by peter - March 24, 2005

Mount Olympus is in crisis. The God of War, Ares, has begun to lay siege to Athens, the city of Athena. The other gods of Olympus are powerless to stop Ares as he pursues his path of destruction, as Lord Zeus has declared that gods cannot intervene. The only hope that Athens, Olympus, and quite possibly the rest of the world has lies with Kratos, a former Spartan warrior. What chance does a mere mortal have against a god? Sony�s latest action game, God of War, lets you determine Kratos� fate.

One Man Against All Odds

Indeed, God of War is full of action as it puts players in the role of Kratos in ancient Greece, as he fights against numerous creatures of mythology. Armed with dual blades�one chained to each arm�Kratos is capable of several different kinds of devastating moves. There are two types of attack buttons mapped to the Dual Shock controller, for normal and heavy attack types. These attacks can be chained together against waves of enemies, and incredible combo numbers can be attained as players become skilled at combat and learn all of the moves in Kratos� arsenal. What�s more, as Kratos gains experience by killing enemies (via collecting red experience orbs), players can power up his swords to unlock new moves and abilities. Along with these melee attacks, players will need to learn to block and evade effectively�especially during boss battles or when severely outnumbered.

The gods will also grant Kratos the use of some divine powers as he battles on their behalf. These divine powers gradually become unlocked as Kratos progresses through the game. Each power is useful in its own way�for example, one power can turn enemies to stone and is good for dispatching quick foes with high defenses. Another is a column of electricity that can fry multiple foes and run up the combo counter well over 100 hits in certain situations. As with Kratos� dual swords, these divine powers can also be powered up with experience orbs, unleashing more power and new forms of attack. One thing to note about using the divine powers is that their use is finite (as shown by a blue meter) and can only be refilled by collecting blue orbs which can be found in treasure chests and gained by defeating certain enemies or bosses.

God of War does introduce one wrinkle to its combat system: minigame combat. Minigame combat usually takes place when certain stronger enemies or bosses have lost a certain amount of their life energy. When this happens, a floating circle icon appears over the weakened creature, prompting players to press the circle button on the controller. At this point, a series of button prompts or analog stick moves appears on-screen, one at a time. Players must be quick to follow these prompts correctly as they appear, or else the sequence ends and the creature will continue to fight. If the player is successful with the minigame sequence, the creature will meet a grisly end at Kratos� hands. It�s advisable that players get familiar with the face button layout on the Dual Shock controller in order to be successful with these sequences.

Aside from combat, God of War also has a healthy dose of platforming sequences and puzzles that break up the action a little bit. The platforming sequences generally consist of platform jumps, scaling walls and leaping between walls, and teetering on narrow beams high above the ground. The tightrope-style sequences in particular will get your blood pumping, as the game really conveys the feeling of heights well. A couple of these sequences also have Kratos dealing with blade traps, which further complicates matters. It�s worth noting the platform jumping sequences can sometimes be a bit more frustrating than they should be, mostly due to somewhat uneven jumping mechanics. This will lead to a few untimely deaths, but since God of War has a pretty forgiving checkpoint system, players won�t have to do that much backtracking if Kratos jumps to his death. The puzzle sequences can be challenging, although most can be solved after a few trial-and-error attempts. The puzzles range from switch-tripping to block-moving to timed sequences.

While most action games usually boast a fair number of boss encounters from start to finish, God of War does not. The good news is that the boss battles that God of War does offer are generally very entertaining and even require extra strategy in at least one encounter. For example, the game�s first boss-- the Hydra that players of the game�s early demo will remember facing-- actually attacks in several parts and successful players will have to learn how to deal with regenerating heads in order to move on. Unfortunately, there are only a handful of these epic battles to speak of, despite the decent length of the game. Nowhere is this lack of bosses more apparent than when Kratos basically walks into the chamber where Pandora�s Box is being housed and obtains it without incident. Even the game�s director, David Jaffe, says that there should have been a boss there; unfortunately, time constraints allegedly prevented this from happening. The relative lack of bosses isn�t necessarily a bad thing, but after you�ve played through a couple of the boss encounters, it�s likely that you�ll be left wanting more.

Mythology Comes To Life

Visually, God of War is generally impressive. Seeing locations based on Greek mythology brought to life is awe-inspiring. Beginning in a driving rainstorm on the Aegean Sea, Kratos will visit areas such as a besieged Athens, the Desert of Lost Souls, Pandora�s Temple, and more. Players will notice a lot going on in the background, too. Hydra heads will deal damage to ships in the distance in the first area. In Athens, players will see Ares raining death and destruction to the city or can witness various skirmishes between Ares� minions and the city�s defenders. There are some very nice particle effects to be seen during play, as well as gallons of blood. The game generally moves along at a solid 60 frames per second, although the frame rate does dip at times when there are a lot of enemies on the screen at once and every so often players will notice small tearing in some of the textures. The areas are also streamed directly off of the disc during play, meaning that there�s almost no loading time to speak of�this includes seamless transitions from CG cutscenes to actual gameplay. One area of occasional concern is the camera, which can get hung up in spots or change perspective when players least expect it. Unfortunately, there isn�t an option for camera control, so players will have to adjust to the camera�s behavior.

The Glorious Sounds of War

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of God of War is the music. The soundtrack captures the feel of what you might expect from a game involving Greek mythology, adding lots of choral elements and varying moods according to the in-game action. There is a fair amount of percussion, but it�s not really intrusive and actually serves to heighten the theme of war in the game�much like war drums. Equally impressive is the voice acting in the game. Players can identify with the lead characters and their mannerisms�Kratos� self-centeredness, Ares� arrogance, and Athena�s innocence all come through via the voice actors. In fact, all of the voice acting is solid, with nary a weak performance to be found. The sound effects are cleanly sampled and are what you�d expect in a game of this ilk, and the game has decent stereo speaker separation for audiophiles�including surround sound encoding.

The Fun of War

A lot of the fun in playing God of War is found in the game�s melee combat. Racking up triple-digit combos is fun to do, and even better for bragging to your friends about. What�s even better is that there�s enough variety to break things up when the combat seems to get a bit repetitive. The flow of the game often shifts from melee combat to solving a puzzle or plodding through a platforming sequence, then back to melee combat for a bit. As bits and pieces of Kratos� own story come to light, it also keeps interest high in order to get the whole story when the game reaches its climax. The game is also very accessible to players of all skill levels, as there are different difficulty settings and lots of checkpoints scattered throughout the game to limit frustration during particularly tough areas or puzzles. Lastly, God of War has a lot of extra content, much of which is unlocked after completing the game. Character sketches, behind-the-scenes commentary, a clip about deleted content, and even a new gameplay mode become available. This new mode�God mode�will test the mettle of the most talented player and has its own set of rewards upon completion.

God of PlasmaFactor?

God of War earns a high PlasmaFactor rating mainly due to its ability to appeal to players of all skill levels and its mythological content which is brought to life in such a way that almost makes you forget the cheesy nature of Clash of the Titans. Playing through Easy mode takes about 12 hours, and it�s not dull or repetitive at all. Normal mode takes a little longer due to the added challenge and increased character damage, and so on. There were a couple of sequences in the game that really frustrated me to the point of getting up and taking a quick walk, but the good news is that persistence and attention to patterns pays off in spades, making any part of the game conquerable. Some of the boss battles will make you gape in awe, as will the results of some of the melee battle minigame sequences. There�s nothing finer than shoving your sword down the gullet of a minotaur and gashing it through, and it�s all played out on your screen for your evil pleasure.

Ascend To The Throne

PlayStation 2 owners have had a good run of top-notch titles in recent weeks, and God of War continues this trend. Although some parents may complain about some of the game�s content, such as the gobs of blood or even a minigame based on Kratos having sex, the bottom line is that God of War is one of the best action games to come out in this generation and should not be missed by anyone who appreciates action games. The hype is certainly justified by the end result in this case.