Review: God of War Collection
by Dillon Andrews - November 19, 2009
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In 2005 he took the plunge into the Aegean Sea, and since then I have been infatuated with the character known as Kratos, star of the successful God of War series—a staple in the gaming industry. It`s only been 4 years and 2 games for us to get to know the unruly Spartan, with a third on its way, yet he is one of the most recognizable gaming icons.
The reason for this? Well, it’s the quality of the games, of course. If you`re a massive fan of the titles, or for those not yet initiated into the series that inspired and influenced the gaming world, an ultimate collection was just release for the Playstation 3 and it is my job to try and review it.
In case you are unaware or blind to the blatantly obvious, this is awesome!
What makes this bundle awesome is the fact that the games—whilst somewhat dated in their appearance, still have as solid gameplay today as they did 4 years ago.
To be honest, the quality of the games completely took me for surprise. Seemingly always cynical, I had doubted my memories of the great times playing these titles, and expected the experience to be mediocre by current standards set forth by say Uncharted 2 and Gears of War 2. Boy was I wrong. Despite having played through the story in the past, revisiting the environments and battles was as exhilarating as the first time around. I was yet again completely immersed in the world of Titans and Gods; it was a cheap temporary escape into the euphoria of a well told parable and a prominent part of my youth.
If you’ve never entered the world of Kratos, this is your opportunity to get familiar with the cannon of the franchise before confronting the sheer brilliance that is bound to be God of War 3. (Okay, let’s not get ahead of ourselves here… Oh, who am I kidding, it will be brilliant!)
God of War 1 starts off with our ‘hero’, Kratos plummeting to his death. From there the game takes you on an adventure unlike any other. Perilously the grey and red hero swings, smashes, slashes and slaughters his way to Ares, the god of war to avenge his atrocious past.
This is the game to blame for the now common ‘timed-button commands’ (or otherwise known as quicktime events). These are one of the many key ingredients which make the game such a cinematic and memorable experience. God of War is no one-trick pony however, as the game consists of hack-and-slash action with various weapons, customization and upgrading, exploration, puzzles and platforming elements.
The real standout out of all of the characteristics, however, are the “holysh*t” moments that come when you are face to face with the massive and intimidating bosses that reside within the levels. And believe me, there are a lot of “holysh*t” moments in this game… and of course in the one that would follow.
Then along came the sequel. God of War 2 is the game that looked to push the Playstation 2 to the limits. With graphics that can almost hold up to modern (next-gen) low budget releases, the game manages to consistently look fantastic!
Design wise, this game trumps the original in many ways, which it should. The sense of overwhelming odds is doubled in this game; the environments are grander in scale and the enemies are more menacing than ever. To sum this experience up from start to finish can be done with the word: EPIC.
To avoid any spoilers I will steer clear of discussion on story for the individual titles any further. Suffice to say, both are intact on one disc and they are as glorious as you remember them to be… From what I can tell not much has changed other than the fact that they have implemented trophy support so you are rewarded beyond the satisfaction of simply beating a level.
As if you’re not sold just yet, there’s more! On top of both classics, there is a teaser of what we can expect from the future of the franchise—a demo redemption code that allows you to download the E3 demo of God of War 3. (Click here to watch 20 minutes of the game in action).
The stunning visuals and gameplay will make anyone within a 20 mile radius salivate uncontrollably as you slaughter and kill every creature and beast in sight.
If it is not clear, I am in love with this bundle. This isn’t as much of a review as it is me going on about why you must pick up this game–but honestly, you can’t go wrong with this purchase. Are there some things that could have been changed or added for this release? Perhaps. Are these additions and changes necessary to make the collection seem complete? Absolutely not.
It’s unfortunate that there are no special features… a making-of documentary or a reflective look back on the series from the development team would send this into a category of ‘must buy’ for everyone, but I guess we can’t get everything we want… or we’ll have to wait for God of War’s 10th year anniversary for that release!
In conclusion I will say this; if you own a PS3 slim (no backwards compatibility) and you want to play these games again, pick this up as soon as possible. The same can be said for people who have yet to enter the world of Kratos. If you’ve still got your PS2 kicking around with these titles on your shelf, there is no need for the upgrade to this version of the game unless trophy support and 720P High Definition is extremely important to you.
