Five Best Boss Battles from God of War

I’m not going to lie, I bought a PlayStation 3 just so I could play the God of War games. I almost bought a PlayStation Portable for Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta, but then the lovely people in charge rereleased the games in a combo pack (much like they did for God of War and God of War II) for the PS3. I couldn’t have been happier.

So, after smashing through GOW I, II, and III, I waited patiently for the other two and ripped through them as well. If you haven’t played the games, I can tell you this: God of War has some amazingly huge and powerful bosses. This paired with Kratos, our antihero, and his vengeance-fueled rage against Olympus and ungodly strength make the games wildly entertaining and equally rewarding.

5. Opening Bosses, GOW, GOW II, GOW III, GOW: COO, GOW: GOS

Okay, this is probably cheating, but I’m not wrong. The first boss in each game is always a giant otherworldly monstrosity that you couldn’t imagine slaying in a million years. Well, Kratos does just that.

It’s the Hydra in GOW, the Colossus of Rhodes in GOW II, Poseidon in GOW III, the Basilisk in Chains, and Poseidon’s sea beast Scylla in Ghost.

These boss battles are similar in that you encounter parts (an arm, tentacle, head, etc.) periodically as you travel through whatever city you’re in at the time until you finally come face-to-face with the behemoth of a boss. And, in the end, Kratos goes all Jack the Ripper on them as if they were a mere annoyance. Which is kind of what they are.

These battles, while not being particularly difficult, are fun and definitely capture the player’s attention, effectively dragging her into the game. Another plus is that you never know when Scylla’s tentacle is going to burst through a wall of the temple you’re in, or when the Colossus’s hand is going to smash down on you from the sky. Turn a corner, and BAM! you’re in the Basilisk’s jaws. It’s great.

4. Ares, GOW

Years of servitude have made Kratos bitter against the gods. But mostly Ares. Because he’s an ass. And the whole manipulating Kratos into murdering his wife and daughter.

I’m going to admit that I wasn’t as impressed with the actual battle with Ares as I was with some of the other fights, but there were elements of the battle that I thought were great and new.

At one point, Ares uses his god powers to thrust Kratos into some kind of alternate reality or psychedelic state in which he must defend his wife and daughter against doppelgangers of himself. If his family is injured, he can hug them to give them some of his HP. The fight is challenging and yields a lot of red orbs, thus allowing you to max out the rest of your weapons.

Then, the feeling you get when you do beat Ares is wonderful. You’ve brought an end to the tyrant that so plagued your character’s life. And once you kill one god, you want to kill them all. Especially when they want to kill you.

3. Thanatos, GOW: GOS

The final boss in Ghost of Sparta is death itself. And knowing that he’s tortured your long-lost brother since he was abducted as a child makes ripping his throat out easy. (Unfortunately, this is not how Kratos kills Thanatos.)

In my opinion, this isn’t the most difficult battle in the game, but it is the most interesting. Once you fight Deimos, Kratos’s brother, he joins you in the final battle with Thanatos. Deimos mostly has some basic AI, but you do get to control some things he does. It’s definitely an element I’d like to see again in future GOW releases. I’d even like to see a multi-player story mode.

After the battle, you feel the same relief you felt killing Ares. That feeling is justice. And blood. Lots of blood.

2. The Fates, GOW II

Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos make for some very challenging fights. Killing them is the only thing that lies between Kratos and revenge on Zeus. Once he’s finished them, he can travel to the moment in time right before Zeus killed him and kill him back. Even though at that point Zeus hadn’t killed him yet, so it wouldn’t really be revenge. But it still kind of is. (Time paradoxes are fun.)

Atropos and Lachesis are tough. You fight one of them before being launched into the past, to your fight with Ares. After beating the sister in the past, you return to fight both sisters. The fight ends with Kratos locking them in a time mirror and then destroying it

Clotho is the size of a planet and is virtually immobilized in her obesity, resigned to spinning thread and making your life hell. She has hundreds of arms and just as many breasts, it seems, and her arms are always getting in your way. In order to beat her, you must use traps and items around you to pin down her hands. It’s a fun puzzle. Once you’ve killed her, you are free to travel through time.

1. Zeus, GOW III

The ultimate enemy. The final showdown. Kratos’s father. Just as Zeus killed his father, Cronos, and just as Cronos killed his father before him, Kratos intends to slay the king of gods.

The fight is epic. Pandora makes a fatal appearance, Zeus creates doppelgangers of himself, and Gaia appears intent on killing Kratos and Zeus. They flee inside of Gaia and use her heart to heal themselves as they fight each other.

With your blade, you pin Zeus to Gaia’s heart, killing them both. And then you have to fight Zeus’s soul. The battle as a whole is great and multi-faceted. A perfect end to an amazing trilogy.

Honorable Mention: Sexy Boss “Battle” with Aphrodite*

*Censored

Which bosses were your favorites?