Taken from my post on another site:
Okay, because I lack the cognitive capacity to quit playing a game I love if I have a day to waste on it, I beat God of War today, from beginning to end.
That’s because I started at 1pm at finished at 12am, though by all means it wasn’t for all of those hours.
If I was reviewing it, I’d give it anything higher than 8. The combat system is wonderful, one of the most adaptable and incredibly satisfying systems in gaming history. It’s not quite as adept as DMC3’s at ranged combat, but up close it has that same viceral power.
However, I don’t see why anyone would be willing to give it 8, with its archaic, frustrating horseshit of a puzzle/peril system. Which bright spark was it that said "hey, I know, let’s have an entire level based upon one-hit-death/restart chasms that also possibly let you fall off and die?" Because that’s what Hades is. Twenty minutes of fucking tiny walkways and huge towers that spin in different directions with knives that knock you off from wherever you are. Or maybe the part of the titan’s burden, where you have to swim in front of a barrier with such precision that it took me SEVENTEEN TRIES to beat it? I’m not bad at games. This isn’t an issue about my skill. It’s an issue of how many times today I’ve had to leap over badly angled jumps and died, repeatedly, due to an ill-imagined concept.
My best description for it would be a delicious apple covered in shitty barbs. Take from that what you will. I don’t particularly recommend God of War as a buy, but a rental? Sure. I think that the games industry is sick at the moment anyway, so this is about as good as it’s going to get, sadly 🙁
Though I agree with you about the part in Hades with the rotating knife pillars, it sucked that you’d fall all the way back down.
If you really want to get irritated with it, though, now that you’ve beaten it–go to the God Challenges in the Treasure area and try them out. The second one in particular is a real bitch–that’s about as far as I’ve gotten with it.