- The Saint Patty’s Day Massacre!
- God of War: System Seller Extraordinaire
- Freedom Force vs. The 3rd Reich: Proving Superhero Games Don’t Suck
- Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30: Once More Unto the Breach
- TimeSplitters: Future Perfect: Where’s the Love?
- Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening: Difficult Is an Understatement
- LEGO Star Wars: Even Jar-Jar Is Cool in Block Form
- The Matrix Online: Too Little, Too Late?
- Stealth Action Games: The Best Sneaker Series in the Biz
- Silent Hunter III: Return of a Classic
- PSP Game Explosion!: Top Shelf PSP Launch Titles
- Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat: Monkeys and Drums—For Joy, For Joy
- MLB 2006 Versus MLB 2K5: Baseball’s Best of the Rest
- Ultra-Violent Games: The Ten Bloodiest Games Ever
- Unreal Tournament 2004: It’s All About the Mods
- Whiplash: Closet Classic (1996)
- Metacritic’s Worst Xbox Games: Ten Titles That Embarrass the Box
- X-COM: UFO Defense: Closet Classic (1994)
- The V-Smile: Training the Gamers of Tomorrow
- The Hotplate Gourmet: Hey, It’s Food!...Sort Of
- Prince of Persia: Sands of Time: Bargain Bin Special
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
God of War: System Seller Extraordinaire
Genre: Clash of the Titans with Beheadings Publisher: Sony Developer: Sony Studios Santa Monica Platform: PS2 Metacritic Metascore: 94
God of War is a visceral, violent, bloody, gore-soaked, no-holds-barred over-the-top fighting feast that has you chopping off limbs and heads on your way to mythological glory. This is the kind of game that has politicians screaming from the rafters, but you just know that half of them are secretly playing during Senate downtime.
According to the game review database Metacritic.com, God of War is one of the best-reviewed games of all time. In fact, 20 review sources rated God of War at least a 98%. That’s some serious praise that justifies the notion that this game is a system seller; that is, a game that is so good that it’s worth going out and buying a PlayStation 2 just so that you can experience it.
God of War Tips
Your journey will take you to classic settings in Greek mythology: The Aegean Sea, the Desert of Lost Souls, Pandora’s Temple, and the Temple of the Oracle just to name a few. To progress through what is generally considered a very tough game, you’ll have to be quick with the gamepad controls as well as know the ins and outs of the game. Here are some general tips to keep in mind when taking Kratos on his whirlwind tour of death.
- Level up the Blades of Chaos at least twice before you level up anything else. You’ll have some effective moves and at level three, you can make a huge dent in bigger enemies and bosses.
- When you’re in the middle of an attack and you know you’re about to take a savage beating, hold the L1 button down. If you do this correctly, your current movement will stop and you will be in the normal block pose; this prevents you from taking any damage (unless it’s an unblockable attack). And don’t forget that you can block in mid-air! If you use this strategy, you’re going to run into the "counter lag" sequence from the time to time. As soon as the screen does this, release the L1 button and tap the Square button. This causes you to counter the enemies with little recoil time; this is effective on bosses, as well.
- Mini-games are generally used to finish an enemy off. When you see a button appear above an enemy’s head, execute the button sequence that normally follows. Following these sequences is critical when fighting bosses.
- Don’t waste magic on everything you see because you might need it for bosses or harder groups of enemies. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t use it from time to time, but don’t waste it on every undead legionnaire that you see.
- Rage of the Gods is pretty potent when used correctly. Using it for bosses is recommended, but you really don’t need to use it (unless you’re playing in God Mode). Like magic, pick your spots and use it wisely.
IGN.com voted God of War the best-looking PS2 game ever made saying, "From the fight at sea in the beginning to the battle of the gods at the end the game simply never lets up with its visceral impact."