God of War 1 PS2
God of War 1
Well, I think many people have heard of this game before. It is one of the most violent games ever existed on the consoles. There are blood spills everywhere in the game and it is a game that is only designed for anyone who is more than 18 years old. I have played this game quite a number of times, and I like it because of its violence and its gameplay.
God of War 1 is a third person action-adventure game that is developed by SCE Santa Monica Studio and was released in 2005 in the platform PS2. There are actually 3 games in the whole series, but right now I am just going to talk about the first game. The story line of the game is based on Greek mythology with the game set in ancient Greece. You will be controlling Kratos, a Spartan warrior in the service of the Olympian Gods throughout the entire game. You will be guided by the goddess Athena, who gives you an important task for killing Ares, the actual God of War at the moment. Ares is raging war on Athens and causing a lot of troubles for other gods. He is also responsible for Kratos accidentally murdering his wife and child.
God of War 1 is a third person action-adventure game that is developed by SCE Santa Monica Studio and was released in 2005 in the platform PS2. There are actually 3 games in the whole series, but right now I am just going to talk about the first game. The story line of the game is based on Greek mythology with the game set in ancient Greece. You will be controlling Kratos, a Spartan warrior in the service of the Olympian Gods throughout the entire game. You will be guided by the goddess Athena, who gives you an important task for killing Ares, the actual God of War at the moment. Ares is raging war on Athens and causing a lot of troubles for other gods. He is also responsible for Kratos accidentally murdering his wife and child.
Kratos on the verge of being killed by the Barbarian King
When you are playing the game, you will be revealed that Kratos was once a captain in the Spartan army. He led his army to several victories, until finally overmatched by an invading horde of barbarians. Outnumbered and on the verge of being killed by the Barbarian King, Kratos called to the actual God of War, Ares. Kratos promised to serve him if he would spare the Spartans and provide him the power to defeat their enemies. Ares did come and gave him the Blades of Chaos which is a pair of chain blades and forged in the depths of Tartarus. Kratos returned to the confrontation with the Barbarian King and defeated his foe. Kratos then waged war against all of Greece, and eventually led an attack on a villaged occupied by worshippers of Athena. Ares tricked him by placing his wife and his child in the village, whom he accidentally killed. Ares planned to make Kratos the perfect warrior by doing so, but the Spartan renounced his loyalty to the god. The oracle of the destroyed village cursed Kratos. The ashes of his family adhered to his skin, turning it ash-white. Since then, Kratos is called the Ghost of Sparta and he is plagued by nightmares of his horrible deed and commits to 10 years of servitude to other gods of Olympus. He gets tired with his servitude, finally he summons Athena. Athena promises to forgive him for the murder of his family if ever he murder Ares. Athena assigns Kratos to do so because Zeus has forbidden divine intervention.
Kratos fighting Hydra
In the beginning of the game, you will be guided by the god Poseidon to kill the Hydra. Then, again with the guide from the goddess Athena, you arrive at the city of Athens, which is under siege of Ares' minions. You will fight your way to Athens' oracle, but you will be having a strange encounter with a grave digger, who encourage you to continue with your task. After you have finally found the oracle, you will learn that the only way to defeat Ares is to locate and use Pandora's Box, which promises to give a mortal the power to kill a god.
Cronos Titan with the temple at his back
You will then proceed and enter the Desert of Lost Souls. You learn that the box is well hidden inside a temple chained to the back of the Titan Cronos from Athena. Titan Cronos is the only Titan that has survived from the Great War and he is punished by Zeus. Summoning the Titan, you climb for 3 days to reach for the temple entrance. Fighting through an army of mosters, you will eventually locate and find the Pandora's Box. Upon leaving the temple with the box, you will be murdered by Ares who is aware that his former servant has betrayed him. You will then fall into the Underworld, whereas the box is taken by a group of harpies to Ares. However, you battle you way through the Underworld and with the help of the mysterious grave digger, you manage to escape and return to Athens.
Recovering the box from Ares, you use the power to become god-like. Ares tries his best to destroy you both physically and mentally, including being stripped of the Blades of Chaos and all magic, however, you manage to survive and kill Ares with the Blade of the Gods. Athens is saved and Athena states that your sins have been forgiven. But, the gods cannot rid him of his nightmares. You attempt to commit suicide by jumping into the Aegean Sea, but Athena intervenes and brings you back to Mount Olympus. Athena will then provide you with a new set of blades and you become the new God of War.
Recovering the box from Ares, you use the power to become god-like. Ares tries his best to destroy you both physically and mentally, including being stripped of the Blades of Chaos and all magic, however, you manage to survive and kill Ares with the Blade of the Gods. Athens is saved and Athena states that your sins have been forgiven. But, the gods cannot rid him of his nightmares. You attempt to commit suicide by jumping into the Aegean Sea, but Athena intervenes and brings you back to Mount Olympus. Athena will then provide you with a new set of blades and you become the new God of War.
Kratos fighting against the enemy
The battle system of the game is very simple. Whenever you see some monsters in front of you, you just need to go and slash them and open a new path. In this game, there will be 2 gauges which indicate your health and your magic remaining. When you start the game, you will have very short guages, however, as you proceed in the game, you can use dragon eyes and phoenix feathers to increase the gauges.
Blades of Chaos
There are a few weapons disponible for you throughout the game. However, the blades of chaos is the only weapon that you will be using in the early game. As you progres, you will occasionally encounter one of the many gods of Olympus who are happy to aid in your quest to slay Ares. Each god will provide you a new weapon or a new magic. For example, Zeus will give you the power to use bolts of electricity. Hades allows you to unleash the souls of the underworld, whereas Artemis provides you a huge sword to use as an alternative weapon. All these weapons, as well as your magic can be upgraded by using the red orbs that you have collected throughout the game. Whenever you have upgraded a certain weapon, they will provide you with greater attack range and more power each time. Each of the different types of magic is useful in its own right. The combination of different magics, along with the weapon combat, creastes an excellent variety of attacks that turn Kratos into a serious force to be reckoned with.
Kratos Conquers Ares' Cyclops
The game is also designed with a variety of tough enemies. Each of the game's baddies is based on a creatue from the Greek mythology. For instance, there are cyclopes, gorgons, minotaurs, undead warriors, winged harpies, etc. Some of them can be killed pretty easily, but at certain point of the game, you will find yourself locked inside a small room with tons of enemies emerging from the ground, making the game more challenging. It also means that you will need to be quick with your attacks and well versed at using the evade or block mechanic. However, there are certain combos that will save you from that kind of situation and the one that I always use will be the stunning effect of the triangle attack added to the end of each of my combo.
Kratos fights against minotaur
Most of the larger enemies, while fully beatable by normal combos, can be easily beaten by engaging in one of the God of War's many context-sensitive attacks. When such enemy appears and once you have worn it down, a button icon will appear above its head. Hit the button shown and you will find yourself engaged in something of a rhythm-based minigame. Each time a new button icon will appear and you will need to hit it quickly to allow Kratos to pull off a new maneuver. Others still simply require button mashing to simulate a struggle between Kratos and an enemy. There are lots of these different contextual actions in the game, and they are all fantastic. They truly do a wonderful job of making you feel like you are right in the thick of the action, rather than just having sit through a cutscene of your character doing something cool.
The boss fights are all worth anticipating. Though there are really only a few major boss fights, each boss is unique in its own way and each requires quite a lot of attacking and foorwork to beat. For instance, right in the beginning of the game, you will encounter the multiheaded hydra that requires a lot of beating and evading before you can really defeat it. The final confrontation, in particular, is immensely satisfying and well done.
Puzzle in the game
There are lots of puzzles available throughout the entire game. As the game sets in ancient Greek times, the puzzles are modeled after some of the types of ancient traps, pitfalls, and mazes that were lengendary in Greek mythology. A lot of the puzzles involve turning cranks, pulling levers, repositioning statues and blocks onto big and stone switches. However, what really makes the puzzles in the game impressive is the scope of each one. For instance, when you first arrive inside the massie Pandora's temple on your search for the box, you will find yourself inside this large, circular room. You will find a swtich that allows you to rotate the room and bring up new doorways. Through these new doorwars, you will find billion small puzzles to finally solve the big one that gets you out of the big ringed room. This will take you at least couples of hours, but what a feeling of accomplishment you will have by the end of it.
Blood scenes in the game
With that said, God of War is also a deservedly M-rated game. Blood is the name of this game and from cutscenes to in-game action, you will spill a lot of blood as you proceed. For some people, it might be a little bit too much, but if you do enjoy some good gore, this game surely does not disappoint. The one areas where the game does feel a little off in terms of its sense of maturity is with the sort of flirtations with sexuality that appear from time to time. Mostly, it is just a few scenes of bare-breasted women that are hardly worth noting. But, there is one sequence where you can actually engage in one of the mingames to have sex with a pair of women. You will be able to see it on the camera though. It is dones in sort of a comical fashion and you will need to hit the exact button in the good timing to finish the scene. Actually, it is a framed shot of a jar on a table continually bumping around until it finally falls off the table and breaks at the end. Doing so, however, will allow you to gain a huge amount of red orbs right in the beginning of the game, thus allowing you to upgrade your weapon.
Sex scenes in the game
Personally, I do enjoy the game and I have played it several times. I am going to replay it, and finish the whole God of War series in one go. The story line is unique in its own way and the Greek atmosphere behind the gameplay is stunning as well. There are some sexual contents included in the game, but they surely do not lower down the quality of the game as a whole. In fact, personally, I find the scene where Kratos is having sex with 2 women can truly reveal the exact Greek atmosphere at that time where people will just go and have sex randomly with literraly anyone without any barrier and limit. The director of the game surely did a good job in bringing up this context, making it an impressive game. If you wish to buy the game, please click here.