Saturday, July 20, 2019

God of War: My first real ps2 experience and the first game we clocked on the ps2

So, my neighbour from way down my road tells my mom and I that his son bought the wrong game and only realized when he got home that he already had it. We don't ask questions, we don't argue, we go along with viewing the game. We paid him a couple of bucks and left. "God of War" sounded like an interesting video game name. It was only the second game I had acquired for my ps2 (the first being Jak 3). Little did I know that this God of War disc was going to change so much in my gamer journey.

I put the mysterious disc into my ps2 console and watch the whole "The Gods of Olympus have abandoned me," speech and think not too much, but this guy does look sick cool, honestly.
Then I get to meet Kratos, the protagonist of this EPIC tale.


The God of War cover for the ps2 featuring Kratos holding Medusa's head

A little backstory before I begin: God of War was released on March 22nd 2005, developed by Santa Monica Studio and published by Song Computer Entertainment. Only released for the ps2 at the time. But, later for the ps3 and ps Vita. It is loosely based on Greek Mythology and tells the story of our main guy, Kratos, being sent on a quest to find Pandora's box and defeat Ares; Kratos' former mentor who tricked him into killing his wife and daughter. Of course, nothing is ever as simple as the words I just used.

Oh god, the game opens with you fighting these scary rotting, undead Spartan soldiers. I wasn't ready for this but I'm here already and I have to get this right. The game threw me in the deep end real quick and since I used the keypad on the ps1, the joysticks were a whole different ballgame for me. At least, I had the prompts, square for light attacks and triangle for heavy ones. Okay, okay, I can do this. 
That was basically me through the whole game.

Playing God of War got me into Greek Mythology. Just imagine 10 year old me telling my 5th grade teacher all about the Greek gods and goddesses, to be honest, he was impressed. And to this day, I still enjoy reading me some good Greek Mythology information.

Back to the game. It was a real journey. I felt like I was Kratos. He's a character that has made mistakes in his past, he's done some really bad stuff but you feel sorry for him and then you get angry when he gets treated badly and then you get involved. Ripping heads from bodies, stabbing swords through chests and doing all other kinds of bloodthirsty things just come with the territory and there was something about Kratos' arrogance that was entertaining. He's all like, "You can't kill me, I'll come for you Ares, vengeance will be mine," and every word he says is something you want to make come true while playing.

I find it kind of hard deciding which enemies were my favourite. I know I HATE archers with a passion. Seeing as most of the creatures in this game are the undead, they fight pretty well for a bunch of dead guys. Minotaurs were really awesome and really overpowering, you were puny compared to them. Centaurs made an appearance in the Challenge of Hades, the creepy looking half man, half horse abominations.
I guess if I should choose a favourite enemy, it would be the Satyrs. Ugh, they were such skilled fighters. And I loved strategically fighting them when they popped up. Their swordsmanship was flawless, quick and agile. Harpies swooped down, screeching like old ladies.

Some of the enemies that you face off against


And then don't get me started on the 4 bosses the game had. The Hydra, Medusa, The Guardian of Pandora and Ares, the final boss battle which had 3 stages.
The Hydra had too many heads, I don't need to add anything else to that description. Medusa had a tail for miles and a gaze that literally turned you to stone. The Guardian of Pandora was a giant Minotaur that definitely left an impression. You had different stages to this fight and he changed his approach to killing you throughout. His fight always gives me an adrenaline rush.

The game's four bosses

Ares. Ares needs a paragraph all to himself because he's a real mother *insert word here.* His battle (not a fight, it was a battle) consisted of 3 stages. My mom and I split the stages according to our strengths. I did the first and last one and she did the second stage. I will mention that that stage had a whole bunch of Kratos Doppelgangers trying to kill Kratos while he tried keeping his wife and child 'alive' by hugging them and giving his health to them.

The game also has some awesome weapons and magic granted to you by the Gods of Olympus. Aphrodite, Athena, Zeus, Artemis, Poseidon and Hades make an appearance in the game to aid our Kratos. And a relic called Poseidon's Trident which lets him breathe underwater, and honestly, that was my favourite tidbit. 

And then the disc we bought from the neighbour got stuck at a cutscene halfway through the game, on the way to Pandora's temple and it didn't want to get past that part. When I checked the disc, it had a circular scratch on it which kinda looked 'man-made.' I was determined to continue our play of God of War so I asked a friend if he could lend me his, which he did. I got past the cutscene, played on a bit, saved and then retried my own disc and voila!, it had worked. So my mom and I were super happy about that. A few years later, I purchased a proper copy of the game from the game shop. 

I must mention that even my grandmother knew who Kratos was and my mom actually got her to purchase God of War 2 for us because she agreed that "we should get to play the next game after finishing the one we have." ( But that's for another post ;) )

I had some heavy powered help in God of War. Let me just set this whole scene straight, my mom and I play video games together. My mom loves God of War. And, we're two completely different gamers. I'm the strategist, I go in slowly, I evaluate the area, I find weaknesses, alternative ways to get things done and I block. Then, you have my mom, she's 120% in the room, kicking butts left, right and center without even thinking twice. She's never used the block button in God of War and I envy that, I don't even think she knows which button it is (she does, I asked her while writing this). God of War was the first game that showed me how different our gaming styles were. Sometimes hers worked better than mine and other times mine got us through an area better. That's why this game was made for both of us and that's why I am proud to say that we finished God of War together. 


To sum most of this post up, we LOVED God of War, its our favourite gaming franchise and I'd light my toe on fire to play the other titles I haven't gotten to yet. A PlayStation 4 would open all those doors for me. One day is one day. 

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