God of War

aka: Dark Odyssey, GoW, God of War HD, God of War: The Hydra Battle
Moby ID: 17344
PlayStation 2 Specs
Buy on PlayStation 2
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Description official descriptions

God of War is set in the age of ancient Greek myths. The hero of the game is a mortal warrior Kratos. Long time ago, Kratos was the leader of Spartans, a fearless and brutal general who waged wars for the glory of his city. Today, he is known as the Ghost of Sparta. For the past ten years, he is tormented with terrible nightmares, unable to forget the tragedy that happened in his past. He has to serve the gods of Olympus, who promised to forgive his sins if he becomes their champion. Finally, the goddess Athene tells Kratos that redemption will be granted to him if he defeats her brother, the god of war Ares, who was the very reason for the tragic event of his past...

God of War is a 3D action game with platforming and puzzle-solving elements. Kratos has two default swords that he will always carry with him, called the Blades of Chaos. They allow the player to perform combos, which will constantly climb until the fight is over or until it takes too long to register another hit. The higher the combo total, the more red orbs Kratos receives from defeated enemies.

Similar to Devil May Cry, the red orbs collected from fallen enemies can be used to purchase upgrades. It is possible to upgrade the default weapons, learning new moves and striking faster, or put the orbs into different weapons acquired throughout the game, such as Blade of Artemis. Kratos will, over time, also have access to a selection of magic spells. At specific points in the game, he will be able to generate an arc of electricity, courtesy of Zeus, or use the decapitated head of a Gorgon to turn enemies into stone with Meduza's Gaze.

The game features several unlockable extras, which are only acquired when the player has beaten the game on different difficulty modes. Most of the features are a behind-the-scenes look at various aspects of the game, such as creating the world, modeling Kratos, and a look at deleted levels that didn't make the final cut of the game.

Spellings

  • ꈘē„ž - Chinese spelling (simplified)

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (PlayStation 2 version)

453 People (402 developers, 51 thanks) · View all

Game Director / Lead Designer
Producer
Lead Programmer
Art Directors
Coordinating Producer
Associate Producers
Project Coordinator
Game Programmers
Lead Engine Programmer
Design - Level Design & Scripting
Design - Combat Scenarios
Design - Combat System
Design - Camera
Design - Level Design
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 93% (based on 104 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 166 ratings with 11 reviews)

God of War shows not only what can be done with the PS2 now, but what developers should have been doing all along

The Good
A battlefield pledge to Ares, the God of War, gives Kratos superhuman abilities at the cost of his own humanity. After years in servitude acting as the sword Ares wields, the enormity of Kratosā€™ crimes catch up to him in a moment of clarity triggered by a tragic event. Here the Greek legends would end, the protagonist undone by his hubris. Kratos, though, is no mere protagonist. The embodiment of an antihero, Kratos turns his single-minded focus towards a new goal: killing the God of War.

God of War starts aboard an armada heading towards Athens, where Ares lays siege. Suddenly skeletal beings crawl aboard your ship and you must repel them. Hacking away with your twin swords, the Blades of Chaos (complete with chains, so you can chain-sword-whip opponents), you knock enemies aside, cleave them in two, grab them and rip them apart, or stylishly execute them with a quick finishing move. After the deck is cleared a hatch draws your attention. You hammer away at a shoulder button to muscle the hatch open and drop down to the lower levels.

Here you find chests to restore your health, magic, or rage meters. Moving along past flooding bulkheads and tightrope walking across narrow spans, you enter a narrow hallway leaping back just as a giant Hydra head comes crashing through the floorboards. The first miniboss, mere minutes into the game, is completely indicative of what God of War is going to throw at you.

Jumping back a step, most of Kratosā€™ opponents can be slain with simple sword attacks or combinations. When his rage meter fills, Kratos can unleash the Rage of the Gods on his enemies dispatching them with blinding speed in a bloody flurry. There are some opponents too powerful for such base attacks though. Bosses, like the hydra head require special attacks: quickly following a succession of on-screen button prompts. Balancing timing with finesse, these special attacks are more challenging than just hammering away at an opponent.

As he kills, Kratos earns experience he can spend on upgrading his weapons (more damage and better combos) and upgrading any magic he learns on his journey. Some gods favor Kratosā€™ side of the struggle and grant him abilities. Early in the game Kratos earns Poseidonā€™s Rage, an electrical attack which radiates from him. Later Kratos earns more magic letting him strike down enemies from afar or freeze foes in their place.

Although Ares is his main target, Kratos must fight his way through a host of fiends. Drawing from Greek Mythology, Minotaurs, Meduses, and Cyclops are just some of the varied opponents. Often God of War will introduce a new monster as a miniboss requiring special attacks to put them down, but as Kratos levels up, they just become more fodder.

As a third-person action/adventure game with equal emphasis on combat and puzzle-solving. Iā€™ve seen God of War compared to many games: Castlevania, ICO, and Rygar among others, but Iā€™m going to suggest that God of War is really the greatest Tomb Raider game ever made. While Kratos must solve manufactured puzzles, a good portion of the game involves exploring the environment, pulling levers, scaling cliffs and jumping to ledges. While all of this sounds like typical platforming, God of War has stunning levels and a strong fundamental design concept: you are living a part of Greek mythology.

Even after fighting your way from ship to ship to take on the Hydra, even after carving your way from the streets to the rooftops of an Athens aflame towards a mountainous Ares, and even after hunting down the last Titan in the siren haunted Desert of Lost Souls, God of War still finds a way to take your breath away. God of War looks real. It looks lived in. It looks right.

It feels right. God of War has tight controls. You use the analog stick to walk across narrow beams adjusting for Kratosā€™ balance. Kratos leaps when you tell him to leap, fights when you tell him to fight, and (in one brief scene) scores when you tell him to score. Iā€™ve seen a few complaints about the repetitive nature of some of the finishing moves. At first, the only way to kill a Minotaur is by forcing your blade down its throat (rapidly pressing a button). Is this button mashing? Sure, but thereā€™s no disconnect between what you are doing with the controller and what Kratos is doing on-screen.

Beating God of War unlocks a harder difficulty setting, Challenges of the Gods, and a wealth of DVD-like extras. Thereā€™s a lengthy ā€œmaking ofā€ featurette, deleted levels, a character model graveyard, a closer look at the gameā€™s levels and monsters, and more. All thatā€™s missing is the opening level commentary track available on the God of War demo disk. Itā€™s a high quality presentation of a high quality game.

The Bad
God of War has a fixed camera system which shows Kratos, his opponents and elements of interest, but a freelook option would have been a nice touch. As it stands, the camera is great and often cinematic, but a few levels would be easier if Kratos could look around a bit. One particular area, a maze-like series of beams Kratos must creep across, would be less frustrating if the player could see what Kratos obviously could.

The frustration of this level pales in comparison to a hellish series of spiky, rotating pillars Kratos must climb. Touching a single spike sends Kratos plummeting downward past the three or four sections you managed to ascend. Frustrating, yes, but more annoying since thereā€™s no trick to it. Finally the endgame can be equally frustrating, especially if the spells youā€™ve leveled up arenā€™t working for you. Thankfully God of War shows some mercy if you keep dying, giving you the option to continue where you are at an easier setting, with no penalty.

The Bottom Line
Based solely on visuals and gameplay, God of War is a strong candidate for Game of the Year. But its epic story, wonderful acting, and incredible sound push it over the top. You canā€™t play God of War and think of the PS2 as being an aging platform. God of War shows not only what can be done with the PS2 now, but what developers should have been doing all along: providing seamless levels, cutscene-quality graphics, epic environments, and unnoticeable load times. God of War is a rich, satisfying gaming experience which leaves you waiting for the next installment and apathetic about the glut of toothless games currently out there.

PlayStation 2 · by Terrence Bosky (5397) · 2005

Gaming's Modern Mythology!

The Good
Greek Mythology has always been a treasure-trove of storytelling and scale for me: it's such a rich source of material to draw any story upon and its steeped history relating to Greek culture itself is fascinating, and I LOVE it when modern works try and critique the concept of Gods playing and using men as means to achieve their own omniscient ends. And God of War is probably the only game that can be described as a zeitgeist piece emphasizing the concept of 'Impact': everything you do, boss battles, the lives you save or take feel like they're all part of something HUGE and significant. It's an incredible journey of spectacle and scale.

The character Kratos, the player's character for the entire game, is a revelation in modern gaming: he's an anti-hero who's tragic yet relatable in that he's become a victim of his own hubris, pride and a pawn of the Gods of Olympus. He's a modern character that feels right at home; pop-culture's first true organically conceived extension of Greek Mythology.

God of War is a masterpiece in gaming history and one of Playstation's finest titles ever conceived. It's fast-paced, challenging, bloody and meaty in its hack-and-slash gameplay that it leaves you wanting more, in that you'll play IT again and follow on with the game's sequels.

The Bad
There's not really anything faulty with the game. I suppose the cut-scene rendering can sometimes range from amazing to so-so, give or take the PS2 or PS3 versions of the game. Aside from that, it's flawless.

The Bottom Line
God of War is one of the BIGGEST and most important games you'll ever play in your lifetime; truly. It's an experience, not just a game that you sit down and forget about later on. The same applies for the sequels too, especially God of War II. Imagine Clash of the Titans and Jason and the Argonauts movies updated for a gaming audience and made new again.

PlayStation 3 · by John H. (52) · 2019

Very gory.. but the more blood, the merrier I am!

The Good
This game was, to say the least, an entertaining trek through the world of Greek mythology. While platforming through a War-ravaged (LOL) Athens, you get to use all sorts of bloody fatalities, such as ripping an opponent in two, or impaling him on one of your chain blades, and swing him around in circles. The powers, while they were not as functional and useful as possible, were cool looking and could drastically change the way you played through.

The Bad
The game's cutscenes were too few, and some of them were annoying in that some of them consisted entirely of drawings, without any animation to speak of.

The Bottom Line
This game is great, so long as you don't mind the MK-style gore and the gut-wrenching fatalities.

PlayStation 2 · by lord of daedra (62) · 2007

[ View all 11 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Kratos Unicorn Lynx (181780) May 19, 2008

Trivia

1001 Video Games

The PS2 version of God of War appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Athena

In the God of War series, the Greek Goddess Athena is voiced by Carole Ruggier. Co-incidentally, she also voiced the same role in the game Age of Mythology.

Development

According the "Making of" materials, A number of elements were removed from the finished game. Kratos, for example, underwent a number of incarnations before his final design. Some of these included a tribalistic, African design with dreadlocks, a "Lone Wolf and Cub" theme that included a child or small dog (which may have inspired the Cerberus Pups), a vaguely futuristic, armoured look, and various gladiator designs, which were rejected because they didn't look savage enough.

German version

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe's original intention was to release this game in Germany alongside the other countries in June 2005. They even had a cover art for the Germany release ready, as you can see on this back cover, yet there was one big problem.

The USK, Germany's age rating organization, refused to give the game a rating. And while it is not illegal to sell games in Germany without a USK rating (in this case it acts in most cases as it were rated USK 18), Sony Computer Entertainment Deutschland decided to not release the game in Germany.

For this, SCED's Marketing Director Ulrich Barbian gave a statement telling that:

"The publication of a title without an age rating does not fit Sony Computer Entertainment Deutschland's company philosophy. As a pioneer of a whole category, we can't expect that the public accepts video gaming as a natural entertainment like music and video if we release titles without age ratings. We hope our Action-Adventure fans understand us. Besides, there are many very good Action-Adventures available for the PlayStation 2, which got an age rating from the USK."

Besides this marketing speech, there is another reason. Games released in Germany after April 2003 without a USK rating tend be be indexed shortly after. And this means that most of the sales drop to zero after a short time.

Essentially, publishers only have two choices once the USK rejects the game. Give up or cut it so much until the USK is satisfied. The latter of course runs the risk that the publisher is investing tons of money in cutting it down and the public won't take it anymore, because it is cut way too much.

A similar thing happened with Activision's Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil, where Activision decided not to release in in Germany after the USK refused it. And ultimately, the game found its way to the index.

But for God of War, don't cutting it down went to success, as the USK revised the decision two days ago, on 13 February 2006, when it got its USK 18 rating (and therefore the protection from being indexed). However, there is one change: during the sacrificing sequence the human victim was replaced with a monster.

Kratos

Kratos, the name of the game's main character, is Greek for strength or power. Even though he is not part of the canonical Greek mythology, a deity named Kratos (ĪŗĻĪ±Ļ„ĪæĻ‚, "power") is mentioned in several classic works, including Hesiod's Theogony, the primary source for Greek mythology.

Kratos was one of the four children of the titan Pallas and Ocean's daughter Styx. He had a brother named Zelos ("rivalry"), and sisters Bia ("force") and - the most famous of the four - Nike ("victory").

The four sided with Zeus when he fought the titans, and became somewhat of "bodyguards" to him. Interestingly enough, in the few myths that mention Kratos, his portrayal is not dissimilar to the protagonist of God of War. His loyalty to his master and his brutality are particularly noticeable.

Awards

  • 4Players
    • 2005 ā€“ Best Game Without German Release of the Year
    • 2006 ā€“ #2 Best Game of the Year
    • 2006 ā€“ #2 Best PlayStation 2 Game of the Year
    • 2006 ā€“ Best Action Game of the Year
    • 2006 ā€“ Best Hero of the Year (for Kratos)
    • 2006 ā€“ #2 Most Impressive Boss of the Year
    • 2006 ā€“ #2 Best Original Soundtrack of the Year
    • 2006 ā€“ #2 Best Voice-Acting of the Year
    • 2006 ā€“ #2 Best Graphics of the Year
    • 2006 ā€“ #3 Best Story of the Year
  • Computer Games Magazine
    • March 2006 - Console Game of the Year 2005
  • GamePro (Germany)
      1. February 2006 - Best Console Action Game in 2005 (notable is that the game was not released in Germany at this point)
  • GameSpy
    • 2005 ā€“ #3 Game of the Year
    • 2005 ā€“ PS2 Game of the Year
    • 2005 ā€“ PS2 Action Game of the Year
    • 2005 ā€“ PS2 Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)

Information also contributed b< Mark Ennis, PCGamer77, Supernintedo Chalmers and Unicorn Lynx

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by JPaterson.

PlayStation 3 added by MAT.

Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, Xoleras, formercontrib, DreinIX, Caelestis, Patrick Bregger, Charly2.0, FatherJack.

Game added April 13, 2005. Last modified January 28, 2024.