A truly breathtaking journey through the perils of mythical Greece. Epic in every sense of the word...
God of War follows the epic struggle of Kratos--an anti-hero who is dominated by Ares, the Greek god of war. Kratos is a general of the Greek Army who, on the brink of defeat by a barbarian army, begs Ares to smite the enemy and save his life. Kratos promises that in return, he will be Ares' new slave on the battlefield and that's exactly what he becomes. He losses all emotions and in a series of flashbacks, we learn about the ultimate act that drove him to hate his master. While drifting in the Aegean Sea, after a dramatic opening fight against the Hydra (a mythical multi-headed sea monster), Kratos demands that he should be set free and in response the Gods give him a task. Ares has begun his attack on Athens with his army of evil and needs stopped but the most powerful God Zeus has forbidden the other Gods from fighting each other. So Kratos must set out to gain all their powers and uncover Pandora's Box which, legend has it, makes you an all powerful being who can kill even a mighty god. Kratos' journey starts in Athens and leads him to locations such as a desolate desert, braving dank dungeons, wading through sewers, solving the riddles of temples and traversing the highest mountains to find the power to kill Ares and free himself from his inner demons.
You will have most likely gathered that God of War isn't a game for the kids. It's a brutal and bloody portrayal of ancient Greece with some of the goriest cutscenes ever produced backing the story up magnificently. There are decapatations, live sacrifices, monsters getting ripped in two and people getting stabbed for enjoyment. It earns it's Mature rating in the US and it's BBFC 18 rating in the UK well and it's proud to show them off to all, not afraid of the politicians who wish to see games like this banned. It knows it's a game and if it was a real person, it would probably be an angry 12 year old with an attitude problem and a box of red crayons who scribbles disturbing pictures on lined paper. It's vicious stuff and the combat engine demonstrates it quite nicely.
God of War plays like a hack and slash action game should. You have your trusty block button at hand for when the going gets tough (although I have to say that the difficulty is just right) and there are some nifty rolling manouvers assigned to the right analogue stick so that you can escape from danger in the blink of an eye. It all seems to come naturally since the X button is jump which reminds me of classic Playstation-era gaming. Square and triangle are the combo buttons which can be mixed and matched to create some devestating moves. The controls are simplistic and hark back to yester-year's classic gaming delights, yet at the same time have a level of depth that isn't obvious at first.
When you learn the basics, you can be amazing at GoW just by experimenting with combos or by simply throwing in the odd triangle press in your constant tapping of square. Kratos's blades are called the 'Blades of Chaos' which is an apt name for them as they coil around the enemy like flaming sinister snakes of death. If you are up against about four basic level enemies, you can start tapping square which swings them wildly in a sort of semi-circle arc. This hits them a lot but quite weakly so you throw in a press of triangle which is a strong downward strike, sending the enemies in the air. A quick tap of cricle extends the blades up in the air and grabs them, pulling them down until they hit the ground and bounce back up into the air! Now you do it again and that enamy dies and so you move onto attacking the other 3 with taps of L2. This unleashes a bout of the Gods gifted magic on them. Then when you need to finish them, a big cricle icon will appear above thier heads symbolising that you should start the finisher. These range from Resident Evil 4 style button presses as they flash up on screen to twisting the analogue stick around to tear off the head of a Medusa.
This all came within half an hour of me starting the game and I was better at it just by experimentation than by learning an endless stream of combos like in Prince of Persia, Devil May Cry or even the mighty Ninja Gaiden Black. It can be as deep or as shallow as you want. Just tapping triangle and square in rapid succession will still get you somewhere but if you prefer, you can learn the moves inside out and turn it into a more complex and rewarding play style. It's a fantastic combat engine and there are fun but often disappointingly easy puzzles to complement the action well. I can fault a couple of things though. The first is that the platforming is quite unstable. As you balance along a beam, Prince of Persia-style, you can easily fall of due to the beam being slightly rounded and slippery. It is kept to a minimum though but when the time comes, it can cause some mild frustration on the gamers part. Another problem is that in the Hades underworld section, there is a wealth of hard and downright frustrating jumping to perform and a torturous wall covered in moving blades which can make grown men cry. Thankfully there is a brilliant checkpoint system meaning that in the event of your death, you only go back to the start of the room you died in. It is both smart and a bit of a cover up for some slightly shoddy gameplay design.
God of War isn't just great to play overall but is fantastic to just look at as well. The graphics range from the pretty to just downright insane at times. Thinking about how the huge sprawling worlds are created on PS2 hardware can give you a headache since Sony Computer Entertainment of America have crammed every special effect in the book into this game; sometimes even in just one scene. About 2 hours into the game Kratos witnesses a battle between Ares and the army defending Athens. The cliffs you are standing are very detailed and actually look like the decrepit rocks you would find in ancient Greece. They have bushes that are growing out of the cracks and blowing in the wind, the path is made of bronze and so reflects gorgeously as you move around it and in the background a fully realized Ares is hurling huge boulders of fire in all directions; some of which come scarily close to hitting Kratos! It's fantastic to say the least--seeing this kind of dramatic battle in a game, and not a film for once.
Another spectacular moment is in the desert. Kratos must find the mystical Pandora's Box which is located in a gargantuan temple strapped to a massive beast's back. To get through the raging sandstorm, Kratos must blow into a war-horn blasts a hole through the sand due to it's power. It allows Kratos to take a direct path to his destination like in the Bible story of "Moses and the Red Sea". When he reaches another horn, it's atop a mountain overlooking the whole desert which easily dwarfs anything I have seen this console generation. Even details like mini-sandstorms and tiny trees occupy the land and as the horn is blown, the city sized beast lumbers towards Kratos with a mighty moan. Then the final nail in the excellent graphics coffin is hammered down when Kratos latches one of his chain-blades onto it's thigh and swings up onto the temple which is chained to it's back. This demonstrates the sheer scale of God of War in a way that words cannot begin to describe.
The graphics uphold this fine tradition throughout the whole game. You can pick the part that most impressed you and easily fill a whole review talking about it. I am struggling here to hold back my thoughts on the Hades section filled with fire, brimstone and people dying everywhere in ridiculously gory fashions but that's for you to find out for yourself when you experience God of War. It is really a technical marvel and ultimately is PS2's best looking game to date. Not from a technical point of view but from an artistic point of view too. It blends both artistic expression and the PS2's wisely used power together to create a world which is strangely believable and utterly gorgeous.
I'm glad SCEA knew exactly what they wanted to do music wise as well as graphically. They wanted an orchestral tune which sounds like it's from a film epic and which fits in with the Greek setting, time period and story. That basically means steal the theme tune from The Mummy and toss in some Lord of the Rings music, then re-arrange the notes round a bit to form the soundtrack! It's the perfect fit for this game but of coarse it isn't identical. However, it does sound very similar to my ears. When you enter an area which is quite awesome (not in some surf rocker kind of way, but in a really awe-inspiring display of visual effectiveness), the music plays up as if the explorers have struck gold. Then when the battles heat up the music grows intense and fast which hightens the excitement level even further--the prime reason why I advise you to purchase a good Dolby 5.1 surround sound system to experience this game to it's fullest!
And then there are the usual grunts and groans of combat which accompany any epic story. Almost every move Kratos makes has to have a powerful grunt along with it. Speech is very well done without having an all star cast doing the voices. The narrator sounds suspiciously like the British actor Dame Judi Dench who plays the character 'M' in the newer James Bond films. Whoever does the voice, it fits in perfectly with the game and pushes the story along at a nice pace.
This pace is sadly not upheld throughout the game though. You can reach some slow parts in the temple section when trying to find Pandora's Box. It's just puzzle after puzzle and fighting waves of difficult enemies in environments which look very nice, but for some reason are dull in comparison to the other amazing set pieces. Sure, you can get a great atmosphere going but if you blow a lot of it on the magnificent scenes then the rest if the game looks average compared to it. Yes it deserves a 10 in sound and graphics but a lot of the time it is just good in my eyes until the next massive boss or amazing looking valley.
I managed to blast throught this game in under 10 hours and had started it again but got bored and gave up, bringing God of War to a not-so-grand total of about 15 hours for me. You can play through it once unlocking bonuses like a Character Graveyard where you can see the enemies who never made the cut and some unused Kratos outfits. There is also a very hard Challenge section which just adds frustration until you beat it and get some costumes like in an old Resident Evil game. It just isn't enough to keep you occupied for a week like some other hack and slashers in the business ie. 'Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams' or the hardcore 'gaming should be a punishment' stylings of 'Ninja Gaiden Black'.
But like Danny DeVito, God of War is short but weighty and that's all that really matters. It's an instantly memorable slice of Playstation gaming, up there with this generations finest slices of the gaming cake like Grand Theft Auto, Metroid Prime, Halo, Zelda and Metal Gear Solid. I would definetely recommend picking this game up if you are interested in gaming at all. God of War is so good that I would even recommend acquiring a PS2 just to play it...