God of War is one of the most successful video games ever made by SCEA, and it will plunge gamers into it's incredible world, that the epic depth will have them jumping from the edges of their seats. The main character of the game is Kratos, and this is his story.
Plot. Kratos, a warrior in service to the Gods of Olympus, was once a captain of the army of Sparta. His army started small, but soon grew in greater numbers. Then one day, he battles against a horde of barbarians in sheer numbers. Just when he is about to be killed by the Barbarian King, he pledges his allegiance to Ares, the god of war. He is granted the Blades of Chaos, and defeats the Barbarian King.
But this pledging, takes a turn for the worst, as Kratos becomes blind with rage, and destroys a village resided by worshipers of Athena, the victims include his wife and daughter. The oracle of the destroyed village curses Kratos, filling his skin with the ashes of his wife and daughter, becoming the Ghost of Sparta. Plagued by nightmares, he serves the gods for ten years, but becomes desperate. Athena then grants him a final task, to kill Ares, and save the city of Athens.
Players can recover magic by blue orbs, health by green orbs, and by red orbs they can absorb large quantities, in order to upgrade their weapons and magic. There is also a sex-mini game in the beginning, which involves two maidens, and they receive red orbs when completed successfully. Players can finish off enemies and bosses in a mini-game that involves finishing moves.
Concept. Kratos begins by fighting a horde of monsters of the underworld, and a Hydra at the Aegean Sea. Then they must roam through the city of Athens, where they must pass through certain puzzles, trials, and various mazes to reach their ultimate goal, obtain Pandora's Box, and defeat Ares.
Design. David Jaffe is the director and leading designer of the game. When the beta development of the game was being made, Kratos originally carried a broadsword instead of the Blades of Chaos. And in that Beta test, graphics looked like 3D graphics from a Nintendo 64 video game, rendered in polygonal looks. The game took three years to complete, and some stages were not released in the final version of the game. However, the graphics are rendered in 3D, but with more realistic looks than it's Beta counterpart.
1st Impressions. I was really impressed with the gameplay and many action sequences with the mini-game, which left me in awe and at loss for words. The sex mini-game had me drooling and saying "whoa!" with my eyes starting to bulge out in awe. I was really impressed with a game taking place during the Greek Mythology. My cousin told me that this game was like a Greek Mythology version of Prince of Persia. Kratos has become an iconic anti-hero in video games, he's a mortal who was stripped of everything, and his solace is revenge.
Music and Voice Acting. TC Carson provided the voice of Kratos, and to tell the truth, he did a great job in voicing the character. He gave Kratos a real bad ass tone, and his voice fitted the anger of the character. Linda Hunt provides the voice of the Narrator in the game, and she also fitted the part for it. Gerard Marino, Mike Reagan, Cris Velasco, and Ron Fish provided the composing of the game's music. The music was very well composed, and fitted the setting of Greek Mythology.
Rantings. The enemies I hated in this game were the Medusa, the Harpies, and the Minotaur. These three really had me throwing a fit at times. Also what I hated about this game, is the Underworld. The Underworld had my skills put to the test because of the spinning columns, filled with blades, which takes six to ten minutes to attempt to climb. Talk about a long, boring tedious moment. Also, developers thought of Challenge of the Gods like: "The game was alright, so in this bonus game, lets add a TIME LIMIT TOO!" That was a bother. Rage of the Gods, as cool as it was, I did not like that it only stopped until the energy drops out. Good thing is that in GOW 2, they fixed it as you can manually deactivate it.
Good Aspects. The graphics and storyline were excellent. David Jaffe is one of those game directors who inspire others with his work, just like Sakaguchi of the Final Fantasy series does. I also liked the aspect and creation of the character of Kratos. Having an anti-hero was a turn of the tides in video games, in which the majority of heroes, and very few are anti-heroes. The designs of the game were excellent, and I must praise David Jaffe for such a great job.
Legacy. God of War has left a great legacy behind and a cult following among fans of the series and other new generation gamers as well. The series spawned two sequels and prequels as well. God of War: Chains of Olympus tells the story of Kratos before the events of the first game, while the recent PSP game "Ghost of Sparta" takes place before God of War II, with Kratos, becoming even more desperate to rid himself of the nightmares of his past. God of War III turned out to be the best game in the series, and a great conclusion as well. The series had also a few games on Mobile, they were not as good, but still decent.
Overall. This game is a must have, for those who did not buy it on the PlayStation 2, then buy the Collection if you have a PS3. This game gets a 10 out of 10