God of War

Picture this: Grade six teacher Mrs Matheson, a surly, vicious beast if ever there was one spies young kreese down the back engaged in his usual antics. She strides down there and boots his ass to the office, a well known routine.

Was he asleep? No. Was he playing a Gameboy? No (they weren't out back then, stupid question). Was he exposing himself to girls in the class? No - although a trio of his classmates were expelled for doing this very thing. His crime was ... reading a book about Greek mythology instead of focusing on (whatever they teach in grade 6, I was paying attention, remember?). Being sent to the office for reading equates roughly to going to maximum security for running a red light. It's just you vs a Shawshank of troublemakers.

Yes, an obsession with Greek mythology can make one's academic life difficult, until basketball steps in to finish the job. Unless you're in Greek mythology school, which, to the best of my awareness, doesn't exist. It's harder to find a richer set of stories, and despite it being the material for countless documentaries, b-grade films and TV shows, there hasn't been a huge amount of games really delving into the mythos.

God of War opens with the main man, Kratos, throwing himself off a cliff. He's angry that the gods have forsaken him. Kratos looks a little like a bald Serj Tankian from System of a Down. But before Kratos is smeared all over the landscape, the story flashes back 3 weeks prior. Spoilsports.

Without giving the plot away - and for once it's an absolute classic - Kratos, a warrior-general of Sparta has a grudge against the titular God of War, Ares. Not telling why, but let's just say Ares is responsible for Kratos' unrest. Meanwhile, other Greek gods have a problem with Ares giving Athens the LA riot treatment. So they concoct a bargain with Kratos. Off Ares, and they will make the pain stop. But how do you kill a God? You'll find out...

You get plenty of story exposition as time goes on, and while there's an occasional silly moment, it's largely gold. In fact in God of War the story is good enough incentive to keep you playing even when the action starts to seem a little repetitive - although this is a very minor complaint.

The controls are simplicity, much like the Devil May Cry style games. At it's most basic, it's one button for quick attack, one button for strong attack, a jump button, a grab button, and a button for fancy "throw them up in the air"/finishing moves. R2 is used as a general interaction button, and the analogue sticks control movement and fancy dodging. But when you string together even the most minor of attacks, it looks spectacular on screen. Not only are the controls highly responsive and intuitive, they look great. Kratos' attacks are steadily upgradeable - but even the default attacks with his twin blades on chains look fiery and deadly. Imagine Prince of Persia but MUCH more gory and you get a small idea of the balletic fury involved when Kratos whirls across a room full of enemies, carving and dodging as he goes. Like Ninja Gaiden and DMC, there isn't a massive amount of combos to work on, but those you do pick up will get a healthy airing. When your brain and fingers adjust to the pace of the action, there's plenty of scope to do some massive midair nastiness that will have your mates thinking you're the bomb.

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