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"God of War" is a video game for the Sony PlayStation 2 console released on March 22, 2005. As an action-adventure game based on Greek mythology, God of War was developed by Sony Computer Entertainment's Santa Monica division.
It was very well received by critics and fans alike and was the recipient of many awards, including "Game of the Year" honors from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. In 2007, IGN named God of War as the greatest PlayStation 2 game of all time, on their Top 25 PS2 Games list. The game is now available in the PlayStation 2's lineup of Greatest Hits. Thanks in part to the critical and commercial success of the original, a sequel titled God of War II was released March 13, 2007.
"God of War" focuses heavily on combat and puzzle-solving, in the vein of recent "extreme action" games such as Devil May Cry and the sixth-generation Prince of Persia titles. Play control is streamlined, allowing the player to engage with the game quickly.
Though God of War fits neatly into the hack and slash genre, it features several unique improvements, most notably player-character Kratos' weapons, the Blades of Chaos. These curved swords can be swung on chains and function somewhat similar to yo-yos when not being used in-hand as "normal" swords; they have a large move-set and allow Kratos great flexibility in combat without changing equipment. Kratos is also able to enter a "fatality" or "takedown" minigame when confronted with a nearly-slain opponent, in which the player must input button presses, joystick spins, or button-mashing, as prompted by the game, in order to defeat the enemy in a cinematic and often bloody fashion. All bosses and most "generic" monsters have such minigames associated with them; completing them often yields life- or magic-bar-restoring power-ups in addition to Experience orbs.
Though he starts with nothing but the Blades of Chaos, Kratos is granted an additional weapon during gameplay (a third is available only during the final battle) and four magic spells for use against opponents. These can be upgraded at any time by redeeming Experience orbs in the Pause menu. Kratos can also become consumed with the "Rage of the Gods," granting him increased speed and power, a large reduction in damage taken, and life restoration. This meter increases with every blow struck or delivered, drains upon activation, and cannot be de-activated mid-use.
God of War is notable for its movie-like presentation. While most epic games suffer from immersion-breaking loading screens, God of War's story mode switches seamlessly from the title screen to FMV sequences to gameplay and back with very little load time. The load times are masked by prefetching the next area as the player traverses a long, relatively featureless area. Wikipedia |
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