God of War - IGN and GameSpot Reviews

[ManuVlad3.0]

Closing Comments
If you're not yet sold, you likely never will be. Attempting to summarize God of War in this little space also feels like it'd be an injustice, so I'll not even bother trying anymore.

Purchase it, rent it, borrow it, whatever it. Just play the game. Just beat the game.

9.5 Presentation
Everything except the painfully obvious text prompts is great. Ditch those the next time around or suffer my wrath.

10 Graphics
Top of its class. The only thing more impressive than God of War's technology is God of War's art.

10 Sound
All of the sound could have been a part of Return of the King and it still would have won Oscars.

9.5 Gameplay
The platforming elements need to take hints from Sands of Time and the puzzles could do with a little more thought and a little less block pushing. Everything else is nearly perfect.

9.0 Lasting Appeal
Hey other developers! See all that wacky crap that opens up after you beat GOW? See how it's all candid and fluff free? Yeah, now you suckers do that, too.

9.8 OVERALL
(out of 10 / not an average)

Full Review

Game Informer: 10/10



GOTY?

 

[Teasy]

Its a bit early for that I think, it only has 3 reviews so far. We'll get a better picture when its at 30-40 reviews.

 

[Legend]

what is their highest score ever?

 

[gleemax]

According to IGN's search, they've given twenty 10s. More recently, they gave San Andreas a 9.9, Resident Evil 4 a 9.8, and Halo 2 a 9.8. So GoW is probably a good game. Judging from the demo, it is excellent. Maybe I'm out of the loop or something, but I hadn't heard of God of War before I received a demo in the mail. What a pleasant surprise.

 

[Deepak]

WoW! I am going to get it asap.

 

[xmu]

I checked the video review and a bunch of videos on IGN and have to say, the game looks f*ing awesome. Now I'd just have to beat RE4 and GT4 (hah!) before the PAL release

 

[marconelly!]

IGN has not given a 10 to any of this generation games, though. 9.9 is the highest they gave (to GTA:SA and Dreamcast version of Tony Howk 2) and three 9.8s so far (GoW, Halo 2, RE4)

 

[Bohdy]

Ign is not worth listening to on any matter these days, but of course that doesn't mean that this game won't rock; I can see that with my own eyes!

But seriously, if you want a fair assesment of its objective qualities, look elsewhere. I like (some) Gamespot reviewers personally, and Ntsc-Uk.

 

[rabidrabbit]

That game looks honestly unbelievable!
It's hard to believe it's running on PS2, it would be hard to believe if it were running on xbox.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

Ign is not worth listening to on any matter these days.

I agree that they give super high scores little too easily, but I would like you to give some examples to back up your outburst. What examples make IGN not worth listening.

The game seems to be absolutely amazing, can't wait to get my hands on it.

 

[Blade]

Marconelly: Uh, don't forget Metroid Prime and Gran Turismo 3. Both earned 9.8/10, deservedly.

 

[Kalin]

IGN has not given a 10 to any of this generation games, though. 9.9 is the highest they gave (to GTA:SA and Dreamcast version of Tony Howk 2) and three 9.8s so far (GoW, Halo 2, RE4)

SoulCalibur (a 10), If Dreamcast counts.

 

[Kolgar]

The G4 Channel recently did a show about the making of God of War. Apparently, the driving force behind this project is David Jaffe, whose credits include Twisted Metal.

Believe it or not, the game is running on a modified version of the Kinetica game engine. (Remember Kinetica, that odd, futuristic rail racer in the vein of Wipeout?)

Mr. Jaffe says God of War is the game he always wanted to make. It's uncompromisingly adult, and includes not just nudity but, from what I gather, slightly interactive sex scenes.

In any case, I too was wowed by the sight of this game in motion. It's simply one of the most visually impressive games this generation, on any platform.

And in North America, it comes out Tuesday.

 

[Acert93]

Mr. Jaffe says God of War is the game he always wanted to make. It's uncompromisingly adult, and includes not just nudity but, from what I gather, slightly interactive sex scenes.

Looks like a fun "Contra" Old-Style game (i.e. ton of action, method based bosses, slick powerful attacks with lots of chained attacks, etc...) but the above quote guarantees I will never play it. Maybe they will make a PG version

 

[Fox5]

The G4 Channel recently did a show about the making of God of War. Apparently, the driving force behind this project is David Jaffe, whose credits include Twisted Metal.

Believe it or not, the game is running on a modified version of the Kinetica game engine. (Remember Kinetica, that odd, futuristic rail racer in the vein of Wipeout?)

Mr. Jaffe says God of War is the game he always wanted to make. It's uncompromisingly adult, and includes not just nudity but, from what I gather, slightly interactive sex scenes.

In any case, I too was wowed by the sight of this game in motion. It's simply one of the most visually impressive games this generation, on any platform.

And in North America, it comes out Tuesday.

What disappointed me in that interview was how the guy said he thought the game idea would be turned down for not being innovative...honestly I feel the game market is too flooded to successfully release a game that does nothing new, yet at the same time god of war does seem to do things new.

 

[Kolgar]

Acert, maybe don't be so quick to judge? I take it the sex has been included to further round out the main character's personality.

Game Informer Online says:

Plus, there are lots of topless women in-game and in the cutscenes, plus a quick sex minigame that gives you experience orbs. Fortunately, it’s not there for shock value – Kratos is more like a fierce beast than a soldier, and it actually plays well within the storyline.

By all accounts so far, the game seems like one not to miss:

Even though I haven’t beaten the game yet, I am quite eager to get back to the epic world that is God Of War. I don’t remember any other game that has made me feel like such an utter and complete bad-ass. While there have been already rumors of a sequel, I can’t wait to see more. With an extremely engaging and adult-themed story line and gameplay that suits it, fantastic visuals, and smart (yet not frustrating) puzzles, God of War is a must have game for any fan of action adventure games.

Here's part of an interview with David Jaffe where he talks specifically about why they included the nudity and sex:

GI: Having this M rated game, I don’t remember that many M rated games that go down some of the paths that God of War does, especially for this game which is going to be a mainstream title. You’ve got your nudity. You’ve got the sex mini-game. Was it tricky straddling that line and are you nervous about it. Also, what do you think Joseph Lieberman is going to say about it?

DJ: The only thing that I was nervous about was that it was going to come across as comical. And, I didn’t want that. What I really wanted to do was in establishing Kratos, I wanted to have a character who was very animalistic and very beast-like. And to me that’s more than the violence and more than his “get it done†attitude. There’s sort of a sexual component to that as well, and one thing that I’ve always been saying, and is sort of a cliché, I wanted him to be a bad ass on the battlefield and a bad ass in the bedroom. I’ve seen on message boards that people think we’re going down the Prince of Persia route, and to me that’s what really bugs me the most. The game really comes from a place of creativity. This is the kind of world I want God of War to be and I want it to be like Heavy Metal magazine and movies from the 70’s like The Sword and the Sorcerer that were fancy but also very sex driven. That was a great mix for a 15 or 16-year old kid at the time. There really was a desire to make the world and character come from a place that I thought was appealing. In terms of Lieberman, I don’t think many people will have anything to say about.

GI: We agree. Personally we thought the sex mini-game was funny, something that we really would want to show to our buddies. It’s funny.

DJ: Well, that was my biggest fear. When I decided that we were going to keep it in the game, the reality to me was that 95 percent of the people who play it will laugh at it. They’re going to think that we’re being funny or that it’s just a fun thing to do. And I basically just had to accept that that was the way it was going to be. But what I really hope happens is that once that sort of feeling wears off, the idea of who he is in terms of a character, in terms of him being sexual as well as violent, will be somewhere in the player’s mind when they think of who Kratos is and what the world is. But, every single player who plays that for the first time either gets a disgusted look on their face or a great big grin.

GI: Well, it really surprised us when in a cutscene we catch a pretty good glimpse of a woman without her top on.

DJ: Well, that was tricky, too. The fact that we’re even having the discussion shows how far behind video games are in terms of how people perceive them compared to something like a movie or a comic book. I know it’s going to come across this way to some people that we’re just doing it for shock value. But the idea of wanting to create a world that is an adult world, where sex is a part of it, I think is a really cool thing. Unfortunately, the only way we were able to put that across in God of War was either in terms of the mini-game, which was funny, or in terms of the movies and the nudity, which is shocking. Both of those don’t really give me what I want because they don’t really immerse you in the world and really give you that sense of what the world is, and it almost pulls you out of the game experience. But, I was willing to do it because after those initial reactions go away, the player will still go, “I get what kind of world this is.â€

GI: Personally, we don’t mind it. After all, we get worse in our spam e-mails that flood into our inboxes every day.

DJ: Of course, it’s just nudity. I’m certainly prepared for some people not to like it. But credit goes to Sony. I’ve been at Sony for 12 years and when they came out with the PSone they wanted to elevate games from kids toys. They wanted to make it the next great art form. And in terms of the game, they understood it completely. They agreed and saw the need for it (nudity/sex), and understood that they were part of the world and the story. And if people have a problem with it, we’ll just have to deal with it then. They really do support their game creators and I’m very grateful for that.

So they're trying to establish their idea of the main character and his world, and in this case, they decided the adult themes were the way to go.

 

[Blade]

What is the sex mini-game? I mean, what is the objective?

 

[marconelly!]

Marconelly: Uh, don't forget Metroid Prime and Gran Turismo 3. Both earned 9.8/10, deservedly.

True. My point is that although they tend to overrate many games, they didn't give a score that high to a game that wasn't something pretty special.

 

[rabidrabbit]

What is the sex mini-game? I mean, what is the objective?

I don't know, but I can imagine it might be like some kind of "rhythm action" minigame.

 

[Kolgar]

LOL rabidrabbit

From what I saw on G4, the camera focuses on the night stand at one side of the bed and the player is supposed to input button presses corresponding to the symbols (triangle, square, etc.) that flash onscreen.

The girl moans and the bed bounces, hitting the night stand, and knocking something off it onto the floor.

What more there is to it, I don't know. Doubt if G4 showed all there is to the sequence.