God of War Collection

The God of War Collection is the equivalent of Disney releasing a remastered version of Snow White: you know precisely what you're getting (because you've probably already seen it) but it looks and sounds so good you can't help but pull out your wallet to buy it again.

In terms of value, the God of War Collection is great. Two proven action games with many hours of slashing and impaling and light puzzle-solving in a mythical Greek setting, where permanently-pissed off protagonist, Kratos, faces off against

horrible nightmares then promptly eviscerates them on his way to God-hood (God of War) then a vengeful path against Zeus (God of War 2).

The graphical upgrade is dramatic if you're at all familiar with the Playstation 2 versions. It's especially apparent when the action scenes look much better than in-game cutscenes

rendered from the originals. The switch between the two is only slightly distracting and really I only mention it because I'm looking for things to nitpick. The grand CG cutscenes are still terrific.

One thing that the Collection has made me really appreciate is just how much I loathe quick time events. These are epic moments handled by simple button presses as they appear on screen so Kratos can do something insane, like cut the wings off a griffin. For anyone watching, the scene is awesome but the person playing is concentrating so much on what button to press next that the cool factor is muted. I don't hammering on a single button to open a door or perform some kind of nasty kill, but the single, flashing button-presses are just plain horrible. Having an automatic feature to just watch these parts would have been an obvious upgrade from the originals. I much prefer fighting my way through the hordes of mythical creatures with some mild effort put into racking up big combo scores.

- Aaron Simmer

(November 27, 2009)