God of War

TITLE: God of War
GENRE: Action/Adventure
PUBLISHER: Sony Computer Entertainment America
ESRB RATING:M for Blood and Gore Intense Violence Nudity Sexual Themes Strong Language


STORY:
You are the Hero Kratos. As the game starts, you are about to jump off a cliff because the gods have made you their little puppet. As Kratos jumps, he starts to remember how he got to this point. The actual gameplay starts 3 weeks before hand, which shows you on a boat, when it is attacked by undead soldiers. You fight off the soldiers, and make your way through the ship, fighting off more undead soldiers and archers. After you make your way to the next ship, you fight the Hydra, and then you do a few more things, then you beat the level. The rest of the game is pretty much the same, where you run around killing Greek montsers and other creatures. The story takes you from the streets of Athens to the Temple of Pandora to the depths of Hell, and does this ever so gracefully. The game also gives some insight to Kratos' past, and explains why he is the way he is.

GAMEPLAY:
This game has incredible combo physics. If you have the final spell (Army of Hades) with a good amount of magic, you could easily get in the higher digits of combos (about 90+). You could literally, from the start of the game, do massive combos, that reach somewhere in the 30's. The system is so fluid and perfect, you could swear that he was a real person and you were telling him to do over 30 hit combos. You could do different variations of any combo and it looks like that is how it is supposed to be done, because each animation flows smoothly into the next, regardless of what the next move is. The controls are quite responsive, and use the pressure sensitivity to its advantage. For example, if you tap square, square, triangle; you will do the Plume of Prometheus, but if you tap square, square, and press triangle, you will send the enemy into the air, which you could follow with circle, and bring them crashing down, or do more combos. And still, if you tap square, square, and hold triangle, you will knock the enemy up into the air, and follow them, which makes a little slow-motion type thing and allows you to decide what to do with them while you are in the air. Another great feature is the little strenght type minigames you play with the enemies. For the weaker enemies you could easily just grab (circle) them and do whatever. The stronger enemies (Minitaurs, Cyclops, Medusi*) you follow a button pattern or rotate the joystick or just press a button repeatedly, but the result is always a gory finishing move that ends the monsters life.

AUDIO:
The sounds of your Blades of Chaos hitting the stone walls or wooden doors is quite amazing. You also have each creature's sounds, the battle cries and death moans, and each is befitting for each character. You could hear a creature roar, and tell a Minitaur is approaching, or hear a hissing and know that Medusa is approaching. The musical score is also entrancing, as it pulls you into the game. It creates the perfect ambience mood level and just creates for some great background music. And to think they were going to have Hard Rock as the score.

REPLAY-ABILITY:
This game is about 10 hours long, on easy, which means you could rush through each level rather fast. You will need to replay it to get the extra bonus stuff, and just to test yourself, you could conquer God Mode. The value here isnt all that great, but what do you expect from an action adventure game? There isnt really anything they could have added that would have added to the overall replay value, so just enjoy the game.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
The special features are something you may want to check out. From the main menu, go to treasures, and you will find things like trailers, enemy graveyard, and even a little background on Kratos' childhood. But to get the good stuff, you will need to beat God Mode, which unlocks special secrets, and some other goodies. You could also beat the Challeng of the Gods, which unlocks alternate costumes for Kratos. In the enemy graveyard, you get to see 3D examples of enemies that didnt quite make the cut, as well of some original designs for Kratos.

SCORE:
I give this game a 9/10


*I believe that is what plural medusa is called. I have derived this thought from the same plural rules as Cactus=Cacti, and Octopus=Octopi.

Sub-Note: This game DOES NOT follow the history of Greece, or follow Greek Mythology, and should not be taken as such. Dont worry about how well this story matches history and enjoy the damn thing.

1) Medusa, as I'm assuming it's intended in this game, should not have a plural. Medusa is the name of one being. The plural of the being, a Gorgon, would be Gorgons.

2)

God of War is absolutely, unapologetically depraved. I'm serious. It is as though every base urge has been codified in the game, to the extent that you may sate yourself on dark fantasies. These indulgences usually come in the form of masterfully animated custom moves - "fatalities," to delve into parlance - which are unique for each enemy type and almost endlessly entertaining. Imagine that there is a Harpy swooping overhead, and that you have become perplexed by said harpy. Let me break it down for you: Other games: Hit harpy with weapon. God of War: Grab each leathery wingtip, yanking the creature out of the sky. Place your boot on the back of the neck and pull off the Goddamn wings with a strong upward motion. That's just one guy. I could pack the entire post dense with the desecrations one is capable of, and it would not convey the power of it. The new attacks and ability progression all feel like "cream," because straight out the gate your capacity to dispense raw damage is unparalleled. They're like the courses you might take evenings at the Community College, the "Extended Learning" programs which focus on calligraphy or mesmerism. Put simply you are fully engaged at every moment, fully complicit in each heroic feat - legendary boss battles have fully interactive elements that would be cinemas in any other game. Your utter complicity in each heinous act will enrage Watchdog Groups, provided they ever realize there are videogames produced by companies other than Rockstar or id. There was a Public Service Announcement I saw recently from the group Mediawise, where a young boy relates his experiences in Grand Theft Auto in the first person. Harrowing. That said, GTA doesn't feature a "Sex With Two Women" minigame or superhot Oracles who are ready to nurse at a moment's notice. The only issue one could reasonably submit - outside of the vexing moral ones - is that God of War just asks too much from the poor machine sometimes. Not often enough to really grate on a person, just every now and then, so you get the impression that the developer is saying "Come on little PS2, you can do it" and the PS2 replies "I am an ancient and decrepit thing, a tangle of bones and hair just as one might find in a crypt." (CW)TB out.

Renting it soon!

Ya, I'm gonna go rent it tomorrow.

bob's post actually inspires me to atleast rent it to try it out. there would be some strange sadistic satisfaction in "God of War: Grab each leathery wingtip, yanking the creature out of the sky. Place your boot on the back of the neck and pull off the Goddamn wings with a strong upward motion."

I finally bought it yesterday and OMG it is amazing. I dont know if draco was kidding or not but on normal i have had combo in the high end of the 150's with just level two spells.

Would you reccomend a buy over a rent?

Rent. You can go through the game in around 8 hours, and some of the levels you will not want to play again. (The Pandora temple or whatever...) Also, it is lacking in difficulty...

yeah i would recomend a renting over buying becuase like senesia said it is relatively short, and some of the missions are frusterating. Like the stupid walking on the beams. While it is lacking difficulty I still find it rather fun to rack up the combos, my personal best is 240 against the Giant Minotaur, and it is very visually pleasing and the combos flow really nicely between each other. I also found some battles to be very tedious due strictly to the stupid medusas when you jump and get turn to stone in mid air then die. The puzzles are fairly easy to figure out so it keeps the game moving at a fast pace.