A driving storyling, and fantastsic level design, and a new strain of brutality is revealed, it's name is God of War.
Now that I have my plug on the story I have to say that there isn't much substance in the story. There is a lot of emotion and tragedy in the story, but it isn't too complex. So don't worry about getting too confused about the plot details like you may have if you have ever played Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty or Final Fantasy VII. It is bare bones story, but it is enough to make you feel the emotions it tries to convey, so it does its job well.
There is one word that sums up God of War, brutal. Everything about the game is brutal. The main character, the enemies, the bosses, the environments, everything. Kratos is not a nice guy. You are pitted against literal armies of enemies and the combat holds up very well.
A few notes you mind remember from other reviews is that the combat feels too button mashy. I actually found that the combat worked really well. You won’t find yourself remembering a lot of combos because they are very simple or just completed by alternating between different buttons. The combos look great and are fairly easy to pull off.
One of the gripes I do have is that you are unable to level up freely. Enemies don’t respawn in locations you have visited previously so any experience you get is given to you, which doesn’t allow you to go back and get more experience if you find that you have leveled up in skills that you dislike.
The level design is also notable. You won’t spend a lot of time frustrated as where to go, the challenge lies less in figuring out a puzzle and more in actually completing it. No puzzles had me sitting there for hours scratching my head, but several had me cursing and bashing the controller into my head due to there simple but diabolical difficulty. (If anyone remembers the climb out of Hades realm you will acknowledge this)
That being said there is a great sense of accomplishment in completing a difficult challenge. Some games toss a difficult challenge in your way with little or no reward than simply progressing, but you can truly pat yourself on the back after you braved a raging desert, climbed the body of a titan who is literally the size of a mountain, defeated a temple designed by an architectural madman filled with the minions of the Gods themselves, climbed the cliffs of madness and defeating thousands and thousands of demons, completed a task no mortal has ever completed in the entire history of the universe, been dragged down screaming and climbed out of hell itself and defeated a God, your mortal enemy.
The game is epic in a cinematic sense. You feel very drawn up in the action and emotion of the game but it lacks a bit of substance and solidness to it that would make it perfect, but it has the quick and fulfilling feeling of a good action game. If you are a fan of Prince of Persia or Jak and Daxter, you will notice this game plays similar to what would happen if you combined the two.
God of War might be worth your money, but it is definitely worth your time. Why are you still reading this? Go play God of War!