After a few years in development and a year since its release, God of War has been very successful so far by attaining very great critical reviews and even acheiving the status of "Game of the Year 2005" but what are my thoughts on this game? What does a regular gamer think about God of War, read more to find out below.

Gameplay: 10/10

The gameplay in God of War is just something you have to experience for yourself to fully enjoy the game. I think the gameplay makes God of War what it is today. Certainly, by the title of God of War, you would think of Ancient Greek times and this is exactly what it is. No guns. No bombs. Purely Kratos, a one-man army, and his Blades of Chaos which aid him through the adventure. The Blades of Chaos are your main weapon and they can be upgraded 5 times, and the weapons you collect throughout the adventure can be upgraded 3 times. Everytime you upgrade one of your magic attacks or weapons, there will also be new tricks added to them. Magic attacks such as "Posiedon's Rage" would have the ability of "Spin Attack" by level 2. Adding tricks to the Blades of Chaos just makes the game more fun and non-repetative. At the end of the game, you will find yourself using different attacks every move and you will bring down enemies like nothing. However, upgrading your weapons will bring enemies down quicker and it might start to get easy if you tend to upgrade at a quick pace. Controls in God of War are very smooth and polished making it easy to control and less frustrating. Although, at some points, I found myself redoing a scene over and over because of its sheer difficulty. For example, there is this one part where Kratos must move a block to use to get to a higher ledge but it is timed and once the timer goes off, bam, Kratos is killed because of the spikes that raise from the ground if the timer stops. At that point, I really had to try different methods to make sure I could complete my task.

Killing enemies is satisfying to say the least. Button mashing in this game doesn't apply if you wish to kill an enemy correctly and if you do, then you won't see much variety in the game's combat system since you would basically use two moves. You have to choose attacks carefully but quickly to make a successful kill and you will be satisfied. There is no camera system on the control scheme, however, there is the evading option on the Right Analog stick which is useful at certain points in the game. I personally think that a camera system could potentially ruin the game because of how you play the game. I think it wouldn't be the same fighting with a camera system rather than without, and I really enjoyed having the Evade feature. Also, evading can add more options to make more puzzles in the game so that is a good thing.

Levels in God of War are spectacular and will try to trick you with all of these puzzles. To get through a level, you must think critically to get past a certain obstacle and the game really will make you think at times. While killing enemies might seem like no deal at all, getting through a level requires deep thought and you will have to be patient. Overall, the levels are very well done as well as the puzzles. The puzzles do a great job of trying to trick you, and that is what we all should want and expect from a platformer. The extras such as the Gorgon Eyes which can increase your health, are sometimes hidden and out in the open. That means those who don't bother to try and find Gorgon Eyes still have the opportunity to raise their health while the ones that do search for hidden items can fully increase their health to the max.

Gameplay in God of War completely fufills satisfaction towards the game and needless to say, you won't get sick of it at all (at least I didn't).

Sound: 9/10

While writing this review, I am listening to the God of War soundtrack to get a feel for it and I now have a opinion on it. The music in God of War greatly displays the feel of the environment and you would feeling like you were living in Greek times. In every game, there is obviously a music score for it but in any game, it definitely isn't as epic as God of War's score is. The score defines the game basically in every note and it is very worthwhile to listen to. Some parts of the score got tedious at times since they play over and over. You could be at one level for a lengthy time and hear only one song playing. Although, that doesn't really bother me, it was something worth while to mention. The sound effects in this game really bring out the game as well, the screams of the near-dead soldiers, how it sounds when you kill a cyclops, all sound perfect and there is not really any flaw in the sound effects part.

Graphics: 10/10

Graphics in a game usually are okay, nothing really spectacular but in God of War, you will come to find yourself saying, "Whoa..." to the graphics. The in-game graphics are even excellent and the cutscenes are jaw-dropping and are amazing. It is obvious that graphics in God of War will be top notch and you will enjoy them greatly. The environments in God of War are very colorful and fluid, they bring out the sense of Greek mythology and what it really looked like way back when. The character models are excellently crafted and very, VERY detailed. Kratos isn't just one plain, simple character, his appearence shows something about him and you can tell that he had endured a long time of ravaging war. Finally, the enemy models are very great as well. Surprisingly, the models of enemies show that they were really from Greek mythology and the development team really shows in the game, how much time they put into these characters and I am glad they did take the time to do that.

Final Comments:

God of War is a MUST BUY title. Anybody who misses God of War will miss one of the greatest games, the PlayStation 2 has ever had. This epic adventure is very gory and it is advised that small children not be around when playing God of War. During the game, you will find that the gore in this game really brought out to us the very nature of Greece at that time and it is very astonishing. Amazingly, they pulled off a masterpiece and I was very skeptical about playing it at first since it seemed like a ripoff of Devil May Cry but I am glad to say, I was extremely wrong. Those of you considering buying God of War, don't miss out on one of the best games out there. Buy it and enjoy!