By now the gaming masses have picked-up their copy of God of War 3, slashed their way through the eight-hour campaign and been awed by the graphics, gore and completion of the mythical saga. But about that saga: amazingly, there’s still a fair share of next-gen gamers — generally PS3 newbies — who did not play the first two God of War games and may have been left scratching their heads at times in Sony’s latest outing. Granted, a hack-and-slash game never really requires in-depth knowledge of a back story, but when said game opens-up on the back of a massive beast, it’s safe to say people are going to wonder how on Earth they got there in the first place. For them, Sony wisely created the God of War Collection for PS3.
The God of War Collection is essentially a repackaged “greatest hits” combination of the first two God of War games, providing a PS3-ready crash course in all things God of War. I won’t bother rehashing the plots, gameplay mechanics or even certain gameplay moments here, because that will either spoil it for the God of War newbies or be redundant for those who’ve already played the games and are curious how these PS3 “ports” turned out.
Instead, I’ll focus on just that: how they turned out. In a word: awesome. The first God of War basically introduced gamers to quick action sequences, those now-annoying-and-overused scenes during which players have to press a specific button within a few seconds of an on-screen prompt or they’re annihilated completely. But as monotonous as other, newer games have made quick-action scenes, their resurrection via this collection avoids feeling as tired as newer games’ use of them, although it’s probably due to little more than nostalgia. The epic battles that seemed so over the top in years past are just as frantic as before, and they actually serve as a good fingertip refresher before firing up God of War 3. In short, everything gamers fell in love with the first two times, and everything that made the original two games warrant the triumphant third entry, is intact and exactly as it should be on a single PS3 disc.
But the God of War Collection isn’t just a straight dump to the HD-format disc. After all, did you really think Sony would lazily move its system-selling franchise onto its newest console without some white-glove treatment? Of course not. Which is why gamers who thought the first two God of War games looked great on PS2 will be blown away by their appearance on the PS3. Graphical upgrades abound (or at least they appear to, with smoother framerates), and hearing the audio through a surround-sound system just gets the blood pumping to help Kratos impale his next poor, unsuspecting victim.
The God of War Collection isn’t really much more than a marketing tie-in and precursor to God of War 3, so to grade it as a separate game compilation seems somewhat odd. However, it’s refreshing to see that the source material, which was good when it was first released, continues to hold my attention and provide a good reminder of everything I was looking forward to in God of War 3. If you’ve just picked up God of War 3 and are wondering what you missed the first two times, the God of War Collection is an absolute must-own for your PS3.
Click here to get the God of War Collection for PS3
Or, if you’re jonesing for God of War 3, click the following Amazon link to nab it there for cheap too: God of War 3
- Score: 9
Platform reviewed: PlayStation 3
— Martin Ray