God of War Collection (PS3) - Review

More Bang for the Buck

The God of War games are a staple of the latter days of the Playstation 2.  I, however never gave the series a chance because I was part of the “Devil May Cry Clone” crowd, which I remained until Devil May Cry 4.  Even if they were  a clone or even just heavily inspired by the hack and slash genre on Sony’s black box, it was a extremely well done game that pushed the PS2 to the limit and cemented itself as a Sony centric brand.  “Remastered in High Definition”, both Playstation 2 God of War games have been rereleased on a single Blue Ray with trophies in lieu of the upcoming God of War III release.

Story: Not to get to detailed, its a story of Kratos whom begins the story as a mortal serving the Greek Gods to escape the nightmares of his past, as well as avenge his family on the God of War Ares.  In part II, He is fighting all of the God of Olympus allying with the Gods most notorious enemies the Titans.

Presentation: Not only was the game ported to native Playstation 3 code, the game’s in engine visuals have been bumped up to full on HD resolution.  Some texture work was done was well to keep the game from looking like a blurry stretched out mess.  No one will mistake this for Uncharted 2 level visuals, but for a PS2 game ported, it holds up very nicely.  You can Still can tell it was a PS2 game at one time, but you’ll probably be too busy slaughtering the minions of Hades to even care.  The games signature style of brutal slaughter never has looked as good as it does now. A very nice consequence of the port is a rock solid framerate that the PS2 versions did not enjoy due to the sheer need for hardware

"A Shiny Gyrados Appears!"

power that was originally asked of the original release.  There has not been a single moment the framerate has dropped below 60, its sort of like installing Battlefield 1942 on a machine that will play Crysis on Very High, and seeing the visual settings bumped to max with the end result.  One very noticeable bad consequence of the port are the cinematic movie sequences that remain in SD resolution and are as grainy and blurry as the Resident Evil 2 port to the N64 all those years ago, that’s what it reminds me of.  The Orchestral sequences and voice work still remain solid throughout both games.  GoW II is noticeably better looking of the two in everyway, however considering it was released during the final important year of the Playstation 2, the team had maxed out the PS2 hardware and code, its hard to fault the original. That is not to say the original looks bad at all, on the contrary it holds up even to some recent next gen releases.

Gameplay: God of War is a hack and Slash game with some RPG elements thrown in the mix.  For the most part you will be mashing button combination’s on the Square and Triangle buttons, creating combos and even juggling lesser foes.  After killing foes you will be awarded experience orbs which can be spent on your primary weapons as well as abilities granted to you later throughout the game.  God of

...is gonna fuck your shit up....

War is also known for having some of the greatest Boss Battles in all of videogame history.  Often Kratos will find himself fighting the larger than life monsters of myth as well as a God or two.  Some light platforming is thrown in the mix, but for the most part you will consistently be killing waves of lesser minions and the occasional sub boss types.  Another staple of the series are dramatically scripted QTE’s (Quick Time Events) which are presented to you in order to finish off a boss, or kill a minion in a very gory and gruesomely violent way.  these QTE’s are often repeated if a button has been failed to be executed by the player.  There is a small collectible element involving items that will increase your health and magic abilities over time having been collected, but it is never forced on the player.

Special: At $39.99 at retail, this is a steal for anyone who has never played either or both of these games.  On top of that, for trophy whores like myself, there is a complete set of trophies for both games, a platinum for each!  As well as a few extra added bonus videos for God of War II accessible from the Video menu on the XMB.

Like a living 80's Ballad

Conclusion: The God of War Collection is a great value in a sea of 59.99 games, not onlycleaning up the originals and making them look better over all, it brings an excellent series to a new generation of gamers.  I do NOT recommend this game for under 17’s, as violence alone is extremely graphic for youngsters, there’s a Sex minigame in there as well.  However, for those old enough who never picked up either game, or the PS3 is their first console purchase this is a must have, and at the price point there is no excuse not to add this to your collection.  now only if we could get the same treatment for Devil May Cry 3….or even Shadow of the Colossus…..

God of  Ware Collection (PS3) is a ***** out of 5

By:  Bobby Major