Playstation God of War: Ghost of Sparta

[Dr. Percival Cox]

I saw no thread for this game so I figured what the Hell.

Now, I only recently got into this series. Up until about three weeks ago, the only game I had played was the first one and I didn't like it (and still don't). It was frustrating, the plot was too simple, and the gameplay was totally squandered because since there was a severe lack of bosses it didn't offer alot of opportunities to really test out the degree of Kratos' abilities. But, I was on the PS store and I saw a demo for this game and I remembered seeing a screen shot of him fighting Scylla who is one of my more favorites Greek mythology monsters (she has boob tentacles in the game ) and I got interested and downloaded it. After downloading the demo, I got curious and decided to try other games in the series. I recently bought the second one and it was fucking amazing. Just an absolute improvement over the first game.

Since I've gotten so damn far off topic, I think I should get to the game in question. So, yeah, this game's really good. It's got a pretty compelling story, very fun boss battles, and fluent game controls. The fact that you only get one extra weapon, the Arms of Sparta, kinda bothered me but seeing as how it has multiple uses, I learned to love it. The graphics are impressive. During the cutscenes, it uses the in game graphics and enhances them slightly and I swear that they're near PS3 standards (if you weren't to include HD detail). The difficulty isn't nearly as harsh as the other games which leans more towards being fun instead of "extreme". Probably the one thing that would keep me from giving this game a perfect score is the length. I got this game yesterday and I damn near beat it one sitting. It only took me six hours and I took my time and even got stuck on a puzzle for about thirty minutes (it was due to a lack of attention on my part). So, all in all, I really enjoyed this game. I totally recommend it. It feels very different from the other games in the series so even if you're not a fan of the God of War series, there's a possibility you could still like this one.

 

[Martel]

I finished this in a weekend...I can't honestly say I was very impressed with it. It handled better than Chains of Olympus did, but it was pitifully easy, short, and didn't do anything that hadn't been done before. It didn't really feel like a part of the series, more like a random filler...exactly like Chains of Olympus did. It added nothing to Kratos' completely one-dimensional character whatsoever.

The spear is probably my favourite God of War weapon ever outside of Hades' Claws, though. Plus the sex minigame took it to all-new heights of insane depravity, which was...er, nice.

 

[Tmoo]

i got the GoW PS3 bundle. so far i can say: they're fun if you turn your brain off. also Hades is a bastard to fight.

 

[Martel]

Yeah, you can't really afford to think if you're playing a GoW game...it hurts too much. Best to just sit back, hammer away at the buttons, and enjoy the completely random carnage.

Another thing about Ghost of Sparta: they removed all the puzzles. Granted, the puzzles in the GoW games have all been ridiculously simplistic, but they broke up the monotony of go to one area, kill enemies, go to another area, kill more enemies, do an action sequence, watch a cutscene about how angry Kratos is, repeat until game is complete. I think it's the lack of puzzles that makes this game seem poorer than the others, in my opinion.

 

[Dr. Percival Cox]

Another thing about Ghost of Sparta: they removed all the puzzles. Granted, the puzzles in the GoW games have all been ridiculously simplistic, but they broke up the monotony of go to one area, kill enemies, go to another area, kill more enemies, do an action sequence, watch a cutscene about how angry Kratos is, repeat until game is complete. I think it's the lack of puzzles that makes this game seem poorer than the others, in my opinion.

Well, that's exactly it, though. The God of War puzzle, while kinda interesting (probably do to the landscape design), are incredibly easy. Which is probably why I didn't mind them being taken out. I mostly just play the series for the gameplay and the interactive boss fights where there are environmental ways of hurting them. Also, the design of the games and Greek environments. There's hardly anything more than a cliche' revenge story.

And I completely and totally agree with you about Kratos. He's such a one track character. I got a buddy who's really into the series and he tries to argue otherwise, but he's an idiot. And I don't care for how the game developers decided to make it that you as the player have to do some of the dick things in the games. Like in the second game when you have to jam a machine by using a wounded Spartan soldier. That actually bothered me a lot. Kratos is just a prick. And GameInformer listing him as one of the greatest video game characters of this generation just kind of killed any last ounce of respect I had for those hacks.