The beginnings of a spectacle franchise we were not ready for.
The first game expertly brings a traditional grand, tragic Greek epic of a tormented protagonist battleing for his very soul as a mere pawn. The gameplay is tight, responsive, not overly complicated and the journey we gamers find ourselves on might end up testing our brains as well as our reflexes in certain places. As a game I came to respect the original God of War the most out of the franchise for how much base it estabilished to be built upon but also how creatively it combined it's systems to challenge the player. Creativity that slowly evaporated from the series over the years.

God of War 2 was never my favourite. Other than some aspects of player movement I consider it a step-down from the first adventure as the tight, ever looping level design has been replaced with mostly linear segments and the simple, lazer-focused story has been dreamed further as a revenge plot without any real urgency. There are fewer instances of combining puzzle elements and combat, the bosses are frustrating to fight because some absurd hitboxes and the parry system not being applicable to most their attacks and sorry but the cliffhanger just left me nuts.
I will admit it though that God of War 2, a Playstation 2 game, has no f*ckin right to look this good. Yet it does. Sony Santa Monica Studios be employing witches on the graphics department.

Disclaimer: I am counting my playthrough as completed because I beat God of War already on an original PS2 copy; I technically only played through God of War II in the collection, but I wasn't about to go replay a game I had literally just beat. Nonetheless, I am reviewing this as a collection, since I don't think it would feel right for me to use this to only talk about God of War II.

So, the God of War series is definitely one of Sony's most iconic IPs. Having played through the first game separately on PS2 and the second game through this collection, I can definitely see why. They are well designed and almost cinematic (for the time) type of games that are a lot of fun to go through, with cool puzzles, platforming, and great combat. Both games are excellent, though I think I would say 2 is my favorite overall since I feel its just an improvement over the first in every way. Way more boss fights, more movement options, some nice quality of life changes, more weapons, different play styles (flying Pegasus segments), more streamlined experience overall...God of War II is just the better game to me. Regardless, both these games are excellent and I'd recommend them to anyone who's a fan of action games like Devil May Cry.

As a collection, this game includes God of War, God of War II, and bonus features for God of War II that I didn't bother to look at but are a nice addition to make this collection stand out a little more. Both games are exactly the same as the PS2 originals but they're in wide screen and have been improved graphically. I would argue that alone makes it superior to playing the original PS2 versions, but of course you may not care about the graphical improvements or you may not own a PS3. There's apparently a Vita version of this, too, but I can't tell you what that looks like since I only played this on PS3. If I had to complain about anything in this, it would be that the screen does feel a little stretched out to reach the widescreen, but it feels like they did a good job making the actual game fit this naturally. I only noticed it because, whenever there's text on screen, its noticeably stretched out compared to the originals. The games look great and run excellent, I have no complaints with the quality of this collection. I think there's even some improvements to the saving, since I feel like the game saved and loaded much faster than the original PS2 versions, but I can't say for sure since I could be mistaken.

Overall, God of War Collection is a great compilation containing probably the best ways to play these excellent games. It gets a solid 4 stars from me; same rating I gave the original God of War.

What happens when you put two of the best action adventure games created on one disc? Ultimate satisfaction. Both God of Wars have been updated in widescreen format with slightly polished visuals for HD display and running at a lightning fast 60 FPS. If you bought the game new you will have received a code to download the God of War III demo, but as of now, this code is useless since the demo is now on PSN and the game is due out in just over a week. Other than that nothing else has been changed for the PS3 except trophies which were the main drive for me to purchase these games all over again. So here is a separate review for each game.

God of War

Being released in 2004 the does feel a bit old. There are more flaws in this game than the first, but let’s start with the good things. Apart from revolutionizing games and the action adventure genre single-handedly, the game is amazing and epic. The game is full of huge towering bosses, waves, and waves of enemies, a deep dark story full of Greek mythology, a fluid, almost perfect combat system, and boobs. Yes, that’s right boobs. At the time of release, I had never seen a game with so much nudity before, but it shouldn’t really shock gamers as much these days. The game also has some very intricate puzzles that wind up being whole levels that you have to solve such as Pandora’s Temple. The combat system is pretty fast and fluid on its own.

With Kratos whipping his Blades of Chaos around you feel like you have complete control over him. Another combat element that revolutionized games was quick time events. After weakening an enemy enough you pressed the corresponding button (usually circle) over them and a series of buttons flash on-screen. If you don’t press it on time the enemy knocks you down and you have to start over. Of course, you can just kill them normally if this gets dull for you. The best QTEs, however, are during boss fights. If just feels awesome to plow a mast through a 200 foot tall Hydra. Now you do need to realize that there is magic here as well. You get four different powers throughout the game such as Medusa’s Gaze (freeze enemies), Poseidon’s Rage (shock), Hade’s Army (souls that continuously attack enemies). These, plus your weapons, can be upgraded by collecting red experience orbs. As you upgrade all your items you get new moves, plus increased power. If you’re asking about your health and magic you can collect Phoenix Feathers and Gorgon eyes for magic and health respectively. These are all found in hidden chests throughout the game so keep an eye out.


The camera is fixed so it frees up the right analog stick for dodging moves, the camera does a perfect job of following the action without any problems. Some times you can scale up walls and even fight there or on ropes. Combat is pretty much anywhere Kratos goes and this keeps things mixed up. The level’s traps and puzzles are very well designed and require you to really think or be on your toes.

The story is very deep and memorable. We see Kratos as a fallen Spartan leader who gives his life to Ares if he slays the Barbarian leader who is about to behead him. Ares makes Kratos his servant for eternity, but Kratos becomes a raging killer who kills the wrong people. He becomes set on a path to free the nightmares from his mind and kill Ares in the process.

If I were to nitpick about what’s bad about the game it’s that the game looks kind of dated from today. The textures are a bit low-res and blurry, and there are some collision detection problems when jumping around. The game is also extremely difficult even on the normal setting so God mode becomes virtually impossible. The game has a decent length of about 8-10 hours, but other than that the game is great for the first outing. If you finish up the game you get to unlock hidden costumes, Challenge of the Gods, and some other hidden treasures.

God of War II

If you think the first game was epic wait until now. With visuals that surpass the first game twofold, and even more huge epic bosses God of War II became the best game to ever grace the PS2. The story follows just after the events of God of War. Kratos is still sent on a war path to avenge his nightmares and kill Zeus for killing and betraying him. He must find the Sisters of Fate and turn back time to the moment Zeus betrayed him and kill him.

The combat system is slightly upgraded, but pretty much the same. It feels a bit more fluid, and we even get some more moves. The controls are a bit more refined, and we get new powers. We get some new secondary weapons such as a hammer and staff that can be upgraded. The puzzles aren’t as hard as the first game, but there are a lot more of them this time around. The game also seems to be a bit harder as well with even tougher enemies. We get a new grapple hook for swinging around so this adds a lot to the gameplay. The game also feels more fluid and has a lot more epic moments than the first game, but most of these come towards the end of the game.


While God of War II pretty much is almost like the first all the new content make it an epic and thrilling sequel. The only issues with the game are that it looks a bit dated, the game can be very tough at times as well. The game is about the same length as the first, but the game obviously feels and plays five times better than the first game. There are plenty of extras as well as a full-length making of the section on the disc for God of War II.


So if you think all this sounds good you can now pick the game up brand new for $30. $15 a piece for two of the best games ever made is a great bargain to me. With a separate set of trophies for each game, HD resolution, and faster FPS this is a huge package that is exploding with awesomeness. God of War Collection is probably one of the best deals to grace consoles since The Orange Box so don’t hesitate; every PS3 owner has to have this collection or you aren’t a true gamer.

I remember playing the hell out of these games when I first got this collection as a kid. My poor parents had no idea how much blood, gore, nudity, and sex were present in these games; they just thought it was a little game about Greek Mythology with a little bit of violence. But god, it was so much more than that, and I loved them!

This collection is a fantastic way of playing these games with HD. To my memory, it was one of the first "collections" to every be released, and it spawned a trend that dominated the industry for a while. And it is still one of the best out there.

I hope we get a new collection for the PS5 soon. With the new interest in the "God of War" series, I hope Sony will finally allow fans to experience the old games outside of having to subscribe to their annoying streaming service or just resort to emulation (which I would highly recommend for this collection). For as great as this collection is, it is still sadly stuck on PS3, which is a shame.

"God of War" is a really special series that deserves to be played by the people who want to play it. I hope Sony will take notice of that sooner rather than later.

Overall, the games are a pretty fun blend of action and platformer/puzzle, the combat isn't too deep and that's slightly to it's detriment as it can get boring, dealing with most of the enemies exactly the same way each time. The music is pretty great for both games and they're wonderful on the visual department.

As for the individual games, while God of War 1 had a solid story, it's backed up with frustrating levels, starting with the second big half of the game the game really takes a turn for the worse, which is a shame because I would've enjoyed the game more despite the basic gameplay of it, if it just didn't try to be so infuriating. However, even if the game didn't have those frustrating bits, the last boss in the game is probably one of the worst things I've ever played and is super dated in design. (3/5)

As for God of War 2, it's an improvement over the original in almost every single way, I ended up preferring the more personal story of the first, that's not to say the story of the second game is bad, it's all right but it feels pretty video game-y when compared to how the older game had strong "Greek Tragedy" elements which really elevated the story. The only really bad things about GoW2 is just how the second half is rather flip-floppy in terms of quality, as GoW1-esque frustrating levels pop up again, but other than that, I had much more fun with it. Especially with how much your moveset gets expanded, even if it still feels small, another thing to note is how the bosses are much better here, as they feel actually fun to fight. (3.5/5)

I have mixed feelings. First, I'm glad I bought this for my PSVita, my first experience with the franchise and the games are really fun and enjoyable. I like the setting and story. But the controls are a mix, the use of both touchscreen for gameplay just hurts playability in the long run, and makes it so you mess up because you weren't holding the controller in the exact way you're "supposed" to. So that takes away from the experience. But all in all very solid games, there are glitches with the trophies, so read about that if you are interested before playing.

"A Great Collection"

This is a great collection of the first two God of War games. I have reviewed each of them separately, so I won't delve into each of those for this review. Instead, I'll cover what is done with these updated versions and how it enhances or takes away from the experience of each.

Fortunately, not much is messed with for these titles. While there isn't a whole slew of bonus content for either game that wasn't already included with the original disks, both games are upgraded to a 720p resolution at 60 frames per second. This helps a bunch with the fluidity of fighting and the smoothness of in-game cutscenes and setpieces.

Overall, for the combination of both games and some graphical enhancements, I say this collection is a bit greater than the sum of its parts. Therefore it gets a point boost for combining these games as an upgraded package at a reasonable price. It's much better to play these games in HD than at SD separately, and if you are able to find this collection at a reasonable price I would say go ahead and pull the trigger on it. I can Recommend this collection and its enhancements to fans of the originals or newcomers to the series, as it is one of the definitive ways to play these games currently.

Final Verdict: 8/10 (Great)