![]() Violence still defines him, but he is self-aware enough to know what he has done and what it has done to him, and is doing his utmost to instead change himself into the man he wants to be: A man of self-restraint and consideration, one capable of guiding a young boy’s growth to adulthood. However, Kratos has returned a changed man. After all, weren’t these defining characteristics of the character and franchise? When I first heard Kratos would be returning, I wondered how his particular brand of boobs and bloodshed would fit into today’s more socially-conscious world. The new God of War released eight years after God of War 3. The zeitgeist of games at the time was, perhaps unintentionally but no less effectively, inhospitable to those outside the stereotypical gamer paradigm. Whenever a nameless, bare-breasted woman squealed and pleaded with Kratos to either bed her or leave her unharmed, I felt pushed further away. Women relentlessly threw themselves at him, yet he was completely unappealing. The next: Hauling terrified women around and quite literally using them as objects, discarding them to gruesome fates once they were no longer useful.Įven his protection of others seemed borne less out of genuine affection than because they were “his things”. In one scene he’d be protecting a young girl. I couldn’t connect with the depiction of Kratos as a hero. The hypermasculinity threaded throughout, and the hypersexuality of the women depicted therein, was alienating. In that, it was a satisfying experience.īut for me, the great gameplay was wrapped in hostility toward the player. ![]() The combat felt powerful and fluid, the puzzles engaging. God of War 3 was, in many ways, a good game, and I have fond memories of the series. “ Now, I ask you again Kratos, will you stay?” Image: God of War 3 (2010) I looked around me at the men with their eyes intently fixed on the screen. If your opinions on games were worth listening to at all, God of War 3 could do no wrong. It was the latest big thing, a well-executed, highly-anticipated release in a much-loved franchise. The reviews for God of War 3 had been complimentary across the board. “Do you know how long it’s been since a real man has come into my chambers?” she pouted, rising to her knees. The others weren’t unfriendly, and at least one other woman had managed to establish herself in the group.īut there was still a constant feeling of being on the outer that I couldn’t quite shake.Īphrodite writhed atop the mattress. ![]() I’d been trying to integrate myself into the gaming club for some time, posting on the group’s forums and attending club activities after classes. “Even though you are no longer the God of War,” she purred, crawling across her bed toward him, “you can still share my bed.” My most enduring memory of the previous God of War games is an uncomfortable university gaming session, wherein I sat amongst a group of men, watching a half-naked Aphrodite seduce Kratos.
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