Go With God
The God of War Collection is more than two of the PS2's most high-profile releases given the HD treatment, it's hopefully a sign of things to come.
Published: December 1, 2009
This is going to be a fairly short review, I should just get that out of the way. The gist of the God of War Collection is that it's the original God of War and God of War II slapped onto the same disc and presented in a newly remastered 720p resolution with none of the tearing present in the original PS2 releases.
For whatever reason, we never reviewed the first God of War, and though I vividly remember powering through the game, updated impressions aren't nearly as good as they were back when the game first hit. Part of this comes from the fact that God of War II was a massive improvement in every way, but it piggybacked off the work of the first game. By the time I hit about the 3/4ths mark of the original, I was ready to throw my controller out the window and never play it again. Starting at about the Cliffs of Madness, the game's bullshit-o-meter buries itself so far into the red it's a wonder people actually managed to finish the game on a high note in enough numbers to warrant a sequel.
The list of rather grievous decisions in game design start to seriously stack up; checkpoints spread a bit too far apart, enemies that can pick you up and toss you off cliffs are introduced rather inconveniently at the first real appearance of cliffs where you actually can be thrown to your death, bigger enemies start to stack up against mid-level ones that can turn you to stone, and of course there are the infamous Blades of Hades (which weren't nearly as bad this time around for some reason). In short, the game's frustrations threaten to undermine the narrative and puzzle designs that seem so flawless for the first three quarters of the game. Luckily, the ending is solid enough that things are mended a bit, but it's still a rather stark reminder of just how far the series has come.
God of War II is almost blissfully free of many of those compounded issues. You'll still run across some difficult sections, but the combat and puzzles seem more evenly distributed, and the second game has a much more graduated difficulty curve. It's also surprisingly gorgeous, a byproduct of the game's uncertain bit of flux between being an early PS3 game or a late-cycle PS2 effort. As a result, many of the assets used were actually higher-quality than the PS2 normally saw, and an already amazing game ends up looking even more so when run at HD resolutions.
The improvements that Bluepoint Games made to the underlying engine were powerful indeed. The frequent tearing that happened in God of War II (and at times in the first game) has been completely removed, the framerate holds steady a good 95% of the time at a rock-solid 60fps, and the game even upscales rather nicely to 1080p if you have your system set for that. The only real down side to the "remastering" process was that the original videos that were rendered using in-engine assets were of course fixed at the old 480i/p resolutions, and when stretched they can't possibly match something being re-rendered in HD. Still, it's a minor gripe and taken as a whole, the God of War Collection is effectively the definitive version of SCE Santa Monica Studios' twin epics.
It also shows just how good some PS2 games can look when given the "special edition" treatment. Both games were apparently coded in a far more PS3-friendly way than many other PS3 efforts of the time, but if a proper emulation engine can be built (or already has been built, as I still insist), then this is a startlingly powerful indicator of what could be coming down the pipeline. I realize it's a rather unique case among PS2 efforts, but it's proof-positive that, yes, PlayStation 2 games can still work on the PlayStation 3 without losing any of their oomph. In the case of God of War II, the game is arguably better when running on the latest hardware.
Regardless of what may be coming in the future, there's absolutely zero reason not to snatch up the God of War Collection and make it a permanent part of your library. Both games are great, but the second is so good that I can't imagine anyone not getting the chance to experience it. Now, even if you don't have a backwards-compatible PS3, you have no reason not to. Go buy the Collection; you'll be glad you did.
For whatever reason, we never reviewed the first God of War, and though I vividly remember powering through the game, updated impressions aren't nearly as good as they were back when the game first hit. Part of this comes from the fact that God of War II was a massive improvement in every way, but it piggybacked off the work of the first game. By the time I hit about the 3/4ths mark of the original, I was ready to throw my controller out the window and never play it again. Starting at about the Cliffs of Madness, the game's bullshit-o-meter buries itself so far into the red it's a wonder people actually managed to finish the game on a high note in enough numbers to warrant a sequel.
The list of rather grievous decisions in game design start to seriously stack up; checkpoints spread a bit too far apart, enemies that can pick you up and toss you off cliffs are introduced rather inconveniently at the first real appearance of cliffs where you actually can be thrown to your death, bigger enemies start to stack up against mid-level ones that can turn you to stone, and of course there are the infamous Blades of Hades (which weren't nearly as bad this time around for some reason). In short, the game's frustrations threaten to undermine the narrative and puzzle designs that seem so flawless for the first three quarters of the game. Luckily, the ending is solid enough that things are mended a bit, but it's still a rather stark reminder of just how far the series has come.
God of War II is almost blissfully free of many of those compounded issues. You'll still run across some difficult sections, but the combat and puzzles seem more evenly distributed, and the second game has a much more graduated difficulty curve. It's also surprisingly gorgeous, a byproduct of the game's uncertain bit of flux between being an early PS3 game or a late-cycle PS2 effort. As a result, many of the assets used were actually higher-quality than the PS2 normally saw, and an already amazing game ends up looking even more so when run at HD resolutions.
The improvements that Bluepoint Games made to the underlying engine were powerful indeed. The frequent tearing that happened in God of War II (and at times in the first game) has been completely removed, the framerate holds steady a good 95% of the time at a rock-solid 60fps, and the game even upscales rather nicely to 1080p if you have your system set for that. The only real down side to the "remastering" process was that the original videos that were rendered using in-engine assets were of course fixed at the old 480i/p resolutions, and when stretched they can't possibly match something being re-rendered in HD. Still, it's a minor gripe and taken as a whole, the God of War Collection is effectively the definitive version of SCE Santa Monica Studios' twin epics.
It also shows just how good some PS2 games can look when given the "special edition" treatment. Both games were apparently coded in a far more PS3-friendly way than many other PS3 efforts of the time, but if a proper emulation engine can be built (or already has been built, as I still insist), then this is a startlingly powerful indicator of what could be coming down the pipeline. I realize it's a rather unique case among PS2 efforts, but it's proof-positive that, yes, PlayStation 2 games can still work on the PlayStation 3 without losing any of their oomph. In the case of God of War II, the game is arguably better when running on the latest hardware.
Regardless of what may be coming in the future, there's absolutely zero reason not to snatch up the God of War Collection and make it a permanent part of your library. Both games are great, but the second is so good that I can't imagine anyone not getting the chance to experience it. Now, even if you don't have a backwards-compatible PS3, you have no reason not to. Go buy the Collection; you'll be glad you did.
