You know, I have to say that God of War has one of the best stories on the PS2. It sounds crazy at first, but when you play through it, it feels extremely appropriate. There's a definite greek tragedy/myth aspect to it that makes it feel authentic, even with everything else being pretty over the top. That story was very well told, and I think really holds up. It feels true to what you'd expect from greek mythology in a lot of ways and I really dug that. Sadly, I think 2 and 3 really lost their way from that. I don't think either was as well constructed story wise, and eventually descended into being a parody of itself, which is kind of smurfing crazy given how over the top everything else was to begin with.

Instead of having that tragic element, and Kratos being a character who, while completely impossible to like, was someone that by the end you at least understood and felt sorry for, the games really just became a case of, "here's Kratos. He's really angry and he takes it out on the greek gods in a brutal fashion." There was some actual depth there that was lost completely that made the original more than just the violence.