The Good
To start, it's been awhile since I've played a really really good 3D action/adventure game. It's really not my thing since most of the time...like 80% some idiot developer manages to ruin the game play by messing with the camera view point.
Good to know, this game works pretty dang well in almost all aspects. Almost. Back to the review of the game... (note, the reviewer played the "Spartan Level" in this game...at least the I think it was the hardest available level you choose at the start)
What's good:
Color. It may be a shock to you, but there are a lot of 3D action/adventure games with lousy coloring. Seriously, most of these games either have a fantasy/horror/mystery theme to it, so they have a bad habit of using the standard grayish gloomy-like color which is very unattractive to the eyes and in the long run often bores you, thus inhibiting gaming excitement. But in God of War, there is a lot of texture blend in the colors, a lot of bright red and blue but not too bright but just right. It's nice when you can actually appreciate the choice of colors they used in this game.
Graphics. Again, above average. Lot's of little details in the game you'd probably notice. It's also great that you have "mini Matrix movements" when you block or use combos. But enough about graphics.
Levels/ Dungeon? Dang it, I forgot what term you use to describe the areas/rooms of the game. Anyway I noticed that most of the game play revolves around the same place. It's kinda fun when you finish one of the many tasks in a specific area, only to find out you pop out from an underground sewer or way above on a bridge overlooking the place where you just came in before...thinking "oh, so this is where I am". Very nice and advance architecture in this regard. It's not just every new room every time. It's funny that you can appreciate using the same places every once in a while in an adventure game.
Music and Sound. It's alright. Could've been better though. Much better. As it's set in ancient Greek, more latin or gothic sounds and music would support the game a bit more. It's still great though mind you, but after the music and sounds in Rome: Total War, your standards of sound and music become a little higher than usual.
Gameplay. Some good, some bad. Combat was easy enough, mostly every works the way you want it to. Most of the time anyway. Another good thing about the gameplay are the little "ending moves" for certain creatures, where you press specified buttons instead of just attacking. It really does add some enjoyment and excitement to the gameplay.
Story. A little light, but better than a lot of other games. Love the cutscenes! I live for cutscenes!
**The Bad**
Well regardless about the bad sh*t I will say about the game, this game really deserves good credit. I wouldn't be surprised if it snagged a couple of awards. It's really good and above average compared to the many lame 3D action/adventure games recently released out there. If only they could make games like this a "minimal standard". Back to the review...
The bad:
Story. I said it was a little light. It's not bad really, but this game really deserves a much more thicker plot and story. Since 80% of the time your dizzy finding your way in mazes and avoiding traps, it would be nice to add a little story here and there, not just when you finish every major quest. But that's just me...
Game play. Some major irritating features in this game. Often you move not in the way you'd like to or attack instead of block attacks. Controls need to be a little better when it comes to blocking since often because of really fast reaction time you often get confused and use an attack instead of blocking, of which use the same buttons. (L1=Block, but press another button, it becomes an attack...irritating when your finger moves faster than your brain)
There are also some really irritating areas which I really loathe. This has to do with areas that require you to jump...really fast or die. I hate jumping in this game, often you don't have a really good chance. Also often in areas that require jump or die sequences, they put checkpoints in the wrong place or checkpoints only occur once (which you really don't know since you can't see a check point...but on their defence, there really are a lot of check points)
One example was in Hades. I really got frustrated jumping those logs, only to find out I missed a treasure chest, went back, got the treasure chest, got killed, but when I quick loaded, it was no where near the treasure chest I missed and more irritating to find out in the quick load, the treasure chest was opened yet. Even more irritating is every time you quick load, that dang monster archer you thought you killed still lives every time you quick load, so you keep killing him again and again. Most irritating is that often you have to quick load 20-30 times, even more for the same dang puzzle or event.
Most what ticked me off the most was near the end game. So I finally caught up with ol'Ares. I literally had to load the game 30 or more to defeat this sucker.
Then I noticed that the controls went bad on me. When you try to evade (by rolling) it seem you can only go front, back, left, right but not diagonally. Which is often irritating since the area of combat is so small, evading is quite a feat without getting punched with that over-sized hammer of his. Often I ending up evading TOWARD Ares instead of away from him.
Why?
Camera viewpoint. Again, seems to be the eternal curse of all 3D action/adventure games. Visually, moving the camera around gives a sense of realism and action. But it can often backfire, especially in quick reaction-time combat. And with battling Ares, knowing your position and timing is everything. Unfortunately, often the camera view point get's in the way and with all the magic floating around, the scene get's somewhat crowded. Thus you have difficulty locating your character, and moving in the direction you want is often a problem since that dang camera also keeps moving. Thus you more than often move or evade in directions you really don't want to go.
Anyway, if finally defeated that ugly god (which by the way was also a graphical let-down. I was expecting something more realistic or gruesome) only to find myself faced with another battle filled with one-to-many Kronos look-a-likes. I never passed this stage since it was insanely difficult or I missed something, but anyway for some stupid reason the game crashed on me so I restarted.
Guess what. I'm stuck at the area BEFORE I defeated Ares. !@#!$@!@#!@#!@# What the F!#K!!! After hours of trying to defeat that guy in the first place, the developers stupidly forgot place a save game option after defeating Ares??? Seriously, that killed the last ounce of happiness I got from the game, with the addition of pumping my blood pressure to the roof. So I ended this game with a really bad note. No an angry note.
**The Bottom Line**
A good game, but something developers tend to forget:
"What you seem to be fun or challenging may not be the same for the player..."