This game is rad. I had a blast replaying it, but there's all sorts of rookie mistakes and things that stick out in this game.
Like making 2/4 of your power-ups in the game AoEs. And the Gorgon Head being an instant kill device being a bit silly. . Or Rage of The Gods being a power-up that makes you invincible and changes your moves.
Or the small enemy variety, where you'll fight more and more legionaries for the entire game, with Minotaurs, Gorgons or Satyrs splashed in there, and Centaurs or Sirens making literally one appearance each.
Or this game barely having any bosses, and all of them lean a little toward set pieces.
Or how all the enemies have really quick counters and poor tells for when they'll break out of combos, so the game has a very heavy emphasis on having a back and forth with enemies and being vigilant and you don't get often get a chance to finish a lot of your combos. (this is both a fun and intentional thing and a bit of a flaw). Or how they can hit you from off-screen pretty often.
But for how many little things you can pick at, it all comes together, and so much of that falls squarely on the Blades of Chaos just being really fun to use, and learning to use the Blade of Artemis.
The pacing in this game is pretty solid too. The puzzles and platforming being pretty easy and breaking up the already-repetitive combat well, but the environments could be more interesting.
The story as well would be a fascinating topic, as for even with how this game nowadays just the slow reveal of the backstory of a character everyone knows (sprinkled at kind of random intervals), there's something that still pulls together. To be honest, nowadays it's hard for me to see GoW 1 Kratos as a complete monster.
I think the undercurrent of this game is that the Gods themselves have been using, and perpetuating Kratos's status as a monster for the past 10 years to do their dirty work. Their cruelty and selfishness is shown through the Architect Pathos Verdes's storyline, and I feel it's a reflection of Kratos. Of a man who gave his life to the service of the Gods and got nothing in return. With Kratos's famous line "By the Gods, what have I become...?" Kratos is having elucidation of how his time as servant of the Gods was ultimately not far off from the barbarism he perpetuated under Ares's name. Serving new masters, saving lives even, but still traveling and killing wherever he goes.
At the end of the game, it's revealed Ares's actions were a temper tantrum over never having gained Zeus's approval over Athena. And that's what Kratos gets at the end of this game: Forgiveness and approval, but Kratos has already realized this means nothing coming from the Gods. All he ever wanted was peace and penance, and the Gods never had any intention of granting him the former. Peace was only something he would be able to find himself. But even then, the Gods aren't done with him. He's their tool, after all.
So he takes the throne as the God of War. As a tortured soul, and the ultimate warrior. An embodiment of what war and power gets someone in the end.
Like making 2/4 of your power-ups in the game AoEs. And the Gorgon Head being an instant kill device being a bit silly. . Or Rage of The Gods being a power-up that makes you invincible and changes your moves.
Or the small enemy variety, where you'll fight more and more legionaries for the entire game, with Minotaurs, Gorgons or Satyrs splashed in there, and Centaurs or Sirens making literally one appearance each.
Or this game barely having any bosses, and all of them lean a little toward set pieces.
Or how all the enemies have really quick counters and poor tells for when they'll break out of combos, so the game has a very heavy emphasis on having a back and forth with enemies and being vigilant and you don't get often get a chance to finish a lot of your combos. (this is both a fun and intentional thing and a bit of a flaw). Or how they can hit you from off-screen pretty often.
But for how many little things you can pick at, it all comes together, and so much of that falls squarely on the Blades of Chaos just being really fun to use, and learning to use the Blade of Artemis.
The pacing in this game is pretty solid too. The puzzles and platforming being pretty easy and breaking up the already-repetitive combat well, but the environments could be more interesting.
The story as well would be a fascinating topic, as for even with how this game nowadays just the slow reveal of the backstory of a character everyone knows (sprinkled at kind of random intervals), there's something that still pulls together. To be honest, nowadays it's hard for me to see GoW 1 Kratos as a complete monster.
I think the undercurrent of this game is that the Gods themselves have been using, and perpetuating Kratos's status as a monster for the past 10 years to do their dirty work. Their cruelty and selfishness is shown through the Architect Pathos Verdes's storyline, and I feel it's a reflection of Kratos. Of a man who gave his life to the service of the Gods and got nothing in return. With Kratos's famous line "By the Gods, what have I become...?" Kratos is having elucidation of how his time as servant of the Gods was ultimately not far off from the barbarism he perpetuated under Ares's name. Serving new masters, saving lives even, but still traveling and killing wherever he goes.
At the end of the game, it's revealed Ares's actions were a temper tantrum over never having gained Zeus's approval over Athena. And that's what Kratos gets at the end of this game: Forgiveness and approval, but Kratos has already realized this means nothing coming from the Gods. All he ever wanted was peace and penance, and the Gods never had any intention of granting him the former. Peace was only something he would be able to find himself. But even then, the Gods aren't done with him. He's their tool, after all.
So he takes the throne as the God of War. As a tortured soul, and the ultimate warrior. An embodiment of what war and power gets someone in the end.