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.