God of War Graphics and Sound Set a Benchmark

God of War remains one of the best games to come out in a generation. Its revolutionary button related moves and the story telling make it an epic which stands above all the rest.

I am not including any of the Metal Gear games in this category. Those are saved for the stealth genre. They are by far the best in that category. But GoW and its sequel were unique at the time and they showed just what was still possible with an aging system. The developers could have held the sequel back for a year and polished it and released it on the more powerful PS3, but then not as many people would have been able to play it. It could have been that game early in the PS3 lifespan that made people pull the trigger and upgrade to the new system.

Luckily for all of us PS2 owners, Sony decided that it would make more sense to release it on the older platform with a much broader base of console owners. It was a good decision and ended up being one of the biggest sellers of the year. Most of the time, when I play a game, it is the story that drives me forward to see what is going to happen next. I can sometimes overlook a little bit of deficiency in game play in order to play through a good story. Sometimes the story is lacking and the game play needs to be fun and innovative enough to keep me moving forward.

Luckily for us, God of War was lacking in neither game play nor story. The story was epic on a scale akin to a summer blockbuster movie. It started off big from the moment you took control of the tortured Kratos and encounter your first boss fight against the sea monster of ancient Greek mythology. From that moment, when I impaled the monster through the head with the giant skewer, I knew that I was in for something special. It only got better from there. The only complaint that I recall having was the lack of bosses throughout the entire game.

God of War was one of those that kept the player’s interest level high without becoming bored or frustrated. It offered a very good mix of puzzle, tricks and combat without ever boring the player.