Prowling The Grounds of Ancient Greek
Game Review
God of War (for the PlayStation2)
By Sony Computer Entertainment
Developed by SCE Studio Santa Monica
Games of excellent quality are hard to come by. And so God of War took me by surprise. I wasn't expecting the game to be that good, but after reading several game reviews (Gamespot, who's usually quite stingy in giving game scores in reviews, gave it a 9.3, an unusual thing) saying that this game is outstanding, I became quite intrigued. So, after getting a copy, I sat down in my room, inserted the DVD disc into my PlayStation2 console, and started playing. And time flies by without my realizing it. Those reviews were quite right. This game is outstanding.
The game opens up with Kratos, the main anti-hero, standing before a very high cliff, uttering the words: "The gods of Olympus have abandoned me." With that, he jumps, and descends into a watery death...or so it seems. Along the way, the narrator opens up by saying that Kratos was the champions of the gods, that things seem dire for him for the moment (nothing could be more dire than someone jumping to his death from the highest cliff in the world) but that it has not always been so. Flashback to three weeks earlier, player finds Kratos on the bow of a ship on the Aegean Sea, facing a hoard of undead soldiers and screaming "Foul creatures! I will send you to the depth of Hades!", and so the real game begins.
To sum it up, Kratos is on a mission to kill Ares, the God of War. Why? Because he has the other gods backing him up and ultimately, he's got a vengeance to settle with Ares. So, as the reader might have guessed, this game's background is set based on Greek mythology. The levels' architecture, the character designs, the soundtrack, they all spell out Greek.
What makes this game so excellent? First of all, it's the gameplay. SCE Studio Santa Monica has done it right, creating a gameplay that is so smooth and fluid. Every move that Kratos has in his arsenal can be executed with ease. And to accompany this, they have created animations that are also smooth and fluid (except for Kratos' double jump, which could have benefitted from a bit more work). There are a lot of possible combinations of moves, and the transition between the moves are so fluid and natural, and what's more, they're easy to execute. Granted, Devil May Cry 3 may have a lot more possible combinations of moves and combos (but quite an equal amount of bad-ass style, in my opinion) but for some reason, God of War is more...solid, robust. It was fun too, playing the mini-games that pop up whenever you've damaged an enemy severely (usually this apply to those lumbering, mid and large-size enemies) where you have to tap the correct buttons according to the display on the screen or mash a certain button repeatedly. They may get quite repetitious after some time, but well, personally there's some sense of satisfaction in jamming a blade down a minotaur's throat (especially if the aforementioned minotaur just took off a big portion of your life bar).
So, what does Kratos have in his arsenal? His main weapon is the Blade of Chaos, a pair of blades chained to his arms so that he could swing it around in any manner he likes. It has a long range and quite powerful, especially when you have upgraded it to higher levels. You will be using this weapon for the most part of the game. What's Greek mythology without some godly magic? Gods of Olympus will bestow magics to Kratos during the course of the game. These magics will help Kratos in tight situations. Granted that more variety in magic is desirable. But they are enough to help him in his quest and to keep things interesting.
The enemies themselves are quite diverse, ranging from the hoard of undead soldiers, the nimble and agile harpies, the lithe and slithering gorgons, to huge, lumbering cyclops and minotaurs. Well, the game IS based on Greek mythology, so expect a lot of Greek monsters and other kinds of Greek ugliness. These monsters attack relentlessly, so Kratos must always be on his guard. Blocking and evading are a must during the course of the game.
And the puzzles...well, people have differing opinions about the puzzles. As for me, I found them to be quite intelligent. Not too hard to figure out, but quite clever. There's even a part of the game where you have to rotate a temple to solve a puzzle. Intriguing. In any case, the game has managed to create a good balance between the hack-and-slash part and the puzzle part.
Yes, the game could get very gory (they rated this game M, by the way). And this happens most of the time in the game. There's a lot of blood spilled, a lot of ripped-off mythological creatures' limbs flying in every direction, and a lot of bared breasts. There's even a sex 'sequence' mini-game where you have to tap buttons and rotate analog sticks. Interesting, isn't it? Well, stay away if you don't like blood and gore. But you'll be missing a very good game.
The game's designs are also outstanding. It could be said that the architectures found in the surroundings, be it the buildings, the temples, the statues, the mountains, the cliffs, everything has been crafted in mythological proportion. For those who are into movies, think Lord of the Ring trilogy. And to help emphasize this, the programmer has managed to design camera angles that could elevate the level of grandness of the game's many structures into soaring heights. Case in point: there's a part in the game where you're walking up a grand stairway into Athens, the camera's perspective is behind Kratos, near his feet, looking up at the top of the stairs. The view beyond the grand stairway is obstructed by banners flying in the wind. As you reach the top, the camera shifts and moves forward beyond Kratos to reveal a platform with view of the city of Athens from above and mountains in the horizon, with the god of war in his giant form in the distance laying siege to the city. Arrows are flying everywhere (most were aimed toward Ares) while Ares himself is hurling fireballs and scooping up buildings from the ground as if they're toy houses. Above Ares' head, clouds are swirling, a sign of Ares' magnificence. I know my words are not enough to describe the atmosphere, so play the game and you'll know what I mean.
And to even lift the game's mood into the stratosphere, SCE Studio Santa Monica has composed a set of soundtrack worthy of A-list movies. The soundtrack, together with the camera angle, has succesfully created an atmosphere of Greek mythology, with orchestras and choirs singing songs that help form a level grandness usually invoked when one thinks of Greek mythology, and the camera angles helping to emphasize the sense of grandness. Well, once again, think of The Lord of the Ring. Another case in point: there's a sequence where Kratos is walking up to the statue of Athena holding a sword, and the sword is used as a bridge for Kratos to walk on. The camera's view is from Kratos' lower right, looking at him from the lower right, Kratos filling the left side of the screen, while in the distance, on the right side of the screen, the statue of Athena in all its grandness, stood before Kratos, filling the right side of the screen. All this while an orchestra is playing. Once again, play the game and you'll know what I mean.
From the technical point of view, SCE Studio Santa Monica has been quite successful in creating an in-game engine that's quite solid. It gives the game a sense of integrity. There's almost no loading screen (only when you're loading your save game) between stages, making it feels like the game is composed of only one very huge stage. Well, actually, there are loadings, but it occurs in the background. The programmers has cleverly hidden the loading instances. So, when you're walking in a narrow hall with a lot of twist and turns, you can bet that that's when the game is loading the next huge hall or area that you'll be coming across. The architectures themselves are quite clever. You'll be coming back to places you've traverse before through other passages and you'll be saying a lot of things like, "So THIS is where this passage/hall/cave leads to!" It's like backtracking, but through different routes.
Well, once you've finished the game, there's nothing much to go back to. The difference in each difficulty level lies only in how much life is taken off from our anti-hero everytime an enemy lands a blow on him. There's no difference in AI aggressiveness, patterns, or anything else. And from the way I see it, even though it's a very outstanding game, I couldn't help but to feel that this game is not long enough. I finished it within 8 hours of playing on Hard (Spartan) difficulty. And I couldn't help but think that there aren't enough levels to play in. Granted that the programmers have done a great job in creating the stages and to craft their intricate designs and its many passageways, but I think that they could have done more in terms of quantity. But heck, even the ones that are available are huge enough, with a lot of beautiful details in them. So, it's only a minor complain. In another word, I just couldn't get enough. Well, this game was finished under a deadline, so there are things that has been cut out in the final game. Even with that, it's still an oustanding game. I demand a sequel! And it's better be good! I give this game 9 out of 10.
God of War (for the PlayStation2)
By Sony Computer Entertainment
Developed by SCE Studio Santa Monica
Games of excellent quality are hard to come by. And so God of War took me by surprise. I wasn't expecting the game to be that good, but after reading several game reviews (Gamespot, who's usually quite stingy in giving game scores in reviews, gave it a 9.3, an unusual thing) saying that this game is outstanding, I became quite intrigued. So, after getting a copy, I sat down in my room, inserted the DVD disc into my PlayStation2 console, and started playing. And time flies by without my realizing it. Those reviews were quite right. This game is outstanding.
The game opens up with Kratos, the main anti-hero, standing before a very high cliff, uttering the words: "The gods of Olympus have abandoned me." With that, he jumps, and descends into a watery death...or so it seems. Along the way, the narrator opens up by saying that Kratos was the champions of the gods, that things seem dire for him for the moment (nothing could be more dire than someone jumping to his death from the highest cliff in the world) but that it has not always been so. Flashback to three weeks earlier, player finds Kratos on the bow of a ship on the Aegean Sea, facing a hoard of undead soldiers and screaming "Foul creatures! I will send you to the depth of Hades!", and so the real game begins.
To sum it up, Kratos is on a mission to kill Ares, the God of War. Why? Because he has the other gods backing him up and ultimately, he's got a vengeance to settle with Ares. So, as the reader might have guessed, this game's background is set based on Greek mythology. The levels' architecture, the character designs, the soundtrack, they all spell out Greek.
What makes this game so excellent? First of all, it's the gameplay. SCE Studio Santa Monica has done it right, creating a gameplay that is so smooth and fluid. Every move that Kratos has in his arsenal can be executed with ease. And to accompany this, they have created animations that are also smooth and fluid (except for Kratos' double jump, which could have benefitted from a bit more work). There are a lot of possible combinations of moves, and the transition between the moves are so fluid and natural, and what's more, they're easy to execute. Granted, Devil May Cry 3 may have a lot more possible combinations of moves and combos (but quite an equal amount of bad-ass style, in my opinion) but for some reason, God of War is more...solid, robust. It was fun too, playing the mini-games that pop up whenever you've damaged an enemy severely (usually this apply to those lumbering, mid and large-size enemies) where you have to tap the correct buttons according to the display on the screen or mash a certain button repeatedly. They may get quite repetitious after some time, but well, personally there's some sense of satisfaction in jamming a blade down a minotaur's throat (especially if the aforementioned minotaur just took off a big portion of your life bar).
So, what does Kratos have in his arsenal? His main weapon is the Blade of Chaos, a pair of blades chained to his arms so that he could swing it around in any manner he likes. It has a long range and quite powerful, especially when you have upgraded it to higher levels. You will be using this weapon for the most part of the game. What's Greek mythology without some godly magic? Gods of Olympus will bestow magics to Kratos during the course of the game. These magics will help Kratos in tight situations. Granted that more variety in magic is desirable. But they are enough to help him in his quest and to keep things interesting.
The enemies themselves are quite diverse, ranging from the hoard of undead soldiers, the nimble and agile harpies, the lithe and slithering gorgons, to huge, lumbering cyclops and minotaurs. Well, the game IS based on Greek mythology, so expect a lot of Greek monsters and other kinds of Greek ugliness. These monsters attack relentlessly, so Kratos must always be on his guard. Blocking and evading are a must during the course of the game.
And the puzzles...well, people have differing opinions about the puzzles. As for me, I found them to be quite intelligent. Not too hard to figure out, but quite clever. There's even a part of the game where you have to rotate a temple to solve a puzzle. Intriguing. In any case, the game has managed to create a good balance between the hack-and-slash part and the puzzle part.
Yes, the game could get very gory (they rated this game M, by the way). And this happens most of the time in the game. There's a lot of blood spilled, a lot of ripped-off mythological creatures' limbs flying in every direction, and a lot of bared breasts. There's even a sex 'sequence' mini-game where you have to tap buttons and rotate analog sticks. Interesting, isn't it? Well, stay away if you don't like blood and gore. But you'll be missing a very good game.
The game's designs are also outstanding. It could be said that the architectures found in the surroundings, be it the buildings, the temples, the statues, the mountains, the cliffs, everything has been crafted in mythological proportion. For those who are into movies, think Lord of the Ring trilogy. And to help emphasize this, the programmer has managed to design camera angles that could elevate the level of grandness of the game's many structures into soaring heights. Case in point: there's a part in the game where you're walking up a grand stairway into Athens, the camera's perspective is behind Kratos, near his feet, looking up at the top of the stairs. The view beyond the grand stairway is obstructed by banners flying in the wind. As you reach the top, the camera shifts and moves forward beyond Kratos to reveal a platform with view of the city of Athens from above and mountains in the horizon, with the god of war in his giant form in the distance laying siege to the city. Arrows are flying everywhere (most were aimed toward Ares) while Ares himself is hurling fireballs and scooping up buildings from the ground as if they're toy houses. Above Ares' head, clouds are swirling, a sign of Ares' magnificence. I know my words are not enough to describe the atmosphere, so play the game and you'll know what I mean.
And to even lift the game's mood into the stratosphere, SCE Studio Santa Monica has composed a set of soundtrack worthy of A-list movies. The soundtrack, together with the camera angle, has succesfully created an atmosphere of Greek mythology, with orchestras and choirs singing songs that help form a level grandness usually invoked when one thinks of Greek mythology, and the camera angles helping to emphasize the sense of grandness. Well, once again, think of The Lord of the Ring. Another case in point: there's a sequence where Kratos is walking up to the statue of Athena holding a sword, and the sword is used as a bridge for Kratos to walk on. The camera's view is from Kratos' lower right, looking at him from the lower right, Kratos filling the left side of the screen, while in the distance, on the right side of the screen, the statue of Athena in all its grandness, stood before Kratos, filling the right side of the screen. All this while an orchestra is playing. Once again, play the game and you'll know what I mean.
From the technical point of view, SCE Studio Santa Monica has been quite successful in creating an in-game engine that's quite solid. It gives the game a sense of integrity. There's almost no loading screen (only when you're loading your save game) between stages, making it feels like the game is composed of only one very huge stage. Well, actually, there are loadings, but it occurs in the background. The programmers has cleverly hidden the loading instances. So, when you're walking in a narrow hall with a lot of twist and turns, you can bet that that's when the game is loading the next huge hall or area that you'll be coming across. The architectures themselves are quite clever. You'll be coming back to places you've traverse before through other passages and you'll be saying a lot of things like, "So THIS is where this passage/hall/cave leads to!" It's like backtracking, but through different routes.
Well, once you've finished the game, there's nothing much to go back to. The difference in each difficulty level lies only in how much life is taken off from our anti-hero everytime an enemy lands a blow on him. There's no difference in AI aggressiveness, patterns, or anything else. And from the way I see it, even though it's a very outstanding game, I couldn't help but to feel that this game is not long enough. I finished it within 8 hours of playing on Hard (Spartan) difficulty. And I couldn't help but think that there aren't enough levels to play in. Granted that the programmers have done a great job in creating the stages and to craft their intricate designs and its many passageways, but I think that they could have done more in terms of quantity. But heck, even the ones that are available are huge enough, with a lot of beautiful details in them. So, it's only a minor complain. In another word, I just couldn't get enough. Well, this game was finished under a deadline, so there are things that has been cut out in the final game. Even with that, it's still an oustanding game. I demand a sequel! And it's better be good! I give this game 9 out of 10.
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