GAME: God of War (PS2)

Every Christmas since I was a little boy I had gotten at least 1 video game. This goes all the way back to the NES days. I'm sure many of you can empathize with the joy of receiving that perfect game.

Well I am older now and this Christmas I contemplated leaving the gaming behind. A trip to Best Buy changed my mind as I decided to pick up God of War for the PS2. I heard all the positive reviews and the game had been out long enough to put itself on the PS2 Greatest Hits list, warranting a reduced $20 price tag.

I have been playing it for a few days now and I highly recommend it. The graphics are impeccable (often I feel as if I'm playing one of the first lines of Xbox 360 games), the soundtrack is encouraging, and the game play is smooth as a hot knife through butter. Maybe I haven't looked hard enough but I haven't found a single glitch in the graphics.

I can't speak enough of the transition video clips through the length of the game. The scenes are visually appealing, high octane, and somewhat sophisticated. It is not a simple story line and you can tell that the game's writers went above and beyond with the script. And even though the transition scenes are visually appealing, you still do not get the feel that you are playing another game when you get back to the gameplay.

The weapons are slightly limited but the combinations that you can perform with the weapons are vast. Don't even both trying to memorize all the combinations because after a while of slashing you will start to develop them on your own. The button configuration is simple. There are even combinations that the game requires you to do at the instant to destroy a mutant completely.

As for the length of the game, I have been playing sporadically but I have gotten far enough to say that the game is lengthy. There are puzzles that you have to solve, hidden items that you have to uncover, and enough bad guys to put blisters on your thumb. I have been playing normal difficulty and it has been fairly tough but there is a harder difficulty level which I'm sure will keep you frustrated :)

Overall, every aspect of the game is impressive. It's worth your $20.

God of War 2 is set to release this February!