A Tale Of Greek Tragedy?
The Good:
One thing that I really loved about this game was the story telling of the game. First that it was very Greek and somewhat very close to something one would read in their Ancient Histories class. Second, the fact that you could choose your own adventure as you go a long, with choices based on one of the four patron gods of the game. And these choices are more than what other games allow for. Like if you chose to be a dick or a good follower of Ares, it gave a totally different outcome. Case in point; You get the option to pardon someone who sat by and watched another person die, or you can have them executed for the crime. In other games, there is some set up event that happens no matter what, You just feel better for trying to be a hammer of justice even though the guy would be pardoned no matter what for the story. In RotA, the guy is actually executed and you don’t see him again. Kind of cool for them to go all the way and have your options actually play out.
On top of the choices you are given, it does stay pretty close to some of the original myths from history to play out. Granted some things needed a change up specifically to fit into a game setting, but they did a decent job on this. Much better than other games that have tried making a Greek game, and claim to be right on with the myths. Kudos for this. They really are never given as much justice as they should.
The system set up for combat and carrying gear around is something I really enjoyed as well. You actually carry everything you have on your person. If you don’t have it on, you don’t have it. Granted, you only get Armor, Sword, Mace, and Spear, but it is on you at all times. That and you can do a quick change between them in combat. Kind of mixed blessing with that, but it is cool to see how you have a huge spear strapped to you and not hidden in a small pouch on the belt.
As mentioned above, you can do a fast switch during combat on any of your weapons. Not only does it switch, but it does so in a 300 type switch. That is, you swap between sword to mace, you put it away and then pull the mace still swinging and moving. It does take a bit of getting use to it at first, but it is rather cool to see. That and the finishing moves for each weapon are also pretty epic to see when they go off.
One last thing I will say was very cool and innovative was the “leveling” system for the game. It isn’t structured based on, you kill something, you get XP, you level up. It is nothing like that. Each ‘deed’ you do or choice you make in the game grants you favor with a certain patron god. You get to dedicate your deeds as well for extra and when you get enough, the god grants you extra powers. Really cool and fun to do. Especially when you can dedicate an act of compassion to the god of war Ares. I don’t know why that was so fun to me.
The Bad:
One thing that I would say was pretty bad was the fact that the Unreal Engine was not used to its fullest in this game. We have all seen the greatness it brings, Gears of War for one. But they just seemed to only tap part of the potential with the engine and it’s power. The lighting and physics where there by default, but it almost seemed that they were relying on the engine to spiff up the models. At least the models that were not any of the main characters. That also goes for some of the actual world as well. It just seemed like they could have spent a bit more time on this instead of creating parts of a level that do nothing other than have you wonder what is suppose to be inside of the room. Lots of wasted space.
To go a bit further into the environment, for a game that wanted to have everything mean something, like wounds appearing on Jason as he gets hurt or blood that sprays onto things and stays, they used quite a bit of invisible wall to force a player to certain areas. I was really hoping to have a Resident Evil or Heavenly Sword type thing where there is a reason you can’t go someplace instead of just running into an invisible wall. To mean it feels more like I am forced to go places with the invisible wall than seeing a wall that is collapsed and thus I can’t enter the hallway. If that makes sense.
On top of that, there were load times in the game that made no sense where they were placed. Like you go to open a door leading out, and a load screen would pop up, but if you turned around to go back, sometimes there would be a load screen and others not. Nothing to game breaking, but minor annoyance and such. That and having to talk to certain guards to get gates open but most not requiring that. If I am heading into the arena, I don’t need a guard to tell me its “ok” every time.
One more thing that seemed glanced over was the voice acting of the characters. Not that the dialog was bad or anything, but the syncing and lip movement was just not there. Which of coarse lead to a loss of immersion on my end. It was like watching a poorly dubbed foreign film at times. After a while I just stopped watching the basic conversations due to this.
And finally, it really needed more combat in the game. Much more. From the videos and demos I saw, I was expecting so much more combat out of the game. But it really had Metal Gear Solid approach to the game. A lot of story then a little combat. Repeat. The trailers and everything made it seem much like a God of War game when it came to the amount of violence in it, but I was left wanting myself.
The Rating:
8.2/10
I definitely recommend this game for anyone that needs a good hold over for God of War III. It will give you that much needed fix of epic storytelling and violence. All in a nice little innovative way. The “leveling” system is definitely something to play around with and see what kind of hero you can get in the end. Maybe a perfect hybrid of Athena and Ares.
Also, even though I make it sound a bit combat lite, the combat of the game is worth a great run around. Even though I found I really didn’t use much other than the Mace, it was fun to try and play with the others. Side note: I went all Ares which is all about using the mace so that may have a reason behind that. But the blood flying around after crushing a skull is always a nice way to ring in the new year.