Wrath earns its place as one of the seven deadly sins. Few things like pure, unbridled rage can cause more harm to those around us or our own self-inflicted wounds. It’s a difficult subject to explore because of how wrath excites us. We love a good power fantasy, and wrath is power wrapped in revenge. Its one-dimensional nature often undercuts the depth beneath that roiling surface. Plenty of video games traffic in wrath-as-motive, introducing us to a wronged protagonist who gets to punch their way through whatever story is draped across the combat mechanics. Twenty years ago, we got the definitive game about wrath, and it built itself into a saga that never stopped reckoning with the consequences.
God of War debuted on PlayStation 2 on March 22, 2005. You’ve no doubt heard of it, in large part thanks to Kratos, the tragic hero at the center of story whose popularity made him into a mascot for Sony and an icon for a generation of gamers. His rage-fueled quest for revenge spanned almost a decade and launched one of the most successful franchises of all-time.
