Forums > Submission Feedback > zigfried's God of War Collection review

I would normally rate a collection based on its best inclusion . . . but since Sony failed to include a third of the series, I will fail to include a third of the score.

Ha. Wow. It's usually a struggle for me to put anything witty or meaningful in that little box. Not for you, sir. Not for you.

You exist because we allow it. And you will end because we demand it.

It never would have occurred to me to expect a portable inclusion to be on the compilation disc, since I can't recall a game publisher ever mixing handheld and console releases on a single disc... ever (and I'm aware that perhaps there are obscure examples that someone could point to, but it's far from the norm to say the least). As a result, I didn't find the conclusion as witty or even particularly relevant. However, the main text of the review raised enough points that the score for the compilation overall didn't feel unfair and that's the more important point.

"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." - John F. Kennedy on reality

"What if everything you see is more than what you see--the person next to you is a warrior and the space that appears empty is a secret door to another world? What if something appears that shouldn't? You either dismiss it, or you accept that there is much more to the world than you think. Perhaps it really is a doorway, and if you choose to go inside, you'll find many unexpected things." - Shigeru Miyamoto on secret doors to another world2

I expected this disc to contain only the PS2 games. The box is very clear about that. However, merely meeting my expectations does not mean this $40 disc deserves a 10/10. That kind of thought process leads to score inflation and score regret. The original God of War earned -- and still deserves -- its 10 by far surpassing my expectations.

Sony had a chance to do something really cool, something that would make me say "now this is a damn impressive collection", and they didn't. They took the path of least resistance (the developers even bragged about finishing in only 15 weeks), and as such it's a two-game collection that happens to have one really-great game and one quite-good game on it. Calling it a "collection" makes the omission more noticeable.

Whether portable and console games have been mixed on one disc before is irrelevant. This collection is neither a great value nor a great upgrade. Adding the PSP game is one way -- perhaps the most meaningful way -- Sony could have changed that.

//Zig

EDIT: This is why I love feedback threads... I was able to do a quick tweak to the review so that people know I didn't expect something that wasn't advertised on the box. Thanks!

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Even with a graphical upgrade (in some places), the fact that this title is little more than GoW and GoW2 mashed together makes me wonder why anyone would want to pick it up if they still have GoW and GoW2 still sitting in their PS2 library.

Oh right, it's because Sony axed backwards compatibility on the new PS3 units.

"Either, sir, you're an ass or masquerading as one."
- Nero Wolfe