Start at the first title.

This, although I can't comment on Origins either.  1-3 are good and have story.  Ascension was just meh.  Almost reminds me of Gears of War (play 1-3 and avoid Judgement).

Acension was good as a game, it was just a bit meh as a GoW game. I still liked a lot of the gameplay developments they put into GoW:A and some of the set pieces were as mighty as any of the GoW games. So I think it's fine to play it first, as long as you like this style of game. If this style of game is not your favourite then better to play the best of the series and then Ascension if you can be bothered.

Personally I quite like the idea of playing them in story chronological order to see how the story hangs together across the entire series, so A-1-CoO-2-GoS-3 is how I would like to play the games as a GoW virgin. Though A is optional and as a prequel to 1 is actually not truly part of the GoW canon. So there's nothing wrong with playing A last if there's still an apetite for more Kratos.

Ascension was a disgrace for the God of War IP and damaged it for good -.-

It would have been OK if it was called Dantes Inferno 2 but not God of War

I would recommend release date order, for God of War and every other series.

Hope your buddy enjoys them!

The order by which they released really, but if you're looking for chronological, then it's: Ascension, God of War 1, Chains of Olympus, God of War 2, Ghost of Sparta, and then finally God of War 3.

Play then in the release order. The chronlogical order (that would put the PSP ones and Ascension first) isn't as good. A lot of the point of the prequels was explore things that we all were curious about the main games (like Kratos' brother). So the release order will make the prequels more meaningful.

Just be sure you play origins colection cause Chains of Olimpus is the best GoW ever imo.

And ascencion isnt as bad as ppl make it sound like, its not as good as the others for sure but its a solid game overall, just not GoW good quality.

Ascension gets a bad rap imo. I replayed it recently and it was a blast just like the rest to relive the epic moments. I would play through chronologically. It's not like he's going to HATE it. Personally I think CoO is the worst in the series so you're getting that out of the way early and getting some story explained. Then of course the classic which despite the dated controls has some of the best boss battles in the series. GoS is kinda middle of the pack for me and has a fun story and great finish. Now 2 is probably my favorite game in the series and 3 of course is epic and probably has the most epic boss battles in the series.

I would recommend this order

GoW1 > CoO > GoS > GoW2 > GoW3 > GoWA

GoWA didn't really have a story so it doesn't matter if he plays it last, it'd be weird to play it before GoW1 because it looks and plays so much better.