Page 2: Destruction in close-up

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Destruction is a good keyword, because "God of War" has never been a game of false modesty. Every confrontation quickly degenerates into a fierce slaughter; heads roll, arms fly, Kratos can grab his opponents, throw them and literally tear them apart in the air. The more enemies you slaughter in succession, the higher your combo counter climbs and the more upgrade points you earn.

The unusual thing about "God of War", even back then, was the uncompromising brutality on screen. Of course, there have always been games in which things were more violent: In 2000's "Soldier of Fortune", for example, you were allowed to smash your polygon enemies into bloody chunks with well-aimed shots; in 1992's "Mortal Kombat", spinal columns were plucked from enemy bodies. You don't have to think it's great, but it was simply part of video game escapism.

"God of War" took this slaughtering platter to the next level by celebrating the destruction of enemy mythical creatures: In any other game, for example, you would bash a minotaur with your weapon until its health bar is empty, it falls over, you move on. In "God of War", on the other hand, the knocked-down energy bar signified the start of a "Quick Time Event", a button-pushing mini-game: if you hammered quickly on the briefly displayed Playstation button symbols, an animation was played in which Kratos slowly but inexorably pushed a chaos blade down the throat of the desperately resisting minotaur. Even 20 years on, that's still intense.

Greek escapism

And it was almost too violent for Germany, as the game was released a year late. The reason for this was that Sony Computer Entertainment Europe only released a content-adapted version in Germany. The most important change in this version can be found in the Temple of Pandora, in which Kratos sacrifices a Greek soldier to the gods in a fire trap in the original version –, a rather unpleasant scene, as the soldier begs bitterly for his life the whole time. In the version released in this country, it was turned into a dehumanized zombie that just hisses the whole time.

However, "God of War" is not just about fighting, the action is repeatedly interrupted by tests of skill and puzzles. Especially in the second half of the game, which mainly takes place in the gigantic Temple of Pandora, Kratos not only has to flex his Spartan muscles, but also use his Spartan brain: There are statues and crates to be pushed onto pressure plates, levers to be flipped and massive blocks of stone to be turned via ancient machines so that they can be pushed into one another.

Of course, not all puzzles are winners, especially when timers are involved: There are deadly spikes driving out of the ground after a certain time while you try to reach an important necklace. Or dismantle a collection of enemies as quickly as possible before the ground breaks out from under your feet. And then Pandora's Palace consists of several rings inside, which you have to constantly and very tediously move around to reach new rooms and thus further challenges. Back then, people swallowed this pill because there was hardly a comparable mixture of action and puzzles. But from today's point of view, these sections seem rather tedious.

Speaking of "tedious": Kratos later visits the Greek underworld several times. And only the gods know what the developers had in mind for these sections! The staging is cool, everything is blood-red and fiery, the souls of the dead race past you left and right. But then Kratos has to balance again and again and again and again over rotating rollers or climb them on his way to freedom, while constantly being injured and pushed down by rotating blades. Baaah, terrible!

What a game!

As a consolation, "God of War" offered one of the best audiovisual experiences of its time. It's important to remember that the Playstation 2 was in its sixth year of life at the time and the successor console was already waiting in the wings. But what Sony's developers were still able to get out of the aged hardware suggests dark magic: Animations, graphic effects, camera movements, the sheer size and attention to detail of the buildings and landscapes – that was nothing less than spectacular back then!

Nowadays, of course, the graphics standards are completely different, but even today it is very impressive to climb around the outside of the Temple of Pandora. At the same time, you get a glimpse of the titan Kronos crawling on the ground far, far away. Admiring the beautiful statues, the magnificent floor reflections in the palaces or the detailed underwater realms of the god Neptune.

It's amazing how well the first "God of War" still works today. Of course, the series has evolved in terms of content and technology over the years and has taken an interesting new direction since the 2018 reboot of the same name. And yet, even 20 years later, it is still a wonderfully primitive pleasure to slash and slash your way through the hordes of Greek mythical creatures with the OG Kratos. This is accompanied by one of the most monumental game soundtracks of all time.

It was simply the best possible farewell gift to a departing console.

(mack)