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God of War II

Developed and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2; rated Mature, age 17 and up.

The past seven days have been filled with impossibly muscled men calling themselves Spartans.

After a hearty breakfast, I caught the film 300 -- much like a boxer catches a punch to the solar plexus -- at this strange place called a movie theatre. Later that night the Michigan State men's basketball team, the Spartans, played and lost, probably because they neglected to bring their shields and spears. And then, for 17-plus hours, I played God of War II, a video-game sequel that continues the story of Kratos, an angry, angry warrior who once called Sparta home.

Having lived through this Promethean dose of Greek history, I can safely say the film and the video game have more than a few things in common -- the basketball team, not so much.

Both entertainment works are bloody spectacles that take their source material very seriously. In the case of 300, that means a panel-by-panel reproduction of Frank Miller's graphic novel, and the qualities of the resulting film aside, Miller deserves that respect.

For its part, God of War II never blinks as it inserts its troubled anti-hero into Greek mythology. Kratos spent the first game taking down Ares, the god of war, and in this sequel he sets his sights higher up Olympus, on Zeus himself. To get there, he meets -- and usually ends up butchering -- just about every character from those ancient, brutal tales. Say hello and then goodbye to Perseus, Jason and his Argonauts, Atlas and many more.

In a typical burst of dialogue, Kratos (voiced again by T.C. Carson) screams his fury at the skies -- "I no longer do the bidding of the gods; I have stomached their betrayal for the last time" -- and there are no knowing winks or intentional jokes in sight. This is mythology served straight up.

On that note, I want to say that both film and game dabble with humanist and even atheist themes -- Leonidas and his troops taking on "mysticism," corrupt priests and the god king Xerxes in 300, and Kratos killing anything and everything supernatural here -- but that would be pure Spartan overdose talking. More likely, the creators of these digitized art forms are setting their computer magic loose on tried-and-true yarns, the kind that allow them to unleash great helpings of violence without too many modern parallels to spoil the view.

Regardless, it is a rare thing to think about what a video game means, about what the people who wrote it and laboured over it were trying to say. God of War II, unlike so many of its interactive brethren, invites that sort of analysis. Even more than the original, this is an ambitious effort to meld storytelling, puzzle-solving and action. I played this thing to the bitter end and enjoyed every minute.

Three things stand out in the bleary-eyed aftermath, and on top of the list are its visual style and sense of scale. The player controls Kratos, who for most of the game is a mortal taking on the immortal in fantastic settings. Like Shadow of the Colossus, the game-makers often pull the camera back to show the hero dwarfed by his surroundings and by his mountain-sized enemies. The artwork they employ throughout is classically themed to match the orchestral score, and it's often mesmerizing, especially the animated scenes that advance the story.

Second, this is an experience that rarely gets bogged down in one type of game-play. That is largely down to the wide skill set that Kratos, as a video-game character, brings to the table. Sure, he still has curved knives welded to his arms and he can dish out the gore in ever-new ways, but he also picks up fresh tricks for moving through the environments as the game advances (thank Icarus, though I won't say why, for the ability to fly, for example). I don't like Kratos -- he sacrifices far too many people for his own beliefs -- but I like the way he works.

Finally, creative director David Jaffe and his team have managed to conceal something that should be a problem: God of War II is a completely linear game, with one path to take and one solution to every puzzle.

The puzzles involve everything from turning mechanical levers in the correct order to slowing time and jumping over moving obstacles. But because they fit the story of Kratos being tested by the gods, they don't feel like out-of-place time-fillers, as they do in many other games. And even when you are doing something as simple as repeating a sequence of buttons shown on the screen, you always get rewarded with what you came for: a piece of well-made entertainment.

In short, you're in good hands -- assuming you have a strong stomach -- when you pick up the controller to play this Spartan standout. Its makers have a story to tell and amazing things they want to show you, and it's a pleasure to go along for the ride.

scolbourne@globeandmail.com

*****

THIS WEEK IN GAMES

And then there were four

Telefilm Canada's Great Canadian Video Game Competition announced its second-round winners this week. The final four studios will receive $250,000 to develop their interactive projects and remain in the running to pick up another $500,000 in September's final round.

The winners are: Big Blue Bubble of London, Ont., with Hobby Shop for the Wii; Cerebral Vortex Games of St. Catharines, Ont., for Ambush! Trivia (Xbox Live Arcade, PC and mobile); Mindhabits Inc. of Montreal and its Mindhabits Trainer, a handheld brain strengthener; and Vancouver's Hothead Games for a PC oddity -- it will feature digital machines that learn as they go -- to be called SWARM!

Telefilm, which has teamed up with established studios and Canadian Heritage to run the contest, sent the 10 first-round winners to the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco earlier this month to make their pitches in front of a panel of experienced game-makers. A project based on the Trailer Park Boys series failed to make the cut.

Gears in motion

Variety reported this week that New Line Cinema has picked up the film rights to the best-selling Xbox 360 game Gears of War. The deal is with Epic, the game's developer, and the film is currently targeted for a 2009 release.

Stuart Beattie (Collateral, Pirates of the Caribbean) has signed on to write the Gears movie. He received the offer by way of an Xbox Live message from a New Line executive while playing the game in December.

-- S.C.