God of War is one of the best action-adventure games on the PS2 and one of the best action games ever.
The Story - You are Kratos, a bad-ass spartan in the great mythological world of Greece. You are a servent to the gods and when the god of war, Ares, takes advantage of his control and starts slaughtering cities in Greece, you are sent by Athena to stop him. You as Kratos are sent to many mythical places such as the Desert of Lost Souls and many other places. The story is filled with many emotional cut-scenes that show you the history of Kratos and you find out what lead him to hate Ares. The thing about Kratos is that he has no sympathy for any character, he will kill as helpless soldier by burning him which will unlock the door the next room. The story is very in-depth with its mytholoical setting and it is a very good story for a game that focuses so much on combat. It has an average of about 6-8 hours long and it is a great a story to play through.
The Gameplay - This is the highlight of God of War with dozens of combos and there are magic spells you can use to kill your enemies such as lightning bolts from Zeus that you can shoot or the army of the dead from Haities. But the controls for all the combo attacks are surprisingly good, they just feel natural and they are easy to remember. The numerous ways to kill your enemies is pretty insane. There are also timed cinematic deaths sort of like the cut scenes in Resident Evil 4 but different. Say you have really injured you enemy, so the picture of the circle button pops up, you push circle and you do a cool move and jump around him then a picture of the x button pops up and when you push it, you will do something like cut your enemies legs off and stab him when he's down on the ground. Stuff like that make the game all but sweeter.
The Graphics - God of War is all about visiting mytholical places and you will be shocked at how much this game can put out on a current generation system with no lag at all. The amount of detail put into the levels is amazing considering how huge they can be. The enemies range from annoying bat like things to topless Medusas and awesome cyclposes. Each type of character is different from the other whether it be their combat skills or the complete different way they all look. The combos that you can do just look plain awesome. You can also do a finishing move on some of your enemies and you can rip the limbs off and loads of blood will come out everywhere. This games level of gore is amazing but it just looks plain AWESOME!
The Sound - The sound in God of War is made to bring you into Greece and it is made for you to feel like Kratos. The music is absolutly amazing bringing classic types of orchestra movement with some old fashioned Greek style music and it just really brings you into the game even further.
Their is a narrarator played by Linda Hunt and she is a fantastic narrator and her voice is perfect for this game. The other voice actors are great from Athena to Ares. Kratos's voice actor plays Kratos well and he brings out the bad-ass in Kratos. Their is also a very,very awesome sound of metal and flesh.
The Value - The entire game itself is about 6-8 hours long depending on the difficulty. Once you beat the awesome story you unlock a TON of DVD like extras such as the making of the game, early concept art, levels that didn't make it to the full game, and so much more. You can also unlock Challenge of the Gods which unlocks even more things. You can also unlock short movies which explain the origin of Kratos such as the story of his mother and another that explains the story of his younger brother. So with all these extras and the main game that you will keep playing again and again, you will be playing God of War for awhile.
Overall - God of War is one of the games for the Playstation 2 and every owner of a PS2 should own this precious gem.
- WhitePenguin