God of War

THE BAD:
Free roam wasn't available, Invisible walls.

SUMMARY:
In God of War you take control of Kratos, a Spartan General, and pawn of the God of War - Ares. As Kratos fights a large Barbarian horde the tides turn and Kratos' army is overwhelmed. The Barbarians are ruthless and slay all, when Kratos' life seemed to be at an end at the hands of the Barbarian King he takes a vow to serve Ares. Ares accepts this and kills the Barbarians and saves Kratos' life and honor. Along with a victorious battle Kratos recieves the Blades of Chaos, from Ares, two chained blades burned into his forearms. You now must do what none other has done, you must slay a God. Ares is the enemy, and so is all who stand in your way. Kratos kicks ass across Athens, saving Athena's glorious city and then into the Desert of Lost Souls, and finally to Pandora's Temple. Kratos gets his hands on Pandora's Box and then his plans go alittleoff course and he gets sent to Hades, then he must fight his way back to the real world and then he fights Ares. This game is awesome, there's nothing else to say besides that. It's one game that you can't help but get addicted to, bottom line. This game will change your opinion on gameplay in the future. Besides the great gameplay there's also God Mode, and extremely hard version of the game and then the Challenge of the Gods. Both of which you get gladly rewarded for with bonus extra's and story.

THE BAD:
The lack of bosses(only 3!?) and the lack of weapons(you get 2 and the other one doesnt get new moves you level it up, that sucks)plus its short.

SUMMARY:
The game of which got oh so much hype, 2nd best overall game of the year, 10's in magazines, hell gamespot gave it a 9.6 which is umbelieveable seeing as they are so tight assed.

Anyways this game is about Kratos, now Kratos is no ordinary guy, he was trained by the gods so he can take a beating. Kratos has two chained swords that are preety much melted on his arms for life. Now I wont say what he wants revenge on the god of war Aeris with but god damnit he aint letting Zeus himse;f get in the way of his vengece! This guy is mean, really mean like the "*bleep* YOU!" kind of attitude. The guy is jsut plain mad at the everything, but finding out why is preety shocking, though I think you should find out yourself, it wouldnt be fair if I said anything right?

The gameplay for this game is Devil May Cry inspired(hell what game isnt these days? just look at some of my other reviews!)but it does bring an idea or two to the table that works preety good. Like dodging, in this game you dodge with the right analog stick, its intersting a new and I like it. Now Kratos has got two chained swords, and they aint for show, also seeing as he is a very angry person and your a gamer, its up to you to satisfy his rage. The square button is used for weak but quick attacks, and triagle is strong but slow attacks, circle is for grabing and L1 is for magic.

Every time you kill an enemy you will receive "red essence"(didnt I say it was DMC inspired?) youl also get green essence for health and blue for magic.(you can also open chests for these aswell) Another aspect of battle is the sort of "mini games" you can play. Lets say you fight a cyclops and you hit im so much he is groggy, well there will be a circle button above him head. Bow wehn you press the circle button another button will flash on screen, when you press it another will pop up until your done or you get interupted or you just couldnt do it fast enough. Now this will either kill normal enemies or unless your fighting one of the very few bosses it will aid you and make the battle easier.

You will also receive magic in the game which can be leveled up and and made better like your blades of chaos(forgot to mention but when you leveled up your blades of chaos you learn new moves aswell)There are 4 magic attacks in the game: Poseidon's rage, Zeus's Fury, Medusa's Head and the army of Hades. All of them are good in their own way and are all useful. You also receive the blade of Artemis which in case you gget bored of the blades of chaos, well heres a bigass sword for ya instead of whip swords.(can also be leveld up)

Youve heard alot of good but heres the bad, the game is short, like rental short. If you buy it though thats not a bad idea since the replay value is preety damn good wih a very easy, easy, normal, hard and god modes. If you beat god mode you get alot of extra stuff but that still doenst take away the fact that its still short. Also only having three bosses really sucks. There is also the lack of weapons, I mean yeah the blades of chaos are cool and so is the blade of artemis but since thats all there is then thats really gay. Also the blade of artemis doesnt learn new moes like the blades of chaos, one word LAME!

Alright overall this game was preety fun, I reccomend a rental but I wont blame you if you end up buying it afterwords. This is Zero and X and Iam saying god of war is worthy of your money. Peace

THE BAD:
- Shallow and derivative gameplay.

- Annoying enemies that constantly regenerate.

- Boring level design.

- Overly-complicated control scheme.

- Short.

SUMMARY:
With great hype comes great responsibility to fulfill expectations. Now, I have been let down by hype before (Halo). I was willing to give this game a chance since it’s been acclaimed by so much of the gaming press. Unfortunately, God of War has more hype than tricks up its sleeve, leaving an unimpressive, short, frustrating, and sometimes downright boring pile of poor game design wrapped in a pretty package.

Furthering the decay of inventive and original game design, God of War attempts to mask the fact that it occasionally blatantly steals conventions from other gaming franchises with excessive amounts of violence, gore, loud noises, pretentious orchestral music, and occasional nudity.

The game shamelessly strives to be both Devil May Cry and Prince of Persia at the same time by not only mimicking gameplay aspects, but by flat-out stealing moments from said games. For instance, save points in GoW look suspiciously like the Sands of Time save points in PoP. Remember walking on narrow beams in PoP as they crumbled and fell? GoW has moments that are identical in nature. In fact, GoW has many similar segments (except they’re not as fun or fleshed out) such as similar puzzles, lever-pulling sequences, acrobatic maneuvers, etc.

In GoW, killing enemies earns you “red orbs”, which you then use to power up your weapons and items. Anyone who’s played a DMC game will notice that this sounds familiar. Why’s that? Well, you do the same thing in DMC: collect red orbs by killing enemies to power up your weapons and items. The combat system is also reminiscent of DMC (only slower and not as responsive). Where Dante was agile, strong, stylish, and is armed with an arsenal of devastating weapons and combos, Kratos is slow, his attacks are weak, he lacks style, and his moves are limited in variety.

GoW also implements the same time-sensitive button pressing that Resident Evil 4 made excellent use of. This involves pressing prompted buttons at certain times to do certain things. For example, in RE4, the control scheme was much simplified through use of this technique. Instead of dedicating a button for melee attacks, the A button could be used for kicking or grabbing when enemies got close enough. These were also implemented into cutscenes, as your ability to press certain buttons when prompted determined how the cutscene played out (and whether you died or not). In GoW, this technique is used only for killing enemies after you’ve beat them to near death. So basically, you can either finish the enemy off with a few more attacks, or you can try to grab them (usually you’ll end up trying to grab the wrong enemy, and getting counter-attacked) and initiate the little cutscene that requires you to press the correct buttons. If you fail, you get introduced to some pain. These sequences add practically nothing to the experience and usually require excessive amounts of annoying button tapping.

The combat system is more flash than class. Flashy attacks mask the unsatisfying combat and constantly regenerating enemies. You’re usually pitted against only one type of enemy at a time, and instead of utilizing clever AI that requires you to think on your feet, the game just throws massive numbers of enemies at you; cluttering the screen with movement to keep you busy. Most enemies only know one or two attacks, and they’ll brainlessly stand around while waiting for their turn to toss one at you. Frustration reaches new levels later in the game when enemies get the ability to block and counter your attacks. So now not only can you not see what you’re attacking, but you’ll be constantly thwarted by enemies blocking, then find yourself on the receiving end of inescapable combos as just about every enemy on the screen attacks you at the same time.

And when I say that combat is unsatisfying, it really does amount to nothing. Enemies are rarely stunned by your attacks, meaning that you can’t juggle them in combos that often or else they’ll just turn it around and catch you in a combo of their own (which you can’t escape until it’s finished). If I’m swinging a big ass sword at some little monster, I expect it to get knocked around a bit, and NOT suddenly engulf me in flames during mid-combo.

The controls are also overly complicated, often giving you far too many choices when just one attack will usually suffice. Button confusion is difficult to avoid unless you choose one attack and stick with it until all the enemies on screen are dead and buried. To emphasize how complicated the control scheme is, I’ll use an example: you’re pressing the square button to use quick attacks to soften up enemies at mid-range, when suddenly they surround you (Because your attacks don’t stagger them) and you want to use one of your magic spells to deal major damage to all of them. To choose the correct spell, you must first move your thumb from the control stick to the D-pad and quickly remember what button the spell you want is mapped to, then you have to press the L2 button (or sometimes, the L2 button + some other button). Then your spell ends, but some enemies are still alive and some are respawning, so you want to finish some off with a heavy attack (triangle button) but it’s too slow to stop them from swarming you again so you’ll want to dodge out of the group by using the right analog stick, which requires you to bring your thumb away from the button pad momentarily. Then you’ll want to grab one of the weaker enemies but there’s no targeting system, so chances are you’ll try to grab an enemy that can’t be grabbed and end up getting counter-attacked but then you’ll want to use one of the fancy moves which requires holding down the L1 button then pressing an attack button, but that attack is too slow and you end up getting raped.

After finally downing a group of annoying enemies, what better than to have them ALL regenerate and attack you again? Sometimes the same group of enemies will spawn again and again and again until the game permits you to go further. And by that I mean the game implements one of the lamest action gaming conventions ever; barriers that suddenly appear and block off exit from a room until you kill all the enemies.

Speaking of lame gaming conventions, God of War occasionally dabbles in the forbidden world of back tracking. Remember that one room with the thing that you did before? It’s time to go back there again! This time, there’ll be more enemies there! GoW tries to incorporate a myriad of action and platforming conventions, but doesn’t excel or add anything new to any of them. The platforming is weak and derivative, usually involving jumping up a few platforms to the next flat surface so you can fight another group of regenerating enemies. The puzzles are hardly worthy of mind-bending status, and item collecting rears its ugly, ugly head every now and then. One of the biggest crimes in gaming these days is the inclusion of box-sliding puzzles. After cutting off a Minotaur’s legs and stabbing its brain, what could be a better transition than to stop and slowly drag a block through a linear puzzle?

One of the most disappointing characteristics of the game is the un-tapped potential to create incredible and awe-inspiring environments of mythological scale. Taking place in ancient Greece, you’d expect epic mountain ranges, sprawling cities, beautiful temples of divine architectural design, titanic statues fit for the gods, and raging seas of endless blue. Instead, you’re locked in a crumbling temple for the majority of the game, staring at the same rock/granite textures for hours.

So how long can you stay in one single dungeon? Not long, actually. The game is unforgivingly short, clocking in at around 10 hours. Leaving the game with an unfinished feeling.

What good can be said about this game? Well, the graphics are pretty and the orchestral sound track is excellently done. Both of which are frequently used to enhance the lacking gameplay. Running down a bland hallway is spiced up through a loud chorus and thundering drums. The cutscenes are also rendered and voiced fairly well. Combat also has it’s moments of high intensity, and some of the magic is fun to use and look at.



Breakdown:

Gameplay: 3. Barrows heavily from established action/adventure franchises from the past but doesn’t do anything new or particularly good with them. The platforming is too derivative to give platformer fans any kicks, the fighting is too slow, unresponsive, and irresponsibly chaotic to tickle the fighting fans, and the puzzles are too easy and bland to attract the thinking gamers. After smacking around your 400th dead legionnaire, Old Man Repetition starts to take his toll. At times the game even reaches into the depths of the bag of BORING and left me a bit sleepy-eyed.

Control: 3. Complicated control scheme and an uncontrollable camera. The enemies move faster than you do, and unless you can somehow keep track of what enemy is about to attack you out of the sea of moving enemies that usually surrounds you, you’ll be getting knocked on your ass often because the dodging system is flawed at best.

Story: 3. Most of the story involves the slow unraveling of who Kratos is. How unfortunate that Kratos isn’t a likable character. He lacks personality and any sort of direction. He’s not a hero, and he’s not an anti-hero. Most of the time he’s just an overdramatic jerk. He seems to be the kind of guy that would step on kittens for fun. The rest of the story is pretty straight-forward: Aries goes insane and Kratos has to get Pandora’s box to fight him.

Graphics: 4. Cutscenes are well-done and the game definitely boasts some visual appeal, but you spend most of your time looking at old and dusty ruins while being attacked by the same old and dusty demons (which are uninspired and poorly rendered). It would have been nice if the player could actually control the camera and decide what to look at (the ability to put the camera into the eyes of Kratos would have opened the world more), but sadly, no camera control. Sob.

Sound: 4. The orchestral score adds nearly all of the “epic” feeling of the game. A statue is just a statue until a chorus screams loudly and drums thunder through your speakers. Sound effects are also decent, but the game lacks environmental ambience.

Lifespan: 3. The game is shorter than a Greek tragedy, just barely stretching to the 10 hour mark. There are some unlockables and bonus costumes, but if you didn’t have fun the first time through, why bother?

FunFactor: 3. If mediocre gameplay that’s drenched in orchestral music, flashy combat moves, and more gore than you stomach sounds like a blast to you, then this game will probably give you some joy. But for the gamer that’s looking for some inventive and intuitive action/adventure gameplay, look elsewhere.

Lasting Impression (Independent Score): 2. GoW is a title that left several bad tastes in my mouth all at the same time. Had i not spent 5 bucks to rent it for 5 days, i would have quit playing and taken it back after the first night.



Bottom line:

Does hype make average gameplay better? No. If for some reason you are remotely interested in checking out this game, rent before you buy. Casual gamers just looking for some flash and glitz might get some enjoyment out of it, but as a seasoned gamer, i just coulnd't help but feel that i've done this all before in much better games.

This painfully average sleeping pill is struck with a painfully average score of 3.3 out of 5.

THE BAD:
The camera can get annoying at times, the difficulty might be too much for some gamers, especially on God Mode (comparable to Legendary on Halo 2). The game is also very short, on my first play through I beat it in 8 hours.

SUMMARY:
This game is insanely satisfying as you play as Kratos. The combos are sure not to disappoint, which every gamer will have fun with. The game does show a few scenes of nudity, but nothing below the waist, some of it is more to be artistic. If you're into games like Devil May Cry in which this game is easily comparable to, you will have fun. If you don't like gore, or nudity than this is probably not for you. But otherwise, this game is very fun.

THE BAD:
Not very long (finished it in 7 days, thank God of Time I rented it).
Camera issues, major camera issues.

SUMMARY:
Difficulty: Semi-Easy.

In a time of power the god of war Ares has possessed an ex-Spartan soldier named Kratos. As Kratos you were once the most vicious warrior in all of Greece. Now you must go on your last quest and slay Ares by finding the mysterious Pandora's Box. Battle evil monsters with your double swords, deadly flails or magic attacks. Explore a unique and diverse environments ranging from mountain tops to sacred temples.

Now, when you explore, you go fairly slow, but I don't care. While exploring, you might find lots of treasure, or some monsters, in which case, you go and slash their ass off (not literally, of course). It's good because blood comes out of them. I also like the fights because they are not so brief and then when they die, well, it's good. But I hate how you sometimes can't see what you're doing because you can't manipulate the camera. It's stupid.

In fact, this is pretty short, and easy, too. Sure, the graphics look almost real, but don't let that make you overlook. I like the graphics but I still rented it. Yes, it looks almost real, but the game is pretty short.

Overall, if you want this game, rent it! You'll finish God of War pretty easily. You could always buy Prince of Persia Warrior Within (that takes much longer and the camera problems are fixed).

Score: 3.5/5.0

THE BAD:
somethings were almost to the impossible to see and no where your going, they didn't really show you the way, and not the greatest way to build a complicated environment, it should be filled with something thats in plain view but hard to figure out like some of the game had, but some parts had cracked walls that you could only see if you actually could change the camera angle to the way you wanted, which you could not

SUMMARY:
i would like the company to make more games like god of war, so gamers like myself will never get bored with easy games like prince of persia, or kingdom hearts

THE BAD:
i have to wait for the sequal. really good game, i really liked the way that they made kratos and all the extra features like the trailers you can unlock and the extra costumes, challenge of the gods andall that. i cant wait for the sequal to come out, i really enjoyed this game in all aspects.

SUMMARY:
really good game, i really liked the way that they made kratos and all the extra features like the trailers you can unlock and the extra costumes, challenge of the gods andall that. i cant wait for the sequal to come out, i really enjoyed this game in all aspects.

THE BAD:
length
no replay value
weapons don't carry over
zeuz's fury
meduza's gaze

SUMMARY:
This is a very good game.The gameplay will blow your mind.The attacks are kind of like devil may cry.Some of his magic attacks are really good like Poseidon's rage and some are real bad like zeuz's fury.The storyline will keep you interested.It is about a guy named Kratos who serves under Ares until he does the unthinkable.Then he jumps off a cliff and is sent back three weeks in the past to kill Ares.I won't get too much into the storylinw.Even though it is really good it has almost no replay value.You may want to rent it first because it takes about 8- 10 hours to beat.This game is great so that is why i gave it what i did