I’m sitting in front of my television watching Kratos jump from his flying horse miles above in the skies of Greece onto a griffon in which he impales its mounted rider before kicking him off — as if falling to his death isn’t enough. Kratos then, as added insult to injury and because he is mother f*cking Kratos, takes his blades and severs the griffon’s wings, throws it down to the Earth and jumps back onto his own flying horse. After witnessing such violent events caused by the input of buttons by my own hands, I couldn’t help but chuckle — not because the game is comical or ridiculous. It was a sadistic kind of chuckle — one that had a mixture of enjoyment for playing and enjoyment for seeing a wingless mythical flying creature fall helplessly to the ground. There hasn’t been a game since Mortal Kombat that has generated such a visceral emotion from me.
I know I may be late to the party with this game, and I’m sure people who have already played this game can relate. This is the kind of experience and reaction the game is after: it’s looking for that visceral, purely adrenaline filled, kick ass emotion. In fact, every time I kill something in this game, I find myself not only laughing but turning my head to the skies of Olympus spouting out cheesy one-liners like, “Do you dare defy the God of War!?” and “I am Kratos bitch!” Frankly — though I may be a case study for the argument that games cause violence — I am quite enjoying severing limbs and impaling people.
uche
June 9th, 2008