God of War is an amazing game which shouldn't be passed up by any gamer at all.
Your Kratos, this muscular, pale, Spartan warrior who is about to commit suicide. Kratos than decides the gods of Olympus has left him. Kratos soon jumps of the highest mountain in all of Greece but during this big fall a flashback happens and brings you back 3 weeks before his leap. This is where your journey begins. You don't learn barely anything at the beginning of the game about Kratos but you soon do later into the game. The game revolves around Kratos having to do a mission for the gods of Olympus to stop Ares (the god of war) from destroying the city of Athens. But, trying to do this is impossible unless Kratos gets Pandora's Box because Kratos is a mortal and gods are immortal and can't die. This whole game is set round revenge basically. The game has a very nice story thats is interesting and dark at the same time. Something hard to find in most videos games now-a-days.
Kratos is a very strong warrior in combat. Kratos has the blades of chaos at the beginning of the game. Your mostly be using these but there are more weapons you can get during the path to Pandora's box. For example, during the game your reach one of the gods of Olympus who will give you a new weapon or ability to perform to kill Ares. Zeus gives you lighting bolts to throw at your enemies and Hades gives you the souls of the underworld to attack your enemies for you. You can upgrade all of these magic abilities and weapons with the red orbs you collect.
You'll be button mashing the square button to attack alot when you are fighting which really can get repetitive at times. But, when you hit an enemy enough to kind of get them weaker and stunned, the circle button appears on top of their head. Some of the times your be clicking different buttons to perform a very bloody and brutal finishing attack and other times your be clicking a button as fast as you can possibly can to have an awesome finishing attack. These mini games really make the gameplay of God of War shine. With all the good fighting and abilities, which you will need alot. The game puts you up against alot of enemies at a time and it will get challenging at some point. The game is very true on it's facts about Greek culture. The creatures in the game are based on the many creatures they believed in greece. There's the cyclops, gorgons, and harpies. It's nice to know that they took a long time making sure the games true to it's setting.
During the coarse of the combat your overcome many puzzles. These puzzles are based on ancient Greece and are pretty nicely done. Most of the puzzles consist on cranks. But, your going to have to move crates, go through mazes, and even burn people to death. These puzzles can get challenging at some points and at the end of the game your truly feel like you accomplished something.
The boss battles are what makes this game stand out. The games boss battles are very memorable. God of War may only have 3 of them but all 3 of these boss battles are brilliantly done and are very fun to play. The battles often are challenging and will probably take you awhile to beat. You'll have to have pretty quick fingers to get through these battles. These battles mostly consist of getting your enemy weak and stunned. At that point, the icon I mentioned from before will pop up over their head and your either have to button mash and hit a combination of buttons to beat the enemy. There's a boss battle in the first level, one in the middle, and one at the end. These boss battles just blowed me away.
The graphics in God of War are just stunning for a PS2 games. The cutscenes are beautiful. It just looks amazing. During the cutscenes, when they show the battles and the blood splattering everywhere it looks just pretty. The look of Kratos and when they show him up close looks like a real-life person. Even when your playing the game, this game looks amazing for a PS2 game. It even may be the best looking game on the PS2. I can't even imagine what this would look like on PS3. Because of all of these amazing graphics the games frame rate can drop at times but it doesn't happen that often. Therefore, the graphics in god of War are just stunning.
The sound in God of War is amazing. The score in this game can possibly the best in a game yet. The music makes the games feel, feel really epic. The voice acting is amazing also. They went way out of the way to make Kratos sound like the revenged filled, warrior he is. The narrator is very good. She is the one telling the whole story and she nails it. The sound effects are even perfect. Hearing the roar of the creatures and the blood splashing every where is just amazing and feels like your actually Kratos himself. The sound in this came couldn't get any better at all.
Alot of games, after you beat it have no reply value at all. But, again God of War is different. After you beat the game you unlock new costumes, new game modes, and videos. The costumes can be really funny, you can have Kratos dressed up as a cow even. The mode that you unlock is called "The challenge of the gods" This is a little game where you have to kill enemies to go onto the next level. The videos are awesome. The games creator shows you some levels that they didn't use in the game, which is very interesting. God of War usually lasts 7 - 10 hours on the easiest level of difficulty. But, on the other modes the game can even last up to 20 hours long. And if your a really hardcore gamer you can go and try god mode which will even unlock you more extras in the end of the game. But, after you complete that stuff you won't come back again but this game has really good replay value. Therefore, God of War is an amazing game that is just perfect in every area. It's hard to find anything bad to say about it honestly and it should dbe in your collection. God of War is one of the PS2's greats and it delivers in every aspect. God of war should be played by every gamer.