God of War

God of War
Spartan of Fashion!!!

Plotline:
You play Kratos, the ex-leader of a Spartan army. During a battle with some barbarians, he prays to the Gods for power to finish his fight. His prayer is answered by Ares, God of War, in exchange for his everlasting obedience, and the fabled Blades of Chaos are fused to his arms permanently. Shortly thereafter, his family is slaughtered, leaving Kratos on his own, his only remaining purpose to serve the Gods. Ares goes on the warpath, due to Athena gaining Zeus's favor, and begins to rough up her city something wicked. And guess who the Gods expect to stop him?... That's right. Kratos. So you embark upon a journey of danger, excitement, and extremely adorable Cerberus puppies.

Review:
Well, after playing the prequel on the PSP a few days ago, I just could not resist taking the time to blast through this game, as well. As before, I went through on Spartan difficulty, so any issues I may have may be a bit easier to handle with Normal. First, let me start by saying that this game series started off, and if the PSP iteration proved anything, has continued with an amazing control scheme. I mean seriously? The days of missing platform hops, and attack delays? Over. This game is by no means the most amazing on the planet, don't get me wrong. There are some others that reserve that title, in my mind.

*COUGH*Star Ocean 2*COUGH*

Anyway! The control scheme is ridiculously simple to learn, and stays consistent through-out. Never do you find yourself pushing the wrong button to switch to a different magic spell, or messing up a combo. If you START to ream an enemy? You're damn well justified, as Kratos, to finish reaming them. And you'll ream them good. Really, I'm just looking for any excuse to use the word "ream". It's a wonderful way to say... "MESS YOUR FACE UP ROYALLY". So, the controls for the game are great. And unlike the PSP version, never caused me an ache or cramp through the entire sitting. I played this game from beginning to end in about 7-8 hours, on Spartan Mode.

Now, here's the thing you have to understand about this game. The combat? Is great. The story? Fantastic. The enemies? Great designs. But, Sweet Hermes in a Nike Shop, talk about some cheap AI. Enemies patterns are RIDICULOUSLY easy to learn. There were only two enemies in the game that gave me trouble, on a normal basis... The Satyr's, and the Sickle-wielding Legionnaires. Now, the reason these two gave me such trouble? They are the only two re-occuring enemies in the game with random blocking patterns. I tried to find some sort of tell-tale sign of them being TOTALLY open? But it eventually came down to me tricking them into heavy hits to stun them, following up with harder hits to keep them out of the fight. Aside from those two enemies, the rest are damn easy to dispatch. However, here comes my big complaint. Yes, I'm playing a game called "God of War". Yes, I've got blades attached to chains. But why... OH WHY... Are some of these battles so tedious? They aren't even tough. They're just... Long.

Here's an example. One of the bosses you fight (I won't say when, as to prevent spoilers), is a Giant Minotaur. This battle is intimidating as hell, when you start? Until about 30 seconds in, when you realize he only has 4 easily dodgeable attacks, and you have to widdle off his armor through 4 mini-games before actually killing it. This fight takes about 7 minutes, if you do it right. It was just annoying. There are random enemy encounters during levels that just seem to drag on, and on, and on... I didn't think the game would have this issue, but I keep forgetting that Chains of Olympus was the most recent. Combat would sometimes be epic, and seriously enticing. But othertimes, would just bore the hell out of me on the way to my next puzzle. And I won't get into my love for this game's puzzles. I'll say it this way; If I had to rate this games level design, and the enjoyability of it's puzzles alone? It would get a perfect score.

Kratos has got to be one of the best game character in the past few years, exhuming this amazing amount of charisma and power, while still avoiding the stereotypical "Chosen Hero" mind-set. The man has some demons. And we're not talking... "Oops, I forgot to turn the stove off", here. This man has some serious skeletons in his closet. I'm not sure if I mean that literally, actually. Does Kratos have a closet? Does Kratos have a house!? DOES KRATOS EAT?! DOES HE DRINK!? DOES HE EVER SLEEP!? I swear to god. There's a part in the game where the narrator says... "Kratos climbed the rockface to the temple's wall for 3 days."... 3 days. 72 hours. And no mention of... "He stopped to take a nap near a vultures nest.", "He popped a squat around Kronos's head"... NOTHING. The man is a beast. He doesn't slow down, he doesn't give up... Did I mention the 3-foot wide stone spike? Oh, nevermind. You'll find out for yourself.

The bosses, as in Chains of Olympus, are pretty awesome. They're a bit lacking in the numbers department, however. Now that I think about it, there were only about 5 boss battles. 5 of which being near the very end of the game. With one of them being less of a boss battle, and more of an exercise in making you wish you could rip your hair out. You think Kratos is a badass? Yeah. Wait until you're fighting him. Not enough for you? How about 5 of him. Ok... How about 12? That's right. 12 Kratos', coming at you continuously. Whilst you guard NPC's. The final battle itself is fun, but suffers from the same issue the rest of the games enemies have; Pattern. After 30 seconds or so, you know every move in their repertoire. Not to mention, Kratos can somehow manage to block/parry just about anything.

Another small issue I have is with the use of some of your equipment. Two things in particular, actually. The "Medusa's Gaze" spell, and the "Zeus's Fury" spells. Medusa's Gaze is great, early on, and allows you to dispatch bigger enemies quickly. However, it's use dwindles later on, due to the amount of enemies, and if not properly leveled, it's insta-cast freeze ability is out-of-reach. Zeus's Fury is awesome, and your only TRUE ranged attack. But even when leveled to it's maximum, it can't take out an enemy archer with a fully charged bolt, so it falls short of my expectation for the King of the Gods power. There is one amazingly overpowered spell, late in the game. "Army of the Dead". This power saved me the trouble of bashing my head into my desk, during the Kratos Clone-fight. Leveling this spell was the best thing I could have done, to prep for the end.

The graphics were ahead of their time, for the year the game came out. Some of the locales, and the scale, are just phenomenal. Effects on Kratos' blades and powers are absolutely top-notch, and one area of the game in particular makes the game worth the purchase alone. (Pandora's Temple). I never experienced a hint of slowdown, even on my Fat ol' refurbed PS2, and never had a single graphics glitch the whole game. So it does a good job. However, some of the enemy textures could have used a bit of work. The Cyclops, in particular, never actually looked much like a cyclops. More like a troll, or ogre.

The audio is great. Again, the sound track manages to impress, but never invade your senses to the point of tearing you away from the game itself. The sound effects for all the weaponry, spells, and "metal-on-metal" are absolutely superb. Enemies sounds and reaction noises are great, but a few - such as the Harpies and Cerberus Pups - could have used some work. Voice acting is quality, and the narration is absolutely riveting. You never feel like you're watching a movie, or playing a brainless Hack & Slash. The game reached a good balance, with it's gameplay and storytelling.

Summary:
In the end, this is one of those games you'll pick up if you're a fan of the genre. However, I highly recommend it to anyone with a like for a good story, and challenging gamplay. The game truly is one of the shining gems of the PS2, in terms of overall value. Even with it's flaws, the game never fails to impress, or suprise... ("Uhm... Am I in Hell?)... And by the end of the game, you leave without feeling you've wasted a single moment of your time. The graphics are good, the sound quality's nice, the voice acting is terrific. Combat can be a mixed bag. Always responsive, but sometimes gets boring when enemies start showing up en masse.

All in all, a great story, great main character, and wonderful stages and combat system make this game an absolute must-rent, if not a buy.


What the ... :
Alright. Glaringly odd observation here... But am I the ONLY person who noticed that Ares resembles Liam Neeson? I almost wanted him to go Darkman on Kratos. Would have made for one helluva sight.


Story
5

Gameplay
4

Graphics
4

Audio
4