God of War, Where Are We Now?

It’s been a few days, and after letting the dust settle from both fan/naysayers from the epic that is/was God of War III, I think it’s safe to ask what now? Well, I’m not going to let too much out of the bag for those of you who haven’t finished it yet, but first off, it’s the most visually stunning game to date. The level of artistic craftsmanship is like no other game on the market. (My favorite detail, FYI, is Aphrodite’s Chamber and her bed… HIGH FIVE!) But it is rather short. Not story-wise, ‘cause crap it’s a lot of dialog! But game-play wise it was shorter than I imagined. Oddly enough, I am okay with that. You can complete the main story in less than 7 hours if you really sprint it, but with all the details and the story being oh so very “greek,” I think it makes sense. HYPE is the word of the day ‘cause all the hype that was put on this game doesn’t come near the reality of it, which is it’s better than anyone could have expected. The cut scenes, the music, the art, the story, the controls; just everything is complete.

Gaming isn’t a sport, the fastest isn’t the winner and longevity is key. The smartest thing the GoW franchise did was put out the first two games onto the PS3! I already know a few months down the line I’m going to be popping in my God of War Collection again and starting from the beginning. Why? Well, it’s a great game! And like Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda, God of War will hold up against time and still be good 10 years down the line.

Absolutely, my biggest fear is exactly what happened to the Halo franchise. Bungie parted ways but didn’t get the rights to its game…thus a series of bad games “featuring” the name Halo arrived. I’m not a huge fan of Halo, but I respect it and what Microsoft did to that name was only tarnish it and place Bungie in the hot seat to recreate the magic it once had. And if SCE Santa Monica Studios are done than let’s call it a day folks.

Basically, SCE Santa Monica Studios has only worked on 3 games in its life. God of War (and all games following), the ever so talked about Warhawk and Kinetica (which, if you don’t remember, that name was a short lived but positive reviewed PS2 future racing game). So it makes sense to put Kratos on the shelf from a developer standpoint. I mean, it’s cool and all that you made a character so well know all you need to show is his eye to get a reaction, but artistically speaking you need to broaden your horizons!

I would like to see one game in particular, which has ties to SCE Santa Monica Studios in a way. David Jeffe who directed the very first God of War game was also a very creative designer and just awesome storyteller…oh, and he is also known as “THE MOST HADED MAN IN THE WORLD!! *by Microsoft*”
Just a recap, David basically called out MSNBC calling its reviews bias via Microsoft owned them (or whoever wrote a review that prized the 360 game in question). David, you’ll be happy to know I am paid by NBC and I hold no bias; Bomberman: Act Zero was a horrible game as was Haze. (I’m gonna let the Wii off the hook, not because I’m getting a free Wii for not saying anything…but because it’s easier to list the 5 good games than the billion horrible games…)
But, David Jeffe also gave us one of the most visually stunning yet simplistic games of our time. Twisted Metal: Black. Oh, yeah baby! TWB was/is a juggernaut of a game. It’s hard to find anyone that hasn’t seen Sweet Tooth head ablaze and all. My hope is that Jeffe has something awesome in store…a Twisted Metal game rises from the ashes and I finally get to blow the hell out of Claypso’s again...Oh yeah…did I forget to say that Eat Sleep Play (David Jeffe’s original company) is back together and planning a new Twisted Metal?…oh yeah oops.