So now you want the game, right? "No sword-blow or swing of your hero Kratos's hooks goes unrewarded with a geyser of blood." Brilliant! Sony should count themselves lucky for receiving this piece of advertising, brilliantly disguised as aghast moralising. It is exactly this kind of free advertising that a wise company would incur with carefully orchestrated launch parties, which offer newspapers subject matter for cheap, shouty copy in exchange for shining reviews like this. But Sony is not a canny company with an incredibly aggressive marketing approach, just a collection of ke-razy godless bastards who make edgy and excitingly dangerous products.
Perhaps it was some pretty cheap shock tactics that got God of War II onto people's lips, but this is a shame, because I would like to talk about the game anyway. Yes, it is pretty violent. But unlike GTA and its innumerate spawn, the violence is strictly rooted in a not very controversial Xena-esque, demon dispatching fantasy world.
As for the game's plot, the Mail on Sunday review claims that 'although it is nominally based on Greek myths, students of the Classics would be appalled by how the game reduces the tales of the ancients to a sequence of cartoonishly grotesque fights', yet I feel that the characters and stories lifted from the classics fit the game's violent outlook perfectly. A jealous Zeus ties Prometheus to a rock where he is eaten by birds, and heals every night, for the simple crime of giving fire to humans (Greek myth), then Kratos kills him to free him from pain, and kills a bunch of demons. (God of war) The fates warn Chronos that one of his children will kill him, Chronos eats his children. Zeus survives, kills Chronos, rules Olympus. (Greek myth) Zeus becomes as protective of his power as his dead father (see the Prometheus myth) and attempts to kill Kratos, who he thinks poses a threat. Kratos fights his way out of hades, killing a bunch of demons (God of war).
Now I studied classics at school. I don't know if that qualifies me as a 'student of the classics' or not, ( I think the most studied things in that classroom were Miss Rose's tights) but I certainly was not appalled by the direction the game takes. One of the most compelling things about the game is how comfortably Kratos fits into the brutal, petty and vengeful world of the Gods of Greek mythology. And it was a brutal world. If the game makers had tried to shoe-horn Kratos and his big swords into an old romantic comedy, the results might have been easier to criticise for disingenuous twisting of historical texts. (But what a game it would have been - imagine Kratos opening a historically inaccurate can of whupass all over Shakespeare's As you like it - fucking classic. 'Wilt though lay hands on me villain?' 'I am no villain; I am the GOD OF WAR!' - bloody chaos ensues.)
"Go on, tell me about the Wii one more fucking time"
No, the Greek Mythical backdrop is an exception to the normal rule, in that the ultraviolence and camp prominence of butch young men is actually excusable. Safe in the knowledge that it is not wrong, you can therefore get on with the mountains of enticingly stupid combat. Hours of it.
And here, the Mail on Sunday and I have another difference of opinion. Their 'Games and gadgets' editor tells us 'What is worse is that God of war II is clearly an intelligently designed game' (I do not think he means that this is worse than the violence, but rather that they ruined an otherwise good game by putting monsters and blood in it, as opposed to bunnies and a nice cup of tea) 'and one with broad appeal to the young. The game's cryptic, Indiana Jones-style puzzles are among the cleverest seen in video games'. What the Fuck? In this game, there is a puzzle where you drag statues around, so that their shields reflect laser beams. Has this author ever played a computer game? In this game there are typically two ways you can 'interact' with game objects (and yes, the game hints do describe it as 'interacting') you can grab something and mash the circle button in order to upend it, or you can hit it with your sword until it disintegrates. This game is the very definition of stupid. Half of the puzzles are there just to add a boost to the gameplay time. Seriously, without the glorious and visceral combat, this game would be like a dyslexic Tombraider. And no one wants that. (I am dyslexic, so I can say that and it is funny.)
What does make God of War II special, is that it knows what it is, and goes about being it with a profesianal zeal and a refresing lack of pretention. So the technique where you beat an openent up a bit, and when he is weakened you can perform a special finishing move is nothing new. The point is, it is so well done, you will not care. Having knocked down and stabbed a boss, you will be preparing for the next section of the game when Kratos, as an afterthought, sticks the defeated boss's head in a doorway, and you are encouraged to mash the circle button for a chance to smack the door onto the character's head. Repeatedly. That sums up God of War II; it is doing nothing new, and nothing clever, but it does it with such charm and acute control over the way the game plays, that it is special in its own right.
"See me kick you. You fall down"
The controls are intiuative, the fights are explosive, the bosses are frequent and spectacular (This is a game in which the first level sees you fighting against the stutue of the Colossus) and the backdrops and graphics are stunning. It is great to see this as part of my muche-loved playstation 2's swansong. It also serves as a good reminder that games get technally better as consoles age. If the Wii can eventually provide games looking like this, then that is power enough for me. The only worry is, with all the movement towards games with broader appeal (which I thouroughly approve of) will it still be profitable for developers to scratch that hardcore itch, for those of us who still feel it? (and oh, how we still feel it.)
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