[PS2] God of War?

I tried it myself just recently, and I gotta say, I'm disappointed. Just off the top of my head here...

- The combat is essentially a stripped-down version of Devil May Cry, with less flexibilty for experimentation. Outside of some puzzles where the Powers of the Gods are necessary for completing a puzzle, there's very little need (or reward) for using anything other than the blades, over and OVER. DMC rewards a skilled player with grades and cash bonuses. GoW treats a skilled player no better than a button-stomping hack.

- Kratos is a prick. Yes, I know characterization doesn't really matter in an action game, blah-de-blah. But you know, in a game this much in love with its own storytelling, it kind of DOES. And it's hard to like a guy that stands back and lets those he deems unimportant die (or in at least one case, sends one to his death for no good reason). I don't give a crap with his tortured backstory is, that's just cold, unappeallingly so. And outside of the cutscenes where he bitches about his past, there's no real feeling that revenge or desire for freedom drives his actions. Soul Reaver made this sort of character much more interesting.

- The 'mature content' is RIDICULOUS. Seriously. One light swipe of the blades and a low-level baddie gushes like a fountain. The context-sensitive finishing blows are even more ridiculous. Take the minotaur. You knock him on his back, engage in a tug-of-war, and drive the blades through the back of his head. This is shown from the same angle every single time. Even if you knock the minotaur down in the opposite direction, he will SPIN ON THE GROUND to give you that exact same view to a kill. You can almost hear the designers giggling like four-year-olds going, 'Hey! Looklooklooklooklook! BAM! Dude, that's SO AWESOME!' The first ten times, maybe. The next hundred or so, not so much. And the whole sex thing seems to have been put in so that GoW could be known as the Game That Lets You Have Sex. For a game that hits you over the head with its constant adult content, it's stupidly juvenile about executing it.

OK, so...is there anything good about it? Absolutely. The environments themselves are amazing to look at, the puzzles are solid, the soundtrack is nice (if very, very conventional), and the sound effects and voicework are superb. Given that, in the end, I'd say it's a game you'd be better off watching your friend play through than doing so yourself. But that's just me.

Jam it back in, in the dark.