'God of War: Ascension' Is a Bloody Yet Beautiful Prequel

How do you top a game that ends with you killing the King of the Gods?

That's the query that faced Santa Monica Studios as it built the next console adventure of Spartan warrior Kratos, a longtime PlayStation standard bearer whose labors reached their gruesome end in 2010’s God of War III.

That game, the fifth in the franchise, chronicled Kratos’ final assault against Mount Olympus. Set in a fictionalized Ancient Greece populated by all the gods and monsters you can imagine (and some you wouldn’t want to), Kratos’ story is an engine of vengeance that runs on bloodGod of War III, the last PlayStation 3 release, saw the surly anti-hero tear through Hercules, Poseidon, Hades and eventually Zeus like a bunch of deli meat