The first of Kratos's revenge quest and it's a damn good one.
. Absolutely one of the best looking PS2 games, if not the best.
. Soundtrack captures the essence of Greek Mythology to a T
. Combat is brutal, over the top and just awesome to behold
. Tons of unlockables, with some really intriguing content
. Great, emotional story of a broken warrior of Sparta
. Good mix of puzzles and action
. Absolutely excellent boss battles
The Bad:
. Some control and platforming issues
. Can get a bit button mashy
. Sometimes baffling hit collision
. Only three actual bosses
Kratos: a shattered man with a torturous past that he never wants to re-live. God of War is an experience that everyone should have. It captures the aesthetic feel of ancient Greece with it's art direction, music, characters and just everything about it is just absolutely wonderful. Despite some glaring problems, it's something everyone should get to experience.
The story begins with Kratos, on top on a tall mountainous ledge, wanting to end his life. The story is actually reminiscent of telling the events that lead up to the cliff. Basically it's a revenge tale, but with some worthy story elements brought into it. Kratos, a proud warrior of Sparta, seeks absolute power. He was one of the youngest generals in the Sparta to lead of of the biggest armies in Spartan history. Though, there was one faithful battle that nearly ended his life. Before he was about to be slain by what I believe a mongol warrior, he calls on Ares, the God of War, to give him the power to defeat his enemies, but at the cost to kill his wife and daughter to keep that power. He then has the ashes of his dead family attached to his skin and the Blades of Chaos burned into his arms. He then later sets out to find revenge against Ares for the pain he has come to endure. The actual events that led up to that daring moment are surprisingly well thought out and show a more emphatic side to him, that he isn't really a brutal beast that everyone makes him out to be. He can be compassionate when it comes to his family and didn't want to suffer any more pain after killing Ares (Uh.. spoiler). In ihe end of it all, he becomes the new God of War because.... well.... Ares is dead and they need someone to be a god, so why not the guy that killed him?
The gameplay and control wise, it's all fairly good. The standard light, heavy, block, duck, dodge formula is all in place, but with so twist. You can stop in any mid-combo to block and you can pretty much pull of any move strong attack move after any light attack move, to help mix up attack strategies. There are some moves that seem more efficient then others (Square, square, triangle anyone) which where combat can feel button mashy. There are some moments where you do need to get creative, though, such as against the scythe, wielding dog enemies and the Creberuses, but for the most part, the standard combat is a bit button mashy (unless your on Hard or above) You have two melee weapons, The Blades of Chaos and the Blade of Artemis. They both have strengths and weakness and do balance combat out. There are so situations that you need to take out the Blade of Artemis, but for the most part, I just used the Blades of Chaos because of the longer range to kill enemies. This brings up another problem of the game, the finisher moves. When an enemy is near death, they have the circle button icon over there head to signify that they can be killed with a finisher, which leads to context sensitivity sequences. The biggest problem is that you can be right next to an enemy and it won't register that you actually grabbed them to do said moves and can make with so really annoying deaths. Speaking of annoying, the platforming is terrible. Kratos can jump up to two times, but the second jump makes you really floaty and it becomes harder to steer yourself when doing platforming sequences (and there's a lot of them) Not to mention, Kratos is more slippy than butter on ice when walking down a narrow path, always falling down and you need to get back up, making it more like work than fun. Which another thing comes into play; hit collision. It doesn't feel right. When you're hitting enemies, it's fine, but enemies seem to have a crazy advantage when hitting you (This is especially apparent in challenge 7 of the Challenge of the Gods) Enemies can juggle you every easily and you can still get hit when dodging attacks, which doesn't make a very good dodge, HUH? Even though I keep harping on on this, it's all still good. The action is brutal and once everything works fine, it REALLY works. You have 4 different magic attacks (Poseiden's Rage, Medusa's Gaze, Zeus's Fury and Hades' army of the dead) and a Rage of the Gods meter, where you basically obliterate everyone when you hit, making it all the more satisfying. Puzzles do break up the pace of the action, and most of them are pretty clever and are fun to to, never feeling like work
Graphics wise, it's absolutely stunning. The sense of scale on things is absolutely breathe taking. This looks just as good as Ninja Gaiden on Xbox, which came a year before God of War. Most of the characters looks great like Kratos, Ares and all the enemies you'll be fighting along the way, though, some of the actual people and the Oracle herself, look a bit funny. Even so, the art direction is fantastic and the art work for the game is even better. They really did push the PS2 to the graphical limit where some short-comings are noticed. Some of the animations on the enemies don't seem as fluent and other characters and sometimes Kratos himself doesn't animate as properly as he should. But these are very few and far inbetween. I've only notice about 5 to maybe the most 7 where it didn't look every good. But even so, it's really hard to actually accuse a game with this much detail to everything. Some textures did look a bit rough, but everything was so well done, it's hard to come across.The camera work feels very dynamic in this game and makes feel like you're playing a movie. It just adds to the scale of things, even though the camera can be funny at times, not really showing what you're actually doing. It's more of an annoyance, though. Nothing bad. Either way, it looks beautiful.
The same can be said for the sound. It's absolutely gorgeous. It's the threshold of orchestrated music and it all sounds insanely good. It always fits and never feels out of place. It captures the feeling of Greece to outstanding lengths and you would have to he a complete assh*le to think the soundtrack sucks. It doesn't. The sounds effects are great, from bashing pots and statues, to hearing the Blades of Chaos in the air or hitting the ground, it all sounds wonderful. Voice acting also holds up well, but some voice overs can get really aggravating, like hearing the Oracle screaming to "SAVE HER", but for the most part it's all well done.
Overall, this is a game that's worth having. There are some control issues and some underwhelming number of bosses fights in this that do bring the game down (Seriously, only three, the Hydra you have to face 5 times!) but the epic scale of things, with a great amount of content, excellent presentation with sound, graphics and music, it's something everyone should enjoy and even though some people might crave more, there are always the sequels to enjoy.
Overall: 8.3/10