By Chris Hinton
Throughout the God Of War series, Kratos has taken down his fair share of Gods, many of them in a truly brutal and unforgiving manner.
God of War was certainly made famous by 2018’s soft reimagining of the series. The game went on to garner countless accolades as well as both critical and commercial success. Kratos was reintroduced to the world as a semi-reformed killer. In his older age, he bears the regret and consequences of his destructive actions in ancient Greece that spanned six titles – seven if you include the mobile phone game God of War: Betrayal. Despite his regret in 2018’s adventure, he is no pacifist. He still knows when death is necessary for his enemies. This time, however, it’s to protect himself and, more importantly, his son.
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Throughout the entirety of the series, Kratos has been known to exhibit brutality on countless occasions. When vengeance was all that he had left in this world, nothing stood a chance. Later, his son entered the scene and provided him a new reason to harden his resolve to get his hands bloody when necessary. Let’s take a look at some of his most brutal kills throughout God of War history.
10 Poseidon
The opening moments of God of War 3 immediately follow the events of God of War 2. Kratos, having been betrayed by Zeus in GOW 2, is scaling Mount Olympus alongside his titan allies seeking the heads of all gods who stand with Zeus atop this seat of power. Poseidon is the first unlucky casualty of Kratos’s journey in GOW 3.
After besting the god of the seas, Kratos throws him into the mountain away from the water. From this point, the players see through Poseidon’s eyes in the first-person view as Kratos angrily approaches the injured deity and brutally beats him before finally blinding the god and crushing the life out of him with his bare hands. This scene established for the players just how truly terrifying Kratos is.
9 Pollux and Castor
These two gave Kratos a run for his money, literally. InGod of War: Ascension, took control of the temple of the Oracle of Delphi. They did so in order to control the power of time to de-age themselves. Kratos pursued them throughout the temple in order to seize control of this power that was contained within the Amulet of Uroborus.
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The twins of the Gemini Constellation were physically bound to one another. Castor was rather large in stature, while his brother Pollux was the weaker of the two and attached to Castor's stomach. In the end, Kratos brutally rips Pollux off of Castor. While Castor falls to his death, Kratos stomps on Pollux's head as he desperately tries to drag himself away from the Spartan with his one arm.
8 Piraeus Lion
God of War: Ghost of Spartasaw the Kratos reconnecting with his brother, Deimos. During that journey, an individual loyal to Ares traps Kratos and unleashes the Piraeus Lion on him. Kratos has battled big and tough beasts all throughout his bloody career. So the monstrous lion was really no match for the Spartan warrior.
After impaling the beast several times with his twin blades, he disembowels the giant feline with a sweeping cut down the lion's belly. Afterward, he turned his attention to the poor soul who thought he was capable of bringing down Kratos. After sending the lowly individual crashing through a few wooden doors, the Ghost of Sparta angrily picked him up by the neck and slowly sank his sword into his victim's belly.
7 Hermes
The speedster messenger was, perhaps, one of these most annoying confrontations in God of War 3. He lacked the capacity to really fight the Spartan warrior head on. So instead, he used his powers of speed to taunt Kratos and lead him on a wild chase. Eventually, Kratos takes Hermes by surprise by catapulting himself into the massive statue the speedster was running along.
This injures Hermes and Kratos must only follow the trail of blood to contend with him. In a desperate attempt to survive, Hermes musters the energy to zip around Kratos and get a few shots in, but Kratos doesn’t stand for it. He catches Hermes mid-flight by severing one of his legs. He then picks the god up by his remaining leg and cuts that off as well before finishing the job.
6 Perseus
Perseus is far from the only relative that Kratos ever killed. However, the son of Zeus and half-brother to Kratos went semi-insane when he attempted to kill the Spartan when Kratos had no quarrel with him. Using his helmet of invisibility and sword, he contends with Kratos thinking the sisters of fate are testing him.
Kratos eventually stabs Perseus with his own sword and throws him through a wall impaling him on a hook. The bright side of this bloody affair is that now Kratos had a new path to follow after the wall of the bathhouse was destroyed.
5 Helios
The Sun god was no stranger to the Ghost of Sparta. Kratos was tasked with finding the missing deity in Chains of Olympus. But in God of War 3, he is not spared from the wrath of Kratos. The troubled Spartan shoots the sun god out of the sky in order to actually get his hands on him. Because Helios is allied with Zeus, his fate is sealed.
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During a quick-time-event, players must guide Kratos in beating the injured god before literally pulling his head off his shoulders with the raw strength of Kratos. In a morbid turn, Kratos carries the head of Helios with him for the remainder of the game as a light source in the dark underbelly of Mount Olympus.
4 Charon
The ghastly ferryman of the underworld, Charon, was just another casualty in the Ghost of Sparta's crusade. What was Charon's crime one might ask? Simply not giving Kratos passage because he was a living being.
During the fight between these two, Kratos uses Charon's own scythe and impales him through the midsection against his own boat. That doesn't stop Charon, however, as he separates his torso from the rest of his body and continues the fight. Finally, Kratos gets the better of him and beats him mercilessly in the face until bloodied and dead.
3 Hercules
The might of the Herculean voice actor Kevin Sorbo couldn't save this incarnation of Hercules from a painful death. While the hulking warrior towered over Kratos, he was no match for the Ghost of Sparta's sheer ferocity. During the battle, Hercules' weapon of choice was the Nemean Cestus. It was essentially a pair of beastly metal gauntlets used for pummeling enemies into a bloody pulp.
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After Hercules attempts to rip the entire ground out from underneath his opponent, Kratos slams the piece of land back down on top of Hercules pinning him to the floor. Kratos then uses the Nemean Cestus to pummel his brother's face into an unrecognizable gory stump.
2 Zeus
Kratos' own father, Zeus, was the culmination of the Spartan's original quest for vengeance. The deity's flirtation with betrayal and deception, mostly aimed at Kratos, encapsulated everything Kratos hated about the Ancient Greek world. After viciously hunting and murdering the gods of Olympus, Zeus was the final hurdle.
After a lengthy, yet epic, battle at the end ofGod of War III,Kratos has the opportunity to finish Zeus with his bare hands. The players get to witness the carnage in a first-person view through the eyes of Kratos. The player is then prompted to beat Zeus with the repetitive press of a button. The crazy thing of it all is that the beating only stops when the player wants to stop. Players can pummel Zeus until his blood covers every inch of the screen if they so choose.
1 Magni
While Kratos is somewhat reformed inGod of War (2018), he is still an aggressive individual. He doesn't kill for the sake of satiating his anger. Now he kills only to defend himself and his son. Having left the Greek world behind, Kratos finds himself contending with the meddling gods of Norse mythology. Magni and Modi, sons of Thor, threaten all Kratos holds dear.
Players must battle both of them at the same time. However, in a cutscene at the end of the boss battle, Modi awakens Kratos' primal instincts when he begins to actually pose an imminent threat to his son as Atreus rushes blindly to fight Modi in a fit of rage. Quickly, Kratos stops sparring with Magni, and executes him with a blow to the midsection, the shoulder, and finally the face with his Leviathan Ax so that he could rush to his son's aid.
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