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[Blood-Pigggy]

<div align="center">GOD OF WAR

<div align="center">God of War is a reinvigorating action game that embraces violence and brutality without being gratuitous or disgusting. </div>[/b][/quote]

Normally action games tend to be either a bloodless display of shooting, or so violent that it loses meaning and adds absolutely nothing to the game. God of War is one of the few games that uses violence to excellent effect, to produce a satisfying feeling of just having "ripped that monster in half" or countless other brutal attacks. While some may be upset by its rather unforgiving level of violence, it only furthers the game's personality and its Greek flavor. For too long the ancient Greek civilization has been romanticized as a gallant honorable collection of epic battles and respectful foes, with the onset of games such as God of War or the film 300, that image is soon to change, as they embrace everything that is violent about Grecian civilization. All the creatures in God of War are the blood sucking merciless beasts you'd read about in mythology, from the reckless rumbling Minotaurs, to the bestial and disgusting Harpies.

God of War introduces the character Kratos, who possesses a painful past filled with regret and hatred. Although his anger towards the God of War Ares, whom the game is based upon, is unexplained during the early half of the game, the motivation behind Kratos' crusade towards the God of War slowly unveils in flashback (the introduction movie actually begins at the end of the game). Gameplay starts off in the Aegean Sea immediately throwing you against hordes of skeletal enemies who swarm towards you. This sequence acts as a min-tutorial, and soon you'll be tearing creatures in half, throwing them around with your blades in mid-air, and tearing them up as they lay defenseless on the ground thanks to the very easy combat system. After that, you get to travel through the ship as you're slowly introduced to most aspects of the game, upgrading skills (you get points to do as as you kill monsters or find chests) using magic, special moves, puzzles, and so on. This introduction sequence is probably one of the most effective I've seen in a video game since it easily and seamlessly introduces all the elements of the game without a painfully slow tutorial or other such nonsense. The sequence ends with an incredibly intense boss battle against a giant hydra and two of its miniature heads, the combo button system is introduced at this point as well, which is one of God of War's best features.

Battling one of the miniature hydras, and showing off the button combo system in the corner [/b]

Pushing a combination of buttons that flash on the screen as they appear allows you to pull of super cool finishing moves, usually brutal stuff like ripping a weak enemy in half, or driving your blade down the throat of a minotaur. After the introduction, you're thrown into a short cinematic sequence and the real game begins.

In relation to enemies, God of War is probably one of the most effective in creature design. Although they're all familiar, the stone gaze Gorgons, primitive Cyclops, or other such beasts, the game features a unique and monstrous interpretation for each one, usually stripping the humanoid qualities that made them seem less bestial in the Greek mythologies, and transforming them into brutal killing machines. The environments are equally well designed, even if you're battling in a classic Grecian city, or in a giant temple hiding a powerful secret, there's always adequate and interesting flavor in the locations. The backgrounds are littered with small interesting details and several locations feature lots of action in the background along with what's happening in the foreground, delivering a real sense of combat and excitement. What only makes this better is how gorgeous the game itself is, running on the dated PS2, God of War is leaps and bounds better than most games on the system, features smooth enemies without a hint of blockiness, crisp clear textures, and beautiful animations.

God Of War is impressive both graphically and architecturally, many areas are large and breathtaking[/b]

The spell effects are equally amazing, along with the lighting. The game wouldn't be half as good looking if it weren't for the art direction. Everything is spectacularly well designed, the first time you head onto the outside of a massive temple strapped to a giant Titan's back, only to look down and see the huge being slowly crashing through the desert thousands of feet below, it will take your breath away.
This is only doubled with the amazing sound design, the music is fantastic, a very appropriate soundtrack to the setting (each and every one of the areas as well) and the voice acting is done professionally and with great emotion and acting. The sound of a battle is equally amazing, when the music is pumping away in the background while Kratos roars as he tears an enemy in half with several more crashing his way, you'll feel your adrenaline pumping like nothing else, even if those enemies are pathetically weak, the game always riles you up even in the smallest or most trivial encounters.

Driving your blade down the throat of a minotaur is one of the few brutal finishing moves[/b]

Kratos, who is voiced by T.C. Carson, a rather well known video game voice actor (who most recently did work for Saint's Row) is probably on the most amazingly well voiced characters I've seen in a video game. His voice is a dull rumble, and suits the character perfectly. When it comes to playing it, God of War shines the best. Everything flows perfectly, combat is exceptional, and never becomes unmanageable or chaotic. There's a wealth of extras to unlock, and the small RPG element adds a little bit of customization to the game, so you can choose which magic or weapon you want to use mainly. The bosses, although few, are always incredible and exhilarating (the giant Minotaur boss especially, who probably has one of the coolest battle sequences ever). The story is told well through cinematics and voice-overs, and flows well within the game as you play. Most of the puzzles in God of War are never frustrating and make total sense, but there are a few exceptions (covered later) overall, God of War is nearly perfect in the gameplay department.

God of War has an incredible combat system, and even when you're being pummeled by massive ogres, it never feels unmanageable.[/b]

God of War is not without its problems though, and there are a few. First of all, some character models are absolutely atrocious compared to the rest. Although far and few in between, the soldier models and the ordinary civilian models are blocky and badly textured unless they're viewed from a far out camera angle, but when it zooms in to Kratos performing some kind of vicious move on them, their differences become all too evident. There are several unnecessary and at times totally unforgiving and irritating puzzles in the game, several that just don't seem to fit or make sense, while the majority of them are perfectly well designed, some are just incredibly frustrating, even on the easy difficulties (one includes having to push a block down a conveyor belt that's going the opposite direction while an endless amount of enemies attack you, and each time you're hit, it smacks you away from the box, sending it going back towards the other side of the room) they're not a chunk of the game, but they're bothersome, and are disheartening when you have to play them. The game is also rather short, lasting from 9-12 hours, although there are plenty of extras to unlock, along with the incentive to play the harder difficulty modes to unlock more features (some of which are really cool, such as new costumes) overall, the problems in God of War are small and niggling, not much to detract from it overall, although a little bit of polish could have cleared them up.

Some puzzles, many of them jumping puzzles can be very bothersome and frustrating (or misplaced) but most are well balanced and sensible.[/b]

If you're looking for an action packed experience full of adrenaline and intense combat full of violence and awesome finishing moves, God of War is the game for you. It's enjoyable in nearly every facet, and only has a few small problems that detract from it, but never hurt the overall experience. If you haven't played it already, God Of War is easily one of, if not the, best action games on the PS2, or any last generation console in that matter.

[Maikel]

Great detailled review Piggy! Seems like an awesome game.

[faeornran]

Don't forget about the "vase break" minigame.

[chainsoar]

Sweet review. You definitely made me want to play the game. Good work.

[win98]

Nice review 10/10 makes me want that game badly.

[Pipster]

Lets just say before this review I knew nothing about God Of War, and now I know everything ;D

[amcp]

I've been interested in trying this game for some time. I'll have to purchase a copy.

Thanks for the review!

[Nodal]

Nice review. I think I'll try playing the game again. I haven't played this for a long time.

[Gary_Oak]

I really loved this game, it's without a doubt one of the PS2's best games, I like to nickname it as "God of Button (M)Bashing", because I love button mashers/bashers.

[skite2001]

absolutely the best hack'n'slay for ps2.
only 1 game can top GOW and thats GOW2:amused:
The creators pulled the ps2 to it's limit with this game...
and well, it looks really brilliant on a ps3 with 42" tv:laugh::laugh::laugh: