All that finnicky beam-balancing is so much fun, right? I can't in good conscience say I find this as refined, atmospheric, or memorable as Devil May Cry - of which this clearly takes heavy inspiration. Crummy hitboxes (those goddamned blades...) and serious repetition here. That being said, the thing still glistens with that alluring PS2-era texture: locations look good (The Path of Hades in particular) and Kratos is one hell of a protagonist. It's refreshing to see a game make no apologies for its depraved (anti)hero - a game that just downright revels in being mean, with an authentic grimdark atmosphere that flaunts some nice splatty violence where it counts. Looks even better on the PS3 HD collection, keeping the original gameplay/aesthetic experience intact just with a more attractive sheen over the top. Wish more remasters did stuff like this. The "Challenge of the Gods" are still some of the downright least fun postgame content/rewards ever programmed, though.