Top game promo!!

[Silverhaze]

Ok I only got this game yesterday so Im nowhere near completing it yet obviously but I felt I had to share a few words with you guys about it.

The game is God of War for the PS2 and OMG!!! This game is fucking awesome!!

Its not just a hack n slash beat em up as it first appears. Its got some depth to it too. The controls are superb being that there are only really 2 attack buttons and one grab button. The moves are easy to pick up and intuative too making you feel like you dont even really need to know how to do them. You just learn as you spill the copius amount of blood from your enemies and even those that just happen to be in the way.

The puzzles in the game are so well done that you really dont feel like you are involved in a puzzle at all. It feels more like you are just progressing naturally through the level rather than moving levers and knocking things over to open a door or find a secret item.

You can use a few different kinds of magic which you need to use in order to solve certain puzzles. One in particular has you needing to use your Medussa's head magic to turn a minotaur to stone on top of a button on the floor. This then opens a door at the other end of the room which you have to reach before it turn back again.
Another has you needing to shoot lightning over a huge gap to kill a cowardly citizen of Athens who wont release a lever to open the bridge because he thinks the monsters will get him. Ha!!

By far the most entertaining thing about the game though are the context sensitive battles. Every so often when you face a particularly large or sometimes not all that large enemy an icon will appear above their heads with a button on it. Press that button and the game goes into a sort of minigame mode where different icons appear above the monster. Sometimes its a series of different buttons, sometimes you have to mash a particular button and sometimes you have to rotate the analog stick like in Jet Set Radio 1 on the Dreamcast when you had to do that to spray graffiti. Anyway, following these commands makes your character launch into some crazy set of devastating moves which usually renders the enemy dead or pretty close to it and they are so good to watch you'll have people sitting round watching you play the game all the time.

The boss battles are totally epic!! Even the first main boss you get to is totally great!! I say the first boss but you've actually already fought 3 or 4 minibosses leading up to that point. You find yourself on the deck of a ship with 2 hydra heads, one on either side of you. The mast is in the centre between the 2 heads and out in the sea is the 3rd main head of the beast. You try to climb the rigging and the 2 lower heads knock you off.
The aim is to disable to 2 smaller heads before you can climb up but the larger head heals them constantly. Eventually I worked out that you had to knock each lower head out and before the larger one had time to heal them you had to cut a rope supporting a large spike which pinned the head to the deck. Do that to each lower head and you could then climb up to face the larger head. A truly great battle with loads of context sensitive moments involving hooking its eyes with your weapons and jumping on the head and attacking it.

Theres ample gore and even some boobies in the game to warrant its 18 certificate and the audio is first rate with brilliant 'LOTResque' orchestral scores adding to the feel of the game. The slashes and bloody squelches and the rest are spot on and feel just right.

I'll leave it there for now but I could go on and on about how much fun this game is. If you have a PS2 I would advise anybody to try this little gem out. Its the best action game on the PS2 Ive seen and one of the most fun games I have ever had the pleasure to play on the system.

Thank you.

[geesehoward]

the gameplay got boring after awhile, but it has one of the best storylines i've ever seen in a ps2 game. i also liked the music.

[Sabin]

My room mate and i played through this game in two sittings one weekend. Easily one of the best games this generation. It's like devil may cry done better.

[were]

the game had many many commerical time.I nevered played it, but the graphics on it showed they took there time making it.

[Silverhaze]

Everything about it shows they took time making it, right down to little details like when you walk up to a health/magic chest your HP and MP meters appear on the screen for you so you can see what you need to top up.

I have hit a bit of a wall though. I got to a bit in Hades where you have to climb a rotating cylinder. On it are big blades and if you even so much as brush your foot on one you drop to the bottom and have to start again. This thing is seriously big too and it takes ages to get near the top. Then one hit and its start again.

I decided to leave it there before I broke my pad

[Sabin]

That part took me a good 45 minutes to get past. At first i couldn't do it then i figured at a trick to it.....not sure what it was now though. BTW there are more than one of those columns.

[Silverhaze]

Hahaha yeah I did the first column. Then theres an even taller one straight after it that just keeps on going and going!!

I noticed that theres a clear path through if you time it right and you get to rest between the sections that are spinning in different directions. Its jsut that if you get to a new section you have to learn the pattern on that one and are bound to brush your foot on a blade and fall to the bottom again. Actually I havent played the game once since I got stuck on that bit. Ive been playing Jak 3 which is pretty good but not a patch on Ratchet & Clank 3.