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[Shtof]

God of War II - Insane pacing, great longevity and boss variety, expanded the universe and made GoW3 one of the most anticipated games with the cliffhanger ending.
God of war - Starts with a bang and certainly has the best story in the series. Also has that eerie mythological atmosphere the sequels gradually lost.
The rest

 

[LaNaranja]

Edit: As a side note, I am team "Kratos is the villain you must kill to become the new God of War" for the next installment. Have it start out as a revenge thing that highlights how much Kratos has lived through and done so that death is a reunion with his family and is actually a "bittersweet" ending for him. A new setting and mythology would also be great. Egyptian? Chinese? Nordic? The latter would be pretty awesome^^

I haven't played these games in a while but didn't Chains of Olympus give him that reunion and he knowingly pushes is daughter away forever (while they were hugging) in order to fight the final boss. He is told if he fucks with heaven (or whatever the equivalent was) he would never get to be with her again and he accepts it in order to save her because the boss was going to destroy them all.

As far as him being the bad guy, Kratos has never really been that terrible to anyone who didn't have it coming. He was evil when he was brainwashed by Ares but other than that he was pretty cool to those who didn't dick him over. Sure he took over a few cities in-between the first two games he was nice to his Spartans. He probably wouldn't have been such a dick if the gods didn't shun him. In God of War 2 he is clearly hurt that his Spartan captain is killed right before the Kraken fight. Throughout God of War 2 you are rescuing the Titans for fucks sake while they highlight what assholes the Olympions were to the Titans for the sins of one of them.

In Ghost of Sparta we also see that he is cool with his army and with his brother as well. His special in the third game was his Spartan buddies coming from the dead to help him. In God of War 3 he is after the Olympians because they were assholes to him when he was the God of War and Zeus literally killed him at the start of the second game. He doesn't attack the Titans until they betray him first. Kratos was never the one to spill first blood, to make him the villain in God of War 4 doesn't seem like it would fit the character. He may be a bastard but he's not a fucking bastard.

That said I would love for them to visit new mythologies, with Kratos or someone else.

 

[NeloAnjelo]

God of War 2
God of War 1
God of War 3
Ghost of Sparta
Chains of Olympus
Ascension

 

[immortal-joe]

God of War 3 -- Wins out mainly for tuned combat and amazing boss fights
God of War 2
Ghost of Sparta
God of War 1
Chains of Olympus

(Yet to play Ascension)

3 and 2 are incredible.

 

[Lt.Chips]

God of War II - best overall package as a game
God of War - a stand alone greek tragedy in videogame form
God of War III - mindblowing visuals to this day
God of War: GOS - 2nd best subweapon in the series (spear & shield)
God of War: COO - features the Gauntlet of Zeus, the best subweapon in the series!
God of War: Ascension - pretty fun multiplayer at least during its release

It's actually a tie between the top 4 titles for me for different reasons.

 

[sector4]

Sorry for the huge bump, but I saw this thread while I was doing my complete God of War (mostly re)playthrough, and I just finished Ascension last night. They're all pretty fresh in my mind, and I played them by release order. Here's my rankings.

1. God of War III Remastered: Best gameplay, best graphics, best boss fights, III was pure joy from beginning to end, and refined everything from the first two games perfectly. I loved the ending too.

2. God of War II: Improves on the first game in nearly every way except for puzzles, nothing touches Pandora's Tower from the first game. The scale, action, and gameplay all trounce the first game, and made this an excellent sequel.

3. God of War: The original game still holds up incredibly well, and has the best puzzles in the series. It's amazing how interconnected the world is in GoW1, there's a real sense that you're working your way through a constant area, rather than a cutscene taking you to a new location.

4. God of War: Ascension: Boy, this really is a mixed bag... Ascension was the only one I hadn't played anything of before. One one hand it has pretty fantastic combat, especially in one-on-one encounters, I really love the interactive finishers, and the gore is crazy. However I felt the story was the weakest, and the puzzles where also pretty bad. Adding in Uncharted: Golden Abyss like climbing sections was a terrible idea, and making it more cinematic by adding auto-save and removing save-points just felt off. Overall though I quite enjoyed the gameplay, and the boss battles, in particular the final one, even if it was a little heavy on QTEs.

5. God of War: Chains of Olympus: The two handheld games are really, really great, the gameplay just doesn't quite hold up to the console counterparts imo. Chains of Olympus I preferred due to the story, and the scenes with Kratos' daughter.

6. God of War: Ghost of Sparta: I feel bad ranking this last as it's a really good game, the gameplay is such an improvement on Chains, and the graphics for PSP are crazy (I played the HD collection). After watching the special feature from God of War 1 about Kratos' brother though, I was expecting more from the story.

Overall, an incredible series. I can't wait to see what Santa Monica is cooking up for the next instalment

 

[Bloodrage]

God of War 2 is the best, and it's one of the best sequels ever made. Everything just felt so much bigger in comparison to the first.

2. God of War
3. God of War 3

 

[NinjamicWZ]

Never played the PSP games (got 'em cheap on Vita, I should do that sometime).

2 > 3 > 1 > Ascension

I used to think 1 was better and that 2 lost so much that made 1 great in order to be more straight action with no puzzles, but when I finally replayed them both back to back for the first time in years, I felt totally different about it and couldn't have cared less about puzzles.

Recently played 3 again with the remaster and it was so good. Even better than I remembered. I had forgotten about almost the entire middle of the game, and the part that I thought was the weak link was actually fine.

Finally played Ascension last month through PS Now. Ascension had some great moments and some amazing spectacle, but was a mess in how it tried to shuffle through time in the story. Kratos felt like he was just compiled from unused vocal takes in the previous games, and the combat just felt like the pink slime version of what used to be a perfectly good rare steak. The ballet of timing was gone, the elemental blades was a step back from having some variety to pursue. The prequel status changing the way parrying/reflecting worked and not having my wings really put a damper on things. Even the time decay/repair mechanic was another thing that looked great, but felt like a poor man's Soul Reaver/Sands of Time.

 

[Tricky I Shadow]

God of War II
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God of War III
-
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God of War
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-
-
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-
-
-
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God of War: Ascension

 

[TheSpaceBetween]

God of War > God of War II > God of War: Ascension > God of War III > God of War: Ghost of Sparta > God of War: Chains of Olympus.