So I've just finished playing through God of War and I have to say, it's a damn good game. I'll just start off by saying that I absolutely love Greek/Roman mythology and that this game is right up my alley. In this game you play as a man named Kratos who is essentially a servant to the gods. As the story unfolds you learn more and more about his past and why he is doing what he is doing. Your quest is chiefly to take down the God of War who is laying siege to the city of Athens. You are helped in this quest by many of the other gods and acquire quite an awesome array of different powers to use.
Now I've heard many people say that the game play in this game doesn't stack up to the Devil May Cry series, and I see what they're saying to some extent, but I'd definitely say that you don't want to skip this game like I did and only play DMC. This game doesn't quite stack up to the excellence of DMC4 and Nero's arm, but I'd say it's pretty close to Dante in that same game. The combat itself is actually quite enjoyable. I absolutely loved using the chain blades. I got a little taste of that when I played the demo of Heavenly Sword (which by the way doesn't hold a candle to this game OR DMC), but this game gives those weapons a proper treatment (and yes, I do realize this game came out first). The combat is visceral and extremely satisfying. I love the moves that slow down the action for a second while you charge up and you know that when the move lands, people are going to die and they’re going to die hard. If you like hack and slash games you will love the combat here. The combos are long and powerful and you can really keep things going. Eventually you will also acquire a single sword called the Blade of Artemis. This sword is excruciatingly powerful. There are some enemies you will completely decimate with one hit. This sword is also kind of slow though and not quite as fun to use. It’s helpful for boss fights and really big enemies. Also it’s just really cool when Kratos comes crashing down on people after an air attack, smashing the ground so hard that he has to pull his sword out of it.
Along with the awesome chain blades and Blade of Artemis you, eventually a slew of powers each with really cool effects. I don’t really think I’d consider powers to be spoilers so I’m going to do a quick run down of them. One of the first powers you get is Poseidon’s Rage. This attack sends out a shockwave of electricity around you and as you level it up becomes quite devastating and extremely helpful in large groups of enemies. This power was the one I used the most because it was so damn handy. The higher the level, the more damage and range it had to the point that you could kill entire groups of enemies with it. Also as you upgrade your blades, you will get Rage of the Gods. This power basically sends you into a powerful berserker mode where you beat the crap out of everyone and take no damage; a good thing to use when you’re about to die or are fighting a REALLY difficult enemy. Next up on the list is Medusa’s Gaze. Now this is a fun power to use, but extremely difficult to pull off in battle until you upgrade it a bit. This will turn (some) enemies into stone and you may then proceed to tear them apart. Literally. They’ll crumble to the floor, which is actually pretty cool. You’ll definitely want an upgrade on this to get the instant freeze move because standing there pointing the head at people and waiting for it to take effect doesn’t work so great. Moving along we have Zeus’s fury. Now this power isn’t really all that cool, but it does help with a few annoyances…chiefly the damn archers that start appearing in this section of the game. I don’t know if I’d waste my upgrade points on this one much; it usually takes just a couple hits to take people out from a reasonable distance. The further away you get though, the less damage you seem to do, which sucks. Finally we have the Army of Hades. I didn’t get to use this much but it does seem really cool. You’ll get this closer to the end of the game and, like me, probably won’t use it much. Basically some souls fly out and start wailing on your enemies. They’ll take on a couple at a time but they’re kind of stupid and don’t seem to really care where you are looking and instead seem to take out random people instead of say…that really big dude that’s beating the tar out of you. That being said though, it’s quite helpful. I might have to go back and play with it some more, but you get the idea.
Now, this is a PS2 game, mind you, but for a PS2 game it actually looks pretty good. I had been using it on my PS3 with whatever built in stuff it had, but I noticed it had progressive and wide screen modes and good lord did that make a difference. Game moves nice and smooth. It might be noted that letting the PS3 “smooth” it makes the game look like a blurry piece of crap. I’ll take the clarity with jaggies over the mess that the PS3 makes of it. Particle effects and such look pretty nice. I love smashing down with the chain blades at the end of a combo and seeing fire fly up and rage. The movies look good, but obviously they are pre-rendered. Still, it’s nice to see pretty things. Enemies are all quite unique to the game. They’ve got a cool almost horror type style to things; it creates an atmosphere and pulls you in.
The story is extremely interesting as well. Very well written. You will go back to see why Kratos is who he is now but you only find this out in bits and pieces and in the middle of the game there’s a pretty messed up reveal of it. You see who he was before, a power hungry warrior and who he is now. You will see the role the rest of the gods play in this and just what affiliation Kratos has with the God of War, Aries. Most people told me that this game had better story than DMC, and that is true by a FAR margin. I’ve always found the story in DMC to be pretty terrible honestly. I mostly just liked the music and combat. This game on the other hand REALLY draws you in.
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DIE, spinny blades...DIE!
Now on to the rest of the gameplay, and this is where a few of my gripes are. First off. what is their obsession with making you steadily balance and walk all over planks everywhere? In what way did the developers think it was a good idea to slow everything down and make you walk across a rafter in the ceiling? Why? WHY?! I mean a little platforming is nice, don’t get me wrong here, but these parts are everywhere. There is nothing more irritating than running around killing stuff having a fast paced good time and then having to stop for like 5 minutes to walk across some planks for no apparent reason. Seriously guys, quit stopping the action for stupid crap like this. It isn’t fun; it’s mind numbingly boring. No one wants to walk around on planks. No one wants to walk around on planks with blades spinning around them. No one wants to walk on circular, things that have spikes on them and rotate as you walk across them…slowly. These things are not fun; they’re monotonous. This is my biggest gripe with the game. I’d be having fun with some of the other elements of the game and then get to these parts that quite honestly took an ETERNITY to get through. You think what I’m describing now is bad? Just wait until you get near the end of the game and you have to climb up the rotating wall of spikes. Yes, and if Kratos even looks at one of those blades for too long, he immediately plummets to the bottom. No, it’s not like “ah ow, that hit, I’ll fall a bit” or “ah, I took a bunch of damage,” it’s immediately plummet to the ground and probably hit 2 or 3 blades on your way there. This part was so utterly frustrating I found myself cursing loudly and throwing my controller at the pillow at the other end of my couch. All these things made me curse loudly. They’re not fun. Yeah, I eventually got through after some practice, but grudgingly. It’s a damn good thing this game is so fun beyond those or I probably would have just stopped playing. Now as angry as I sound about those; it’s not TOO big of a part of the game. There are plenty of fun puzzles to be had and such. I really did have fun exploring all the big environments and finding all kinds of different puzzles. They make you think a bit, but they’re also not ridiculously time consuming (UNLIKE THE WALL OF DOOM) and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Also, it’s funny because power ups in this game look JUST like the power ups in DMC and Ninja Gaiden. There are floating red orbs that are just like the lost souls in DMC. You use them to power up your weapons. This is a good part of the game. You collect these things and each weapon and power has a couple of levels you can upgrade to. I actually prefer this system over the one in DMC because it’s not me picking specific things out and finding it ridiculously hard to get the souls I needed. I simply upgrade the stuff I like and it gets more powerful and I get more moves to use. Your chain blades can go up 5 levels and let me say…they rock when you get them all the way upgraded. I found myself surprised how quickly I was killing things when I finally hit that last level. Also amusingly you have your blue and green orbs for magic and health.
So all that being said, what is my final verdict on the game? Well, it’s a good game. There are some parts of it that thoroughly irritated me and set me of into fits of cursing, but for the most part this is a really solid and well designed game. It looks kind of pretty for a PS2 game (it’s not MGS3, but it’s not bad) and the controls are excellent. I’m really sorry that I waited this long to finally play it. Thank god for used games. That 7 dollar price tag was pretty enticing and more than worth it. The game does have some issues though, which make me want to punch infants, so it’s not getting an A+.
Rating:
A-
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