At the very beginning of the game you're given control of Kratos, a man who wields two swords attached to the end of very long chains. Using a combination of the square (weak attack) and triangle (strong attack) buttons you can perform numerous different combos at the start. To save you the time of learning everything progressively with the tutorials you can also throw enemies with circle, block attacks with L1 and evade by moving the right analog stick. Get yourself accustomed to the controls by smashing through all the enemies in this area. Note a fun little tip, when you press the circle button to grab enemies you can perform three different throws. While holding the enemy press either circle, triangle or square to do one of the three different throws. After all the enemies have been disposed approach the trap door in the upper left corner and press the R2 button to grab hold. Continue to press the R2 button over and over again until the trap door opens then drop down. There's a treasure chest right here when you land, hold the R2 button to grab on and open it. Inside a number of green orbs will refill your health. You can break many of the objects in this area to get red orbs as you continue North down the hallway. Head down into the next hallway.
Here you will be ambused by a large "miniboss." It's the head of a hydra and it's extremely angry. To defeat this boss you need to run up to it and attack using a combination of square and triangle attacks to dish out as much damage as possible. The boss will be constantly attacking and size that's virtually impossible to dodge you need to block it instead. When the head moves back to strike just stand where you are and hold the L1 button to protect yourself from the attack and go in swinging madly after each one. Continue this process over and over until you've knocked out about half its health. At that point it will fall down and the option to play a minigame appears. To initiate the minigame press the circle button when you see the circle icon appear over the beast's head. Now you have to press the button that appears on screen quickly, if you see a triangle press the triangle button and so on. Doing this will treat you to a rather violent and brutal scene.
Once the monster is gone continue forward and begin to cross over the pit on the beams that extend overtop. It's quite a balancing act but if you happen to slip you can usually just tap the X button to climb back up again. If you fall entirely just swim back to the start and give it another try. Break the barrels on the other side to get all the red orbs and then jump through the crack in the wall to the left. There's a man in the cage at the end of the path, you can speak to him using the R2 button. Climb the stairs on the right and open the treasure chest to receive a whole bunch of red orbs. Continue down the hall past the wooden barrier and kick open the door with the R2 button. Outside you'll find a huge chaotic scene of violence involving some nasty winged creatures ripping men apart. Return the favour by using the circle button to rip their wings off completely, this will occur for many enemies throughout the game, special throws based on the type of enemy they are. It's an unfortunate truth that the innocent men running around on deck will drop health when killed, so if you need it then just start swinging madly. After defeating a few of the creatures and thinning them out a little run to the opposite side of the deck where you will find two doors. Approach one of them and open it by tapping the R2 button, it will reveal a chest containing red orbs as will the second one. Head back and continue your slaughter of the winged cratures, eventually a boss will appear.
This actually isn't so much a boss as a miniboss again. It has a few basic attacks, first there's a generic bite attack which bites down on the spot wherever you are stand, simply block this attack. The second attack the monster will pound its head down on the left side followed by the right side followed by the middle so knowing this pattern be sure to avoid it entirely. Finally the creature has a swiping attack where it uses its head to swing around on the ground and swipe you to the side. This one can by jumping if you double jump and time it correctly. The last one is an attack you actually want it to perform. It grabs you in it's mouth but using the circle button and tapping it as fast as you can you can break free and do some serious damage to the creature in the process, so it's actually beneficial to be hit by this. While you're not in its mouth however just stick with normal triangle and square attacks to defeat the creature, you must drain all its health this time rather than just a partial amount to kill it.
After defeating the miniboss drop down into the water where its head had popped up from since there is now a hole in the ship. Swim up down the corridor and grab hold of the mesh net at the end. Start climbing up and jump back onto the ship when you reach the top. The game will now teach you a new attack, hold the triangle button to do an upward swing and launch an enemy into the air. You will automatically jump up along with him so while airborne press the circle button to do an air throw, this manoeuvre can be pretty helpful at times so keep it in mind. Start tiptoeing across the pole leading off the upper right side of the ship, if you fall then you die but the checkpoint was quite recently don't worry. When you reach a fork take the right branch to find a chest containing red orbs. Go back and take the left branch to reach another ship. Head up to trigger a cutscene.
Following the scene open the nearby chest to reveal a whole bunch of healing green orbs. Left of the chest is a glowing save point, while standing on the save point press the R2 button to bring up the save menu and then you can save your game. Back on the ship drop down and run up to find a crate behind the first box on your right. Using the R2 button you can grab hold of the crate and either push or pull it in any direction. You can also hold the X button to charge up and kick the crate in the direction you are facing. What you need to do is get this crate all the way down to where the archers are shooting at you because the ledge is too high to jump up to. The problem is that the arrows can actually destroy the crate, and while another one will respawn you have to go back and try again so the easiest way to do it is charge up a kick when no arrows are coming at you and release right before they hit. Kick the crate all the way to the end underneath the archers and use it to double jump up and grab hold of the ledge. Kill off all the archers and then open up the treasure chest containing green orbs. Head down to the end of the hall and you'll find a locked door but you cannot open it. Your only option is to climb up the ladder on the opposite side and leave them.
There's a large net here and it is your only means of going further. Approach the net to automatically grab hold of it and begin to climb. Note as you are climbing that you can attack and grab still while on the net. Grabbing is going to be most helpful, the best grab is the one you do while holding up on the left analog stick since it's fast and effective. The other grab is good if there's multiple enemies around. Note that as you climb you can hold up and press the X button to climb up faster. On the way up there's a platform but still more net to climb after that, when you reach the very top head down and balance across the large pole. At the other side of this pole is a lone chest containing a stash of red orbs. Now head back across and jump up to grab that long rope leading from the top of the pole down to the other ship. Break open the left and right wooden blockades to reveal a chest containing red orbs on the left and a Gorgon Eye on the right. Collect a total of six Gorgon Eyes to permanently increase you maximum health (so in other words, you just got a Blue Orb Fragment.) Break through the middle and approach the glowing blue flame down at the end. Here you will meet the one of the many Greek gods who assists you with your quest by granting you a special power which in this case comes in the form of a magic spell. Using the L2 button you can crate a huge blast of lightning around you and deal heavy damage to foes. It's quite an effective attack in large groups and for bosses actually. Use Poseidon's Rage here to take out the enemies that spawn around you, there's now a blue bar below you health which represents your magic power and using Poseidon's rage drains this bar, but you can refill your magic by defeating some enemies or finding chests with blue orbs in them. Head through the door that Poseidon's head was blocking and make your way outside again. On your left is another save point which may come in handy here; on the right are two treasure chests which will fully restore both your health and your magic power. Climb the net and get ready for a boss fight.
There are three Hydra's here, two babies and one absolutely enormous Hydra which you cannot even access because when you try to climb up the net in the middle the two smaller Hydras will automatically knock you off every single time. So here's what you need to do in order to kill this boss. First of all you should fight these two smaller Hydras the same way you fought the previous one with the exception that they will not grab you in their mouths, but one very large advantage you have now that you didn't have before is Poseidon's Rage. Regardless kill the smaller Hydras however you see fit but you'll notice that once they go down you cannot hurt them anymore and after a certain amount of time they will come back to life with almost full health again. There's a special trick here, when one of the Hydras is down notice that there are a bunch of crates piled up beside them. Hop up these crates and there above their heads is a large anchor-like object under a suspended platform. Jump on top of this platform and it will break and descend into the beast's neck, pinning it in place permanently. Now all you have to do is the exact same thing with the Hydra on the other side and both of them will be pinned down so that they cannot prevent you from climbing up to reach the real boss.
The real boss too is a Hydra but far larger than any your have ever seen before. It has a few basic attacks mostly involving large biting motions. It has a weaker bite attack which it pulls it's head back and bites the middle of the platform you're on. The best way to avoid taking damage is to double jump and hold the block button, the teeth won't hurt you. Blocking isn't so effective when he pulls his head back to the side and does a more powerful chomp on either the left and right side of you platform. Your best bet is to predict which side he's going to chomp and jump away from it while holding the block button in the air. The final one is a big stupid roar meant to blow you off the top but in the end as long as you're holding the block button the attack can do no such thing. Your main goal is to use the opportunities when the monster bites down on the platform to start hacking and slashing away and while you can hack and slash at it while it's in the normal stance as well, magic should only be used right after the creature bites down, run up to its head and zap it then move into a combo of square and triangle attacks which should actually refill your magic pretty well. Now you'll also want to know how to actually damage the boss. When you've take off about a third of his life the minigame circle icon will appear. Press circle and you'll be given the chance to tap as fast as you can and end up slamming the monsters head against the pole. His life refills as this point and it seems like nothing happened but if you look close you'll see the pole has actually splintered. You need to do this a total of three times before the pole actually breaks. Now once its broken damage the boss for about one third of its health and there's a chance to do a new minigame, I won't spoil it, but it's awesome.
When the boss is dead you need to actually run into his mouth and down his throat. There's a man hanging on for his life at the end, press the R2 button to trigger a quick scene. Now you've got the key to that locked door from before. Exit the monsters innards and climb up the crates on the right side of the ship. You can jump and grab the mesh netting at the top, there's two chests here containing health and another Gorgon Eye. Jump up into the air and grab onto the sliding rope. You'll drop in a familiar place, you can use the save point to save your game and then run down the lower area to reach the crate which is still in position. Double jump up to the ledge and head through the hall to reach the locked door. Approach the door and use the key by pressing the R2 button, run to the end of the hall and use the R2 button once again to kick down the door. This scene marks the end of the first area.
