Mr Muscle (God of War (PS2))

Member Name: I Like Blue

Product:	God of War (PS2)
Date:	14/08/06 (766 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Huge game with many extras

Disadvantages: Have to wait until April 2007 for sequel

I tell you, that Kratos he’s nails. He’s got a physique that even Arnie Schwarzenegger in his prime would envy. Even more fearsome is his expertise with the blades he has permanently chained to his wrists. I wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of him as a couple of flicks of his wrists and I’d end up as meat joints on my local supermarket’s butchery counter.

Anyway, hello dear reader, now I’ve got that small intro out the way let me tell you some more about God of War.

It is a time of legends, Greek legends to be precise. You are Kratos, mortal servant and champion of the Gods. As Kratos you are physically perfect yet your mental state is another matter. Years of serving the Gods, and Ares (pronounced Aries) the God of War in particular, has left you with a kind of Greek style post traumatic stress disorder. Being Ares mortal servant has meant you’ve done a lot of killing on his behalf, but there is a darker side too. All those years of killing has meant that Kratos is plagued by nightmares of what he’s done. This has resulted in Kratos reaching a point of desperation and the only way he can see to escape his madness is to take his own life. Stood atop Mount Olympus Kratos has reached a point of no return and feeling that he has been abandoned by the Gods he has served so faithfully, he jumps to his death…

So, that kind of sets the scene, well not quite as obviously it’d be pointless to have a game where the character you are supposed to play dies before you’ve even started! At the point where you, as Kratos, are about to jump to your death the story rewinds to 3 weeks earlier and this is where the game begins.

God of War is the style of action/adventure game where it has an element of ‘interactive movie’. By this I mean that it’s not just a game, God of War is a narrated ‘mini-movie’ story, I suppose in a similar style to Prince of Persia and if you liked that you’ll love God of War. Further, as the game progresses then more of the story unfolds with a couple of plot twists along the way. However, whilst there are plenty of cinematic cut-away scenes that form part of this story there aren’t too many to out-balance the actual game play. In fact I think the game makers have got the balance just right and the movie scenes add plenty to the atmosphere of the overall game. This is also true of the game’s musical score, which, again, adds another dimension to the overall atmosphere of the game, absorbing the player, drawing you in and really giving it that interactive feel.

I will reveal one more piece of the plot of the game and it is this - Ares, obviously as the God of War, with his many minions has a new battleground, Athens. Now, Athena is not best pleased, but Zeus, the God father (sorry, couldn’t resist), has ruled that the Gods aren’t allowed to enter into direct battle against each other. This is where Kratos comes in and a deal is struck between Athena (on behalf of the Gods) and Kratos; For all his previous ‘sins’ to be forgiven all Kratos has to do is go on one last quest…

God of War is a huge game with many levels and plenty of puzzles/tasks to complete. Some of the puzzles can be a little ‘head-scratching’ and some, whilst initially appearing quite complicated, are actually quite straightforward. However, the main thrust of the game is mastering the use of the blades as I described at the start of the review to kill the many enemies you confront more effectively.

There’s also a ’magic’ element to the game as well. At various stages through the game each God bestows a particular magic power on you to help you in your quest and help defeat much tougher and more numerous enemies you will encounter in later levels.

At the start of the game and when you obtain your first ‘magic’ power you only have basic abilities but by collecting red orbs along your quest (which are obtained by smashing anything you’re allowed and killing enemies) you can trade them to upgrade both your ‘magic’ powers and the blades you carry. Each upgrade gives your power and blades increased strength and extra attacking moves. In addition there are boxes (look like treasure chests) that can be opened which contain red orbs or improve either your health or ‘magic’ power which are displayed in the form of status bars. Your health and ‘magic’ power status bars can be extended by collecting eyes (health) or feathers (magic) which can also be found inside treasure chests.

In my opinion the scenery and backdrops are nothing short of awesome. I feel a great deal of effort has gone into the detail to make the scenery add that extra dimension of credibility that elevates the game to one of the top in its genre. Whether it’s mountain ranges, town centres or sprawling landscapes there really is nothing to fault on this part of the game.

The attention to detail doesn’t stop there either as great lengths have also been gone to with all the characters in the game. Kratos, the character you play, is completely believable as are the many different monsters/enemies you meet/fight. The movement of all the characters is especially good with each character moving easily and near seamlessly around the screen without distortion or clashing with backgrounds etc. and this for me is pretty important particularly when, often, I find myself fighting more than one enemy at a time!

The game controls are pretty straightforward in this game. Obviously, as I stated before, you start the game with basic abilities therefore the initial controls are basic too. As the game progresses and you acquire more powers the moves and controls become slightly more complex. With that in mind though it doesn’t mean that the controls become more difficult to understand or use, in fact, I found, they were fairly easy to get along with. There is a certain amount of trial and error with the attacking moves though in that whilst some attacking moves may be successful against some monsters/enemies they’re not against others and it does take a little while to work out what works best.

During the game though there are ‘pop-up’ hints on which buttons to press for particular moves, which, in tandem with the game instruction manual means controlling and moving around makes it easier to play the game. Talking of ease there are initially 3 difficulty levels ranging from easy to hard. On completing the game in normal or hard mode a 4th difficulty mode is accessible and this is called God Mode and this truly is nails. Through each level of difficulty though the only thing that gets tougher is the fighting. In easy mode and to some degree in normal mode you can be a little cavalier in your approach when fighting monsters/enemies however in the harder modes there is more of an emphasis on your tactical abilities meaning you tend to time your attacks more and spend more time blocking enemy attacks. This is especially true in God Mode.

It took me just over a couple of weeks to complete the game and that was playing it for about 2 hours a day, however this doesn’t mean the game has no longevity or replay value. Completing it as I did was only in the easiest mode and of course I then re-started the game at the next difficulty level. I’ve completed the game at all levels except in God Mode where I’m finding it quite difficult near the very end of the game.

Sticking with the longevity and replay value of God of War then I should also add that, unlike most other games, irrespective of genre, this game has a number of ‘extras’ on the disc. Completing the game at particular difficulty levels ‘unlocks’ some of these extras which include a ‘Challenge of the Gods’ mini-game where there are a number of timed levels to complete which in turn unlocks some other goodies for the game. All I’ll say here is that once ‘Challenge of the Gods’ is successfully completed then you get to see a lighter and quite funny side of the game in that you can play the main game slightly differently! There are other extras on the disc and amongst them they include something similar you’d find on a Movie DVD like deleted scenes, how the game’s characters were developed and a kind of ‘director’s commentary’.

Finally, I will give you a friendly warning – you may find that as you play the game you might swear quite a bit and get quite frustrated, but this is all part of the game and adds to its addictiveness. The swearing and frustration won’t be a fault of the game, no, it’ll be because you’ll get drawn into the game and when you get killed or make a mistake with one of the puzzles then that’s where the effing, blinding and frustration will come in. Fortunately though there are plenty of checkpoints and game save points throughout the game so your angry person transformation doesn’t last for long.

The game has an ‘18’ rating and whilst there’s no swearing in the game there is plenty of quite graphical gore, a few, ahem, scantily clad women and in one level, whilst you don’t actually see anything, there is a ‘sexual’ encounter involving Kratos and 2 rather attractive women (in a purely animated way of course).

Overall God of War is an excellent game with an equally excellent movie style to it that is easy to understand and fairly easy to play. I say fairly because as I stated before as you progress through the difficulty levels it does get harder. There is a great sense of accomplishment on completing the game but it does leave you wanting more and thankfully there is a sequel being made which is due for release in April 2007.

Recommended? Absolutely!


God of War was first released in July 2005 but has recently (at time of writing) been released on the Platinum label and can be bought from:

Tesco.com - £14.24
Amazon - £11.97 (or from £11 on Amazon marketplace)

Summary: Addictive fast-paced action movie style game