What is it?

• A new Action “hack ‘n slash” game from Sony exclusively for the PS2.
• You play as a former Spartan warrior named Kratos who is tasked with killing the Greek god of war: Ares.
• Kratos wields dual chain blades which can be swung, thrown, and smashed into enemies with amazing grace and variety.
• Developers promise between 15 and 25 attack moves.
• Krotos will also be able to learn magic as he progresses through the story.
• God of War also adds a fair amount of problem solving to its gameplay.

Preview Gameplay

• The first thing you will notice when playing God of War are the awesome graphics.
• Extremely high levels of detail are shown on the in game cinematics
• The gameplay graphics also hold a high level of detail that is comparable to some of the best on the PS2.
• Huge bosses and mini-bosses, look truly menacing, and powerful.
• The gameplay of God of War can fall into three themes:
• A hack ‘n slash style of fighting off wave after wave of charging enemies similar to the Lord of the Rings movie based games from EA.
• Some puzzle solving which in the demo was not too challenging, but was more innovative than most games. Reminiscent of a game like Ico.
• A button timing battle system that can appear during some boss and mini boss battles to finish off a creature. This reminded me of the old Dreamcast game Shenmue.
• The pacing and variety of God of War seems to be well done.
• You might start with beating back a couple waves of charging minotaurs.
• Then there might be a door in the floor or a passage way blocked that you’ll have to find in order to proceed to the next level.
• You might then fight more waves of lesser beasts like wyverns or have to fight a mini-boss battle against small hydra.
• After you defeat a wave of creatures or a mini-boss battle, you will get some time to figure out how to make it to the next area in the game, and to maybe open some chests or break some barrels that might give you some orbs.
• Orbs are released from killing enemies and can be found in chests and barrels that are scattered through the levels.
• Red Orbs – After collecting a large amount of these orbs, they can be used to upgrade your abilities.
• Green Orbs – Replenish your health.
• However, there are some attacks which can kill enemies but will not produce any orbs. So deciding how to kill an enemy can be an important strategy.
• Blue Orbs – Replenish your magic.
• You can also find items to expand your overall characters stats.
• Finding all the Gorgon eyes will expand your health meter max.
• Phoenix feathers expand your magic meter max.
• A Trident will give you a new power.
• Muse keys can also be found, but there purpose is unknown from the demo.
• The games biggest downfall seems to be in the camera.
• A lot of the action takes place using a fixed camera angle.
• This has been a very bad design decision in other games.
• It seems to work ok in the preview of God of War but my fear is that the full version will be flawed with an unmovable, counter-productive camera system.
• On the positive side, the tasks where I wished I could move the camera for a better angle, did not require the precision or have any hidden surprises that were detrimental to success.
• Also, sometimes the camera would pan out or slightly turn, when it was necessary to have a better angled view.
•  The sound again reminded me of games like Lord of the Rings or Gladius.
• Very professional orchestral score.
• Plenty of background screams and fighting noises that accompany the action that can be seen in the background.
• Good professional voice acting for the few NPC characters encountered in the demo.

Preview Hype

• It certainly looks like God of War has the makings to be an excellent game.
• The hack ‘n slash gameplay felt easy with so many attacks, combos and magic spells at your disposal. However, it was greatly satisfying and very fluid to execute.
• The big draw of the gameplay was the numerous mini boss and boss battles which require better pattern recognition, correct attack methods, and skilled timing of attacks and blocks to be successful.
• Also highly addicting are the beautiful graphics and the satisfying way that you can finish off certain battles.
• God of War is scheduled to be released March 22^nd.

Probability for Success

• High – Even with some questionable static camera angles, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that I’m betting that they won’t become too frustrating. That said, I think people will fall in love with the beautiful graphics and better than average boss battles, making God of War one of the best games seen on the PS2 this year.