God of War is a... strange game to discuss. On one hand, its what one might consider a masterclass in game design - much like DMC before it, it's one of the forefathers of modern hack n' slashes as we know them today. Your skillset and movement in combat is fluid, robust and incredibly satisfying thanks to the way the rumble motor hums in your hands every time you land a giant, meaty hit. Kratos is animated to perfection, with every single move and ruthless blow he strikes having immensely suiting weight to them, which is apparent in the beautifully gory QTEs, which adds to overall player satisfaction after an arduous, brutal fight against enemies.

One thing that tends to fly under the radar, however, is how the combat actually fits the narrative the story of God of War attempts to tell - every enemy encountered is the product of Ares' manufacturing, and therefore, to Kratos, who at the beginning is simply a mortal, should be facing an uphill battle in his attempts of overcoming them. And the game understands that perfectly by giving enemies much larger health bars. Sure, it may make a lot of major enemies (minotaurs, giants) a tedious chore to annihilate, but in these moments, the player and Kratos are one and the same, brute-forcing their way past these obstacles through sheer effort and determination. It helps them feel more empathetic towards Kratos and his innate desires, and lends in making the player sympathise with Kratos' sins... to a certain degree. This makes the journey to killing Ares all the more satisfying, as the player and Kratos, both mortals, continue their one-man fight through onslaughts upon onslaughts of enemies, gradually growing in strength through the aid of the Gods, and eventually becoming so powerful that enemies that were once monumental tasks in defeating get knocked down like a wet tissue. And in the end, so does Ares. On paper, this sense of satisfaction should make enemy health bars being intentionally amplified an example of perfect combat and game design that produces a sense of ludonarrative harmony that is unmatched.

But in practice, do the ends justify the means? Hell no.

No matter how sensical it is for enemies to have these absurd health bars, it ultimately falters in execution due to how tedious and frustrating these fights can get. In fact, the aforementioned gratifying combat from harnessing upgrades? Really, that's only the case once you hit Blades of Chaos Level 4, because in the mid-game where your weapon is only Level 2/3, Kratos hits far too much like the wet tissue, with fights overstaying their welcome constantly and regular legionnaires becoming the most frustrating encounters in the entire game. This wounds up making God of War, especially in its mid-game, deliver the complete opposite effect intended, with Kratos feeling unfairly putrid compared to the enemies before him.

One particular highlight is the first Cerberus fight right before Pandora's Temple. Immediately you're swarmed by not just 1 gigantic health bar right out the gate, you're also swarmed by an army of tiny puppies that if left unattended, will become a fucking meteor and interrupt your attack, or worse, become one of the fucking giant dogs. This doesn't sound too bad on paper, until you realise that like a fucking trillion of these fuckers spawn right out of the gate. At one point I found myself dealing with 3 Cerberus dogs at once despite figuring out how to deal with the puppies (you just yeet them a lot), and fighting them with just Blades level 3 is immensely _un_satisfying. In general, mid-range enemies tend to become the most unsatisfying enemy archetype to fight, and these fights tend to be the most frustrating to deal with (see: the crusher set piece in Atlas' challenge, and Phase 2 of Ares), mostly in part due to how often the most viable solution tends to be camping and landing small hits, rather than all-out melee combat.

Unfortunately, this major flaw in God of War's combat ends up alienating a large amount of interested newcomers, and ends up tarnishing what is otherwise the perfect case example of ludonarrative harmony in game design. At times, it makes what's supposed to be one of the most satisfying, rewarding aspects of a hack n' slash feel really unsatisfying and painful; this ultimately becomes the fatal blemish that prevents me from proclaiming God of War 2005 to be a perfect video game.

(the other half of the star was docked for movement being sluggish as shit but the focus of this review was the combat system)

Final rating: 7.5/10
Focus: God of War's combat system
Theme: Satisfaction

Did You Know? Game Director and Creator David Jaffe got the idea from Capcom's Onimusha because the gameplay is like the God of War series and he thought they should do that but with Greek Mythology.

Kratos wields two blades known as the Blades of Chaos but he can learn magic abilities from the different Greek gods. Poseidon gives you a lightning blast attack that destroys multiple enemies. After killing Medusa, Kratos uses her head to turn enemies into stone. Zeus gives you a lightning ranged attack and finally Hades gives you the souls of the underworld that attacks nearby enemies.

You have a health meter and magic meter with green orbs being used to heal you and blue orbs being used to fill your magic meter. You can upgrade them both by collecting Gorgon Eyes from the health meter and Phoenix Feathers for the magic meter.

Kratos' reason for killing the Greek God of War, Ares, is justified. Ares in his quest to make Kratos the Perfect Warrior make him kill his own family. This made Kratos angry and he renounced his servitude to Ares and started serving the other gods in hoping to be forgiven for killing his own family.

This is an amazing PlayStation game and a great start to a completely different take on ancient mythology.

Pros:
+ Kratos is a one-note but badass, well-designed protagonist
+ cinematic presentation is excellent and was revolutionary for its time
+ story is simple but effective
+ combat areas are large and backgrounds are always busy
+ combat feels intuitive, quick and satisfying
+ meaty sound effects and mostly great voice acting
+ lots of secrets to discover in every stage
+ camera perspectives are smartly used to emphasize and hide secrets
+ upgrade points can be individually allocated
+ most enemies have specific weak points and demand individual approaches
+ enemies can catch friendly fire
+ plenty of post-game content and bonus features

Cons:
- only three, rather bland boss fights
- optional weapons are nice to have but unnecessary to use
- some areas like the desert are pretty tedious
- all the balancing challenges are clunky and out of place
- one hit death traps are just bad game design
- lack of a sprint button makes backtracking tedious
- even the standard enemies are damage sponges
- enemies blocking attacks ends a combo
- evade moves don't always register in time
- quick time events are not transparent and get pretty tough towards the end
- underwater stages are tedious and controlling them is difficult
- the low-poly, low-frame-rate cutscenes are jarring and not implemented well
- the final fight is a real letdown and not introduced well

Magic Moment: The penultimate boss fight, which combines Kratos' repressed guilt and destructive rage in a satisfying and smart way.

Playtime: 8 hours on Normal difficulty, plus roughly an hour extra thanks to countless deaths to the one-hit-kill traps. Played on the PS2 emulator on PS4.


Verdict:
This is it, the start of Kratos' journey and the initial spark to one of Sony's biggest IPs, and as a first timer 20 years late to the party, there is plenty of entertainment to be found here. While the action has aged pretty well and the setting and presentation are as hyperbolic as ever, it is really the Spartan's memorable design and characteristic, indiscriminite rage that elevates the game beyond its fun and varied mechanics. The story, which is told in a non-linear style, holds more surprises than expected, and the settings and areas offer new ideas and gameplay elements at regular intervals, even if some elements like the balancing challenges are huge design flaws that should have been excised completely.

Even though the unavailability of this game on modern consoles is a problem, any fan of the series should play this at least once to understand where the character came from and how it evolved over time. I'm looking forward to the second one.

I LOVED the story here, even if the dialogue is stiff it still manages to be compelling and the gameplay really works with the character of kratos to the point that I was consistently invested.

But, that investment was more in spite of this games mechanics. The combat at it's core is great but the enemy and encounter design is laughably bad sometimes. I will admit that I played on hard so these issues may be less severe on normal but the ridiculous amount of enemy health combined with their quick ability to counter you and the intentional shortage of crowd control makes a lot of this game funnel you into using the same OP combo while skirting around enemy groups. The rare fights that do give the player the chance to parry (seriously, why bother with a parry when 80% of encounters have enemies that can attack before you land a counter attack) and use their combos felt amazing, but were so few and far between that my overall thoughts on the fights are colored by a general frustration on par with kratos himself.

This game is still saved by some great world and puzzle design, even if I dislike the game's combat, the way they paced fights in-between platforming segments and puzzles is great and the puzzles, while erring on the easy side, felt sufficiently intuitive and creative. It's great to NOT have to google anything to beat a game for once.

Overall, a decent romp, probably worth it to play on normal though.