There was the Desert. Possibly the nicest looking background. A steady breeze blew sand across the ground. The sun was past midday. You could just about feel the heat. I imagined that this place was not too far from the Desert of Lost Souls from the first GoW. I greatly enjoyed the look of all these places, could appreciate fighting within them as long as I wanted, and with whichever enemy I chose.
One of the most unique stages was Hades. It looked different than how it appeared in either GoW III, or the Chains of Olympus. It was dark, and mysterious, with harpies flying in the background, and lava waterfalls skirting the perimeter. It was certainly not a place that a mortal would want to visit. In my opinion there was a toss up between the two best arenas in the game. One of those was Atlantis. In the previous blog I talked about how the sunken city had been on the drawing board since GoW II was in development. This was around 2005. That stage wouldn’t formally be introduced until the Ghost of Sparta in 2010. The stage was part building, and part magical barrier where we could stare out in the abyss. It was the sort of fantastic world that Sony Santa Monica, and Ready at Dawn could bring us into. You could really appreciate the planning for the stages if you looked at the concept art. Atlantis wasn’t the only location that the studios had always thought about taking Kratos through. In very early GoW II plans they were thinking of setting a chase, or action stage, through the city of Sparta, as they were under attack. There would be a huge battle, with flaming arrows streaking back, and forth across the sky. Some of those plans, and settings were adapted by Ready at Dawn. The burning arrows, and spears were used in the opening moments of Chains of Olympus. The intact city of Sparta was put in the Ghost of Sparta. Whereas the city being destroyed became Crete, and Heraklion during the eruption of the Methana Volcano, as well as the collapse of Atlantis. Ready at Dawn honored the developers at Sony Santa Monica by putting an actual Troy arena in the game. Best of all playing the Challenge of Ares, the Challenge of Athena earned you red orbs that you could spend in the Temple of Olympus, and unlock all sorts of goodies. The best surprise in the game was the Grave Digger’s Shovel. It allowed you to unlock a special character in the Combat Arena. There had been a lot of speculation as to the identity of the Grave Digger from the series. Many had guessed that he was Zeus in disguise, especially since he referred to Kratos as son. It was nice to see this get officially confirmed in the game. When the arena stage begins we see the Grave Digger standing in place, for a second I thought I would actually be able to see him swing the shovel in combat. However he instead raises it to the sky, and a lightning bolt transforms him into Zeus, and the shovel into the Blade of Olympus. He not only fights with that, but in his left hand he has the Gauntlet of Zeus. The most powerful weapon from the Chains of Olympus. To say Zeus is O.P. would be an understatement. He doesn’t have a block button, but instead he’s blindingly fast. Rather than roll he can dash out of the range of most attacks. Also he doesn’t use any magical attacks. If you press the directional button, the ones that activate magic for Kratos, he instead makes one of four statements. “Feel the power of Olympus! I will crush you! Insolent Fool!” and the always classic “Die mortal!” The studio went so far as to actually animate his mouth when he talks. It was great having Zeus as a playable character, but the team did make one change with his weapons. The Gauntlet of Zeus was a right hand weapon, but he sports it on his left. It’s a minor detail, but one that I noticed because of how much I replayed the Chains of Olympus. I’d like to know if you had a favorite challenge in the GoW series, or if there was one that you felt was absolutely impossible. Let me know in the comments section please. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!
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