Battle Worn, Wearing Thin?

I'm in Poseidon's Chamber, in the middle of Poseidon's Trial, within Pandora's Temple, which is atop the titan Kronos who is wandering through the Desert of Lost Souls as punishment from Zeus. There is obviously no lack of story in God of War, but this isn't about the story, it's about the combat. The combat system arguably contains the most depth the genre has ever seen. Maybe a little too much. The sheer number of moves is overwhelming at first. Kratos, the game's main character, uses a weapon called the Blades of Chaos. The Blades of Chaos can be powered up. As you level up the weapon, more moves are made available. There are twenty-one moves available for the Blades of Chaos overall. Adding to the complexity and or depth are varying magic abilities. The different magic can be leveled up so new moves are learned within the magic itself. At one point in the game, you'll find a new weapon called the Blade of Artemis. The Blade of Artemis adds seven more moves to the combat. It's a lot to take in. It results in finding a couple moves you like and sticking to them. The combat engine allows for an almost freeform combo building experience. Among the lowest level creatures you can string a combo together as varied as your imagination allows. Weak attack into strong attack launching the enemies into the air, jumping into the air and latching on to the enemy, continuing with weak attacks and directional control to fling the original enemy around into the others as if it were a yo-yo, landing on the ground to then grab the enemy and finally beat it to death with your bare hands. It's quite fun. Soon after you'll discover that's not entirely possibly all the time. The stronger enemies don't allow for it. Their size and weight make it impossible. As does their considerable skill at blocking your attacks. One thing that some people might find frustrating is the inability to stop certain enemy attack animations. They're going to hit you no matter what once they've started. You on the other hand don't have it so easy. Your attack animations are interrupted with amazing ease. Which is especially bad considering you'll find yourself often surrounded by numerous enemies at once. They will bounce you around considerably if you make a single mistake. The camera is entirely removed from the player's control, which is a good thing. If you had to deal with the camera it would just be too much. There are only a couple instances where the camera can be apain in the ass. Often due to the great size of some enemies and the sometimes dramatic angles employed, you'll find yourself behind some creature that blocks your view of yourself. They use QTE's rather extensively. The larger creatures once weakened enough will allow you to grab and throw them when prompted by a circle button on screen. One cool thing is they use the QTE's to allow you to decide on how to kill them depending on what you need based on your current life or magic levels. Normally if you just kill something by dealing enough damage the dying creature spews red orbs which are used as currency to power up your weapons and magic. But if you're hurting for life, and there is a minotaur, and you get it to the point where it will display the circle button prompt, when initiated you go into a QTE where you knock it down and put your sword to its face as it grabs your arms to stop you. Repeatedly hitting circle fast enough will allow Kratos to win the power struggle and drive his sword through the minotaur's face, causing green orbs to spew from the dying creature. Green orbs heal you. Successfully do the same on a gorgon should you be in need of magic via the blue orbs it'll spew upon death, or just kill it normally to gain those red orbs. It's a great use of situational control with QTEs while adding to the very cinematic nature of the game. Overall it's a fun but imperfect combat engine that in my opinion will only need a few tweaks to be perfect. Let's see what they do with it for the sequel.

Next time will cover puzzles...