Fun and Games
Nov. 6th, 2006 10:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miss_ytSo I spent entirely too much time this weekend playing God of War. At least some of you have probably heard of it, since it's been praised far and wide as one of the greatest action games ever on the PS2. I haven't played enough games on that system to make a truly accurate assessment, but I can say that it's one of the best games that I personally have ever played. It seems like the logical next step up from the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time series: it seems to share many of the same principles.
For instance, PoP: The Two Thrones had this nifty "speed kill" system where you would jump an enemy and press the attack button at specific intervals indicated by a screen flash. This made combat a whole lot more interesting, in part by combining (to a degree) the platforming and fighting elements. God of War has "minigames," which are sort of like speed kills in that they are initiated under certain circumstances and you have to time your hits correctly. You also have to use more than one button, and sometimes the analog stick. It takes practice, but once you get the hang of it, it's great fun. There are also special moves you can do when climbing up a wall, or hanging from a rope, that makes navigating obstacles more challenging and engaging.
The aspect of collecting items and orbs to power up your weapons, spells and stats is great fun, especially since a lot of power-ups are in hidden or hard-to-reach places. Working towards a level-up or searching for hidden goodies always appeals to me. But I don't think I'm finding even half of the available chests of orbs or special items (even though I've found a lot): next time I run through the game I will use a walkthrough so I can get to everything.
And I can't say enough about the level design. Every environment feels vast, even when it's folded into a puzzle-box design, which is often the case. The designs almost never feel contrived, and while there is usually one particular path you have to take, you can usually go back or forward along it as you please. There are also lots of out-of-the-way side bits with powerups. And everything, from the architecture to the detailing to the effects to the ambient sound, is imaginative and richly rendered. Sometimes you just have to stop, take your fingers off the buttons, and pause to appreciate just how cool it all looks. Each successive environment has something that will amaze or even awe you.
But the thing that really does it, at least for me, are the puzzles. They are often very naturally integrated into the environment, or if they aren't, there's a darn good reason for it. The puzzles require not only thinking, but a serious adjustment of thinking. This is because, in many cases, the solution to a problem is to do the craziest thing you can think of. By "crazy" I mean stuff that, in most other games, would at best produce no result whatsoever, and at worst would kill you or cause some clipping glitch that gets you stuck badly the only way out is the reset button. Unfortunately I can't give any examples of these puzzles, because that would ruin the experience for people who haven't yet played this game. Just remember: think crazy.
Sometimes combat is an element of the puzzles, but it's never as simple as "you have to kill these guys to unlock this bit" (there's some of that, but it's not part of the puzzles). Rather, the inclusion of enemies makes a simple task like pushing a block into the right place far more interesting - in the sense of the Oriental proverb - than it would be otherwise. It can be frustrating, but the lack of such hindrances would make certain puzzles pretty mediocre. And God of War does not do mediocre.
I do have a couple of problems with this game. One is that you have no control over the camera. At least the camera's behavior has been programmed very carefully, so it doesn't get stuck behind things. But some of the changes are jarring, like when you run through a door and suddenly the camera angle changes 180 degrees. It doesn't happen during combat, but it's awkward and annoying when it does. The lack of camera control also makes it difficult to scope out environments or find hidden goodies. I find it restrictive.
Also, the gods all have fake English accents, although most of the other characters don't. Actually, I can't say they're all fake English accents. At least one is a genuine Australian (or New Zealand) accent: Claudia Black (of Pitch Black, Farscape and Stargate SG-1) provides the voice for Artemis. I thought I recognized her so I looked her up on IMDB, and yep, there she is. I don't know whether the other gods' voice actors really have an accent or are just putting one on. Anyway, the accent thing is kind of cheesy, although the rest of the voice acting is great.
A final note: this is, as far as I can remember, the most bloody and depraved game I've ever played. The game lets you kill innocent people and does not punish you for it: in fact, you get a bit of health replenished when you slaughter some poor panicked soul. And the character you play doesn't bat an eyelid at this kind of thing. He is not at all likeable, although he is interesting, and part of the allure of the game is piecing together his backstory. Although I was kind of shocked at first (even after reading a review which mentioned this), it doesn't really bother me anymore. It's not that I'm inured to that kind of thing, but I realize that extreme violence and depravity - on the part of the good guys - are a staple of the Greek myths that served as an inspiration for this game. Many of the Hellenic heroes and gods did sick and horrible things occasionally, or even on a regular basis. So God of War just fits into that pattern.
Speaking of depravity: there's an easter egg at the start of the second level that I found very amusing: since it's not essential to the gameplay or the story, explaining it wouldn't spoil anything. See, you start the level in a cabin on the hero's ship, and he's standing next to a generous bed in which there are two naked concubines. You can jump on the bed and, ahem, initiate a minigame with them. You don't see anything except a jar shaking on a bedside table, although you do hear stuff. You have to press the right buttons and rotate the analog stick as directed. If you do it correctly, you get a generous powerup. You can run through the minigame as many times as you like, but you get the big powerup only once. Heh.
For instance, PoP: The Two Thrones had this nifty "speed kill" system where you would jump an enemy and press the attack button at specific intervals indicated by a screen flash. This made combat a whole lot more interesting, in part by combining (to a degree) the platforming and fighting elements. God of War has "minigames," which are sort of like speed kills in that they are initiated under certain circumstances and you have to time your hits correctly. You also have to use more than one button, and sometimes the analog stick. It takes practice, but once you get the hang of it, it's great fun. There are also special moves you can do when climbing up a wall, or hanging from a rope, that makes navigating obstacles more challenging and engaging.
The aspect of collecting items and orbs to power up your weapons, spells and stats is great fun, especially since a lot of power-ups are in hidden or hard-to-reach places. Working towards a level-up or searching for hidden goodies always appeals to me. But I don't think I'm finding even half of the available chests of orbs or special items (even though I've found a lot): next time I run through the game I will use a walkthrough so I can get to everything.
And I can't say enough about the level design. Every environment feels vast, even when it's folded into a puzzle-box design, which is often the case. The designs almost never feel contrived, and while there is usually one particular path you have to take, you can usually go back or forward along it as you please. There are also lots of out-of-the-way side bits with powerups. And everything, from the architecture to the detailing to the effects to the ambient sound, is imaginative and richly rendered. Sometimes you just have to stop, take your fingers off the buttons, and pause to appreciate just how cool it all looks. Each successive environment has something that will amaze or even awe you.
But the thing that really does it, at least for me, are the puzzles. They are often very naturally integrated into the environment, or if they aren't, there's a darn good reason for it. The puzzles require not only thinking, but a serious adjustment of thinking. This is because, in many cases, the solution to a problem is to do the craziest thing you can think of. By "crazy" I mean stuff that, in most other games, would at best produce no result whatsoever, and at worst would kill you or cause some clipping glitch that gets you stuck badly the only way out is the reset button. Unfortunately I can't give any examples of these puzzles, because that would ruin the experience for people who haven't yet played this game. Just remember: think crazy.
Sometimes combat is an element of the puzzles, but it's never as simple as "you have to kill these guys to unlock this bit" (there's some of that, but it's not part of the puzzles). Rather, the inclusion of enemies makes a simple task like pushing a block into the right place far more interesting - in the sense of the Oriental proverb - than it would be otherwise. It can be frustrating, but the lack of such hindrances would make certain puzzles pretty mediocre. And God of War does not do mediocre.
I do have a couple of problems with this game. One is that you have no control over the camera. At least the camera's behavior has been programmed very carefully, so it doesn't get stuck behind things. But some of the changes are jarring, like when you run through a door and suddenly the camera angle changes 180 degrees. It doesn't happen during combat, but it's awkward and annoying when it does. The lack of camera control also makes it difficult to scope out environments or find hidden goodies. I find it restrictive.
Also, the gods all have fake English accents, although most of the other characters don't. Actually, I can't say they're all fake English accents. At least one is a genuine Australian (or New Zealand) accent: Claudia Black (of Pitch Black, Farscape and Stargate SG-1) provides the voice for Artemis. I thought I recognized her so I looked her up on IMDB, and yep, there she is. I don't know whether the other gods' voice actors really have an accent or are just putting one on. Anyway, the accent thing is kind of cheesy, although the rest of the voice acting is great.
A final note: this is, as far as I can remember, the most bloody and depraved game I've ever played. The game lets you kill innocent people and does not punish you for it: in fact, you get a bit of health replenished when you slaughter some poor panicked soul. And the character you play doesn't bat an eyelid at this kind of thing. He is not at all likeable, although he is interesting, and part of the allure of the game is piecing together his backstory. Although I was kind of shocked at first (even after reading a review which mentioned this), it doesn't really bother me anymore. It's not that I'm inured to that kind of thing, but I realize that extreme violence and depravity - on the part of the good guys - are a staple of the Greek myths that served as an inspiration for this game. Many of the Hellenic heroes and gods did sick and horrible things occasionally, or even on a regular basis. So God of War just fits into that pattern.
Speaking of depravity: there's an easter egg at the start of the second level that I found very amusing: since it's not essential to the gameplay or the story, explaining it wouldn't spoil anything. See, you start the level in a cabin on the hero's ship, and he's standing next to a generous bed in which there are two naked concubines. You can jump on the bed and, ahem, initiate a minigame with them. You don't see anything except a jar shaking on a bedside table, although you do hear stuff. You have to press the right buttons and rotate the analog stick as directed. If you do it correctly, you get a generous powerup. You can run through the minigame as many times as you like, but you get the big powerup only once. Heh.
