God of War Review 2: Another Perspective

God of War

What’s happening?

You start God of War, a one player, action adventure, as the anti-hero Kratos. It shows him on the verge of suicide as he jumps off the highest mountain in all of Olympus. Seconds before the impact, a narrator takes the scene and flashes back to three weeks prior. You start controlling this tattooed beef-cake Spartan on the helm of a ship, fighting all kinds of mythological baddies. All you learn about the story initially is that you are a bad-ass and the Gods beg of your assistance to retrieve the infamous Pandora’s Box in order to dispatch the out of control tyrant God, Ares.

Gameplay

When Kratos starts out in God of War, he wields a pair of axes that have actually been seared into his flesh by a pair of chains that run up the length of his arms. This deadly and creative weapon is known as the “Chaos Blades.” As you start, you’ve got some pretty easy combos to throw at your enemies and as you gain more combos, well, they don’t get any harder to pull off, but they do satisfy the bloodlust quite a bit more. You can upgrade your weapons and earn more through orbs that you acquire defeating the horde of skeletal warriors and other such mythical foes. You can even expand your abilities by reaching certain other Gods that are willing to support you in your cause, such as Zeus, who will let you hurl lightning at your enemies and Medusa who will let you turn them to stone for a time. You choose how your character evolves through the points you spend and are allowed an array of maneuvers to kill those who would stand in your way.

The rest of the God of War story creeps up slowly, but by the end of the game you have a connection to your character that almost seems out of place for a game of this platform, especially since your character is anything but your average hero. The story will simmer to a boil, but slowly and unforced so that you actually care about what’s happening, rectifying the mistake made by most of the would be good action adventure games out there, but even if you’re uninterested in the story, you won’t be disappointed, because the action never loses its flair throughout the duration of the game.

The Doctor’s Orders

Take two of these and call me in the morning… or next week… or whenever you finish the game, but do be sure to play God of War. It’s a game that can appeal to a wide variety of gamers, mostly in the sense that it treads the thin line of being uncomplicated but not boring either. I can reassure those of you who are timid about playing games that look too hard that this God of War is simple and you can and should enjoy it. My old female roommate (who chronically plays nothing but Mario Party games for fear that everything else is too hard) actually picked this one up after watching me play and she loved it.

For those of you who are now afraid to play God of War because it sounds too easy, I played it as well and loved every minute of it. It kept the right formula for puzzle to action ratio and if you’re still unconvinced it’ll provide a challenge, you can always start your game on the hard difficulty which is immediately available from the start of your game. Whatever the case may be, I dare you to at least rent it and find out for yourself.