God of War (PS3 Collection) - Ares! Give me a Minute!

 There are few games that can truly be considered "legendary" in the ways of real staying power and cultural impact. God of War is one of those games. Having come out in the fabled era of the PS2's hayday, this title has become the true high bar of the Hack and Slash genre. Playing through this game, it is very obvious as to why. This game is unapologetic in its graphic imagery. It will show off cruelty, blood and sex as if it were a true page from the Greek history books. It involves all of the gods of old and depicts them in various imaginative ways and it shows off its hero as if he were a god of a man himself. 

Kratos is a character that exudes masculinity in its most brutal. He needs to be brutal because the problems that he continuously faces only grow more and more dire. He is equipped with two blades hooked up to chains and he slings them around, killing everything he can get his hands on. After some time and gameplay, he doesn't even need to physically reach them. He gains powerups the more enemies he kills and the more red points he acquires. He gains health and mana power through killing his foes and crates that you periodically find throughout levels. 

The power ups you gain come in many forms. You not only get to find items such as gorgan eyes and phoenix feathers to up your max health and mana, but you also gain quest items that make you able to form more abilities. Then, if you've finish quests or are on the way to completing a quest, the gods will come and tell you "good job" then give you the power of various gods. This comes in the form of a gorgon's head to temporary turn your enemies to stone and break them or even Zeus's very own lightning throws to take out enemies out of reach. The controls for these abilities are surprisingly intuitive and are thankfully easy to actually employ during a battle. You just need to remember which d-pad control activates which ability. 

One thing about this game is, it can get rather difficult. You can learn the dodge, block and attack functions just fine in order to kill your opponents, that doesn't get too difficult. The problems lie within some of the platform sections. This is ESPECIALLY true when you need to save the oracle. I haven't really stayed with this game's fanbase, nor am I aware of all the memes that were born out of this title, but I can only imagine the oracle section is up there with some of the more frustrating aspects. Not only do you need to traverse around platforming elements like wall-climbing on vines, but you also need to jump on ropes and walk over slim beams in order to beat a timer. Sometimes, the ropes just don't grab on like they should and the oracle falls to her death. It's definitely a bit more challenging.

The challenge doesn't stop there, either. No, actually there are sections where you're on a timer that you don't actually see. Sometimes, you need to kill shielded skeletons in a hurry before the floor breaks out from under you. Sometimes, you may just die in a maze thanks to a trap that puts you in lava and starts you right back at the very start of the maze. You need to know the controls and master them quickly, or something spiked will come out of nowhere and crush you while also stabbing you all over. It is very fast paced and sometimes the deaths can be very unforgiving. We can just count our lucky stars that this is not on a limited continue scheme. Something tells me it wouldn't be as popular.

The story gets wild. The deeper you get into Kratos's history, the more you see what kind of a badass he was, but also how it proves to be his biggest vulnerability. Concerning his history, though, there was a section where you watch the Spartans under his command get completely decimated by a barbarian horde. Like, there is not a single depiction of the Spartans killing a barbarian at all. Here I am, thinking that the Spartans were the strongest warriors in history and this seemed like a bit of a stretch. It's clear that they needed a reason for him to sell his soul to Ares, but it seems like they could have done something that didn't make him and his men look like complete pansies. Even history buffs that watched 300 have said that they didn't quite capture their awesomeness, and here's this game coming out and showing us that they can't even get a single barbarian on the end of a spear. It was a little off-putting.

There are also many puzzles to solve. To the devs' credit, they are definitely think pieces. Strangely enough, I was able to get through some of them through sheer intuition, but it was the more simple moments that had me a little stumped and needing to peek at a walkthrough. They can be as simple as moving a statue into place but they can also be a little more asking and require creative thinking. 

What draws many people to this game is the feeling of being powerful and acquiring the powers of the gods while defeating gigantic enemies. There are so many twists and turns, but I will not spoil the overall ending, as it is quite the unexpected turn if you're not entirely up on your God of War lore. For the time, this game was a marvel in graphical bliss and gameplay alike. It's really no wonder so many people love this game. It is very much not for children, not for people who have an aversion for sexual content or extreme bouts of gore. Kratos became a milestone for the Playstation and even though the games didn't really get much better after the original trilogy, this game has never lost its potency. It wears it bloody colors proud and very few games have matched it. I may have played Dante's Inferno first, but it's pretty obvious where the game tried to copy God of War's greatness, but fell rather short in some areas. I still retain that Dante's Inferno has its merits, but Kratos is the obvious winner, hands down. Virtua APRIL FOOLS!!!!! Ooooohhhh got you! Yeah that's the best I got, sorry.