Sony announces collector's edition, pre-order bonus for God of War: Ascension

One of the most well known franchises on Sony’s PlayStation consoles is the God of War series. The series is all set to get the latest game in the franchise – God Of War: Ascension – next year. Sony has announced the pre-order bonus, and the collector’s edition on the PlayStation blog. The collector’s edition of Ascension includes the game in a steelbook case, the official soundtrack, a double XP unlock for multiplayer, pass for future downloadable content, a dynamic theme for the PlayStation 3, a PlayStation Network Avatar Pack, and a Kratos Statue. The pre-order bonus for pre-ordering any version of the game includes the Mythological Heroes Multiplayer Pack, which includes the characters Perseus, Orion, Achilles, and Odysseus.

The Collector's Edition for God of War: Ascension

The upcoming game will have new characters called the Furies. Though the trailer shown during PAX Prime doesn’t really say if they will be friends or enemies, knowing Kratos, you’ll probably end up brutally killing and dismembering them regardless of them being your friends or enemies. Ascension is a prequel that will be set six months after Kratos murdered his family. Kratos is seeking the Furies who punish oathbreakers. So he kills them and leaves the service of Ares without punishment. Details about Ascension were originally leaked earlier this year from a listing on Amazon.

The God of War series is the story of Kratos, who was a soldier from Sparta. Kratos was the servant of the gods, and worked primarily to defeat the enemies of Olympus, and run away from his past. The first game begins with Kratos declaring that "The gods of Olympus have abandoned me" and flinging himself over the tallest cliff in Greece; the rest of the game details how and why this happens. The game mostly takes place in the temple of Pandora where Kratos must find the power to stop Ares from destroying Athens.

The pre-order bonus for God of War: Ascension

The second game begins with Kratos having taken up Ares’ spot on the Greek pantheon as the god of war. Kratos leads his Spartan army in a bloody conquest across Greece without heeding the people saying he’s gone out of control. Eventually, Zeus gets angry and takes matters into his own hands. The game starts with the death of Kratos and mostly takes place on the Island of Creation, where the Sisters of Fate work the Loom of Fate and can change his destiny. In a series of events, Kratos ends up using the Loom to go back in time to try to defeat Zeus, and in a cliffhanger ending, uses the Titans to wage war against Olympus.

The third game begins with Kratos scaling Mount Olympus and waging war against the gods using the Titans. After killing Poseidon, Kratos is betrayed by the Titan Gaia and is thrown into the underworld, but escapes and begins to climb Mount Olympus, killing everyone who stands in his way, including Hades, Perseus, Helios, Hercules, Cronos, Hephaestus and Hera, among others. The game ends with Kratos finally defeating Zeus and leaving the world in chaos.

God of War: Ascension will be released on 12 March 2013.