REVIEW: Dead Rising 2
For guys like myself playing a Zombie infested game, is heaps of fun! This Fantasy Creature we call the walking dead has been a favorite to many over the years. Ever since Zombies invaded the gaming world, we’ve been “blessed” with games such as Resident Evil, House of the Dead and the famous Left 4 dead. These games have proved that killing off zombies over and over again and surviving a Zombie outbreak is oh so satisfying. You might ask why is it satisfying to murder these slow, brain eating, rotting corpse over and over again? Heck, who cares, it’s fun! And Dead Rising 2, gives you just that and a lot of ways to do it too. It sucks to be a zombie, it is even worse if you’re a zombie in Dead Rising 2.
You play as Chuck Greene, an Ex-motocross Champion forced to play this game show called Terror is Reality to support his only daughter Katey. He lost his wife during the last outbreak and has been killing zombies for a living ever since. Which bring him to another zombie break in Fortune City, a city based on the casino strip in Vegas. Chuck gets Katey and heads to the safe house where he meets other survivors. He then finds out that he’s being framed for the outbreak and now has 72 hours to clear his name before the Military arrives to clean up the outbreak. The story was not great and is easily forgettable but the gameplay more than makes up for it.
Dead Rising 2 is time driven. Your given 72 in-game hours to do everything that has to be done, and you must manage your time carefully or you’ll miss important parts of the game. I’ve gotten myself in situations where I did not make it in time for the main story because I had too much fun smashing zombies while saving survivors in Fortune City. Don’t worry, if this happens to you, you’re given the choice to restart the story and carrying over your stats and key items or you can just simply load your last save file. The time given for each mission is not forgiving; you’ll be seeing yourself racing against the clock every time to head to your next objective. Just like the first game, Leveling is still around. You start at level one and as you progress in the game, your Chuck gets faster, stronger, and you get skills that can help you take care of those zombies in your way.
Fortune City is a huge place for Chuck to explore. Everything in Fortune City can be a weapon, from swinging golf balls, to using a lawn mower outside to clear the way for your allies, the game has a huge number of items that can be picked up any time. In fact, running around trying every item to use on zombies can be time consuming but still awesome. Besides weapons in Fortune City, you find a huge number of clothing that you can wear to give your Chuck your own personality which carries over on the cut scenes. You don’t only encounter zombies, there are still bosses in Dead Rising 2, just like the first, their called Psychopaths and man! fighting them can be annoying. There’s not much strategy in these fights, it’s mostly hack away and use a healing item when you’re low.
Dead Rising 2 lacks several small things that could elevate its game play satisfaction such as options to plot your own waypoints and less loading time. The lengthy loading time destroys the game’s pace of racing against the clock. The game isn’t that difficult although it gets a little harder as you progress having zombies more aggressive but the gameplay will feel just the same when you hit that part of the story.
The Best Feature of Dead Rising 2 is their new Combo Cards system, where you get to combine 2 items and make an awesome weapon, like grab a box of nails and combine it with a baseball bat and you get a deadly bat with nails on the tip of the bat for you to smash on zombie heads! There’s a total of 50 Combo Cards for you to find and using these combined weapons gives you extra PP(Prestige Points) when used. This is a great addition to the game, as you progress, killing zombies may begin to feel repetitive but The Combo system helps create ingenious ways of annihilating them. It’s great to explore all the combinations, some are absurd and weird while some are just awesome to look at when used on a zombie.
Another Great addition is Co-op play. You get the option to bring your version of chuck into someone’s game or make a friend join your game for some zombie killing cooperation. During my first play through, I played on my friend’s story progression and it’s a blast smashing zombie heads with a friend. Aside from co-op play, just like games nowadays, they have multiplayer. The multiplayer is pretty much the game show Terror is Reality, the game show Chuck was in before the outbreak started. You become one of the contestants of the game show, competing against 3 other people in 9 different kinds of zombie mini-games. In my opinion this was the least fun. The Multiplater aspect of Dead Rising 2 Felt like an afterthought and seemed pretty pointless to me.
The Graphics of Dead Rising 2 wasn’t all that impressive, the character models were decent looking but What Impressed me was the sheer number of zombies that were on screen for each area. Don’t try clearing the area because they will just randomly spawn out of nowhere so it’s never ending really. I’ve had usual Frame rate drops but the frame drops weren’t a bother in gameplay. Overall, the game was worth the buy, it has small issues that if resolved, could have made Dead Rising 2 a better game. It has tons of content, lots of replay value and a fun co-op game to enjoy with a friend. If you enjoyed the First Dead Rising, you will love the second one for sure.
Score: 85/100
REVIEW: Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep
Kingdom Hearts, that bizarre series with an anime boy, a big key and whole ton of Disney characters. It's one of the games a lot of people love because it's Kingdom Hearts, and hate... well, because it's Kingdom Hearts. Be it story, characters, combat, and so on, I'm sure most gamers know what a Keyblade is.
Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep
Developer: Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix
Platform: Playstation Portable
Release: 9/7/2010
If you've been following the Kingdom Hearts franchise, you'd know that most of them (besides 358/2 Days) lets you control a young boy named Sora. Fighting the evil beings called heartless and visiting various Disney worlds. That is not the case in Birth By Sleep, well to a degree. You have control over three protagonists this time around, each with their own story which connect to each other forming the over all events of the game.
Terra, the power type. Donning his, what I like to call, samurai pants is a very noble character seeking the approval of his master. What he lacks in speed and magic ability makes up for in brute force. His slow but powerful strikes eat away at enemy hit points like a hot knife through butter.
Ventus, the speed type. Ventus plays pretty much like the characters from previous Kingdom Hearts games, namely Sora and Roxas. His youth and agility let him pull off dodge rolls and quick strikes with decent attack power. Probably the most balanced character out of the three and is usually the obvious starter choice for most players.
And then we have Aqua, the magic type. Aqua can land speedy hits with her Keyblade but lacks the physical strength to actually get the job done. Though she may not have the arm strength to make foes quiver with fear, she definitely has the magical prowess to clear the screen of badiess in a flash. Fire, ice or thunder, Aqua can cast spells while cartwheeling around the field.
Story:
The story starts off with Terra and Aqua going through a trial to become Keyblade master. With Aqua being the only one awarded with the title. Shortly after this, their master is alerted of trouble occurring in other worlds and the cause of it being creatures formed from fledgling emotions. They have been labeled as "the unversed". Terra is ordered to travel to those worlds to deal with the unversed and prove to himself to his master.
I won't delve deeper into the story as it gets pretty lengthy from there. The main gist of it is the typical "there's evil roaming about and the heroes have to stop it yadda yadda". The story is pretty good with each character taking at least 8 to 10 hours to complete on the standard difficulty. Of course to appreciate the story more you'd need to have played the previous Kingdom Hearts games as this is a prequel and ties up a lot of loose ends.
Gameplay and Features:
Gameplay is your typical KH flair, exploration combined with mild platforming and battles with the unversed. I do like the combat in Birth By Sleep over past KH titles. It feels less floaty and more skill based, button mashing can only get you so far.
Aside from your normal keyblade attacks you have commands which you can customize in your command deck. Battle commands range from attack commands, magic, items and friendship (for multiplayer). Attack and magic commands level up, when a certain command reaches a certain level, usually when it's maxed out, you can meld them with other commands. You can also add a crystal when melding commands to form abilities to strengthen your character.
Action commands are were you set your physical actions like jumping, rolling, dashing, blocking, etc. These also level up. The higher the level, the better the performance.
Shotlock commands are executed by holding down both L and R shoulder buttons. A green target ring will appear and it will lock on enemies to release either a rush or projectile attacks. Shotlocks drain your focus meter which can be replenished by attacking enemies with either your keyblade or with battle commands.
Finish commands occur when you fill up the command gauge about your list of battle commands. As the name states, these are powerful finishing moves to you flurry of attacks onto your foes.
Command styles activate if you use elemental battle commands during you combos before the command gauge is filled. When this happens, your character goes into overdrive and this affects your physical attacks like adding fire to you strikes or zapping lightning to you foes with every stab. Each command style has their own specific finish commands.
As you go on your adventure, you meet new characters. You form a D-Link with characters you befriend through out the game. By activating D-Link, you have access to their own command decks to use in battle. Each character's D-Link will have unique finish commands, some of which are pretty bad ass. the D-Link has its own gauge and depletes as long as a D-link. This can be replenished by defeating enemies as they can drop D-Link points which are seen as small light blue stars.
The in game currency, called "munny", can be obtained by enemy drops, These can be seen as small gold diamonds. Aside from munny and D-Link points, fallen enemies can also drop green health orbs which heal you instantly when absorbed. Enemies can also drop items or even battle commands.
Command Board:
There is a board game included called command board wherein you compete to obtain the maximum required GP to win, this is a very addicting minigame as it can also level up your battle commands and even obtain new ones. Command boards vary from a Keyblade shaped board to Cinderella's glass slipper and even Winnie the Pooh's honey pot.
Rumble Racing:
Honestly I could have done w/o this mini game. Rumble Racing is a racing minigame where you race against others to reach the finish line first. You have your typical accelerate and brake buttons as well as an attack and defend button. The should buttons lets you looks behind you to see approaching opponents. I'm not at all fond of this gimmick because I find it frustrating and boring for the most part.
Multiplayer:
Despite Birth By Sleep being an RPG, there is indeed an incentive to play with other people. There is a world named "Mirage Arena" which is essentially an online lobby (ad-hoc only) where you can join missions with others, participate in races and command board or even duke it out in versus mode.
Mirage Arena can also be an easy grind area if you need a few extra levels to beat a boss. Farming munny is also easy in Mirage Arena.
Overall Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep is a very well made action RPG with it's engaging and fairly lengthy story, great combat, addicting minigames, good multiplayer options and tons of unlockables. Even after beating the story, it will leave you hungry for the "rare battle command" or that "secret boss I have yet to beat". Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep was said to be "the best Kingdom Hearts game to date" and I can whole heartedly agree.
Score: 95/100
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdcArkLDAJk&feature=player_embedded]
(Original post by Migoy)
REVIEW: Gladiator Begins
Ever wonder what it would be like to play as a gladiator in Rome? Not the lame ones that are either scared, depressed, or dead but the one that strives not only for his freedom, but also to be the top dog. You get to be that gladiator in the game Gladiator Begins.
Gladiator Begins
Developer: GOSHOW
Publisher: Aksys Games (NA), Acquire (Japan)
Platform: Playstation Portable
Release: 9/14/2010
Gladiator Begins is the sequel to Colosseum: Road to Freedom for the Playstation 2. It's an action arena fighter mixed with a few RPG elements.
Story:
I never played Colosseum on the PS2 so I don't know how much of a connection Gladiator Begins makes to it. You name and create your gladiator through a set of menu choices, go through a brief tutorial and go to your first arena match. You meet your owner, Magerius, and as your career as a gladiator progresses you meet some aristocrats and former gladiators. These people could become your potential patrons should you choose them to be. Aside from fighting to earn your freedom, you have to win favors for the aristocrats by winning the in the challenges set in their arenas.
All the narrative is told via digital novel style with animated figures of the characters and text boxes. Though the story is good and somewhat engaging, the presentation can be boring at times, luckily it can all be skipped by pressing the start button.
With many choices of who to side with, the game features multiple endings. Now whether or not it's motivates for multiple playthroughs, it's all up to personal preference.
Gameplay and Features:
Gladiator Begins is an action game so most of what you'll be doing is slaying poor souls in the arena who are stupid enough to face you. You have a slew of weapons to choose from ranging from swords, clubs, spears, hammers, big shields, small shields and even dual wielding of same or different weapons. Each weapon controls differently, experiment to what ever combination tickles your fancy. I prefer a double hammer which gives massive attack power but leaves you open to attacks.
Combat:
Each of the four face buttons signify the direction of your attack, Triangle aims for a high attack, circle goes for the right, square for the left, and cross for the legs. Aside from those four basic attacks, you can assign different skills to each button. Once you start with a basic attack and quickly follow up with another attack, your gladiator will use a skill attack. Skill attack can also be executed immediately by holding down the L button and then pressing an attack button. Skill attacks use up stamina, if you don't have enough stamina, your gladiator performs a fatigue attack which is a slow (but not weak) downward slash. Your gladiator will rest for a moment which leaves you open for attacks. There are also passive skills which you learn from master gladiators (one on one fights between you and a master gladiator, kinda like a boss fight). With a passive skill equipped you use the basic attacks of those gladiators, granted that you're using their weapon sets. The R button puts you in a defensive stance and you can parry attacks by pressing L while holding R.
In battle, you can strike specific points of your opponent, do enough damage on a part and their armor / weapon can fly off leaving that part exposed. You can pick up dropped items and wear them again but that only applies to helmets and weapons for your left and right hand. Fallen armor pieces can also affect you on the field, if someone is getting attacked and gets pushed back onto an armor piece on the floor, they trip on it and fall further back. This can be both good or bad depending on who's on the receiving end of the attack.
The RPG Part:
Your gladiator levels up in battle. If you level up, your health instantly goes back to full and your stamina maxes out which puts you in a great advantage at times. Outside of the arena, you can change your equipment. Helmets or masks for the head, braces or arm guards for each arm, shin guards for each leg, and weapons or shields for either hand. Each item has 4 values, attack, defense, weight and price. Of course you'd choose the items with the highest stats but you have a limit. You gladiator can only hold up to a certain amount of weight, you can exceed the weight limit and still fight but you'll be extremely slow and stamina drains faster than a fart after a burrito.
Aside from just item stats, you can increase your own by points you earn from battle. You can choose to increase either vitality (HP), endurance (stamina), strength (max weight limit).
Multiplayer:
There is ad-hoc support for this game which you can choose who you want to use (in game gladiators or you own characters), match type and opponent/s. You can also exchange custom characters with other players. Unfortunately you do not level up in multiplayer, nor do you earn money or items.
Gladiator Begins surprised me in a lot of ways, a lot of good ways. I was expecting this to be a shallow brawler wherein the only amount of customization you have is equipment change. The RPG style character development was a nice surprise. The story is pretty good if you give it a chance. The combat isn't very deep and sometimes imbalanced but that is forgivable since this isn't a big name title. This may not be the best action RPG out there, there is no overworld to explore and the only important character is pretty much you. Still, give this game a chance, it can get frustrating at times since the AI seems too strong and starts dodging almost every attack you throw at em but this game was not at all how I expected it to be. The game may not be perfect but it's worth the jump.
Score: 67/100
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cp5KIOk-84&feature=player_embedded]
(original Post by Migoy)
REVIEW: Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West has everything you have for an epic adventure. Chase scenes, intense fights, a colorful world to explore, and a good story to tell. Enslaved was a breath of fresh air for me, a game that focuses more on presentation and story. From the likable characters, a colorful post-apocalyptic setting, to a well written story, this game will suck you in from start to finish but with a few bumps along the way. A game developed by Ninja Theory (Heavenly Sword, new Devil May Cry), Enslaved: Odyssey to the West shows us what Ninja Theory aims to achieve with their games, and that is story telling.
Platform: Playstation 3, Xbox 360
Played on: Playstation 3
Published by: Namco Bandai Games
Developed by: Ninja Theory
Release Date: Oct 5, 2010
Story and Presentation
Its 150 years into the future and Humans are close to extinct, and robots rule the land once again. The game revolves around Monkey and Trip. It starts off with both of them escaping a Slaver ship, Without Monkey knowing, Trip enslaves Monkey with a slave headband that makes trip command him, if he resists, the headband will release a deadly dose that will kill him instantly. Trip gives Monkey a deal, she will remove the headband if he brings her home safely. Now Monkey bonded with Trip, is left with no choice. With them bonded, if trip dies, so does Monkey. And that’s where everything starts, Sounds simple enough? Hardly since Monkey and Trip will have to deal with mechs that kills anything alive. The key element in their story was how their relationship evolved as you progress. They expressed the bond between Monkey and Trip well enough to care about them.
It’s a great story, not the most original story since it’s almost identical to the classic chinese novel journey to the West. Trip is Tripitaka for short and she is a small petite red-head chick that can’t stay alive for at least a day, while Monkey, well Monkey is obviously like the Monkey King with him having a staff as a weapon that by the way shortens when not needed. He also has this yellow belt that dangles in the back making it look like he has a tail when he runs. He looks similar to a human guerilla that’s ready to pound the ground at any minute. I guess it makes sense to why he climbs the way he does. Alex Garland (28 weeks later, the beach, sunshine), wrote the story and took the concept of Journey to the west and dumped it on a post-apocalyptic world. It was well written and didn’t feel like the typical unbearable story and dialogue that games usually have.
Monkey was easily likeable. Monkey is very straight forward and when enslaved by Trip, he accepted his fate and didn’t dwell on it and quickly focused on getting trip home as soon as possible. He’s hot tempered and you’d think he won’t have much of a brain by his looks but as you progress you get a deeper sense of who he is. Trip on the other hand at the start was annoying because she screams half the time and is scared all throughout. She tones down midway into the game and both of them sooner or later develop a level of trust that makes their bond interesting. Trip is very resourceful with her tech skills and while you think she’s selfish, she’s just trying everything to get home. You will hear Trip’s story as you play but they don’t expand much on where Monkey came from. As you hit the halfway mark on Enslaved you’ll meet the Pigsy, the 3rd and last Character you’ll meet as you go through the game. Just like his name, the guy is a fat pig looking guy with a grappling hook as his right arm. He helps Monkey and Trip out and is a good addition to the group if somehow you get tired of seeing just Monkey and Trip. He gets on Monkey’s nerve most of the time and has a thing for Trip, poor Trip.
The game did a good job bringing out the personality of the Characters visually. Ninja Theory brought in Andy Serkis(Played king Kong, Gollum) to direct, motion capture and assist in writing. With him on board, I already knew the motion capture will be fantastic…..and it was. The emotions in the characters faces were impressive and the movements of the Characters weren’t clunky and dull plus the game had great voice acting. As Monkey and Trip press on getting closer to Trip’s home, Monkey gets hallucinations from the headband. As Monkey tries to keep it in you can tell he’s freaked and Trip notices and gets worried for Monkey. These emotions can be seen in the characters. Good motion capture, great voice acting, and a story worth knowing? You don’t see that every day in gaming.
Gameplay
Enslaved did great with their story and presentation but gameplay is different and you can’t run with just pure story. Fighting in Enslaved is very simple and only gets slightly interesting midway into the game when you have unlocked upgrades for monkey. The game has finishing moves that can be done on mechs that have an abnormality in them, Trip scans the enemies ahead to see if there’s anything that monkey can take advantage on. These finishers make monkey do cool looking moves to rip the enemy apart. Monkey’s normal attacks can often trigger a slow motion close up of Monkey’s final blow to that mech. Looks cool the first couple of times, but gets pointless midway into the game.
Monkey is a brute that does all the fighting while trip helps by using her computer skills to hack doors, upgrade monkeys gear and distract turrets and mechs. While I do appreciate the Prince of Persia style of play, the game doesn’t give us anything new to the table. With simple gameplay mechanics, enslaved at first glance would look repetitive during fights but the game had good pacing to keep you interested. The climbing in Enslaved may look great but is very simple as well. All climbable ledges and pipes will be shiny, so finding where to climb isn’t that hard. If you have an idea where to go, just keep pressing the jump while directing which way to jump with the stick till you reach your target.
As you progress, Monkey will soon have the ability to shoot beams out of his staff. Yea weird I know. This gives the gameplay some variety during fights. Ammo is limited so you better aim well. Let’s not forget about trip, she’s not just baggage that you must carry around to the finish line. You can give her commands to help you out. Usually when there’s a turret in the area or mechs shooting you, pinning you down, you can ask trip to create a distraction so that you can slip through and take them out. Aside from making distractions, trip can heal Monkey, use a mini EMP when mechs get close to her and can upgrade Monkey’s gear.
The upgrades are the usual improvements seen in a game like this. On my first play through I was able to get 90% of the upgrades so it’s not very deep. The upgrades give new moves but the rest are mostly improving stuff you already have. Like more ammo for your staff, a longer charge move, more life, more shields, wider sweep, etc. One more thing you can do in enslaved is that Monkey has this device called the cloud which works like a floating disc for him to ride. It works only in some areas in the game and is mostly used for open areas and chase scenes that involve monkey saving trip. A good touch and pretty cool to play around with.
The boss fights in Enslaved were forgettable, nothing epic about them. There isn’t that much boss fights to begin with really, I can only count a handful of them and are easy to take out. So yes you’ve guessed it, it’s a very easy game and take note I started the game on hard difficulty and still felt easy. The one thing that bothered me the most was The Camera angles, during the whole game I was literally going against the camera. The Camera is too close to Monkey! When I start attacking or do some takedown move I always find myself moving the camera left or right after the attack to get a better angle.
Graphics and Sound
The game provides top-notch graphics. No problems here, the game looks fantastic from start to end. This is the first time I’ve seen a post-apocalyptic setting that isn’t all sand and junk, thank god! The world is colorful and vibrant. You can sense the age of the area and can tell that nature has taken over. The game brings you to all different kinds of local, from the old and dying New York City to a wasteland that inhabits old junk and water mixed with mech fuel that are deadly when touched. The sound score of this game is also well made, it fits perfectly to the setting they were trying to present. There were occasional parts though that I encountered were the dialogue didn’t sync with the lips of the characters and I’ve experienced sound disappearing in a chase scene.
By now, we know that the game has horrible camera angles. Aside from the camera making the fights a pain, you have a hard time looking around to appreciate how well they developed this game. There are parts of the game where you get a chance to look on how great the game looks but with how well they created this world, I wish I could enjoy it anytime with ease. I literally paused one time and said “wow…pretttyyy…..”. I paused for a minute and took in that awesome view. You can tell they took a lot of time and effort into creating this world. If only there were better camera angles….
Overall
It’s been awhile since we’ve been blessed with a game that pulls you in with their story and their Characters, providing a good pace that keeps you hooked till the end. You play it, think its tons fun and when you’re done with, it gives you this lasting satisfaction that you gave it a chance. Ninja Theory should stick to the story-driven concept for their games and improve on it, they have a good thing going here and soon they will give us a game that might just blow us away. I was hoping this game would be it but sadly it wasn’t. This game is 11 hours long only and doesn’t provide any Multiplayer feature or anything after you’ve finished the game. Is it worth the buy? I say yes, it’s worth the experience and everybody should give it a go. but sadly with only the single player and no replay value (unless you’re an achievement junkie) People will have a hard time paying full price for this title.
Score: 75/100
REVIEW: God of War: Ghost of Sparta
God of War, the action adventure hack and slash punch everything in it's face with testosterone filled manliness series that's been around shedding virtual blood since it's first release on the Playstation 2. We once again join Kratos on his quest to find whatever the hell he's looking for this time.
God of War: Ghost of Sparta
Developer: Ready at Dawn Studios / Sony Computer Entertainment Santa Monica Studio
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America
Platform: Playstation Portable
Rating: M for Mature
Release: 11/2/2010
Ghost of Sparta is the sixth installment (including the PS3 remastered port God of War Collection) in the God of War series.
Graphics wise this is a huge notch up in comparison to the previous PSP God of War release which was God of War: Chains of Olympus. Taking notes from God of War III, Ghost of Sparta brings that same cinematic flair. Button inputs for the quick time events have also learned a lesson from God of War III with the buttons appearing on screen in the corresponding direction of it on the controller. This makes it easier to
Story:
Ghost of Sparta takes place in between God of War and God of War II wherein Kratos has dethroned Ares as the god of war and has now taken his place. While pondering on his thoughts, Kratos is haunted by visions of his mother and brother. Wondering what these visions mean, he sets off on another adventure but this time not for vengeance but in search of his brother Deimos.
A young Kratos sparring with his little brother
It was foretold that Olympus would fall not by the Titans, but by a marked warrior. Zeus thought this marked warrior to be Deimos, and sent Ares and Athena to take him. Kratos tries to stop Ares but is left with a scared right eye.
Gameplay:
God of War's core gameplay has never really changed over the years but it has been slowly refined with each iteration. Hitting the square button does light attacks, triangle for heavy attacks, circle for grab and cross for jumps. The L button let's Kratos guard and also sets up attack variants for his weapons. Most of his combos are the same but some have slightly changed but pretty much control the same. Having not played God of War III, I don't know if these new combos have been implemented on the PS3. Pressing both shoulder buttons and tilting the analog stick lets Kratos do a dodge roll.
Kratos does have new moves this time around. He has a move called the "Hyperion Charge" which is triggered by holding the L button then hitting circle. Kratos goes into this football player charge and tackles his opponent to the ground with a loud thud. When an enemy is downed by this move, you can continue to pummel your opponent by hitting either the square or circle buttons repeatedly.
As with every God of War game, Kratos learns some new magic moves and acquires new weapons. These are all mapped to the D-pad which is good considering the PSP's limited controls. Kratos earns three types of magic attacks this time around.
Pressing the Right button brings out the Eye of Atlantis with shoots a long ray of lightning.
Pressing the Left button uses the Scourge of Erinys which unleashes up to three dark orbs that suck out health from near by enemies.
Up unleashes the Horn of Boreas which Kratos spins and slams like a giant hammer, it damages and freezes surrounding enemies.
Hitting Down swaps out the regular Blades of Athena with the Arms of Sparta, a spear and a round shield similar to the equipment used by the Spartans in the movie 300. With the Arms of Sparta, Kratos can throw the spear to hit ranged opponents and walk while guarding with the shield.
Holding down the R button sets fire to the Blades of Athena, letting Kratos unleash powerful fire attacks with every swing.
Content Wise:
Even though this is a PSP game, this feels like a PS3 title. It's filled with extra content such as a challenge mode, galleries, extra costumes and something called The Temple of Zeus which holds unlock-able items that require blood orbs, and more blood orbs means another play through of the story mode or beating some challenges in the challenge mode.
God of War has always been a solid series for me, Gameplay isn't ground breaking because it's usually more of the same but the presentation and delivery of the story is always top notch. I wasn't that satisfied with the ending as much as I thought I'd be with everything being epic and then with the final battle being what it is. However it was still an exciting action and adrenalin fueled thrill ride. You may not like God of War for using the same formula over and over again but you got to admit, Kratos kicks all kinds of ass.
Screenshot provided by Gamespot
(Original post by Migoy)
Score: 92/100
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDN3aUzyctY&feature=player_embedded]