God of War Collection – Review – PS3

While many of you were playing the God of War games on your PS2 I was locked in a small room playing my Xbox and very rarely stepped out of that room into the light thrust outward from other system’s.  While I did spend quite a bit of time with my PS2 back in the day I was a die hard convert of the Xbox upon first release and found it hard to play the PS2 for some reason.  I find myself regretting that quite a bit due to some of the great games I missed.

Now I still have a PS2 and most of these blockbusters are easy and cheap to pick up from your local used game retailer.  I sometimes feel the temptation and even give in which was the case with Shadow of the Colossus(which still sits unfinished).  I am not a graphic whore but have always been honest enough to at least say they do count.  When spoiled by the advancements of technology it can be hard to pull back and enjoy playing an inferior looking game.  It takes a spectacular game to do that and now that I have completed both God of War 1 and 2 via the God of War collection I can only wish I had caved in and purchased these gems on the PS2.  I may still get them even after having the collection because they are that good and I would gladly play through them again on the PS2.  Let me explain a little below.

Story:

God of War
You are Kratos a servant of the God Ares who reigns as the God of War.  However the other Gods on Mt. Olympus feel that Ares is going to far with his attempt at destroying Athens.  You are recruited by Athena, the goddess of Wisdom to stop Ares even if it means destroying him.  You are eventually pointed in the direction to claim Pandora’s Box which will provide you with the power to kill Ares.  The first God of War does a great job in using Greek Mythology and bringing it to a new level.  While it may not be perfect translation of the Greek Myths it will lead people to research the literature and maybe learn something in the process.  This alone makes it an invaluable tool and while some people would target the violence as something to lead people to be violent I would rather look at it as a gateway game which leads to knowledge, but I digress.  On you trip to collect Pandora’s Box you will run into battle and destroy many different creatures from Greek Mythology including banshees, Medusa, minotaurs and hydra.  Eventually leading to the final confrontation with Ares.  A great story and it is only half of the package.

!!!!Spoilers below this point!!!!!

God of War 2

God of War 2 picks up some time after the event’s transpired from the first game.  Kratos is now residing in Ares’s place as the God of War after slaying him.  He seems to be following the same path as Ares did and declaring war with nations and conquering them is not sitting well with the other gods.  Athena attempts to talk some sense into Kratos but eventually he is tricked by Zeus himself and ends up surrendering all of his powers as a god and run through by Zeus with the Blade of Olympus.  As Kratos draws his last breathe he vows revenge and finds himself being drawn back into conscious by an unknown voice.  The voice is that of Gaia, one of the Titans who were thought long gone after there war with the Gods.  Gaia promises to help Kratos in his journey in avenging himself and destroying Zeus and Olympus to bring the time of the Gods to an end.

Gameplay: Both God of War 1 and 2 play almost exactly the same.  You have your general attacks of many action games swinging your blades around on there chains which I must say are some of the most bad ass weapons in any game of this sort.  Along with the action there are some button sequences or quick time events you have to navigate through, on bosses and some of the larger and more formidable foes.  The usually consist of rapidly bashing the “O” button or hitting buttons in a certain sequence.  These usually lead to some pretty awesome cinematic’s which show you ripping your foe to shreds.

Aside from the action there are adventure elements as well.  These mainly consist of some fairly simple puzzles to solve.  I rarely was so stuck on a puzzle I wanted to quit but through out both games I came across a few that had me scratching my head.  The games blend all of these elements together with the storytelling to bring a very whole and complete package.

Graphics: Bearing in mind these were originally made on the PS2 and only had some HD tooling done and now running in an awesome 60fps/720p  I still have to say these games look stunningly good.  While they are not top of the line graphics they could easily have passed for first gen Xbox 360 games.  You will not feel that throwback that I mentioned earlier and you wont miss the better looking games because these look great and play even better.  The only downfall here are the low res cut scenes.  Why they were not mastered in 720p like the gameplay was I cant fathom but they aren’t unbearable.

Overall: The retail at a good price for 2 games,  2 of the greatest games ever made on the PS2.  They weave awesome action sequences and gameplay with superb adventure elements.  Storytelling that actually makes you want to know more about its subject matter and A+ voice acting all lead to a MUST HAVE disc that should be sitting right next to all of your other PS3 titles.  If you have the God of War Games already adorning your PS2 collection it wont hurt to grab these as well.

Pros:
Story, Story, Story
Lot’s of gore and destruction
Kratos is a frigging BADASS
Did I mention Story?

Cons:
GoW 3 isn’t out yet
Some low res cut-scenes may  pull some people out of there hi res comfort zone

Score: 9.5/10

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