God of War Collection – Review

By Mike Norton

XBL Gamertag: oO PROTOMIKE Oo

Release Date: 11/15/2009

ESRB Rating: Mature

Genre: Action

Publisher: Sony CEA

Developer: Sony CEA

The original God of War and God of War II have already established themselves as best of class Playstation 2 titles so there is no surprise as to the enjoyment and convenience both of these epic Spartan adventures offer when playable from a single Blu-Ray Disc.

Who wouldn't want to battle enemies of the Gods in an ancient Greek world through the most brutal means possible? Almost the entirety of both games is spent hacking, slashing and using accumulated god-like powers as fodder for your blades ranging and bosses so big the screen cannot contain their enormous scale. When not fighting, Kratos is asked to flip switches, push boxes, solve relatively simplistic puzzles (aka Tomb Raider) and, to further illustrate the franchise's mature nature (and did I mention the boobies?). There is never a dull moment and always something bigger and better to come in the God of War games.

Sony has built in some added value with the God of War Collection designed to lure those on the fence with revisiting games already played forward and backwards multiple times prior on an inferior platform. The most obvious upgrade has been applied to the visuals which have been pushed up to 720p resolution at 60 frames per second with new anti-aliasing for quicker and smoother on-screen action. The graphics improvement is noticeable on both games but more so on God of War II which inherently benefits from more complex models. However, the in game cut scenes were left untouched by the graphical face lift it constantly reminds you that you are in deed playing a PS2 tittle. The transition from in-game to cut-scene is supposed to be an upgrade in quality but here the sharp lines and clearness experienced whilst hacking up all flavors of underworld foes are replaced by oftentimes blurry and pixilated messes.

Sony has also included trophy support for both God of War and God of War II within the Collection, a first for the franchise. Trophies are unlocked relatively often while forging through the campaign which makes putting down the controller even tougher than before. When done amassing trophies, a unique code included in every God of War Collection package grants exclusive access to the God of War III E3 demo. (Hence the 'trilogy' name)

The lack of cut-scene enhancement aside, the God of War Collection is a solid retrofit of last generation's best into this generation's technology. Each God of War title within is more than worth replaying without high definition graphics or trophy support and the perfect primer for God of War III early next year. If by chance you have never played God of War before then consider this Collection $40 well spent.

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