God of War

The God of War games are amazing. The PS2/3 trilogy is just action start to finish. Immense liberties are taken with ancient Greek mythology to stunning effect, with this being a fine example. Kratos, the main character, is somewhat limited in his emotions, with a range going from anger to rage. A whirlwind of destruction, once a Spartan general and later a fallen god Kratos despite his limited range and simple characterisation transcends his simplicity through the grandeur of the Ancient Greek settings. That and killing everything. Everything.

The first game was at the time the pinnacle of PS2 action adventure, and indeed one of the very best of that console generation. It was an immense technical achievement with limited loading times, immense scale and an immense audio score. Graphically it was gifted with great animation and detailed environments. Later ported to PS3 as part of the God of War Collection (seemingly starting a trend) it is still one of the best action games on Playstation.



Kratos's first adventure was not flawless, featuring some frustrating platforming sections and inane puzzles. It also had a charming B-movie feel, as if it were almost a Saturday morning cartoon expanded and digitized with buckets of gore. This was something changed in the inevitable sequel God of War 2.

This game was a blockbuster through and through. Its opening level was jaw dropping and set the ever increasing tone. Filled with better puzzles, mini-bosses and epic epic sections God of War 2 improved on it's prequel in almost every way. The scale can be jaw dropping still in the age of HD consoles.




God of War 2 expanded on the fictionalised version of the Greek mythology in the games and sets up the return of the Titans to fight the Gods of Olympus. This is a neat set up for the third game which essentially follows directly on from the second game.