This is my all-in-one, review and story breakdown for the God of War Trilogy. GameFAQS won't post my reviews. Thank you.
The platform(s): PS3
Data:
Campaign Length(s): God of War ~8 hours
God of War 2 ~10-12 hours
God of War 3 ~10 hours
Purchase Price:
$32.69 (God of War 3 new) + $20.47 (God of War Collection used) = $53.16
Dollar/Hour ratio:
God of War Collection: ~$.79/hour
God of War 3: ~$1.56/hour
God of War Trilogy: ~$1.13/hour
*Note: Additional time figured in for the following: God of War 1 completed twice on Easy, once with all collectibles and one as a speed beat. God of War 2 completed once on Easy with all collectibles. God of War 3 completed twice, blind played on normal and replayed on hard with all missing collectibles. Challenge modes completed on all three games. All three games' Platinum Trophy acquired with little to no grinding effort required. Total doesn't include prior time spent with the PS2 versions, thus my campaign times for 1&2 may be much longer for newcomers do to familiarity. About the game(s): The God of War trilogy recreates Greek mythology with a scholarly attention to detail except for the addition of a new fictional character, Kratos, who serves as the series protagonist. Creative liberties are taken to tweak the well known Greek myths into an impressive story that feels as authentic as the real thing with a graphical fidelity that runs circles around competing games. In essence, God of War brings Greek mythology to life in a way that pushes the video game medium to its limits and beyond leaving little room for the player to feel anything but impressed and satisfied by the experience.
Story: God of War picks up a tale where an enraged Kratos, professional bad ass, is busting his ass doing chores and random acts of heroism for the gods of Olympus. Why? Because he can't handle the memories of murdering his own wife and child while burning and pillaging everything Athenian in the name of Ares. He's offered a chance at redemption by Athena in exchange for being an errand boy not unlike Hercules' Twelve Labours, only more awesome. Que flashback. Kratos used to be a Spartan general commanding 1000's of men. One day while out and about in the middle of nowhere he meets a tribe of Barbarians who's greeting rituals apparently start with a well placed arrow to the face. The Barbarians slay the Spartans like they were target practice until Kratos sells his soul to Ares. Ares appears, saves Kratos from a massive hammer to the face, and bestows upon him the Blades of Chaos, maybe the coolest weapon in all of video games save perhaps the Gravity Gun. So this is where the flashback and plot coincide. While working for Ares as an indentured slayer of innocents, Athenian villages are burned to the ground and the citizens slain in a most brutal fashion. Coincidentally one of the villages contained his family. End flashback.
After slaying the Hydra in an extremely satisfying way, Athena proposes one last job for Kratos, kill Ares. Ares is still jealous of Athena and now plans to get Zeus' attention by destroying Athens. Kratos, of course, is totally on board with killing Ares because of that thing with his family. Also Kratos is a murderous, remorseless brute not unlike a Jason Voorhees without the mask and a mean racing stripe! In short, Kratos loves to kill anything that makes a sound but isn't quite up to snuff to face Ares outright. Kratos meets the Oracle in Athens who tells Kratos that he needs Pandora's box to fell Ares. Why Athena couldn't tell Kratos this and save him the trouble of visiting Athens at all is beyond me. You also meet a strange gravedigger with cryptic messages. (Hint)
*Spoilers* After spending the majority of the game in Pandora's temple chained to Cronos' back Kratos now has acquired many neat toys and must bring Pandora's box back to Athens before he can use it. Yay, more slow moving block pushing for miles and miles? Don't worry, as soon as you emerge from the temple you are struck down by Ares (he is a **** GOD after all). Kratos reappears in Hades and now has to fight his way out but don't worry you'll be back. Eventually you end up climbing a rope that leads out of Hades back into Athens via the grave mentioned earlier. More good news: Pandora's box has been transported to Ares already. Kratos reaches Ares, opens the box, kills Ares and is promoted by Athena to be the new God of War. (Maybe the most satisfying ending to a video game ever). However, Kratos is still haunted by the memories of his dead wife and child, oh for **** sake!
*End Spoilers*
*Spoilers, maybe* (Note: God of War's story arch is tightly laced. Hypothetically, if you haven't played beyond God of War 1 then the near entirety of God of War 2 and 3's story is all nothing but spoilers.) God of War 2 picks up some years after God of War ends with Kratos abusing his new powers to 'spread the glory of Sparta throughout the world.' However, it's obvious that he bears a deep resentment towards the other Gods of Olympus whom he considers weak. Kratos joins his Spartan army in an attack on Rhodes which is being protected by the Colossus of Rhodes. Under Zeus' suggestion, Kratos expels his Godly powers into the Blade of Olympus to defeat the Colossus. Zeus appears immediately after to reclaim the blade and slay the mortal Kratos sending him to Hades...again. However, this time the titan Gaia is there to give Kratos a pep talk and heal the wound. Gaia wants you to get your revenge on Zeus so that the titans may overthrow Olympus' rule. To do this Kratos is required to go back in time a few minutes to get his Godly power back and murder Zeus. This will require earning the titans' trust, traveling to the Sisters of Fate's island and meet (read: murder) them in order to travel back in time. Remember how easy it was to acquire Pandora's box from Ares' hand? One Zeus' Fury bolt. Couldn't you just throw a rock or something at Zeus and make him drop the Blade of Olympus and reclaim your power that way? Would take like 5 minutes. Seems terribly inefficient.
Kratos sets out to the Island of the Fates which serves as the primary playground for God of War 2 as did Pandora's Temple in God of War albeit much longer. Along the way Kratos is confronted by the Barbarian King whom Ares defeated in return for Kratos' life years ago. Since summoning a God is such a cheap move when your opponent is about to make the killing strike, the Barbarian is rightfully pissed off. Essentially, every boss fight you encounter on the island are, like Kratos, trying to find the sisters to change their fates. It becomes Kratos' job to not only find the sisters but dispose of all others competing against you for an audience. Also, this provides an excuse for giving Kratos many new toys to play with in addition to the ones he carried over from God of War. Eventually Kratos meets and kills the sisters and returns to the past to confront Zeus in a final battle. When Zeus is near defeat Athena sacrifices herself to save Zeus, adding another body to the towering pile of dead left in Kratos' wake so far. She also says Zeus is Kratos' father. (Que: Dramatic Twist) Kratos isn't deterred but rather goes back in time again to save the titans and return to the present with their aid, climbing Mount Olympus on the back of Gaia, Blade of Olympus in hand, murderous rage fueling him as the game abruptly ends on the most epic cliffhanger in video game history.
*End spoilers, maybe* God of War 3 (released 3 years after God of War 2) picks up the story precisely where God of War 2 left off. Unfortunately, for the developers, this means the climax of God of War 2 needs to be resolved at the beginning of God of War 3 while delivering a fulfilling campaign length. This means the writers had to either be creative or rehash the story. So, they rehashed the story. Kratos starts out fending off the Olympians attacking the titans. Kratos starts by killing Poseidon which causes the oceans to rise and swallow the lands. When Kratos gets within striking distance Zeus blasts Gaia and Kratos off the mountaintop. Gaia refuses to aid Kratos claiming he was just a pawn for the titans' revenge. Kratos plummets down into the depths of Hades...again, and must fight his way out...again.
It became clear from the death of Poseidon that Kratos' revenge will consequently leave the world deeper in ruin with every slain god. Kratos is no thoughtless, emotionless beast. He understands full well the repercussions of his vengeance. However, he believes the world will ultimately benefit from the end of Olympus' reign.
Kratos wanders around Hades, occasionally taunted by the big man himself reminiscent of a bad S&M sequence, and is greeted by Athena who's apparently 'ascended to a higher plane of existence' that is never elaborated upon. Kratos is assigned his task for this game, finding and destroying the Flame of Olympus, in order to get his revenge. Kratos befriends Hephaestus while in Hades and inquires about the Flame. This is where a lot of the Greek Mythology stories start to become warped by Kratos' existence and actions of the last two games.
Que flashback: Hephaestus built Pandora's box as well as a lock and key to keep it protected. The lock is the Flame of Olympus and the key is Pandora, an artificial person built by Hephaestus whom he grew to love as his daughter. However, Hephaestus plays stupid about Pandora's whereabouts when it's time to hand her over to Zeus and goes about constructing Pandora's Temple to serve as protection for the box, promising that the temple itself will suffice. Well, since Kratos retrieved Pandora's box from the temple then it apparently didn't suffice. Zeus rages and beats the **** out of Hephaestus, takes away Pandora, places Pandora's box in the Flame of Olympus and banishes Hephaestus to suffer in Hades where he spends all his time unsuccessfully trying to recreate Pandora. There is a portal in his chamber leading to Aphrodite, his wife, however she doesn't seem to love him at all. In short, Hephaestus' life has turned to **** and he blames Kratos for it although he doesn't have the balls to fight Kratos, yet. End flashback.
Armed with new knowledge and objectives Kratos kills Hades and makes his escape. This results in the souls of the dead wandering aimlessly about Hades with no hope of salvation. Back on Olympus, Kratos continues his ascent. After shooting Helios' chariot out of the sky Kratos rips Helios' head from his body with his bare hands, a feat of strength if there ever was one. This causes the Sun to become permanently blocked by storm clouds, however Kratos now has Helios' head to use as a lantern in dark caves, sweet! Then Kratos chases down Hermes and cuts off his legs to acquire his boots. (Terribly inefficient transaction, but extremely satisfying nonetheless) This causes a plague to be unleashed on the humans, killing them all. Soon after Kratos encounters Hercules, his half-brother for continuity's sake, who's jealous of Kratos' rise to power and wishes to usurp him. This results in an extraordinarily brutal finale, even by God of War's standards. Soon after Kratos meets Aphrodite, though he actually doesn't kill this one but he can **** her, and meets with Hephaestus again. Hephaestus sends Kratos on a wild goose chase to obtain an artifact which results in Kratos having to battle Cronos in an incredible sequence. Kratos returns to Hephaestus, suspicious of his intentions, and soon must defend himself from Hephaestus' pathetic attempts at revenge which of course result in Hephaestus' brutal death at Kratos' hands, but what else is new? Kratos, now fully equipped, returns to Olympus in search of the Labyrinth which was built by Daedalus to hide Pandora. Also, he kills Hera for no good reason and causes what little plant life that was left to die.
Que flashback: Unlike in Greek Mythology, and due to Kratos' actions, the Labyrinth was built to hide Pandora from Kratos. Daedalus was instructed to build the Labyrinth in return for the safe return of Icarus, his son. However, you may remember that in God of War 2 Icarus was trying to reach the Sisters of Fate and was killed by Kratos, his wings ripped from his back and added to Kratos' repertoire of items. Daedalus doesn't realize this and as such is heartbroken when Kratos breaks the news, as gently as he can. (Sarcasm) As an added bonus, Daedalus' body has been chained to the Labyrinth so that when it is activated Daedalus will be ripped asunder. (Foreshadowing) End flashback.
*Spoilers* After navigating the Labyrinth, which is suspiciously short but does contain Minotaurs, Kratos frees Pandora and escapes the Labyrinth. Now, for a sense of scale and placement, the Labyrinth is located in a cavern hoisted vertically by a chain. The top of the chain ends on the top of Olympus in the chamber containing Pandora's box. The bottom of the chain ends in Hades guarded by the Three Judges of Hades. What would be the most efficient way to transport a small girl from the top of the Labyrinth to the Chamber of the Flame? Why, climb down to Hades, break the bottom link of the chain, climb all the way from Hades to Olympus and hoist the Labyrinth up to Olympus using a crank, of course! Now with Pandora in tow Kratos has an emotional breakdown, unable to allow Pandora to sacrifice herself. Pandora apparently reminds him of his daughter even though he's spent much more time pursuing her than he has protecting her. Then Zeus appears and ****s up everything. Que epic boss fight with Zeus, again. Pandora sacrifices herself. Kratos is heartbroken as he walks over to Pandora's box and discovers it empty. Que round two of the fight with Zeus, this time inside Gaia's chest. Afterward the world lies in ruin, all the gods are dead and Athena wants the power of Hope back in order to replenish (read: control) the world. In perhaps the most humane thing he's ever done, Kratos strikes himself down ending his life of struggle and misery and releasing the power of Hope onto the world. The end, probably.
*End Spoilers*
Gameplay: All three games are pretty much the same in terms of style, control schemes and level design. This is a good thing. The control scheme is rock solid with unmatched fluidity while the sense of scale imposed by the unfathomably large Olympians and locales. The hack 'n' slash genre got revolutionized with God of War, I'll leave it at that. You'll spend about equal parts of all three games fighting, puzzle solving and platforming. The series bears a lot of similarity to the 3D Legend of Zelda titles. You enter a room, fight monsters, solve a puzzle and move to the next room. It's a tried and true style of alternating action with brain teasers that's been so successful in the past. God of War immediately deserves a place next to games like Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Half-Life 2 for it's accomplishments in level design, story telling, immersion and fun.
High notes:
Opening: The Hydra boss battle starts the first game off with a bang and immediately gets you hooked. You get to fight a colossal boss and experience the brutality of the world you're stepping into. Unfortunately, there's only two other boss battles in the game, one in the middle and one at the very end. While this doesn't take away from the game it makes you crave more of what this game offers. This is a great feeling to instill in players. Don't get me wrong there are few games that are as satisfying as this one.
The hook: Pandora's Temple is incredibly well designed. You'll regularly think to yourself, "Holy **** while you gradually gauge the size and interconnectedness of the temple. Where else are you going to find a game with a well designed dungeon that takes ~6 hours to complete?
More bosses!: God of War 2 improves on the predecessor in just about every way. The controls are a bit tighter, the graphics are upgraded and practically max out the PS2's capabilities, and yes, there's more bosses. While the first game had three satisfying boss fights, the sequel has no less than 9. The opening boss, the Colossus of Rhodes, is arguably the most impressive. Most of the boss fights feel fresh and require a unique strategy to prevail making you think first and act second. The final boss fight is much more satisfying than the final boss of God of War.
Fond Farewell: God of War looked good and the cinematics looked great, however God of War 2's graphics are probably the best ever produced on the PS2. The improvements over the first game, the size and polish make God of War 2 a perfect sign off to end the PS2's lifespan as a competitive console. Games just won't get any better than this.
OMG Graphics!: The cinematics in God of War 2 were breathtaking, but they were cinematics nonetheless. God of War 3 doesn't need cinematics anymore to look good or do effective storytelling. Not only is Kratos, and all the other characters for that matter, rendered down to the very pores on his skin but the work done in facial expressions are the most impressive feat. Remember, everything in the game is pre-rendered or rendered on the fly. Everything I've seen in this game has me believe God of War 3 was nothing short of a miracle in art design. If the battles against Poseidon and Cronos don't convince you then I want to know what you're playing. This game has best graphics I have ever seen in a video game ever. The end.
Controls: Controls were good in the original, fine tuned for the sequel, and are even better in the last one. If the controls had never changed since the first game the series would still be a smashing success, but the little tweaks immediately make huge impacts and serve to boost already near flawless control mechanics.
Storyline: The storyline for the entire trilogy, which I'm treating as a single entity, is exciting, engrossing, and somehow makes Greek Mythology even more appealing. Given how central the plot is to the game play it necessitated good writers. By the time you get around to God of War 3 you might as well be watching a great summer action movie because that's pretty much the quality you're getting out of it except it'll last about 30 hours instead of two.
Low notes:
Heavy Boxes: There are lots of puzzles in God of War 1 and 2 that require moving blocks. These blocks are unnecessarily slow moving that only serve to inflate play times and increase difficulty in some areas. In God of War 3 they've finally remedied this problem by rapidly increasing the speed of block moving, however, there are far fewer block moving puzzles in God of War 3 to begin with.
Labyrinth: The Labyrinth is the most misleading stage in the entire trilogy. Given all the buildup, the length of God of War 2 compared to the original, and the weight of the plot not to mention the size of the Labyrinth, you'd expect a long dungeon on par with Pandora's Temple. Actually, based on how much time I'd logged upon reaching the Labyrinth I either expected it to be quite long and satisfying, making God of War 3 the longest game in the trilogy, or it'd be an unjustifiably short chapter with the campaign ending soon after at a healthy ten or so hours. The latter occurred. In fact, the Labyrinth is essentially a handful of rooms with either simple puzzle solutions or elongated fights against several waves of monsters. Is the Labyrinth a test? Sure. Is it as long and complex as it's size and namesake would have you believe? Not at all. All I'm saying is you spend much more time organizing the cubes to form the Labyrinth in a mock Rubik's cube fashion than you do actually traversing through it. Call it a missed opportunity with too much build up and not enough payoff.
Ares Battle: You spend most of your time in God of War fighting wave after wave of familiar creatures with the same weapons. Slowly you develop a style and routine that you're comfortable with and gradually make adjustments based on new situations until you've maximized your damage output speed while nullifying the damage you take. This hinges on the fact that you only have one weapon the entire game to play with (technically there's two but the Blade of Artemis is worthless in my opinion and just not that fun). However, someone at Santa Monica thought it'd be a great idea to feature a final boss fight where you're stripped of all your familiar weapons and given one you've never used before. Also the difficulty has not been curbed to account for learning how to wield the stupid sword. To top things off your life and Ares' life are now sharing a single bar that functions like tug of war with very sharp objects. This boss fight breaks the game entirely and baffles me as to how it slipped by in its current state. Not to mention this is the LAST scene of the game meaning your lasting impressions are going to be directly tied to this battle. Way to **** it up guys! If something this bad were to occur somewhere in the middle of the game it wouldn't feel nearly as awful. When the player is this close to completing the game and is greeted with a final boss that may take an hour and dozens of tries before you can win is a cruel joke.
QTE's: Okay. I **** hate quick time events. (QTE's) I mean REALLY hate them. I'm not certain but I'm fairly sure God of War was the first popular game to feature them prominently and correctly. However, using a QTE correctly is like getting a tattoo made. It seems cool at first but when you get down to business it's just painful, especially if you keep **** up. Prominent example: The final boss fight against Zeus in God of War 2 features a QTE right at end of the battle. Every time I play that boss fight I lose the QTE at least three or more times before I succeed. Thankfully I'm not forced to replay the boss battle but having to repeat the same needlessly painful sequence multiple times when I've already beaten the **** game is just a god damn bad design decision. If there was anything that comes close to ruining God of War 2 for me like Ares did for God of War, the QTE's are it.
Pandora: In my opinion, Pandora was the equivalent of Navi meets Cindy Lou Who, both in appearance and annoyance factor. I never liked her nor did I sympathize her. I am not a homicidal maniac. Kratos is a homicidal maniac. Kratos sympathized Pandora and cared for her. If I couldn't sympathize her then I can't fathom how Kratos managed to so easily. Given how little it takes for Kratos to murder anyone in his path, even when they've surrendered and offer no resistance, I'm surprised he didn't drag her kicking and screaming into the flames. This change of heart dramatically changes the tone of the game which is for the better. The tone of God of War 3 is one of a bloody, relentless, remorseless killing spree while Kratos effectively damns all of existence without a second thought. Somehow his connecting with Pandora, reminding him of his dead daughter Calliope, is supposed to change the tone into one of redemption and saving the world from an evil menace. Up until that point though Kratos was the menace and the Olympians were the heroes. I admire the plot twist and thought it was a good idea, however the sincerity of Kratos' actions aren't justified enough within God of War 3's story. It's a minor continuity issue at worst.
Verdict: God of War Collection is an improved re-release of the first two games with better lighting effects, higher resolution and faster frame rates. If you were to play the PS2 versions on your fancy HDTV it'll look like **** like most PS2 games (hence the port to PS3). If you get this collection it'll look...less ****ty? I mean the graphics were amazing a few years ago but by today's standards they don't hold up to the quality that the rest of the game still commands. That said, they look great but if you remember what the originals looked like on your SDTV then expect improvements but don't expect miracles. If you've never played the series at all but love action titles like Legend of Zelda or Devil May Cry then this series is a no-brainer. Try it and you'll probably love it. Those who played the PS2 versions and don't own them or are curious then this is a fine step up/revisit to the classics. The value ratio, at the price I got it, is insanely good for two old classics without multiplayer options. Also the hours of entertainment are denser than muffins. I won't denote my opinion on what price I think is fair to purchase it at. Basically the games are old and much cheaper than most others on the shelf. So the value of it is dependent on your nostalgia for the God of War games or whether you're new to the series and wanted to try God of War 3. In the former case pay what you feel is right and you'll be more than happy. In the latter case I highly recommend playing the first two games before the third. Nearly everything is contextually linked to the first two games or the first PSP game so it won't impact you nearly as much as longtime fans.
God of War 3 is incredible. The graphics are second to none (and I mean none!) as of this writing. The pacing is even better than the prior games making it feel short and tempting you to play it again (you will play it again). I'm undecided whether or not God of War 3 was better than God of War 2 in my opinion, but given how good God of War 2 is this should be an incentive to anyone on the fence. God of War 3 gave me ~21 hours of the most fulfilling single player game I'd played since I first played Half-Life 2 nearly two years ago. I paid about $30 but would rate the game as easily worth $50 in my opinion for the campaign. So that's about $5/hour of game time value in my frugal (read: broke) opinion but, like I said, you won't play this game less than twice, it's too damn good.