[merylsilverburg]

I'm sorry but I would have to disagree with you guys and give the game probably an 7.5/10.

First off, I was completely fooled into thinking this game would feature a lot of the ancient Greek mythology and have boss fights that were of the ancient beasts and legends from mythology, like the Cyclops or Medusa. I played the demo version of this and when I was ready to fight the huge Hydra, that's what made me think to buy this game. Because I thought "Wow, this is so great! Finally, a game that takes Greek mythology and puts it into a game form! Excellent!" But then, playing the game through, it ends up that Cylops, Sirens, Gorgons, and the such were all just regular enemies. And, excuse me, but the Cerebus is supposed to guard the Underworld, what the HELL was it doing spawing all over the place in "Poseidon's Challenge"? These boss-potenial baddies posing as regular enemies often are tougher than actual bosses themselves.
Oh and I'm very annoyed that the Gods, such as Zeus, Athena, Artemis, and so on are all just faces and sometimes statues (if you're talking about Athena) that helps and guides Kratos on his journey rather than actually playing an essential role in the game. But I won't bitch too much about this because I know this game is suppose to focus on Kratos because this is his story and the developers were trying to make something different and new by using this mortal who is the only one who can save Athens because the Gods aren't allowed to fight one another and such....but yet, why not just call Hercules? It's almost the same thing if you think about it.

Second of all, the game lacks story IMO. I dunno about you guys, but I couldn't help but feel extremely cheated and bored out of my mind fighting enemies over and over and over again only to encounter a 5 second cutscene of Krato's "past" only to discover what I already knew in the beginning...absolutely nothing. Like, by the time I was in "Atlus' Challenge" and I saw the scene where

Spoiler: show

Ares had killed all those warriors and it ends up that Krato's sold his soul to Ares in order to defeat the Barbarians and all that

I couldn't help but think "Okay and then what?" I know that so many people complain of "playing movies rather than games" but I actually would like to have an engrossing story to go along with the game and make me feel like I'm fighting all these enemies and saving stupid people (like the Oracle...gee, couldn't she predict what was going to happen to her?) for an actual cause not "just because I can." Maybe I would feel differently after I finish the game, but I'm telling you...there's almost nothing that's pushing me to go further or dig deeper into this game because I feel nothing. Hardly any character depth or personality. I feel nothing for Kratos, I feel nothing for the city of Athens, I feel nothing for the people, nothing.

On the plus side, the game does feature spectacular graphics. Very beautiful to look at and I enjoyed just seeing the cities, the water, the sky, and the very brief cutscenes. They did a great job with it. The level designs were great, I loved the underwater levels in Poseidon's Challenge and I really loved Pandora's Temple. My favorite cutscene would have to be when Kratos was going into Pandora's Temple and he had to call the Titan, Kronos. And he had to hang onto a chain and run across Krono's face and climb up to the Temple...fantastic. I also really liked the creative designs of the enemies, such as the Sirens or the different types of Cyclops or Minotaurs and the such.

I also enjoyed the puzzles. Some of them weren't too tough actually...stupidly enough, I only really had trouble with the "saving the Oracle" thing, but otherwise, most of the puzzles were pretty easy to figure out. Despite being easy, they were also challenging at the same time, enough to be interesting and refreshing.

And Krato's moves and combos were different and great to see. Very neat and very cool to see the animation, such as when Kratos grabs and throws an enemy off of a wall or when he would slam another enemy into the wall then drop them. It's great and it never got boring to see him ruthlessly kill all these baddies. I just wish that earning all of these moves or making a God's magic gift more powerful didn't have to take so long. I know it adds another challenge to the game, but fighting those regular enemies are bad enough.

Well, that's what I have to say about it. I don't know how I would feel at the end of the game, but I hope much more different than what I feel now. Hopefully, if the story at the end isn't what I expected, I just hope they fix it up or create more character dimensions in the sequel or something.