God, This Game Is Good **UPDATED**

Every once in a while you play a video game that makes you realize why exactly you play video games. God of War is such a game.

GENRE (New!)
God of War is an action game with some platform elements.

STORY
The game stars Kratos, a Spartan warrior who is in service to the gods of ancient Greece. When we first meet Kratos, he is in despair. He feels the gods have abandoned him, and he casts himself from the top of the highest mountain in all of Greece. Just as he hits the bottom, we flashback to 3 weeks prior, to the beginning of the events that lead him to end his life.

The story in God of War is one of the game's strong points. It's clever in that it could easily be a lost chapter in ancient Greek mythology. You see a lot of creatures you might have heard about, like Medusa, minotaurs and cyclopes. You also meet a good number of the ancient gods, like Artemis, Athena and Zeus. And it's all woven together pretty well. There are some clever variations to some myths, like the fate of Pandora's box and how the gods let one Titan remain alive. If you're a Greek mythology purist, you might take issue with some of the liberties taken, so just imagine this as a sort of alternate reality mythology. On the other hand, you don't have to be well-versed in mythology to understand what's going on. You don't even have to know a thing about the mythology. Whatever you need to know is explained to you in classic storytelling style.

VISUALS
The visuals in this game are beautiful. Kratos moves very fluidly. When he's thrashing his Blades of Chaos around, you're treated to an almost balletic movement. That's not to say that he looks like a ballet dancer, but his movements are captured quite nicely.

The environments around you and the backgrounds are just as nice. There will be times when the camera gives you a point of view that's just breathtaking.

Ah, the camera. Usually, the camera is the most frustrating part of a game, in that the camera will end up being someplace you don't want it to be. That's no different here, however, its rare when it does happen. The camera is automatic, with no way for you to adjust it manually. As you move, the camera is usually placed in a position that will give you the best vantage point. But there was once or twice where I needed to reposition Kratos on the screen in order for the camera to give me a better view.

But the automatic camera allows the game designers to give us some really great, cinematic shots that really makes you appreciate the world your character lives in.

One thing that some might take as a detriment is the blood. There's lots of it. And in the cut scenes, it flows like water. It's almost cartoonish, which is almost in direct contrast to how the rest of the game looks.

SOUNDS
Just as the camera is cinematic, so too is the music. It's orchestral. I don't think there was a single fake instrument in there. And they have vocalists singing in certain parts. It's almost like the John Williams version of conductor was behind the music in the game.

The voice acting was done very well. From Kratos, to the narrator all the way to the miscellaneous voices, it's all really good. I remember a time when voice acting in video games was atrocious ("Jill, the master of unlocking," anyone?). Great care was taken in the direction of the voice actors. The voices fit the characters. Kratos sounds as intimidating as he looks. The narrator, even though we never see her, has the old, wizened voice that fits in with the time.

The sound effects also hit you hard. The clanging of swords, the screeches of harpies, the sound of your magic spells all immerse you in this world even further.

CONTROLS
Simple enough. You start with basic attacks, then as you progress and collect red orbs (think of them as experience), you can upgrade your weapons and spells that you pick up along the way. People can play this game one of two ways. They can button mash their way through, or they can actually use the combos and spells at their disposal. Either way is possible. New! The way that you gain spells is simple. As long as you keep moving forward in your quest, you will encounter a god, who will grant you certain powers relevant to what they rule. For instance, Zeus gives you the power to throw javelins of lightning.

But it's all pretty intuitive. One of the cooler features is that certain enemies, when you hurt them enough, the circle button appears over their head that when you press your circle button (the grab button), you enter into a minigame that either kills or severely damages your enemy. For example, when you're fighting Medusa, and the circle button appears, after you grab her, you then have to rotate the left analog stick in the direction that appears onscreen. If you're too slow, then you get tossed off, and maybe even damaged. Other enemies involve pressing certain buttons that appear onscreen to defeat them. But for the button mashers out there, you can just keep jabbing away, and they'll still die. It just takes a little longer.

But that's not to say that it's all hack and slash. There's actually some puzzles. New! For instance, there's an actual jigsaw-type puzzle involving gigantic stone pillars that you must rotate in order to make them fit together. Doing so unlocks the next room. Other puzzles involve actually rotating a series of rooms in order to reveal the next step in your quest; figuring out where certain keys are; and so on... Some aren't new to the genre, but it's all in keeping with the theme of the game. None are too tough, but they also aren't too easy. Let's say they're just right.

ANYTHING WRONG?
Well, the game isn't perfect. No game really is. Like with most games, the camera can be a problem. But again, it's not a huge problem. Another issue is the running time. I beat this game in less than 10 hours on the normal difficulty level.

There's also a few points in the game where you feel like the game designers didn't have a decent puzzle for you to figure out, so they throw a gigantic amount of enemies at you with archers in the background, just to annoy you even further.

The biggest problem I have is that the game is very linear. Even though there are forks in the road, there's only one path you can take throughout the entire game, as the branches lead to dead ends. There's usually chests filled with orbs, but they're dead ends nonetheless.

Those are the biggest gripes I have. And considering they're minor, that's a minor miracle in today's gaming world.