God of War

Please don't confuse this with War Gods.

Platform	Presentation	Controls	Variety	Audio	Depth	Value & Fun	OVERALL
PlayStation 2	8.50	7.00	8.00	9.00	7.00	8.00	7.80

General Information

Previously played game in the series: None.

Gameplay Description

God of War is an action game set in ancient Greece. You take the role of Kratos, a man granted powers from the Gods, who then uses those powers to right the wrongs of his past. The game generally consists of beating down waves of enemies and the occasional adventuring and platforming.

Dedication Meter	10.00
God of War is pretty segmented and the combat is easy to get into. You don't really have to delve into the battle combinations to enjoy the game, in fact, you're probably better off not doing so at all. All that is needed is to make sure you're not too rusty for the moderate challenge (although there is an easy mode if it is too much) and finding a save point, which isn't too difficult.

Presentation

8.50

Cinematics, in-game visuals, storytelling and animations are all superb and do an impeccable job of creating its own gripping and immersing rendition of ancient Greece in the age of the mythical gods.  While the cutscenes use CG, it's not all just flashy battles and lots of gore, but a distinct stylized way of telling the story of Kratos that no one would expect to be done any better.

However, there are aspects of the presentation in the game that cause some issues, mainly pertaining to the puzzle and adventuring aspects of the game.  There is no control of the camera, so you have to work with what's in front of you, which is fine for most of the game; however, there are puzzles where it is frustrating to see what you're doing, or even difficult to see what you're supposed to do at all.  It can be worse when jumping when it swings around in mid-jump...while on a balance beam...with blades spinning.  The inability to properly see usually doesn't come up in battle, but when it does, it's almost as bad as when it hinders the platforming--it doesn't help that the issue exists most prominently in the final boss battle.

Given the lack of camera control, at the very least a first-person free-look option would have done wonders, but alas this is missing and the game is worse for it.

For the sake of your own sanity, there is a part in the game in which you activate a switch after climbing along a wall that it shows opens a door, but not where.  You have to backtrack several screens, go down a type of elevator, then go to some rocks at the edge of the screen, that despite there being many invisible walls in the game, you can actually jump over to an area completely out of view.

Controls

7.00

The crux of the controls, as previously mentioned, is that the in-game camera is insufficient and causes problems.  In battle you can get into positions in which your vision is completely compromised, including the most pronounced in the final boss fight of all places.

Where it is more frustrating, however, is in the platforming and climbing elements.  There are points where you're going to have to make jumps in which your judgement of depth will be rather difficult due to a pulled back or skewed camera angle.  Worse are the climbing portions in which you can barely see what's coming, which may be blades that knock you all the way back down to the bottom so you have to start all over.

Additionally, the controls for general actions are a bit strange, namely with most doors.  For some reason the game has you repeatedly pressing the R2 button to lift the door.  Not hold the R2 button, not tap the R2 button once, not even repeatedly press a face button where it may be somewhat natural and relatively easy to do, but repeatedly press the R2 button.

Fortunately, the battle mechanics generally work.  While there are pretty combinations you can pull off, it doesn't feel out of control.  The technique of a pause upon impact of a strike, as seen in the 3D Legend of Zelda games, is used with great effect.  A problem, though, is the finishing manoeuvre of pressing the circle button.  Doing so not only lets you finish enemies quicker, but gives bonuses such as health, but it isn't at all accurate and when there's multiple enemies (and there always are) it will often just hit the other enemy or ignore you.

The battle controls work like a typical fighting game, with Punch, Strong Punch, Kick, etc. (replace punch with which weapon you're using).  You also have special powers that you use the L2 trigger, and if necessary, a face button.  These feel a little clunky, but still functional.  For ones that didn't use an additional button, I found myself accidentally pressing L2, but that's just me and not a design flaw.  The lack of camera frees up the right analog for use for rolling in the direction you tilt it.

There are then context-sensitive controls in battle with the finishing manoeuvres.  You press circle to intiate it once you've gotten the enemy down to a certain point, then you either press the button flashed, mash the circle button, or rotate the control stick.  These are fine and keep you engaged in the battle, but may get a little tiresome in longer battles with many enemies.

Variety

8.00

God of War gives a good effort to keeps things mixed up, and while it does have mixed results, overall things don't get too repetitive.  The first thing to notice is that the enemies are quite varied in the beginning.  From size, speed, and tactics, it is a great mix to start.  Naturally it slows and some new enemies are just repeats, but the changes are enough to not make it too hindering.  Overall, the enemy variety is almost as good as you could ask.  The only unfortunate issue is that the enemies respawn, occasionally infinitely, which can be just as infinitely irritating as you don't know that until you've been fighting the same enemies for ten minutes.

There are two weapons and a few spells in the game that help keep the fights from becoming redundant.  While the magic seems fairly useless, the second weapon is differentiated enough from the Chains of Olympus--dual swords on chains that Kratos swings around to attack--to make it a part of strategy as when to use each.

Where there are issues is when the game strays from the action focus and tries to incorporate adventuring, puzzles and platforming -- none of which are well implemented.  The adventuring aspect is mostly limited to figuring out where to go, which can be more troublesome than it should be thanks to the needless backtracking and lack of camera control.  The issues are mainly pertaining to the previously mentioned presentational difficulties.

As for the puzzles, again, the presentational issues make them less than intuitive.  A statue in the corner of the screen that you probably hadn't noticed may be the key to the whole thing.  And when the aspect of the basic environmental puzzles threatens to wear thin, the game pushes its luck by making you push a block up a hill while enemies take pot-shots at you.

Lastly, the platforming.  Again, the camera has issues because of depth perception, but it's surprisingly adaquate most of the time for the platforming elements.  However, the infuriating balance beam walking and climbing past spikes that cause you to fall is beyond any praise.

The focus of the game, though, is the action, where it mixes things up very well.  You'll just have to deal with the problematic sections.

Audio	9.00
The music does its job in that it's approriate to the subject matter and general stays in the background. While a little flare could have helped, overall it's for what you'd hope. The voice acting is standout, only helping the already stellar story presentation. The sound effects in the game also serve as helpful queues, such as the high-pitched hum of Medusa's gaze.

Depth

7.00

The game tries to make the battle system more than just a button masher, but in the end, the combinations are merely fluff and mostly useless.  The vast majority of the time, any skillful combinations will easily be refuted by the fact that you're overrun with enemies and can't string together the necessary attacks because you'll just be hit from behind in the middle of it.  Instead, a few simple attacks become far and away the most effective and it becomes rinse-and-repeat.

There are some RPG elements in that you can earn points to power up your weapon and magic, but unfortunately the magic is almost entirely useless and this process becomes just weapon upgrades.

Variety in enemies, however, keeps these hordes of enemies from becoming too tedious, and the difficulty is there that you do have to take care to block and dodge.  It's never to the point that you can literally just mash random buttons and succeed, but you'll find a fairly repetitious process in combat all the same.

Value & Fun

8.00

There isn't a great deal to add as the majority of what you need to know has already been said.  The combat works, despite a lack of depth.  The ability to power up your weapon and magic is a nice bonus and there's good difficulty at the default settings, and unlockable harder modes for those that desire a serious challenge as well as an easy mode for those not up to the task.

For those interested, I completed the game in about 9 hours, admittedly about an hour of which was mindless wandering trying to figure out what to do next.  While most, including myself, would consider this relatively short length, I did not find that this was an unsatisfactory amount.  The game is wholly contained within that time frame and needn't be anymore.

The game follows a flow of action followed by one of those other adventure/puzzle/platforming elements that are just annoying and frustrating, which results in a very up-and-down experience of good to bad to fair to mediocre to great.  Ultimately, the game is solid, and the boss fights (however few and far between) are very entertaining and by far the highlight.  It's a shame that the other segments put a lull on the action.

Overall	7.80
God of War stands as a fun beat-em-up with terrific story presentation and lacking game presentation, with some frustrating segments between the action. Those for a thirst for gory battles and have some patience should take a look. Just know that there are some flaws.

Posted by Ellyoda Sun, 28 Oct 2007 00:00:00

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