Metroid & Vania: God of War III

Welcome to the Platformer where we talk about games in an extremely amateur but fun way! This post is in regards to my Metroid (me) & Vania (girlfriend) series where I introduce my girlfriend to video games! We recently murdered a lot of gods. All photos were taken by Vania. She is very proud.

“I love that the game is centred around Greek Mythology. I already love and know a lot about Greek Mythology so this is basically my perfect game.”

Is violence a problem in video games? Is it glorified? It would be naive and bias to completely disregard the topic, however, every other medium utilises carnage for entertainment. Stephen King once wrote that human beings crave it, we have a bloodlust. Therefore it would be animalistic to deny us this human desire. That or I’m a psychopath.

his was originally going to be a review because Vania didn’t exactly ‘approve’ of video game violence. That was until Vania saw the greek gods, took my controller and screamed ‘Vania play now!’. With a smile on her face no less. With one click of the analogue sticks, resulting in Kratos plunging his thumbs into Poseidon’s eye sockets, she was hooked. She completely ate up the story as she loves Greek mythology, in addition to enjoying the combat as it gave her a feeling of exhilaration. This is a story of how Vania completed her first video game…

When someone loves Greek mythology and has an interest in video games (even a forced interest) God of War is an excellent place to start. Vania’s favourite experience was “seeing all the gods and goddesses. In particular, I loved seeing Persephone, my personal goddess.”(She wasn’t so thrilled when it came out Kratos killed her)

Santa Monica Studios prepared an epic adventure featuring memorable gods and characters, Vania loved discovering all the references to Greek mythology. Even Kratos, who is a unique creation, made an impression on her, not as much as Aphrodite mind you.

So how does Kratos fight? Imagine you dropped fifty raspberries into an open blender while screaming. While nude. How did Vania react? Well, I wasn’t sure if Vania would take to the hack ‘n’ slash genre. However, before I knew it she was delivering free colonoscopies!

God of War III is not just a button masher, a face masher if anything, because as you gain new weapons and skills more opportunities for combos emerge allowing the player to develop their preferred style of evisceration.

I sensibly play God of War with specific combos and utilising the blades of exile, no deviation, just efficiency. Vania, on the other hand, was switching between weapons, spinning so much she looked like a spikey merry go round, there was an instant connection. I often forget that she is a beginner when it comes to gaming so I decided to set the difficulty to easy, even then…

“Some parts were harder than others but once I got into the swing of it I was fine. I enjoyed the challenge as it gave me something to work for and when I finally beat it, I felt like I earned it.”

It’s not all bloodshed and roses, sometimes you must…press buttons quickly! (Practice with the follow button, hint, hint) Vania greatly struggled with quick-time events, understandable since she’s played with three different controllers with the x positioned differently each time. She got used to it after a while, but the frustration was photographic on her face. Thankfully she pushed through, it helped that the inputs appeared on the side of the screen that matched where they were on the controller.

This is Vania’s first ever completed game, and what a way to pop your cherry, probably with slightly more blood than you would want. (I apologise) Vania loved her experience so much that she has recommended it to everyone, her mum, dad, friend, the first stranger she saw. I fully enjoyed finding a new passion to share with someone, Greek mythology, which made the experience special for us.

Vania love God of War III so much, therefore I want to see how she handl- I’ve been told we’re going to do more God of War. So next Week…

God of War II

Thanks for reading! Feel free to subscribe, like this post because it helps believe it or not. The following is an image gallery as Vania would kill me if I didn’t show off her photgrophy skills, feel free to tell me you favourite in the comments.