Review

Normally we can see the great games coming a mile off. Months of screenshot leakages, tasty sounding features and developer interviews get our hopes up and usually lead to great sales too. It’s somewhat surprising then that the first we heard of God Of War was as little as three months ago. This has really come out of left-field and, sadly, the sales charts are already reflecting this fact. A shame as what Sony America have created is a genuine contender for Game of the Year, if not the Best Game on PS2. God Of War is a near perfect combination of fantastic graphics, great design and fun gameplay.

Visually this is a real Tour-de-force, pushing the limits of what we thought possible on the aging PS2. There are times when you really start to question the need for the next generation consoles if the current generation is still capable of things such as this. The scenery is fabulous, the character animation perfect and there are no glitches to be seen. Here we should also probably point out that there are no loading pauses throughout to break up the action either. Everything flows and loading is hidden by short cut-scenes.

You play Kratos, a Jaap Stam lookalike who has been wronged by Ares the God Of War and must fight against all kinds of creatures from Greek mythology to earn the right to confront his nemesis. Things kick off with a blistering opening level that sees one long battle against a giant hydra, and when I say giant I mean it! The heads alone take up the whole screen when you get up close. And this is merely the first of literally dozens of surprising challenges that you will face on your quest.

There are two sections that stop the game from achieving perfection. Firstly there’s the already infamous climbing sections where one error sends you tumbling back to the start again. Grrrr! But I also found searching for the Sirens in the sandstorm to be almost as annoying. Here you are required to hunt down and kill three Sirens, but as your sight is hindered you have to rely on the sound of their singing to locate them. Admittedly, ingenious in theory, but the execution I found to be incredibly frustrating. Getting past this segment alone took over an hour!

As an action adventure title this surpasses the similar Prince Of Persia for ingenuity, playability and addictiveness. If you miss out then your life really is poorer for it. This is epic gaming of the very highest order and you simply have to own it. If only Sony had let everyone know about it sooner!

About the Review

Platform

Sony Playstation 2

Developer

Sony Santa Monica Studio

Publisher

Sony Computer Entertainment

Released

8th July 2005