Unmatched genius in its level design that is so underappreciated. Button-masher? No, God Mode requires strategy.
I had to finally write this review after coming back again and finishing it today for another reason though. After putting it down for a break I watched a friend play Dragon Age Origins, and I must say that while the textures may be more detailed, this game, God of War, is just so much prettier to look at. There was some serious heart and soul that went into creating the beautiful art in the environments from the town-square of Athens, to its rooftops and even through its sewers, not to mention the gorgeous Temple and cut-scenes. This is saying more than most people realize for a game that is in an older generation of hardware and it made me really appreciate just how ahead of its time GoW1 is.
I wish I could ruin the story, but I can at least say that it does more than just build a game around Greek mythology. It adopts the myths and evolves them to the point where they seem to be the stories of the creators. It doesn't seem ripped off in the slightest way.
The combat is notorious but also under-appreciated. There are special ways to kill most of the enemies and there are different tactics for defeating each one, tactics you'll need to learn and master to finish this game on its hardest difficulty - one of the most satisfying experiences in the world of gaming to this very day.
With the multitude of varying enemies and the tactics required to beat them, you rarely have the same fight twice - with a few small exceptions of groups of foot-soldiers and archers. As soon as a new enemy is introduced, you soon fight it in combination with differing numbers and combinations of each previous enemy, all while acquiring new magic spells, new upgrades for current weapons, and even a new weapon. This keeps the tactics of combat evolving, ever fresh until the very end of the game.
The sequels were good, but not much happens in terms of story. There sadly isn't much of a sense of progress which keeps the need to grind them out from beginning to end with little break like there is in this game. In God of War II you just kind of go from point A to point A without even a conclusion.... Most people can't appreciate the genius of the original God of War's level design though, so you'd probably have more fun with a sequel, somehow....
EDIT: I forgot to mention any bad things, didn't I? Well, there aren't many. At first I considered the nudity to be a slight drawback but considering the fact that this is set in ancient Greece and built around mythology, it isn't misplaced. It's not like the random d**** in GTA:SA for example, although the sex mini-game was just unnecessary for this work of art.
There was a very brief platforming section that was only really a pain to me because I'm one of those players that just needs to double-check every corner for every chest so I can't really take points off for that. The climbing sections, while very few and far between, not to mention brief, could have been a tad faster. I'm still not docking points for any of that, seeing as how I didn't even remember any of it - they're such negligible complaints.
Overall, it's still the best Action-Adventure-Platformer-Puzzle that has ever been made and is an untouchable standard for any of those genres. Arguably flawless.