God of War

The Good
Sometimes you pick up a game and try it. You play with it for a few minutes and then you say, "I'll definitely play it some time". God of War is not one of those games. GoW is a game that you start and don't leave until the very end. In just a few seconds you feel complete control over Kratos, the charismatic main character of the game. You feel the strength, the power, you sense you are about to enter a journey of epic proportions and you are just about right. This is a unique experience, with a feel of its own. From the very first moment of the game to the end, it's perfectly consistent with its concept and purposes. The story unfolds at the right pace, the difficulty level increases progressively, as you obtain new weapons, as you gain more power. It's challenging enough to give a sense of achievement as you progress, yet it is never hard to the brink of desperation. It's just perfect, there's no challenge in the game that you cannot overcome in a few attempts.

The Bad
There was nothing I disliked in this game. One can argue there's no true freedom of movements, that you cannot interact with most of the scenario, that the game relies too much on its own concepts and merits, not going beyond that setting. But, to be honest, I couldn't care less. If you tried to include any of these characteristics in the game, it just wouldn't be GoW, they just don't fit in the concept.

The Bottom Line
Many good games, technically well made, lack a certain charisma, a feel of completeness that ends up compromising the quality of the game. What's the point of playing a game if it doesn't entertain you, it doesn't give you any kind of satisfaction? A game is an experience. It doesn't always have to be realistic, you don't have to always be able to wander around an endless open world and destroy every particle of it. It doesn't have to last for 100 hours, with neverending sidequests or mini-games. I played God of War and I loved it. It was a great 10-hour gaming experience, immersive fun and whole.

The Good
Usually I like platform games, even though you need a lot of patience for them. "God of War" is just such a game. In every place you have to figure out the trick that you need to do to continue. Like for example there is a place with three switches, you need to find a way to press them all to open a door.

There is also fighting, and the moves look great. And there are many combinations to do different moves. Another very fun thing are those parts when you have to press different buttons one after the other, or the same button very quickly. Like for example when you have to press circle quickly to kill that cow. It's very cruel, to put a knife into the mouth of a cow. Poor cow! Well, it's not really a cow, more like a cow-warrior.

Speaking of those cows, there are some that are on fire. I don't understand how they can be alive. I mean, they are burning. This is already a steak, not a cow.

You also crawl on walls, like Spiderman, kicking the enemies that try to hit you. This part is a bit silly, just hit the enemies a couple of times until they fall down.

The great thing about all this is that there are always different things to do. You never feel bored. Sometimes there is a lot of fighting, sometimes a lot of puzzles.

It's a platform game with a great story. The story is great because of Kratos. Actually, Kratos is an evil man. He kills people, he even kills innocent people, he is very cruel. But... we still feel compassion to him. I don't know how the developers did that. I don't know how they could look so deep into his soul. They show us that this character is still a human being. He is bad, he continues doing bad things, but he also feels bad. He suffers. That was the most exciting thing in the game.

There was one very touching part in the game... I can't say exactly, but you will know when you play it. It reminded me of the song: "I Can't Give You Anything But Love"...

Now the other characters are gods. And they are really cruel. You have to be cruel to become a god. For example, Athena is very beautiful, but also very cruel. And Ares... well, he is the God of War, so if he doesn't make war, what would he be? It's "part of his job"... It's hard to say, because he is cruel, I admit it, but the whole meaning of his life is to be God of War, I don't think he can reject it. So when he dies... I even had some pity to him. And what happens in the end is very sad, very tragic.

The graphics and the music are cool, no complaints.

The Bad
The only bad thing is the camera.You can't look around. The camera changes automatically. You lose your direction. Especially me, because I have no sense of direction at all.

Maybe many people can think that killing an innocent person in a game is bad, but that was the game's intention. This game is all about war. Maybe that part where Kratos just kicked down an innocent man was a bit too much. Although I think it was part of the game's meaning. It's all about gods and sacrifices. And I mean, it's just a game. Don't take this part too seriously.

The Bottom Line
All the blood and violence are part of the game's idea, so they have a meaning. And Kratos is a complicated character, and his story is touching. "God of War" is a great platform game with a great story.

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.