God of War will tear your face off and you'll probably think it's awesome.
First, we mention Kratos, the obligatory anti-hero. Is he a bad-ass? Absolutely. Is he violent as all get out? Even better. But beyond that his character is endearing, and his story is compelling. As Gamespot said, the story constructed for him is absolutely brilliant. It is few and far between that a game with this kind of mindless violence can have a character and story that aren't necessarily a moving piece of beautiful storytelling, but VERY entertaining to say the least.
The combat is relatively deep, not as deep as say Devil May Cry, but how many games are, honestly? The actual combat is fun, and while not mindbending, requires some form of thought and something more than a pulse to get through. Also the weapon upgrading made it all the better. The minigames for boss fights and rampaging downed enemies never got old for me either.
The game also had a fairly good balance of puzzles and action sequences, the puzzles were never exceptionally challenging which is something of a drawback, but it's not something to break the game at all because they toorequire at least more than a pulse. Also because it's not like I'm playing Zelda.
The lack of boss fights was a loss for the game, but the boss fights that were there were beyond fun. Whether the hydra, the giant minotaur or Ares himself, they were always a blast.
So, all in all, if you enjoy brutal, ridiculous violence and you also like playing good action/adventure games, definitely pick up God of War. Easily one of the better games to come out in the past 5 years.