God of War - Off to Athens

So trying to type while playing doesn't really work for me. Instead I'll just give my thoughts on what I played, maybe take some notes and relay them or something. I also hope this avoid the "Wall-of-Text" syndrome that my last post had.

After the tutorial level we find our self at the gates of Athens. Athena has requested that you save her beloved city, so off goes Kratos hoping to earn his redemption.

Pretty early on here we run into some minotaurs. The minotaurs in this game make me laugh every single time. Minotaurs are one of the enemies in this game that has a specific QTE. When they have low enough health Kratos throws them to the ground and attempts to shove one of his Blades of Chaos down the minotaurs throat. If you push the Circle button fast enough and succeed you are rewarded with health orbs. Now God of War is a fixed camera game, meaning that you have no control over the camera. The game presents every angle in a specific way. Killing minotaurs must also happen at a specific angle and if the two don't match, the minotaur will magically rotate to the correct angle. It's something that is just so silly and pointless that I have to laugh. Plus it breaks the immersion the game is going for.

Early on in Athens you receive your second God power. You have to kill the Gorgon Medusa and rip off her head. This gives you the ability to turn enemies to stone and then shatter them. It's a fun little ability, but I don't use it that often. It's really useful against minotaurs, but I would rather QTE them for the health. Now why does Medusa's character model have her boobs hanging out? Is it really necessary?

Running through Athens really shows you how compacted God of War's levels are. You revisit previous areas on a regular basis. The levels love to run you around in circles often without any pointers on where to go. I don't want a big arrow saying you're going the wrong way, but good level design will subconsciously lead you where you need to go. Often times I found myself lost because I didn't realize I had to go backwards to go forward again. It's aggravating and it's a problem that God of War suffers from on a regular basis. Level progression needs to feel natural.

Now on the good side of things, one of the things God of War is great at is scale. When you finally reach Athens proper you're greeted with the awesome scene of Ares (the God of War) destroying Athens. Ares is enormous and you know it. He towers over everything else and it's very easy to be in awe of the sight. It's also easy to lost right here since the savepoint says go to the right instead of to the left. But as you wander through Athens you encounter Ares at various points and he's always feels huge. You have got to love the sense of scale in this game.

Final comment on Athens. Apparently Athena told her Oracle that you were coming. And when you meet the Oracle all you see is boobs. Basically all the Oracle is wearing is a piece of cloth the size of a hand towel. The thing is so sheer that she might as well not be wearing a top at all. It's ridiculous and I find it hard to believe that anyone in ancient Greece would actually wearing anything like that. She also has one of the worst puzzles to solve in the early part of the game. You have to save her from this rope she's dangling on, to reach her you apparently have to stack two statues on top of each other. There is no hint, clue, sign, or any indicator that this is how it works. It's a brand new concept and it's really annoying. God of War's initial impression is not one of a thinking man's game.

Oh and the people of Athens live in the smallest houses I have ever seen. Much smaller then my first apartment.

Next time I'll talk about the sewers and the desert, maybe some more. Still want to do a small rant about cover art for game collections.