could make for an interesting mechanic, where genuine puzzle solving and intuition were needed to beat the legendary Greek’s foot. Sound too much like hard work? Just shout ‘Aniston lawsuit’ for a heel-rupturing instant kill.
