The gods of Olympus believe their brother Ares to be insane, but they are commanded to take no action against him. The contemptuous Lord of War's siblings are bound by their father Zeus' law to not clash with one another directly. Do not usurp the given throne of a god, said the master of thunder upon heaven's highest seat. Take no action even if he ravages your patron cities.
Incapable of assailing war incarnate without their Olympian perks, the gods found themselves depending on man to topple the mountain of combat and free his blood-soaked throne from the plague of insanity. And yet no mortal spear nor sword nor arrow has ever scathed Ares. How can any man kill a god? How can any man stand against the fury of this one god? And so the children of Zeus were forced to choose no mere man as their champion.
Say hello to Kratos. Savage, ruthless and tortured, Kratos served as a Spartan general before selling his soul to Ares for a life of power. He once lived to conquer, but now walks only to scour the land of war's opposition at his master's bidding. But something has recently changed Kratos. Something has him turning his Blades of Chaos against his former tutor.
Beseeched by Athena and the other gods of Olympus, Kratos has been commissioned from on high to discover Pandora's Box and use it to slay the enraged son of Zeus. Once in possession of such divine power, Kratos will unleash one thousand years of godly secrets and wield his newfound strength to kill Ares. But he doesn't care for the plight of the Olympians. He doesn't care for the wake of fire and death that spreads from the heels of war. Kratos doesn't want to save anyone, let alone himself. All he desires is murder. Kratos wants to destroy the god of war for the joy that would come from ripping his heart out. Vengeance is what Kratos seeks -- vengeance and due payment. For what, you must find out.
That's the basic synopsis, but God of War could have just as easily been summed up with one quick line, "If you like to kill freaky things with your giant serrated knives, you'll love the s*** out of this."
Before I continue and tell you exactly why you'll adore this product, please realize that God of War is not for the young or faint of heart. This videogame features sexual situations, bare breasts, and excessive brutality. Good with that? Excellent!
Not in a very long time have I been so completely absorbed in an action title. God of War boasts an incredibly developed combat system, the ultimate combination of artistic integrity and technical wizardry, an utterly brilliant collection of music and sound effects, and a storyline so satisfying its culmination left me in a giddy stupor. Buy it or face damnation.
Even given the time to write a billion words I couldn't detail exactly how Sony Santa Monica pulled off such an elaborate action game when the genre has thus far been saturated by branded clones the likes of Two Towers, Demon Stone and even the lot of Dark Alliance spins. Where those games and the waves of NanoBreakers and Chaos Legions fall slightly short or fail miserably, God of War simply succeeds. Nearly everything a self-professed connoisseur of videogames is likely to appreciate in a product has been included in this title and tied together with seamless grace.
The story I elected to introduce this article with begins by focusing on a broken man who has just leapt to his death. From there players will be plunged into an ever evolving, ever more breathtaking collage of brutish cutscenes and critical twists. Eventually, the audience of this Greek tale will come to love and loathe Kratos, hate Ares, and even find themselves overwhelmed by the journey that takes the strong into a realm of unforgivable sin, heart wrenching hopelessness and unwavering determination. And none of this could have been possible without our ruthless boy who aspires to murder a god.
If ever there were a more consistent, uncompromising character in videogaming, I have not met him. Kratos does not once falter on his quest. His demeanor never changes, nor does his murderous nature. He's a butcher and he'll mercilessly rip the life out of innocents. Sony Santa Monica never blinked when it came to the careless slaughtering of men and women and that makes Kratos the singularly determined killing machine that he is. This is why he's so interesting. But what I find even more impressive than the uncensored consistency of our protagonist is how GOW's intricate design perfectly combines immaculate levels with a mad plot and even madder gameplay. It begins with the engine.
Like Jak 3, God of War achieves what no PS2 game should by omitting load times almost completely and yet still offering visuals on par with or even surpassing most of those on competing systems.
To really understand how technically impressive the experience is, play without saving or dying and count every second of loading. I bet it could all be calculated on one hand. All that, and still the screen shakes with life. A single movie detailing the ridiculous fluidity of God of War's action and startling clarity of its many astonishing special effects will dispel any concern about the PS2-centric engine upon which this adventure was built. Just do me two favors before you get into loving it, though.
1) Turn off the totally pointless "Softening" feature in the options menu. Softening is just an alternative to smearing a tub of Vaseline on your television and then packing your eye sockets with ground beef.
2) Play this game on a 480p capable HDTV. The progressive scan widescreen is incredible. You're doing videophiles the world over an extreme disservice by remaining steadfastly loyal to your 21" Zenith and RF connector.
Even after you adhere to my two demands, I want you to understand that all the whizz-bang math that went into making God of War such a technical accomplishment is not what makes the experience so visually stunning.
Gaze across the tattered ruins of a thousand-year-old manmade mountain as waterfalls spill from rocky cliffs. Step toward the edge of the world and stare out across the Desert of Lost Souls for a moment before summoning a small city-sized Titan burdened by the Temple of Pandora that's chained to its back. Run through a burning ancient city as a 2000 foot tall god unleashes his wrath in the distance. Glance up in terror at the mane of flame that encircles Ares' head. Clash with the colossal, lumbering minotaur against the backdrop of smoldering corpses. Dive into the depths of Poseidon's tribute. Escape the grasp of hell itself. Fight on plateaus littered with titanic statues to heroes and gods long past. Look at anything. Look anywhere. Just look, damn it. If you open your eyes you'll see the very definition of amazing art direction. When it comes to paint, God of War has no equal.
Sony Santa Monica has captured magic. It has created a familiar, yet impressively unique universe out of something we've all grown up with. The artistic ability of God of War's designers has made mundane dungeons into places of wonder. Even the simplest of walls has been caressed to include incredible detail. So good is the art that it even establishes the immense everlasting power of a god just by showing him walking around the bloody screen! It takes the most used and abused form of swords and sorcery fantasy and transforms it into something else, something entirely better. And just when you think that one moment will never be surpassed in beauty, Sony Santa Monica punches you in the face and proves you wrong by introducing a series of ever more dazzling environments and enemies and bosses.
Nearly as impressive as the visuals is the audio, which features an original score worthy of even the most demanding AAA film. Behind that comes a layer of vaguely positional crisp sound effects that rarely repeat and appropriate voice acting that never disappoints. The crack of club on stone as the playing song dynamically quickens and Kratos' fury elicits meek whelps from his foes is an experience that shouldn't be missed.
Superior graphics, sound, and story all make for a fantastic template upon which the actual game can be built. Thankfully, to experience all of these great audio and video aspects of God of War is to experience the equally exciting gameplay.
Fighting is a testament to the benefits of fluidity. Even though we've used the same, "Like Tony Hawk" tagline to explain away the combo boasts of other games (and perhaps undeservedly), God of War truly does admirably represent the upper echelon of dynamic action in this generation (hand-in-hand with DMC 3, of course). It's also a remarkably simple kind of fighting that has us so enamored.
At Kratos' disposal is a strong attack, medium attack, grapple, dash and attack modifier. When these basics are combined with blocking, dodging, aerial combinations, four different sets of magic (some with alternate firing patterns) and two-weapon on the fly substitutions, Kratos can pull off some ridiculous combinations. It all works well because God of War is built upon one of the more responsive control configurations on the planet.
There are times when enemy combinations will stun Kratos and prevent him from countering or rolling away to freedom, but in general the game affords players the opportunity to always cancel out of their current loop of actions and switch instantaneously to a new maneuver. This means that even when in mid-jump and mid-swing Kratos can cut his losses and throw up a block. It also means that he can cut into an enemy with a combo that runs something like:
Medium -> Medium -> Strong -> Launch ->
Strong -> Weapon switch -> Medium -> Strong -> Grapple ->
Weapon switch -> Strong -> Magic.
I got around 235 hits on one chain. It's that crazy.
As the 12 - 15 hour game moves along Kratos accesses a few gifts from the gods and even becomes capable of developing those powers (and his own weapons' strengths) by allocating accumulated resources to them. This upgrade system won't be foreign to anyone who's played an action title that includes character attribute development. Since God of War doesn't funnel its players into branching traps, as is generally the norm, it's possible to augment the vicious hero in just about every way.
Of course, no amount of responsiveness and power-ups are going to do any good if Kratos stands around hitting pumpkins and giant rats all day. This is where God of War's twisted version of Greek mythos once again comes into play. Expect centaurs, skeleton warriors, Minotaurs, hydras, harpies, Cyclopes and more. Each enemy type has specific strengths and weaknesses, and when the game combines them at once (as it almost always does) players will invariably find themselves pressed to change gears and tackle the threats by capitalizing off the many powers Kratos has been independently improving.
Most of the enemies also highlight rhythmic mini-games. When sufficiently damaged, an indicator above the heads of foes will appear and prompt Kratos to approach and trigger a mini-game sequence. Sometimes this blasted thing can be a real pain in the ass, simply because it won't trigger no matter how many times the circle button is depressed in anger (there may be some poor trigger boxes here). When it does eventually work, the simple series of analog stick or face button commands are hardly taxing but still do well to spice up the combat. The mini-games that repeat for specific enemy types also highlight slick, visceral animations and are even required to beat a few of the game's bosses. Unfortunately, there aren't many bosses to face.
While GOW climaxes with a challenging, epic three-part battle, it only really features two significant encounters prior to that (one being the overplayed Hydra in the first level). A lack of bosses leaves us wanting, but only because the ones that were included are so much fun they open the imagination door to an endless amount of possibilities grounded in the dark Greek mythos upon which the game was built
After all the amazing combat comes a series of somewhat less enjoyable platforming components. Not awful by any stretch, the many demanding instant-die jump and climb segments of God of War (particularly those that revolve around Hades flavored zones in and out of Pandora's Temple) are pretty frustrating. Kratos was designed for battle, not navigating rotating pillars and jumping over saw blades.
This leaves us with the puzzles, which range from obscure doorway discovery, "So that's where the stupid exit is hidden," to simplistic push and pull box allocation, "If I can snuggly fit all of these different rocks into the wall, I can pass." The idea of utilizing a mad architect and his elaborate deathtrap of a temple to explain away the more fantastical puzzles was a good notion, but to then deemphasize that by making those puzzles based on little thought and random area navigation is pretty lame.
Does the underdeveloped platforming and sometimes pointless distribution of pseudo-puzzles hurt the gameplay? No. Just like the occasionally annoying text prompts that popup to identify the necklace that goes on the head of that thing that holds the necklace, the small gameplay problems of God of War warrant few complaints when compared to the overwhelming amount of enjoyable gameplay that's present.
The game's only real problem is that it has to end as all good things do. Even that's not so bad, given the wealth of unlockable features that have been added. We're talking about story elements, deleted levels, art, costumes, and everything else. Best of all is the God Mode difficulty setting that's unlocked upon first completion. Play this if you're into the super hard.