Greek Mythology Rewritten

God of War
Genre: Action Adventure
Dev.: Sony
Pub.: SCEA
PS2 Exclusive
Moneys worth: Very High

Mix in the non stop action of Devil May Cry, the exploration aspect of Zelda, puzzles from ICO, some acrobatics moves from Prince of Persia, a main character that can out do Dante and Snake in the badass meter, a great story that matches the great dialogue and scenarios of Metal Gear Solid’s story, add the mini game mechanism of Parappa Rappa and what do you get? Well God of War of course, David Jaffe’s brain child. Just like Grand Theft Auto, God of War is able to mix different gaming genres into one and make it work.

First off, the main character Kratos is a force to reckon with. He only speaks when it’s necessary, murders anything in his way and is out to kill a god, what’s not to love about this guy? He never crosses the line of stereotypes such as “cheesy badass” or a Rambo type of character. The story is simple yet breathtaking; Kratos is out to get the God of War, Ares, for revenge. The way David Jaffe and his team where able to integrate Greek mythology into the story is a great feat in itself.

Sure most games let you pull of cool combos like Devil May Cry, but most of them don’t have the slick and smooth presentation that GoW’s fighting has. To top it all off, GoW runs at 60 fps and never lags. Plus what other game lets you pull of a 400+ hit combo and never use the same move twice? Just watching Kratos do moves like throw around his chain blades, rush into enemies, rip monsters into pieces, use the power of such gods like Hades and Zeus makes mouths water. Another layer of depth added to the game is the Parappa Rappa style mini game. Whenever an enemy is weak an “O” will appear on top of the enemy. If the player decides to press it the fighting will go into a mini game where a player will have to either: button mash, follow an order of buttons, or swing the analog stick. These mini games are great for pulling off vicious kills. Ripping Medusa’s head and stabbing a Cyclops in the eye has never been this fun.


The puzzles in the game aren’t exactly Silent Hill 2 quality but they still require some thinking and thankfully they are placed in between long secessions of battling and they do help make GoW feel more like an adventure. Also the exploration part of the game is great and makes it feel like a living world when going through war torn Athens or other great locations. David Jaffe set out to put players in a Mythological world and he did just that.


GoW is just another game that pushes the limit of everyone’s favorite black box. Graphic wise this game is to the PS2 as Half-Life 2 is to the PC. Everything looks great in the game, the backgrounds look great. The water and sand is just as beautiful and when Kratos rips open his enemies (or unlucky humans who are near by) blood gushes out of them. What makes it even more incredible is the fact that there’s rarely any load time what so ever. Like everything else in the game, the sound is great. The voices are believable, music fits the game and the monsters make awesome grunts and screams.

With all the pros this game has, just like anything else, there is some cons. While the boss battles are spectacular, there are only 3 of them which is a real drag because there could have been more. The biggest problem is that game is short. 7-10 hours is the playtime anyone will spend on this game first time through. Thankfully there’s plenty of behind the scenes footage with commentary after you pass the game and an extra hard difficulty mode after the game is passed.

GoW is an instant classic that just adds some fresh air into the action/adventure genre and is just another great title released in one of the best Late Winter/ Early Spring gamers have seen in years. Hopefully new installments to Sony’s new franchise will be longer.
Rating:
For avid gamer 10 out of 10
For normal gamer 10 out of 10
for someone normal 9 out of 10