God of War - PlayStation 2

You know, it wasn't too long ago when I last reminisced over my all-time favorite action game for the PS2, Devil May Cry (the first one). I still remember playing the demo in a video game store before it came out - my jaw was on the ground. I remember the anxious feeling I had when I first bought the game and just couldn't wait to get home. At that time - that was the best action game ever and I never thought those feelings could be reproduced. In my mind NOTHING could best that game. The second one was pale in comparison (haven't played the third yet...actually picked GOW over DMC3) could there be a game other then DMC that could do the action genre justice? Enter God Of War. God of War takes the action genre and does everything right. The controls are extremely fluid and easy to learn, the story is engaging, it doesn't seem like a button mash-em (although you do have to rapidly press buttons sometimes... but only when it makes sense to do so), the magic and weapons are awesome, the boss battles are epic, the graphics are amazing - considering the aging PS2 hardware, the sound is spot-on, the camera isn't your enemy... I could go on and on. This game is very polished. It is very obvious that the developers spent an enormous amount of time making sure every facet of this game is perfect - and they nearly achieved that. The Graphics: Simply put, these are some of the best graphics you will see on the PS2. We are in a time now where the PS2 is starting to age a bit, but this game really does a great job of showing what the PS2 is capable of... and it's impressive! It's amazing how much can be packed on one screen and still remain fluid. The monsters are nicely detailed and the landscapes and architecture are jaw dropping to say the least. There is the occasional slight hiccup in the frame rate, but it's rare and when it does happen it's barely noticeable. Another thing worth mentioning is the camera. Unfortunately this game has a fixed camera angle, but fortunately the camera work is done extremely well! Rarely did I get annoyed because of the camera. The Sound: The sound is epic. The music featured in this game fits the atmosphere very well. I found myself completely immersed in this game thanks to the impressive sound effects, music and good voice acting. The voice acting in this game is definitely worth mention. The voice actors are very convincing most of the time. There is the occasional line that isn't delivered quite right, but for the most part the voice acting is top-notch. With the music and voice acting so amazing it's not surprising that all of the other environmental sound effects such as the clanking of swords are top-notch as well. The Controls The controls in this game are some of the best controls I've ever experienced. The action is extremely fluid and it's relatively easy to execute the moves that you're intending to. Each move performed goes seamlessly with each other move. You can go from beating the crap out of baddies on the ground, launch one up in the air, kick the crap out of them in mid air, come back down and grab another baddie - from here you can swing the baddie around via a chain (which has swords attached... which is attached to the baddie =) and hit others, then pull out Medusa's head, turn three or four more baddies into stone, shatter them, then one of the baddies might have a circle icon above his head... just hit circle while your near the baddie and you will unleash some true pain! Then you must finish him off by rapidly hitting circle and jamming your sword down his throat (often-times you have the option to hit a sequence of buttons that appear above the monsters head, if executed correctly you will unleash some REAL pain) In other words you can link together some truly amazing combos, and it's not too hard once you get the hang of it! You can string combos well into the 200+ range (it keeps count for ya). Also, there is a meter that goes up and once it's full you hit R3 and L3 simultaneously and all hell breaks loose! This is similar to the Devil Trigger mode in DMC. You can really start whoopin' up once that meter is full. Virtually every button on the dual-shock is used, which may sound daunting but the controls are so intuitive that the learning curve is relatively short. I could go on and on about the combat system, but I'll leave some to you for discovery. It's truly ingenious - nuff said. The Story: The story in this game is also done well. I am one that doesn't like to give away any spoilers what-so-ever, but in a nutshell you play as Kratos. You are sent to kill the God Of War. Initially you want to end your life, before you know it - you are saved from your suicide attempt and thrust into a flashback three weeks prior. You will learn a lot about our depressed anti-hero throughout the game, especially during the mid to later parts of the game. I am not going to spoil anything so you're just going to have to find out for yourself. The Cons There is very little in this game that I don't like. The camera although often perfect, will occasionally make the game a little tougher (quite rare though). The boss battles are so epic that I wish there were a few more. Some people say the puzzles are too easy, but I don't play an action game to rack my brain on a puzzle for hours, I like them the way they are because they break up the action a little bit without getting overly annoying. That's really about it! Conclusion This game is amazing. I paid full-price for this gem ($49.99) and I don't regret it at all. Games like this have lots of replay value in my opinion just because they're so darn fun to lose yourself in. There is lots of bonus material as well (mini-games, documentaries...etc). Some of it is unlocked for you right off the bat, other material you will just have to earn. You need to at least rent this game, but I believe that no game library is complete without it. The developers have hit just about every angle right in this game. Even in this short review I have failed to capture it's true magnificence... you will just have to play it to find out what I'm talking about.

The greek culture and the stories acient greeks came up with to understand their existence fascinates me. God of War completely builds itself around that train of thought ancient greeks left behind. The Minotaurs,Cyclops, Cerberus, Zues, Hades, Poseiden, Athena, Satyrs, etc... All these things in this game make it seem like this was a story told long ago and made into a videogame. This game and the upcoming God of War 2 which is released today will be the last great PS2 games to end the 6 year reign of the PS2. What is it that gives this game good Marks.....Lets talk about creativity, character and story wise. Kratos is a fictional character created to further the history of ancient greeks. He is a fierce spartan warrior that has sold his soul to ARES, the god war, to maintain his prideful right as the most ruthless warrior. As told by ancient greeks, the Gods were tricky and ruthless themselves, also playing and manipulating the lives of humans. Naturally the same happens with Kratos where he is tricked throughout one of his battles for ARES and kills his Family Accidentally. ARES felt it was the best thing for him to do to throw out any feelings Kratos had so that he can be the ultimate warrior. From here we have an epic adventure involving you fighting legendary creatures told in Greek culture to exact revenge against ARES and if need it be as far as all the gods. The Creatures are so uniquely designed in this game and scaled massively at times that you'd swear thats how they looked if the Fictional ancient greece were real. The story mends all of these creatures together to form an all new story that can be thrown in with the rest of ancient greek documents and stories. The famous tale of the PANDORA's BOX is thrown in to further story and help you exact your revenge when the time comes. Two of the best created creatures was HYDRA and ARES themselves. Both look menacing and evil as the titles and stories put behind them. The enemies you fight were created well but you end up fighting them repeatedly throughout the game. One Character i found that wasnt repeated quite often were the "Half Man/half Horse" creatures(Sorry forgot the Name), if anything you saw them at least 3 times in the game. Unfortunately their arent alot of spectacular bosses in the game considering the many gods and creatures that ancient grecians mentioned in stories. Gameplay was so simple and to the point. Controlling Kratos himself was with the Left analog stick, and the right analog stick were dodge moves. Combat was a matter of holding down some buttons and pressing others to form more combinations. As you leveled up, your blades of chaos and magic powers, you would get a list of even more button combinations to vary the combo ballet you would form. Many combos existed but the one thing that looked a tiny bit awkward, to me, is that the combos looked as if they could not link fluidly. Their would be this split second where you could tell the computer had to pause kratos to start another combo but nonetheless everything responded very quickly. I just thought a game like this would have everything link 2gether to look more graceful. It was no bid deal anyway. Boss Fights were very limited to the same combos that were given, but when given the chance to grab on to a boss or an enemy the game would engage to a mini game, similar to the dance dance games, were you would have to press the correct button that lighted on top of the enemy. What would happen after every press of the button is a spectacular midair move to cause more damage to the enemy. But I often felt i wasnt doin much to the enemy but hurting him till he gets dizzy so i could grab him and do the same minigame. It wasnt annoyin but i thought it could have been more frantic and more involved. Unfortunatly the same minigame system has been kept in GOD OF WAR 2. Overall everything is top notch. The things i mention are just small quirky things that i noticed along with other people. Puzzle wise, I found the game to be decently challenging and it did not need to be harder. Some people found the puzzle with the rotating spikes, in Hades, to be hard as hell. For me the thing was to keep moving and take advantage of every open spot that the spike Column would give me. Yea i fell plenty of times but I got it very quickly. Difficulty on the game at the Hard level was ok. The only problem I had with the hard difficulty is the last fight with the copies of the multiple Kratos's to defend the wife and kid. Damn was that crap hard with the difficulty that high. After finally being able to beat it and putting it on God Mode, God mode was a cake walk till i got to that last level to defeat the multiple Kratos's. NOW I CANT BEAT THE DAMN LEVEL....LOL. SOME ONE HELP! Other than that the game is solid. I think i touched on the fine points of the game on this review. I totally recommend this game along with GOD OF WAR 2. Get them both and play the last great games of the PS2. 5, 10, 20, 100 thumbs up. HAPPY GAMING AMIGOS

the game works perfectly not even a scratch

perfect

The game plays fine and is a lot of fun. Long live the PS2!

Replaying this again really brought back happiness and giddy feeling i felt so long ago it's been blast playing

marche bien.