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PRE-GAME

Haunted by violent visions of his past and driven by madness, Kratos decides to end his life and tosses himself off the highest cliff in the country.

The question is why? What drove the man who was favored by the Gods to suicide? Did it have to do with his mission to murder Aries, the God of War,  who turned Kratos into the warrior his is? How did Kratos come into the God’s services in the first place? Why was he chosen for the job? 

All this will be answered in a epic tale of conquest, destiny and revenge. The real question is, are you man enough to see this tale through the end?

EYE-SPY

THE HOOK: A favorite amongst members of the media and the industry at E3 2004, God of War is Sony’s first party action adventure killer app. Heavenly influence by “Jason and the Argonauts” and “Heavy Metal” magazine, God of War is a Greek Tragedy that never existed, but is so much damn fun you won’t care. Unmatched in terms of gameplay and violence, God of War outclasses games like “Devil May Cry 3" and “The Prince of Persia: The Warrior Within” without the luxury of being an established best selling franchise.

HOW IT LOOKS AND FEELS: Maxing out the PS2's graphic engine, a game so violent never looked so good. The graphics are clear. crisp and blood soaked. The game certainly captures the looks of ancient mythological Greece, but it also adds its own spin on it is as well. From war-sieged Athens to Pandora’s Temple, Greece has never looked so good or so twisted. The same goes for the monsters you’ll come across. From zombie soldiers to Cerebus puppies to massive armor-clad Minotaurs, each and all the game’s monsters have their own distinct look, and will attack you in hordes, or will span stories. Given a impressive character model himself, Kratos maintains a gladiator from hell look himself. Worth nothing is that his visual design ties into the story itself, which was a very nice touch from the developers. This game also supports Progressive Scan, so all you who have TVs that support this feature are in for a visual treat.

Your not going to find a game anywhere with better controls than on the PS2. Capitalizing on the games controls and button layout, everything serves a purpose on the controllers, from attacks to blocking to casting God-given spells. Timing is a key issue here, and those who get experienced with GoW control scheme will be able to block and dodge attacks while maintaining 100+ hit combos. In addition, certain buttons can be used at key points during battles to deliver some of the most twisted ways to end someone’s life. There are too many to list hear, but they all need to be experienced first hand to comprehend how awesome this game truly is.                                                                       

HOW IT SOUNDS: A good videogame is supposed to bring out certain emotions in gamers as they play through their 50 buck oddessy. Such is the case in such franchises as “Final Fantasy”, “Halo” and Kamatari Darmacy (although I’m still a little confused as to what I’m supposed to be feeling with that one). God of War is no exception. Rivaling “Lord of the Rings” in terms of epic badness (without the hairy midgets and pretty boy elves), “God of War”’s soundtrack will make you want to hunt down a copy. Only you won’t have to, because you’re given a access code to download the game upon purchase. Nice, huh?

Voice Acting wise, GoW delivers.  While the characters don’t actually speak like they were in a Shakespearian play (or actual Greek, thank god) the given dialogue is well written and only torturous because you’re going to want to be killing instead of caring about the plot. And while the monsters themselves don’t have much to say, you’ll know their coming in mass when your hear them. Basically, the over all sound package is just as good as everything else in this game, which says a lot.

EXTRAS: Several making of and behind the scenes features, deleted content, videos and downloadable soundtrack.

CINEMATIC EXPERIENCE: They’ll be several FMVs through out the game which will not only tells the origin of Kratos, but fleshes out his world. It’s scary how good they look, being limited by PS2 technology and all, but their just the icing on the cake in terms of everything else this game has to offer.

BEST PLAYER: You mean you want to play as someone else? Someone who doesn’t ripe the heads off of his enemies and sleeps with multiple Greek Groupies? What the hell is wrong with you, next question!

CHEAT CODE YOU NEED!: Unable to find any at this time.

CHEAT CODE YOU WANT: The one that will turn you into a lesser wuss for not being able to beat this game? I’m sure there’s a Barbie game that’s better suited for ya.

OH MAN! MOMENT: There’s a part of in the game where you’ll have to pull a crate on a conveyer belt in the opposite direction. Now while this sounds like your average tomb raider problem, keep in mind that you’ll be attacked by hordes of zombies with swords, and at the end you the belt is a nice spiked wheel, which will kill you something fierce. Have fun with this one, and more power to ya if you can do it without the tons of profanities.

GLITCH ITCH: Yeah, apparently the game suffers from a bug in which it ends after completing all your goals in the game...I know, what’s up with that?

FAN SERVICE: If you’re not a fan of violence, orgies or anything else that will upset certain members of the US Senate, then you may want to check out that Barbie game I suggested for the girlie man above.

END GAME:

Not to brag, but I’m proud about the fact that my GPA is over a 3.0.

Why’s that you ask? Because as of last October, it’s been month after month of gaming goodness. GTA. Halo. Metal Gear. Metroid. Resident Evil. Tekken. Devil May Cry. Zelda. Sure,  there’s been some disappointments (See Xenosaga and Kingdom Hearts) but all in all it’s been a solid adventure.

Then came “God of War”.

GoW continued a trend in which the gaming community has managed to surprise me. Some of them were good (Capcom’s revival of Resident Evil and Devil May Cry, plus the gem that was Minish Cap), some bad (How little Master Chief was in Halo 2) and some maddening (See any “Big” rpg that was released on consoles over the last 6 months). Luckily for me God of War is one of the former.

You can tell this game was sitting in someone’s head for a while just by looking at the cover art. In this day of looting cars, high tech heroes and super realistic simulations, there seems to be little room a game bastardizing (Yes, apparently that IS a word) Greek mythology. But Sony took a chance with the title and it’s paid off. HUGE.

I’m surprised this actually came from the Sony camp in the first place for two reasons; the fact that it’s M rated and it’s good. The majority of any good Sony developed games are usually in the E to T range and consist of cute animals with guns, or cars that you’ll never be able to afford. Anything that’s developed by the big S and is M rated is usually crap, and that’s proven with such games like “Killzone”. But Sony managed to pull it off, and oh god( no pun intended), is it good.

At first glance, it seems that God of War is influenced by games like “Prince of Persia” and “Devil May Cry”, but GoW is it’s own monster. There are puzzles like the other two games, but their not as complex, and no where as violent ( Live human sacrifices anyone?) And while all three of them really of heavy comboing, I never pulled over a 135 hit combo in DMC or PoP, let alone Street Fighter of Guilty Gear. And while there is violence in all three as well, the two of them combined don’t even come close to matching GoW. Blood flows like water, as if it can take damage, it will bleed. There’s also sex and  nudity like no one’s business, but it’s mostly of the dirty pillows variety....and not always welcome (stupid creepy harpies). But they do make for some the most original mini games ever, and it manages not to comes off as cheesey or over the top as it is in such games like “Mortal Kombat” or “Grand Theft Auto”. Primitive and Graphic, God of War is unmatched by anything else on the market.

While there’s plenty to praise God of War about, there’s still a few things that bug me. While the game is kinda short (which was done to deliver that summer blockbuster movie feeling) it could have used another boss fight or two. They were some of the most enjoyable moments in the game, and just weren’t enough. The game could have also used some better locations toward the later middle/end of the game, as the journey for Pandora’s Box began to feel like a good Tomb Raider fetch quest that required a lot of backtracking. If this was a Metroid or Castlevania title I wouldn’t have minded so much, but like I said, it’s a different type of animal.

Regardless, God of War isn’t just a must play, it’s a must buy if you own a PS2. While their’s no shortage of quality action games on the system, it’s a kind of gaming experience you won’t find in any of them. After snapping Siryns in half and stabbing Minotaurs in the throat, you’ll wish that a game like God of War was the standard, not an exception, but will only appreciate it more in the end.

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