Game Review : God of War (PS2)

I know I am late to the party, but I just had to review this game. If you have been a gamer since the past decade, chances are, you might have come across this title. What can I say about this game that has already not been said?

OK, let me start with the story - Kratos (you i.e.) is a Spartan warrior who never faced defeat in the heat of battle. But, eventually he does at the hands of the Barbarians who have outnumbered his army. As he is about to be killed by the enemy captain, he begs Ares, the God of war, to save him from his inevitable doom. Ares helps him defeat his enemy but Kratos is forever indebted to him. There are many twists and turns along the way which I won’t be spoiling here. The story is told in a flashback format and I feel that it is nothing more than a revenge story, to say the least. But it was engrossing without being a run-of-the-mill revenge story. A decent job, I’d say.

The graphics is part of the reason why this game was popular. The graphics may not be jaw-dropping by today’s standards but for the time it was unbelievable. Many feel that this game pushed the PS2 to its limits and rightfully so (but I beg to to differ). The character models look good even today and the pre-rendered cutscenes rival that of today’s videogames.

Gameplay-wise, it’s a third person action-adventure game where you go from point A to point B, solving minor puzzles along the way and defeating bosses. I know that doesn’t sound like much but trust me, it is just what this game needed. Unfortunately, there are only 3 major bosses in the entire game which is disappointing. And as a side-note, this game is full of Quick-time events (YAY!). I, for one, love QTEs and I know I am alone on this. If you hate them, you hate them and that is fine by me. Many people believe that this game gave birth to QTEs but no, Shenmue did it first (another review for another time). For some people, this may be a put-off but not for me, so there’s that.

The music was epic in scale and the theme song just blows my mind. However, the voice-acting was average at best. Kratos was always screaming at the top of his lungs and the other actors sounded too boring for my taste.

This is one of the must-play games in any gamer’s life. Hell, if you don’t have a PS2 (WTF?), emulation’s there to cover you. PLAY. THIS. GAME. And one more thing – this game is absolutely not for kids!

Score – 8/10