One of the main reasons I was really excited to get a PS3 this past Christmas was because Sony was releasing the God of War Collection–the first two God of War games in a single $40 package and updated with hi-res graphics and anti-aliasing. I’d been aware of God of War since the first game came out, and I certainly knew its reputation; and NECA’s great action figures made me even more interested.
I finished the game last week. Here are my impressions.
First off, if you ever played the 2000 PC game Rune (one of my favorite PC games ever), you might be in for a familiar experience. The main differences between Rune and God of War are the choice of mythology (Norse vs. Greek) and the fact that Ragnar wasn’t a pitiless douchebag.
God of War is a hard game–much harder than I expected for such a popular title. And not for the reason you’d think. Yes, the combat can be difficult, especially the boss fights (I hated the giant minotaur). But the real problem is the goddamned puzzles and platforming.
For example: there’s one section where you have to pull a lever to open a small cage that releases a big stone block. You now have about twenty-five seconds to push that block down the hall and around the corner, then jump off it and grab on to a ledge. The margin for error on this task is so frigging small there’s NO POSSIBLE WAY ON GOD’S GREEN EARTH that you could do this on the first try (or even, in my experience, the fifth). There’s no way you’re going to know how to pull it off until you’ve tried it a few times, and even then you’ll need some luck.
I absolutely loathe these situations because it breaks whatever suspension of disbelief you might have had that you’re not just playing a game. Dying a few times because you get overwhelmed in a fight or made a misstep near a cliff is one thing; you know it’s your own fault you failed. But by forcing these annoying trial-and-error situations upon you, you become very aware you’re playing a game and that you, the gamer (not the character) need to find the precise right sequence to beat it. It becomes less like an adventure and more like a game of Simon.
(Side note: I don’t think I’ve ever hated such a sequence as much as I did level 15 of Jedi Knight, where you’re trying to escape an exploding ship. **** you, Lucasarts, for ever designing a level that irritating.)
Picture this. You’re in Hell. I don’t know why–maybe you’re on a tour led by some ancient poet, maybe Ares impaled you with a tree from fifty miles away, maybe you’re just a pedophile. Anyway, in front of you is a bunch of narrow rotating rods rotating covered with spikes. Your mission is to creep down these rotating dowels of death, occasionally pausing to hop onto a tiny platform, where you’ll be attacked by monsters. If you’re off by even the length of a flea’s dong when you jump back to the rotating rod, you fall to your death.
Finally you make it to the other side. Smooth sailing now, right? Sure–until you see the fifty-foot vertical rotating column bristling with spiked blades. Oh, and if a spike gets within half a foot of you, the game decides you’ve been hit and sends you falling back to the bottom–even if you’re a handsbreadth from the top.
Fortunately, so far God of War II seems to be a much more entertaining and less incredibly frustrating game. So far. The opening battle with the Colossus of Rhodes was more fun than any fight in the first game, and I also enjoyed the Typhon level–everything’s been fun and challenging without being so damned hard as to send me into paroxysms of frustration. No paroxysms here. If this keeps up, I’ll definitely be looking forward to God of War III.
The rotating Dethklok video columns were annoying as hell.
As for God of War II, it is better, but just wait until you get to some of the puzzles where you have to slow down time…
I'm new to the series as well. About 2/3 through GOW2. Paying it first just because a friend had it. None of the puzzles have been too annoying and the scale is absolutely amazing.
Should I skip the first GOW?
Oh. My. God(s?). Poe, you just named EXACTLY the two things I hated most in GOW, and for much the same reasons.
Believe me, there is nothing in the second game nearly so "suspension of disbelief" shattering.
Now, as a literary nerd as well as a pop culture nerd, how do you feel about the titular hero? I have some real issues with a guy who, essentially, caused all of his own problems and is determined to punish others for it. This becomes even more pronounced in the second game and, based on my understanding of the third, Kratos will not develop any kind of acceptance of personal responsibility there, either. What does it say about our culture that this whining psychopath passes for a hero? Honestly, he isn't even all that big of "badass" left to his own devices-he'd be a mudstain on some barbarian's boot if not for Ares…
@Dark Angel: Visually, I think Kratos is brilliant. He's got a unique, unmistakable, iconic look to him–he's the Playstation's Master Chief.
But I agree his motivations are unclear at best and reprehensible at worst (as are the motivations of the gods themselves–why was Zeus so worried Kratos would make a play for his throne in the first place? There was nothing to indicate that in Kratos's character–he seemed to love battle, not power).
At the same time, I think it's fair to say that his character isn't that out of line with actual Greek heroes.
Ajax the Greater was so upset he lost Achilles's armor to Odysseus that he killed himself.
Achilles himself sulked for days, letting thousands of Acheans die at the hands of the Trojans, and even let his best friend and mentor get killed–all because the king had swiped one of his mistresses (though Agamemnon and Achilles are probably equally to blame here).
Jason, already married to Medea, got engaged to a second woman for political reasons. When Medea confronted him about it, he told her to pound sand, causing Medea to murder the new woman, as well as Jason's children and herself.
I don't know that the plotters of GoW were deliberately creating a character with this sort of Greek mythological behavior, but let's face it, a lot of the Greek heroes were, in fact, self-centered jerks.
I'm a classicist in my day job, and I agree with what Poe said: Kratos is a very Greek hero. None of them are particularly lovable (except for Diomedes), and they all share the same basic lack of concern for anyone unless it is to their advantage.
Keep in mind that the golden rule of Greece was not "treat others as you wish to be treated" but "help friends, harm enemies."
I'll grant that I hadn't thought of it in terms of comparison to classic Greek tales, and my only defense for that would be that (much as I enjoy them) I am loathe to compare any videogame plot to any literary work. And, yes, that makes me a bit of snob, I know. In any event, I must cede the point…he fits right in with those clods.
However, I must defend Medea. Let's not forget that hers is not just another "woman scorned" story, but rather a "woman who made enormous sacrifices and who, in at least some versions of the myth, was almost solely responsible for much of Jason's success, scorned" stories. And to my recollection, the murder of the children seems to be entirely Euripide's particular quirk. I don't think it plays out that way in any earlier version of the myth…could be wrong.
This is why I avoided these types of games. I don't like playing games with frustrating level design where you have to constantly keep doing stuff over and over.
I'd much rather play something on Xbox Live anyway to be honest, where your own skill level is put to the test against humans. Granted that can be frustrating too, but it's more fun to me.
I doubt I'll ever play these games.
@Dark Angel: You're right about Medea, though my point was that Jason told her to pound sand, i.e., it was more his fault, not hers (esp. if we set aside the infanticide).
@Newton Gimmick: I think the only think I hate more than frustrating crap like that described above is Halo teabagging a-holes. I play co-op or nothing these days.
And despite the tenor of this post, overall I enjoyed the experience of GoW more than I disliked it. And I'm just flat-out enjoying GoWII.
Kratos is insane…Whom the gods would destroy,they first make mad.Great game but the sequel feels more like an expansion of stuff they were not able to implement on the first game.
I never beat the first one because of the platforming stuff. Some of it falls firmly into the realm of "fake difficulty."
@Slick McFavorite: It's still really good, just annoying sometimes. Pretty much every great game is like that. For example, The Library in Halo.
@MechaShiva: Actually, a lot of stuff they came up with for the first game but didn't use was put into the second.
"At the same time, I think it’s fair to say that his character isn’t that out of line with actual Greek heroes."
Hehe, yeah. Did you feel any sympathy for Kratos by the end, having been tricked by Ares into killing his [SPOILERS]?
@Ryan: Actually, no. Firstly, he was warned by the old priestess–granted, in a rather esoteric way, but dammit, these Greek guys should have been used to that kind of thing! Secondly, he had all but abandoned *spoilers* to serve Ares as it was…really, the whole thing was foreseeable.
However, was it actually Ares who fooled him? I somehow got the impression that Athena had a hand in it. After all, *spoilers* were hiding in her temple (BTW–why even be there if not for some godly intrusion), and it was her temples Ares directed Kratos to destroy…am I remembering that wrong? It has been a while since I played the games…
@Dark Angel: It was Athena's temple, but it was all Ares's work.
Kratos' character was annoying,he was a whiner who always had some divine power backing him up.The Barbarian king bested him and he cried to Ares to give him power,does he think that moment of triumph doesn't cost a thing?
Poe, Zeus feared that Kratos would come to eventually kill him as he killed his father.
Zeus' family tree has that whole son/father issues thing.