I recently discovered PlayStation emulators (I condemn piracy, but I can’t really play games legally with the PS2) And I went to download dozens of gigabytes of games from a second curling iron, mindlessly cluttering up my hard drive, not quite understanding that I won’t play most of the downloaded games. But among all this gigantic collection I came across two parts of God Of War. The same classic Greek trilogy. And caught the most powerful flashback.
Since the release of the third part in 2010, this series of games has become truly dear and close to me. The third part just blew my mind. It was hard to believe that in games it was even possible to realize all the madness that was happening on the screen. I will remember the same battle with Kronos for the rest of my life. I have not seen such a production anywhere else for a very long time. After the final I really wanted more. Even more Kratos, even more cool fight scenes, even more epic. And then, as if by order, the God Of War Collection was released, which included the first two parts. My joy knew no bounds. “Finally I know the whole story! There is so much Rubilov ahead,” 14-year-old Maxim thought naively in 2010.
God Of War
I knew that the previous parts were released only on PS2, but since I didn’t have a second Sonya, I had little idea of what they really looked like. I wasn’t smart enough to watch YouTube before buying. Everything is so cartoonish, twitchy and frivolous. The opponents look like some kind of assholes with a strange design, and the fight with the hydra at the beginning of the first part left me bewildered by its simplicity. Few large camera spans, no super-epic orchestra like in the battle with Poseidon. Everything is somehow frivolous.
The first thing that surprised me was the relatively adequate Kratos. He speaks calmly, does not rush at the first person he meets, and MY GOD HE SERVES THE GODS AND TAKES VARIOUS MAGICAL TECHNIQUES FROM THEM. After the third part it all seemed as strange and wrong as possible. Here Kratos is gouging out Poseidon’s eyes, and here he is saying to Kratos in a casual tone, “Well, go kill this vile Hydra in the meantime, in a brotherly way, okay? Why is it difficult for you?? Here’s some lightning, maybe it’ll work out.»
But as soon as I stepped off Kratos’s ship into Athens, I was captivated. And if in the third part I reveled in all this crazy action with the titans, then the first part gave me a real feeling of a fairy tale. The first part is quite cruel in places, but it does not have this crazy bloodthirstiness, as in the sequels. The level design may be old-fashioned, but it breathes life and love. Each level has its own character and mood. Athens, drowning in war, the temple of the Oracle and the monstrous temple of Pandora, which, like a living organism, is constantly changing. And the desert of lost souls, where in the distance you can hear the eerie, but at the same time beautiful singing of sirens.
And the music… what kind of music is there?. Even though in the third movement the orchestra became powerful, loud, heavy, monolithic, but the first movement so accurately conveys the spirit of the ancient Greek adventure that you almost want to cry. Sometimes, when I came across books on ancient Greek myths, the soundtrack of the first part of the God of War began to play in my head one time or another
Puzzles. In the first part there are perhaps the largest number of them. But they are not particularly difficult. Only a couple of riddles will make you really scratch your skull in search of a solution. And puzzles help you cool down a little, take a break from battles.
The first part is the calmest. It has relatively calm gameplay that doesn’t make your eyes bleed. The music sometimes goes almost into ambient. Yes, it feels like the combat system is still damp and Kratos has not yet learned to almost dance in a deadly dance with his blades of Chaos. But I can imagine that in 2005 it was a real breakthrough. The beauty of the first part is that it opened a new stage in slashers. Before this, Devil May Cry reigned supreme on the market. A great slasher film, no doubt about it, but it was Japanese. All these endless Dante flexes, fighting styles, endless combos – could easily scare away a beginner. We needed something simple and understandable, but at the same time exciting and challenging. Simply put: “Easy to learn, hard to master”. And so it happened. Only at an easy difficulty level can the player allow himself to hit the buttons relatively thoughtlessly and not think about the consequences, but the higher the difficulty rises, then the understanding comes that the combat system of the god of war is not as simple as it seems. Even if this is a slasher and not for Japanese sword masters, but already at the average difficulty level the game asks to be treated with respect.
It is worth paying tribute to the Casinoprive.co.uk final battle with Ares. The actual production of stars from the sky is not enough, but this is more than compensated by the emotionality of what is happening. This battle for Kratos is not only physical, but also spiritual. And, perhaps, the ending of the first part is the most emotional and personal, imbued with the spirit of a true Greek tragedy. Just like in the textbook. The ending itself looks pretty funny in retrospect. Kratos, as expected, becomes the new god of war, but the cut that follows clearly shows that the developers did not particularly plan to continue their brainchild. The ending of the first part is so monumental that it doesn’t really need any sequels. This is confirmed by footage in which Kratos was present in the First and Second World Wars. The developers simply didn’t think that their game would become a smash hit.
God Of War 2
Legend. Just a legend. Apogee and farewell to the entire PS2 era. The second part is still one of the best, if not the best in the series: Graphics, bosses, combat system, cutscenes – everything is done at the highest level. Unless the plot has undergone any major changes. Although it is in the plot that there are several diabolical details hidden.
Kratos’ character has changed. In the first part, the Spartan was a deeply tragic figure and evoked rather sympathy and a desire to quickly get to Ares and punish him. Kratos was cruel and furious in the first part, but then his hatred was more righteous in nature. There was much more human in her. In the second part, Kratos appears before the player as a rather daring, willful and hot-tempered character who did not care about any conventional decency of Olympus and completely devoted himself to his Spartan comrades. Kratos may have become a god, but he has not forgotten his homeland and is always trying to help Sparta in new battles. And then a rather ambiguous thing begins. For a long time I could not understand such fierce hatred for the Olympian gods. Kratos has already dealt with his sworn enemy, ascended to godhood and got the opportunity to forever do his favorite thing – war. Kratos became a victim of his own pride, for which Zeus punished him. Yes, the gods could not save the Spartan from the curse of the ghost of Sparta. This is a rather vile deception, but the throne of the god of war is a worthy reward for all the years of service. Yes, Zeus intervened rather vilely and disgraced the Spartan in front of his people. It’s only halfway through the story that Kratos gets a motivation that I can fully understand. Until this moment, Kratos looked more like an evil infantile whose favorite toy was taken away.
And it seems like I’m not the only one who had trouble motivating Kratos. In 2010, a prequel to the second part, Ghost of Sparta, was released on PSP."And in this part, Kratos was given a dramatic and extremely personal motivation to wipe Olympus from the face of the earth in the future. After this prequel, everything finally comes together into a coherent picture. It also becomes clear why anger is already boiling in Kratos at the beginning of the second part.
The gameplay has also become much more aggressive and fast-paced, similar to Kratos. The impact of blows has become more noticeable. Much more destructive techniques and weapons have appeared. And it was in the second part that Kratos learned his signature “spinner” with blades. He could do it in the past, but here it looks very nice. And a little later you can get the opportunity to control the passage of time.
There are noticeably more bosses. In addition, the tradition has been observed at the beginning of the game to bring a huge enemy onto the battlefield, with whom you will have to fight in several stages. Kolos became such a boss in the second part. Giant statue. Already here the developers show the player that this time everything is in an adult way and every last drop will be squeezed out of the old PS2.
There are various heroes from myths, as well as animals and creatures of varying degrees of ferocity. And each battle requires individual tactics. A lot of work has been done on the locations. Kratos will visit the besieged city, caves and snowy mountains. But the highlight, of course, is the island of the Sisters of Fate, where the main battle takes place. The relative purity and nobility of this place immediately catches your eye. Athens from the previous game, in fact, lay in ruins, disfigured by war, which fully justified the main name. In the sequel, the chaos of war was replaced by a varied adventure. And that’s more good than bad. Just think about an aerial battle on Pegasus or a fight with the Sisters of Fate. There are even poisonous swamps here (wink, wink)
God Of War 3, and the whole series as a whole
I already gave a brief description of the third part at the very beginning. This is the peak. A visual feast and the highlight of the entire trilogy. Here the God of War gameplay formula is taken to its extreme. Fighting here is pure pleasure. Even additional weapons, which in previous parts you didn’t really want to get, work here and look good. The Claws of Hades alone are worth it. Separately, I would like to note the kingdom of Hades, which was finally able to be fully displayed. Previously, the abode of the dead was shown quite schematically and even abstractly.
And the plot here reveals one interesting detail. And her name is Pandora.
We all know and love the 2018 reboot-sequel. This is a wonderful successor to the original trilogy, in which Kratos received deep development, became much softer and took the path of a mentor. This change was caused in Kratos by his new child – Atreus. Many people think so. But if you fast forward to the final act of the third part, where the Spartan meets the young girl Pandora, he begins to change right before our eyes. At first it seems that Kratos needs the girl as a consumable, but just before the finale, he decides to protect Pandora and prevent her from fulfilling her destiny. I agree, it was done rather clumsily and as if in a hurry, as if the screenwriter needed to URGENTLY develop the character, and the plot was already coming to an end. It was Pandora who laid the foundation for Kratos from 2018. It was Pandora who was able to break through this thick wall of hatred. It was she who gave Kratos and the whole world hope. God Of War 3’s ending leaves a strange bittersweet aftertaste. The gods are defeated, but at a terrible cost.
Usually in my texts I started from some specific thought and idea, but finishing this blog I realized that there was no clear thought and idea as such. I just miss you. I miss that old god, full of adrenaline and brutality. I love reboot. This is a great game and a touching story. But sometimes you really want that same gaming experience from the old parts, but with new technologies and a slightly updated design. Feel that spirit of the classic heroic adventure again. I miss these incredibly beautiful camera flights over locations. Through furious battles with giant monsters. It’s becoming a little disappointing that the Greek God of War is really starting to be forgotten. Sometimes it seems that the previous trilogy did not exist at all, that only the Scandinavian arc always existed. And I myself forgot about these games for a long time, but now it’s as if I rediscovered them after more than five years, when I last played the third part. Once again, I returned to the era when games aimed to entertain, and not to pump money out of the player or spend hundreds of hours in an online swamp, knocking out the next skins. It was very nice to touch this naive, but such a warm and soulful era of PS2 and PS3 games.
To modern players, the classic God Of War may seem quite simple, too pretentious and, in some places, even primitive and cartoonish. It does not have the deep tragedy of Scandinavia and a complex combat system. There is no eternal conflict between father and children. But it has drive, epicness and scope. There is a long-forgotten feeling here when you play as a really cool anti-hero who brutally and stylishly deals with his opponents to the accompaniment of epic music. The restart also has this, but not in the same quantities as in the classic. You may not cry at the end, but when Kratos takes his last breath, you’ll know you’ve seen one of the most epic stories in gaming history.
Best comments
I’m currently playing through the second part on PS3. What can I say, there really is a lot to love about the series. But you have to get used to the combat. After DMC 3 the battles seem slow and sticky.
Awesome series. I completed it with great pleasure (GoW1-2 on PCSX2, Chain Of Olympus and Ghost Of Sparta on PSP and PPSSPP, GoW 3 and Ascension on PS3 and the new one on PS4). By the way, the new GoW really lacks the meaty mad hack. Moreover, Sony’s logic is not clear: why not release the GoW HD Collection on PC first (that is, a collection of all games except the new one, not counting the average Ascension)? Exactly the same questions for the release of Uncharted 4 + addon, bypassing the main trilogy.
By the way, an important advantage of emulators: quick save/load slots. How well they help in GoW1-2/CoO/GoS) – words cannot describe. And how your butt burned in GoW3, when you fell into an abyss while jumping, and the save was 20-30 minutes ago (sometimes after loading the save, you had to replay a few more battles, possibly with bosses). The gamepad flew to the side, and immediately smoked. And I’ll keep quiet about the difficult difficulty, fierce hardcore.
Once again, I returned to the era when games aimed to entertain, and not to pump money out of the player or spend hundreds of hours in an online swamp, knocking out the next skins.