Platinum Difficulty Rating - 4/10
Having recently gone through the process of assessing my PS3 collection, which isn't too far off full completion, I have decided to apply some heavy focus onto finishing it, given the fact the Playstation 5 has now finally arrived.
This brings us to God of War, originally released on the Playstation 2 in 2005, and bundled in with the later released God of War 2, in order to create this HD remaster on the Playstation 3.
Just as a quick side note, I won't be completing God of War 2, purely for the reason that I'm looking to finish my Playstation 3 backlog at this point, and certainly not looking to add to it, so unfortunately, God of War 2 will remain untouched for this reason.
God of War marks the very beginning of Kratos' journey, as the leader of a successful barbarian army. This is until one day, where Kratos is forced to call upon the original God of War, Ares, to save him and his army from an impending defeat, which is a wish that is granted by Ares in turn for Kratos' service to him and his army.
Ares ends up using this to manipulate Kratos, leading to a situation where he is trapped into accidentally killing his family. As a consequence, a story of revenge is born, where Kratos pledges to serve other Gods in order to rid himself of his guilt. Eventually becoming tired of this, he is tasked with the job of killing Ares to be relieved of his service to the Gods forever if he can fulfil this task.
This is a purely Single Player experience, like every God of War game prior to this, where the vast majority of this medium-sized trophy list is focused around the games story mode, with a very subtle change of direction for a few extra-curricular activities outside the main story.
The "Prepare to be a God" trophy, awarded for Beating the Game on any Difficulty, requires you to finish the story on any difficulty level, within any given amount of time (This is relevant to mention because there is a speedrun trophy to touch upon later).
It's actually quite rare for trophy lists that are heavily focused around story-driven games to not have difficulty related trophies, and out of the previous 3 God of War Platinum trophies I've earned, 2 of them have required you to defeat the game on the games hardest difficulty mode, so this is a slightly surprising change in stance here.
In the spirit of upholding traditional values, I decided to tackle this game on "Hard" difficulty, which is one below the hardest (God), and despite at least wanting a reasonable challenge, I still managed to clock the story within just under 10 hours. There weren't many parts of this game that caused any great challenge, and the standard of beating a story-driven game in less than 10 hours would be considered short in modern day terms - A stark reminder that this is an old game, where standards of game length were more within these expected timeframes back then.
What makes this easier is the fact that the game mechanics seem to have stood the test of time. Combat is slick, the camera functionality is steady and despite there being situations where it can feel like you're overwhelmed, it never seems unfair or insurmountable. It all contributes to a relatively painless experience, and even the big set-piece boss fights that God of War would become known for, and where you would expect the challenge of the game to peak, doesn't really achieve that. It may be a different story on the "God" difficulty setting, but I had no reason to pursue that option.
Upon completing the game for the first time, I had 31 out of the 36 trophies on offer. Discounting the Platinum trophy, that left me with just 4 trophies remaining to complete the list.
Of these 4 trophies, 2 of them were to be unlocked away from the main game, 1 of them was to be unlocked on a subsequent speedrun playthrough, and the final trophy I missed was for missing a very early on mini-game, so I managed to get through a very hefty portion of this list barely realising it.
Upon reflection of the rest of the list, it is very progression-heavy, with practically every trophy being awarded for either reaching certain plot points within the story, or defeating a certain enemy type whilst meeting them for the first time, or a significant boss battle. There are a few other trophies to obtain which require you to perform story-driven tasks within a certain way, meaning you can still miss them if you're not aware to them, but even with these requirements, this didn't seem to stop me in my tracks at any point. It is important to note though, if you do miss these, you will be required to playthrough the game again in order to reach these specific points, due to the absence of any sort of chapter select feature.
This will also apply to the small handful of trophies related to collecting all upgrades and maxing out all weapons and magic - If you miss any of the collectible upgrade chests, or don't manage to collect enough red orbs throughout the story, then you'll need to replay through the game in order to achieve these trophies. The upgrade chests, despite being collectibles, are generally easy to find, even when hidden around corners and breakable surfaces, and providing you're using 1 playthrough to take your time and scour every part of the game world, this won't be an issue (This is also the main reason I would recommend doing the speedrun on a separate playthrough, where you will be a little bit more pressed for time).
Speaking of which, the "Speed of Jason McDonald" trophy, awarded for Beating the game in under 5 hours on any Difficulty, will require you to race through the game from start to finish in what is a reasonably lenient timeframe. It is dependant on a couple of very important points though;
Firstly, you need to be able to bypass many areas of the game that would usually require you to clear groups of enemies, rather than stick around and fight them. There are certain parts of the game that won't allow you to physically pass into the next area until you beat all enemies in the current area, however, where you can just walk past enemies, it is important to stick to that approach. Secondly, despite being an action/combat game, there are a reasonable amount of puzzle sections that would usually require you spend some time to think about how to solve them. Having to complete the game within 5 hours won't afford you the luxury of this, so it is better to make sure you pause the game (which stops the timer), and just familiarise yourself with how to complete the puzzle so you can avoid spending so much time on it.
The fact you can fulfil this trophy on any difficulty level is a massive help though, and if you've chosen to the beat the Challenge of the Gods, which you'll need to do to unlock this Platinum trophy, you'll also get an array of skins to choose from which grant you specific abilities. I went for the Dairy Bastard costume, which grants unlimited magic, and comes in handy when clearing those sections where you have to beat alot of enemies quickly in order to progress. I also chose the "Easy" difficulty level, which is the lowest in the game, and ended with a clear time of 4 hours and 26 minutes.
So far, so good, but we do have to close on the only real notably hard trophy in this list, and does end up contributing significantly to the rating of this game.
The "I'll Take the Physical Challenge" trophy, awarded for Completing the Challenge of the Gods, requires you to step away from the Story mode, and take on a series of 10 challenges, set with specific parameters for completion. This mode is unlocked upon beating the game once, and requires you to beat what is a varied range of challenges, mostly, but not limited to, combat.
In terms of the challenges themselves, most of them are actually fairly easy, and you just simply have to beat the current challenge to move onto the next. However, challenge 8 and challenge 10 are significantly more difficult than any of the other challenges.
Challenge 8 requires you to defeat all waves of enemies, which contains soldiers and Gorgons, and challenge 10 requires you stay on a platform whilst defeating enemies on the platform to raise it high enough to reach the end goal. It's the first time the game seems to lose it's aforementioned fairly balanced combat, with both challenges seemingly overwhelming you with enemies to the point where constant failure becomes normal, and trial and error quickly takes over. Challenge 10 is the toughest, where you're constantly having to find ways to stay balanced on a platform where even blocking enemy attacks can end up knocking you off and failing the challenge.
What's even more frustrating is the fact that you have to beat all 10 challenges in succession. There is no ability to save your progress after each time you successfully complete a challenge, and if you quit the game, you'll have to start from the beginning. Once I'd managed to surpass challenge 8, I had to leave my console on for 2 days because I didn't want to have to go through that challenge again, and accepted I would leave it on for as long as it took me to also beat challenge 10, which is certainly something not to be overlooked here. I would estimate I spent more time on this mode than it took me to Speedrun the game, and it only really comes down to 2 out of the 10 challenges. It ends up making this trophy the only genuinely difficult one in the whole list.
When I look back at the previous God of War games I have the Platinum trophy for, this is certainly the easiest. The fact you're not under any obligation to beat the game on a specific difficulty level, unlike other God of War games, which require you to beat the game on the hardest setting, is a big factor in the overall rating.
The fact I managed to unlock around 88% of this list by just simply playing through the game in order to purely take in the story is telling, and the Speedrun can be comfortably beaten with time to spare, providing you follow the key tips outlined above.
I finished my main playthrough within 9 hours and 42 minutes, and with a subsequent speedrun time of 4 hours and 26 minutes, that means I've managed to collectively beat the game twice within 15 hours, and one of those playthroughs was on "Hard" difficulty, proving that this wasn't really that challenging.
The Challenge of the Gods mode does stick a large spanner in the works though, and probably added another 5 or so hours on top of the experience for me, as well as being the first time I felt genuinely challenged whilst going through this list. If it wasn't for this trophy, I would probably be angling this within the region of a 3/10, but this definitely does enough to notch an extra mark on top of it, and despite the difficulties it caused me, this was still a Platinum trophy earned within just over 20 hours, making it an incredibly short experience, justifying it as my easiest God of War Platinum trophy to date.
Notable Trophies -
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| Prepare to be a God - Beat the Game on any Difficulty. Speed of Jason McDonald - Beat the game in under 5 hours on any Difficulty. I'll Take the Physical Challenge - Complete the Challenge of the Gods. |
Hardest Trophy -
I'll Take the Physical Challenge Complete the Challenge of the Gods
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