The original God of War video game trilogy provided the grittiest, bloodiest depiction of the struggles of the Greek gods ever seen, and novelist Matthew Stover is among the very best fantasy authors, yet somehow this seemingly perfect matchup resulted in one of the worst recent video game novelizations. Stover is best known for the Acts of Caine series, which feature Hari Michaelson, an Actor, whose alter-ego Caine is an assassin that shares common traits with Kratos. Caine is a brutal killer who stands against seemingly insurmountable forces, including the gods themselves in later novels. It makes sense that given Stover’s fantasy pedigree, a God of War novel based on the first game could have been an ideal pairing, but the book took an overly literal approach to telling the game’s story, and ultimately came across as resentful of the medium of gaming.
With Heroes Die, the first book in the Acts of Caine, Stover created a world that could have inspired the Assassin’s Creed series. While Assassin’s Creed Infinity suggests a never-ending story for that franchise, the Acts of Caine has a far more focused plotline. In a future dystopia vision of earth, controlled by massive conglomerates, the corporations discover a parallel world they call Overworld where magic is real and humans live alongside demihuman races that would seem at home in the works of Tolkien or a Dungeons & Dragons game. Building on this unique cyberpunk meets fantasy premise, the corporations train Actors who take on roles in Overworld, and their adventures are sold as a combination of fantasy escapism and reality TV. Heroes Die was released in 1998, and nine years later the first Assassin’s Creed game covered similar ground with Abstergo Industries tapping into the memories of assassins from the distant past using Animus technology.
While some video game-based novels rise above their subject matter, like the Halo novels that are better than Halo 5, Stover’s God of War novelization remained grounded in the game to a fault. Although the God of War trilogy featured impressive cinematics for its time, the gameplay stood front and center. The original PlayStation 2 classic featured superbly crafted, fast-paced combat against hordes of enemies alongside exploration and puzzle-solving. This provides a well-rounded game experience, but not a terribly believable world or narrative when a player gives it a serious look. Stover’s novel covered the same plot points as the game, detailing Kratos’ rise and fall, the death of his family, and his quest for vengeance against the god Aries. It also went into specifics on the gameplay, detailing certain sections as if the author watched someone play the game in front of him, and was contemptuous of the assignment.
God Of War's Novelization Traded Grim Fantasy For Parody
Where game director Cory Balrog later stated he was unprepared for the development challenges of God of War's story, in truth, but gameplay was the priority over immersion. In video games, all challenges can be conquered, and the world is literally created with the player character in mind, and God of War was no exception. The novel turned these occurrences into comedic, fourth-wall-breaking moments, making it feel more like a parody than a sincere adaptation.
With the Acts of Caine, Stover created a one-of-a-kind fantasy world that married a high concept with its own consistent verisimilitude. In novelizing God of War, the author seemingly missed few opportunities to call the video game out on how silly it was. Today many players analyze the story of the God of War reboot, which trades some of the over-the-top carnage of the original for a more humanized version of Kratos. It is worth ing that the original God of War put the gameplay before the story, which existed mostly as a vehicle to propel the player from one set-piece battle and puzzle-solving challenge to the next. Matthew Stover’s novelization, therefore, was accurate in its portrayal of God of War, but reads more like satire than the gritty fantasy epic that the publishers likely intended it to be. The God of War novel remains entertaining, but likely not in the way most would imagine, and certainly not as a serious story capturing the gravitas of Kratos’ quest for vengeance.
The video game series is not known for its humor, outside of God of War mods giving Kratos amusing dialogue, and similar fan projects. Stover’s original works also tend towards serious, grim subject matter, with some occasional gallows humor. In Heroes Die, Caine s with a rebellion and confronts the powerful sorcerer-king Ma’elKoth. Later Acts of Kaine books escalated the conflict, seeing Hari clash with his corporate overlords, his own inner demons, and the gods of Overworld. There are many credible parallels between these novels and Kratos’ struggles in the pre-reboot God of War games. Kratos first targets Aries, then Zeus himself, and ultimately faces his own anger and self-loathing in God of War 3’s final sequence. Despite these valid comparisons between Hari Michelson of the Acts of Caine and Kratos, there remains one important distinction: Caine never faced illogical threats and gameplay-oriented puzzles, like Kratos did in God of War, and his stories never shifted from gritty fantasy into parody, as with the novelization.
God Of War's Novel Is A Reminder Of The Series' Less Sophisticated Origins
Some games define themselves by parodying video game conventions. The Stanley Parable, soon to be re-released with an Ultra-Deluxe edition, deconstructed the idea of player agency in video games. The emergent genre of bad physics games ranging from Surgeon Simulator to Totally Accurate Battle Simulator, mock the silliness of games trying to replicate reality. While experiencing the original God of War trilogy as a player, most will be too caught up in the momentum of the challenges, the action, and the impressive cinematics to question the logic of it all. Stover chose to shine a spotlight on the irrational nature of the original game in his novelization. While the reboot has elevated the series closer to a level of games as art, the God of War novelization is a reminder of a less sophisticated time in the franchise when Kratos' adventures were more than a little silly.
