Second Look - God of War: Betrayal

In the intervening period between God of War II and God of War III, two other games in the series were released that expanded further on the story, both developed for handheld devices. The first of these was God of War: Betrayal, the only one to be developed for mobile phones, taking place between the events of the first two games. I actually played this game quite a bit in high school, back when I had a compatible phone that could play it, though the game’s canonicity had been debated over the years and has since become unavailable to download legally. Once it was confirmed that the game was canon, via a tweet from Santa Monica Studio animation director Bruno Velasquez, I scrambled to dig out an old phone I held on to that still had the game on it, or else have to resort to emulation just to play an old mobile game. Miraculously, after having to buy a charger, I managed to uncover an old LG Rumor phone that still had the game on it, allowing me to finally play it once again in its original glory.

 

The tweet confirming its canon status.

While the game was certainly groundbreaking at the time for its ability to translate the series to the mobile space, to where it was considered one of the best mobile games to play in the era before smart phones, its quality is now more hotly contested as a result of its antiquity.

Since the game is now nigh impossible to play outside of emulation, that is unless you still own a phone with the game already installed, I will be going more in-depth here with the story.

After defeating Ares, Kratos, the new god of war, leads a Spartan army on a path of conquest. The angered gods send Hera’s giant, Argos, to try and stop the Spartan army, but Kratos persists as his army is pursued by the Dead Rider and the Minotaur, while Zeus turns a blind eye to the carnage. Eventually, Argos is slain, which concerns the gods. However, Kratos was not the one to kill it, rather it was the work of an unknown assassin. Kratos faces off against Cerberus and an army of undead soldiers in pursuit of the assassin that killed Argos, only for the Spartan army to fall to Cerberus. This only gives Kratos further reason to hunt down the assassin, for it turns out they were not acting alone. Unable to ignore the carnage any longer, Zeus sends the messenger god Ceryx, son of Hermes, to stop Kratos, only for Ceryx to fall victim to Kratos’ rampage. Ceryx’s death fuels Zeus’ vengeance against Kratos. Meanwhile, the assassin Kratos had been chasing is never found.

 

Story and dialogue are delivered through text.

There isn’t that much to the story compared with the console games, though the fact this was originally developed for mobile phones makes this more forgivable and the structure of the game serves as a neat way to introduce new enemy types while integrating them into the narrative. While the amount of contribution to the plot of God of War II is debatable, it does at least explain how Zeus came to turn on Kratos after being more benevolent in the original game, even if Ceryx and the events surrounding his death are never mentioned again. There’s also the unresolved plot point of the assassin that comes off as sequel bait, though the fact that there actually were planned sequels that got axed may have had something to do with this.

Amazingly, the gameplay is similar to that of the original two games, but translated to play more like a side-scroller to account for mobile devices at the time, with movement performed by the arrow keys and the center OK button tied to attacks. Much of Kratos’ arsenal from the end of the original game is retained here, specifically Athena’s Blades, the Blade of Artemis, Medusa’s Gaze and the Army of Hades, with the Blade of Artemis being treated as a magic item tied to the Magic meter. Said weapons can be scrolled through using the left soft key, reverting back to the Blades after each use, and can be upgraded as normal between chapters or by visiting the upgrade screen with the # key. QTEs also return here, with the Down key replacing the Circle button to initiate them, and the QTEs themselves being a three-button combination between the arrows and OK. You can also attack random civilians as in the console games, but they give you arguably more useful (for this game) green orbs rather than red.

 

There is also an underused swimming mechanic.

Some mechanics have also been adjusted to make them work better in a mobile space, in some cases making them even easier than in the first two console games. For instance, (double) jump and grapple have been mapped to the contextual Up button, with the grapple action performing an automatic swing as opposed to having to hold a button down as in God of War II. Additionally, grabbable objects are automatically grabbed just by running into them, beam walks no longer require dealing with balance and rope sections don’t feature any enemies until the undead warriors are introduced. The Gorgon Eye/Phoenix Feather system is also retained, but, in a clever way of accounting for the more bite-sized level design, you only need to gather one each to upgrade their respective meters, although you need to be within a certain pixel range in order to unlock any chests. One nice addition not seen in the console games is the way it handles magic barriers, in that you get to see how many enemies you are required to defeat in a room in order to unlock them.

 

A useful feature. (Screencaps from MobyGames.)

While it does manage to faithfully translate the gameplay style to a portable space, it can feel a bit repetitive after a while, especially with the short levels, even with an increase in enemy variety over time. The fact that you respawn with your progress intact helps to mitigate this, though it can also help to take breaks between sessions, as was clearly the intention in its design, given you are far more likely to be playing a portable game in short bursts.

I will also mention that, for whatever reason, I have consistently been spawned at the end of the Catacombs level, meaning I was able to complete it in mere seconds by jumping up and to the left, as opposed to taking a few minutes like all the other levels around it. For literally years, I had no idea there was more to it until I looked up gameplay footage during my session for this review, at which point I found out I was locked out of two Gorgon Eye/Phoenix Feather chests, as well as a small part of the story. At the time I first played the game, all of my devices had been under Sprint (back before they were pronounced T-Mobile), so I have no idea if this was an issue with the carrier, the storefront or the device(s) I played it on, since that is the version I am stuck with, but it is nice to know what exactly it was that I missed out on this whole time. Because I don’t know where else to bring this up, one feature I do appreciate is that, on a Rumor phone or other device with a slide-out keyboard, the game will recognize whether you slid out the keyboard and will tell you to go back to vertical mode to keep playing.

 

A small detail, but one I appreciate.

The only other mode that provides any sort of replay value is Arena, in which you, to quote the loading screen, “kill as many enemies as you can without dying,” with further levels in the Arena unlocked by killing enough enemies. This can be useful as a way to grind for red orbs to further upgrade your arsenal, but it can still feel repetitive after a while, in addition to risking pain to your thumb after an extended session.

While the gameplay can feel subpar by modern standards, the 32-bit visuals are still impressive, especially considering it was from the pre-smartphone era. Though Kratos is based on his starting appearance from the original game, the sprite art is spot-on to the designs in the console games, with a lot of very fluid animations. However, aside from a version of the main God of War theme in the main menu, should you enable audio, the game is surprisingly quiet, with very minimal sound effects amounting to the transition screens and the occasional sound from the Blades.

As mentioned before, while the story is decent for what it is, it establishes a subplot with an assassin that remains inconclusive. This is because, as explained in a YouTube comment by director/designer/producer/co-writer Philip Cohen, God of War: Betrayal was meant to be the first in a series of mobile games with their own story arc. Although these plans fell through for one reason or another, ideas from these canceled sequels would eventually make their way into the other handheld games, Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta.

 

The full comment, for reference.

Seeing how mobile game design has advanced and changed, for better or worse, to what it is today, God of War: Betrayal is a time capsule of mobile game design from a bygone era. Despite this, I would still recommend trying to play this game however possible, especially if you had the foresight to keep an old phone with the game on it still lying around, mainly for its confirmed status as a canon entry in Kratos’ saga. Although chances are slim, it would be nice to see a modern port or remake of this game one day, if only so that new players can still experience this chapter of the story without having to jump through massive hoops.