Playstation 2 action fans get ready for a thrill! God of War is a game themed after Greek mythology. This third-person action adventure was created by Sony Computer Entertainment America, the ones who brought the Twisted Metal series to the market. Sony has completely out done itself with this game. Although some tiny events are a little over the top and the small tidbits of sexuality seem pretty immature, overall the game rocks.
As noted above the game is rated “M” for mature and contains intense violence, strong language, nudity and suggestive scenes. You play a hero named Kratos, who’s one mean, tattooed mortal with an attitude for killing, in a world chalk full of mythological creatures, god’s and goddesses. Your main goal is to stop Aries from destroying Athens.
Graphics
The opening of the game is a cut-scene of Kratos jumping off a cliff to commit suicide. The scene does not complete itself for story reasons and me being the critical artist I immediately began to analyze my first graphical encounter. My first conclusion was that the character facial animation moved like a Muppet and the body movement was pretty stiff. As soon as the cut-scene ends abruptly, your character is immediately thrown into game action.
I was blown away by the incredible flow and control of my character and how the animations were seamlessly and beautifully glued together. I felt myself smiling as I wreaked havoc on the enemy before me. The graphics are with out a doubt very polished.
The environments are very moody with deep blues purples and grays. You’ll find many ships, pillars and Greekish war torn looking structures throughout the game. There’s definitely a dark overtone which is fitting for backdrop of this game. The textures, models, and creatures all fit together quite nicely for the theme as well. Nothing seems out of place and the look and feel is very consistent throughout. The effects work perfectly for the feel of your main weapons which are two short blades like structures on long extendable chains that appear imbedded into his flesh.
The animations for actions and game control are extremely polished and all the attack combos and defensive moves are smooth. I, however, did see a few cut-scenes that seemed a bit inconsistent. I would see animations that looked like motion capture and then I would see a change in areas where the characters went a little stiff. I also believe most of the facial animations did not par up with the quality of the in game animation either.
Overall, the cut-scenes worked and gave direction to the game and story. The game does a superb job of making certain environments look large. The scripted scene where Aries is stomping on Athens while under assault by flames is simply amazing. In addition to great graphics and game animation, this game has incredible audio. The ambiance and scores for fighting are wonderfully and logically placed in context to each and every scene. The sound effects match up perfectly for all the weapons and creatures. The audio piece that tops it all off is the awe inspiring narration by an oracle spoken by an older toned female voice.
Gameplay
God of War is a single player action adventure. Your mission is to battle your way through a slew of what feels like the Clash of the Titans. However, for some strange reason also, I felt like I was Hercules from the TV series trying hunt down Aries to save Athens. The main gameplay is hack and slash but it completely works because it’s so over the top. The weapon combos are a serious load of fun. During your adventure you also slowly pick up new interesting combos for unique combat maneuvers.
Besides your main weapons for taking out the enemy, you will meet a slew of gods from Olympia who give you various powers to help you in your cause. One nice tie-in was the killing of Medusa. After completing this task you can use her power to freeze or temporarily stone your opponent. They are then pretty much toast after you hit them again. Translation, they are in pieces all over the ground. To further explain the secondary nice tie to the environment was having to freeze the minotaur over an Indiana Jones-type weight platform on the ground to open a door.
Not only were many character actions tied in well, there are many simple puzzles that you have to figure out in order to get to certain points or locations. For example, pushing down statues to jump to ledges and then to the top to shoot a huge crossbow with a rope to slide down to the other side. I have played many games where I get annoyed by such feats. But for some reason this game does not annoy me. Another exciting piece of the action combat gameplay is the more engaging context sensitive attacks. These actions occurred most obviously with some of the bosses. Once you had worn down your opponent one of the four Playstation icons would usually appear.
Kind of like a mini-game inside the game for enemy combat. Again I can see how someone else could implement this annoyingly but the design for the mini-game is cool. You have to simply hit certain keys or analog movement to accomplish killer moves. Again the polished animations are what make these really fun to do.
The levels are pretty linear in play but it works just fine for this game. Anytime I see the levels tied in and built around characters I am happy. Many level designers seem to forget this sometimes when they just plot out maps with out rhyme or reason and then just start slapping in the enemy.
Lastly, the story is explained throughout many cut-scenes in the game. All of these make sense and move you through the game quite nicely. My only compliant with God of War was the in-game camera. There were quite a few times I was annoyed when I could not rotate my camera to view. This however was a minor set back at times and did not hurt my overall experience.
Summary
This game rocks. It is probably the best adrenaline filled action PS2 game since the first Devil May Cry. I highly recommend this game if you are into action hack ‘em up adventures!
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