The big angry elephant man was undoubtedly the star of the new God of War: Ascension gameplay trailer. We’ve seen a lot of well-designed enemies in God of War over the years, but he stood
Kratos (God of War) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
out. He looked big, heavy, and dangerous in a way that reminded me of Kratos’ first minotaur encounter. After he showed up on screen, it was more classic God of War fun – roll around, smack him with some chains, roll around again, jump on his head and crack open his skull, revealing his brain. Standard, gory stuff. But I couldn’t get one question out of my head: “Who the heck is that?”
At the end of God War 3, Kratos was running out of people to kill. He had killed nearly every character he had ever interacted with in the entire series, and he’d interacted with pretty much everyone in Greek mythology. We’d run through Titans, through almost the entire pantheon of Gods, through famous heroes and through famous monsters. We killed the Fates themselves. Every one of them was dead. Everyone of them was dead in a seriously bloody way.
So when the inevitable prequel to Kratos’ trilogy was announced, it appeared there was nobody left for him to kill. He could go to Troy, which would fit in with the “he was a man before he was a God” concept, but that doesn’t necessarily have the same supernatural flair as his previous outings.
But elephant man didn’t look like he fit in anywhere in Greek Mythology. He looked more like he belonged in India. It raises the question – before Kratos butchered all of the Greek Gods, did he go traveling?
Different gods from different lands definitely fit in with Greek-style polytheism, and so I wouldn’t be surprised if we start to see Kratos fighting his way through mythologies beside the one where he’s been the most comfortable. I don’t think we’re going to see him killing Hindu Gods per se – the world is full of Hindus, and giving an active religion the God of War treatment would be less than respectful – but I think the appearance of elephant man all but confirms the idea that Kratos’ murderous tendencies won’t be limited to ancient Greece.
The prospect of Kratos hacking his way through all the panthea of the ancient world is almost too good to pass up – he could head to Egpyt and fight Sphinxes, or make his way to the north country and tangle with Thor. He could slice up Baal or take out Gilgamesh. There’s a wide mythological world to kill out there, and Kratos has time on his side.
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