God of War (Sony PlayStation 2, 2005)

One of the best games for the PS2. I'll start with the graphics. They are completely top of the line. You won't see anyone walking through poles, or having squares for heads or anything like that. Some of the best graphics i've ever seen. Period. Next, the storyline. It begins with Kratos, former captain of the Spartan Army, About to throw himself off of Mt. Olympus, after 10 years of pain, suffering, and service to the gods. The game takes you back to 3 weeks earlier, where you find Kratos on a ship in the Aegean Sea, surrounded by Undead soldiers, as the Sea is being attacked by the Hydra, you fight your way through countless soldiers, before you fight the Hydra. You see, after his army nearly beong destroyed by the barbarians, Kratos surrendered his life to Ares, the god of war. Permenantly in Ares' debt, Kratos becomes his servant. With the Blades of Chaos permanantly seared onto his wrists as a reminde of what he did. Kratos' mission and goal from the gods, is to destroy Ares. Murder the God of War. As you play through the game, you find out more about Kratos' tortured past and why he suffers and must kill Ares. Now for the ganeplay. Some may tell you its a button-masher. But don't listen to them. This game is only a button masher if you make it one. And the combos generally look cool and are easy to pull of. The characters and monsters are geniusly animated. The cyclops looks like a cyclops. Medusa looks like Medusa, and so on. The symphonic scores are rarely this great. Simply perfect. Worth buying just to listen to them. Kratos' hard, pained voice perfectly matches his character. All the gods' voices match them, as each god gives you a special power. Poseidon-Poseidon's Rage, a powerful lighting attack. Zeus-Zeus' Fury. The ability to throw lightning bolts at enemies. Athena, after killing Medusa, gifts you medusa's head, which you can use to turn enemies into stone. Artemis-Artemis' blade. Its the blade she used to slay a Titan, and will make you near-invulnerable if you perfect you playing with it. Max its level as fast as you can. Best part about it is it doesn't use magic. Finally, Army of Hades. Also very powerful. Summons spirits from Hades itself to attack your enemies. The camera angles never work against you, which is very good sonce you can't control them. The camera is always perfect. The boss battles. Though there are only 3 (Hydra, Giant Armored Minotaur, and Ares)they are extremely well done. The hydra is challenging, and like you may expect, you DON'T fight all 6 or whatever heads at once. You fight them all separately (except for 2) and each has it's own way to beat it. The Giant Minotaur is very fun and challenging. You must figure out how to break its armor as it attacks you, then figure out how to hit it with flaming logs to kill it. Ares, the Final enemy you will fight in the game. In the first part, you can use any weapon you have, and any magic power to defeat him. Second part, you must kill a lot of [more] "evil" Kratos clones in order to protect your family. And in the final part, you must fight Ares with the blade of the Gods, and in this battle when you hit Ares, you gain health and he loses health and vice-versa. Finally, you unlock a ton of features for beating the game, and more for beating on God mode. So, anyone who considers themself a true gamer (and even people that don't) must buy this game. A must have for all PS2 owners. Wish I could rate it higher. Hope I helped and hope you buy God of War.

This game is true to its mature rating, so take some heed parents, but it's a remarkably good game...

In my opinion the game works on three levels and each of them are extremely well done...

The storyline - Greek mythology is a well studied subject and has been successfuly exploited by many different branches of entertainment (movies, theatre, books etc.) so straight off the mark there's a lot going for this game... But its storyline is done particularly well, entertaining you with character and plot insights as you progress that tie in well with the rest of the gameplay...

The action - It's arcade style violence contains flashy combos, various spells and different enemies that keep you interested... On easy its a button-mashing walk in the park, on hard it starts to test you and in god mode you'll probably get extremely frustrated... However, the action isn't all there is to this game, which is mostly to its credit so keeping the difficulty a bit lower doesn't detract from your enjoyment...

The puzzles - Dotted throughout the game on Kratos' quest are various puzzles for him (you) to solve... They're a lot of fun, although some are quite challenging, and can be pretty testing...

When you combine these three elements you really have a well created, value-for-money game that will keep you amused...

Pros
+ One of the best looking games that will ever hit the PS2.
+ Deep story with gorgeous cutscenes & a huge mythology.
+ Variety of levels that feel like they have been ripped from the pages of history.
+ Brutal main character who you will never forget.
+ Huge boss battles & a real sense of satisfaction in giving a beating to your enemies.

Cons
- Novices should be able to handle the easiest mode but any other mode is for the hardcore gamers only.
- A little on the short side but you will probably want to play it over again anyway.
- Lots of button mashing.

Comments
I can't say enough good things about this game. This is one of the most original games to be released and will hopefully blossom into a powerful franchise in the future. Forget 'Onimusha' or 'Devil May Cry'. This game own your action/adventure seeking soul.

Verdict
Must own game if you are Mature enough of course. There is no substitute for this game. It owns its genre and you should own it as well.

In spite of my persistence to not go with the crowd and ignore God of War while trying to broaden my horizons as far as my gaming experiences go I must admit that my curiosity got the better of me after the sequel came out and my God of War fan-boy friends wouldn't be quiet about it so I decided to give it a whirl and see how many minotaurs I could carve up before I was completely desensitized to blood. It turns out quite a few minotaurs were killed and it may have been enjoyable along the way at certain points. I'll admit that God of War is by no means a bad game. The controls were tight and intuitive and there were a variety of ways that I was able to decapitate my violence fodder foes. The story is not the worst I've ever heard but then again I've never really cared for Greek mythology. Basically a muscular guy named Kratos became somewhat of a contractor for Aeries, the God of War (hint hint) and while on a murder fest he kills his family. Being the vengeful type, Kratos then goes on a quest to kill Aeries involving all sorts of other Greek myths. At one point he dies along the way and fights his way outta hell just to build a more stable foundation of badassery. Like I mentioned before the combat is fluid and violent like a bloody sacrifice and there are combos that can be added on to so killing things never gets old. The level design is my only irritant. Some seemed like they were just padding to try and keep the game rolling for a few more minutes. One part in particular was where I needed to wander through a desert with zero visibility and try to kill three sirens (the mythical beast and not the police ones I hear at my neighbor's house on a daily basis) so I could unlock a gate to progress. It took me over an hour to wander through, find them and kill them even though it was a relatively small area they were hidden in. Also there are a lot of underwater tunnels you'll need to swim through and running out of air killed me more than any of the other fights combined. On a final note this game is not for kids. Just in case there's someone jumping on the bandwagon later than me and might be thinking of getting it for a kid relative as a present, there is a playable sex scene. Try explaining that one to the kid's parent when they walk in the room to have the kid ask "what is that he's doing to the two women?"

Two words: simply amazing! The cutscenes and gameplay graphics are supurb, and the storyline sucks you in before the game even STARTS! Battling enemies gives you plenty of customization as YOU decide how you want to defeat them. You can grab an enemy, then whichever button you push next is the way you finish him off. Will you rip a demon in half, or kick it to the ground and stab it to death! It's definitely a "M" rating title, but I haven't played a game like this in quite some time. On some of the bigger enemies, once you've worn it down enough a command will appear above it's head, press this to initiate "mini-game" mode where you must follow the button combinations on the screen quickly and accurately to finish them off, or else get thrown back to the ground and battle some more! This game is engineered with button mashers out of thought! If you just mash the buttons in this game, the mass of enemies will eventually run you down.

The only minor con I have for this game is the inability to manually change the camera angles or look around. Whatever angle or view they give you is what you have to deal with, BUT sometimes that's part of the puzzle you're trying to solve. Showing too much of the room might give away the solution to the puzzle. So, in a way it's not that bad.

Save/load times are quick for the amount of data that needs to be saved/loaded. There are plenty of opportunities to save your game, and also includes "built-in" checkpoints you are unaware of in case you die to respawn on. You only get one life, so the checkpoints definitely come in handy as you have unlimited restarts from them.

As you progress through the game and collect red "orbs" you can choose which weapons/magic you want to upgrade to the next level. This was the best feature of the game because it allows you to enhance weapons you use the most, or favorites at that. The environments are almost completely playable, and you even get "orbs" for destroying random items! In a way, it entices you to check for secrets and hidden items! As you upgrade your weapons/magics, new attacks are unlocked and you attacks get stronger of course. Simply incredible!

This title is $19.99 now, as it is a Greatest Hits title, and IS the best game I've played in quite some time. They also just announced God Of War 2 coming out sometime in 2007...so make sure you pick this up and finish it by then!! :)