God of War Collection PS Vita Review: Milking a cash cow that has been milked to death

Another year means another collection bundle has been released by Sony for one of its flagship franchises. God of War I and II are coming to PlayStation Vita to allow handheld enthusiasts the opportunity to enjoy Kratos’s revenge-driven adventures in the palm of their hands. Is it worth the re-buy? Read on and find out.

This is a unique experience for me because I’m not a series aficionado. A couple hours of God of War 3 is my only series experience, and only because it was loaned by a friend. Somehow, I had been able to resist the allure of the series since its inception, which made my experience going through the collection interesting. But I’m the target audience for these collection bundles, right? The gamer who never had the opportunity or time to play the games when they originally released.

Since these are re-releases of PlayStation 2 classics, it would be unfair to put a lot of emphasis on visuals, simply because this is not a remake. Environments and characters are going to look blocky because of the nature of the tech at the time, but they appear cleaner and less jagged. They look as good as they are going to get for an increase in resolution without millions of dollars sunk into minor touch-ups.

Both games offer the same gameplay, modes, and story as the PS2 originals and the PS3 collection versions. To put it succinctly, Kratos is tasked with revenge against the Greek gods; there is betrayal, lots of death threats, and a lot of linear button-mashing. Now, there is nothing necessarily wrong with button-mashing–see how much I loved Dynasty Warriors 8, for example. However, the game’s story didn’t get me excited in the least. Maybe it was because I never found Greek tragedies overly interesting, the fact I found Kratos to be a boring character, or any manner of contributing factors. Regardless, the narrative never clicked with me enough to generate interest.

There was only one major change that had to be made to this version due to PS Vita not having the same number of buttons as a DualShock 3, and that comes via the rear touchpad. Instead of pressing a button or trigger, the player has to use the PS Vita’s rear touchpad to open up chests, confirm save points, and other such things normally delegated to the circle or cross buttons. This functionality is not executed smoothly. Sometimes, when the appropriate icon popped up on the screen, the touchpad wouldn’t work no matter how many times I touched it–I had to walk away and come back. Other times it worked too well and was too sensitive; as such, I would save the game multiple times before I could move far enough away or remember to grip the Vita differently so the tips of my fingers didn’t graze the area.

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This small change particularly affected me because I take the subway to work. I have to keep my PS Vita in its case due to the hectic nature of getting to work and back on packed Korean subway cars, thus negating my ability to use the rear touchpad. The ease of zipping my case open and shut and easily pocketing it at a moment’s notice was taken away, which made it extremely difficult to play. You might (fairly) note, "But at home, you won’t have to worry about that." But then, I ask, why bother buying the collection for PS Vita when it is already on PS3, other than for its on-the-go accessibility? Another set of Platinum trophies? All told, a simple control swap–or the ability to adjust control settings yourself–could have alleviated this issue.

Due the small size of PS Vita’s screen, another problem popped up that became an on-going concern: quick-time event prompts. Sometimes, they are easy to distinguish, but at other times, especially when faced with larger bosses, they are much less visible. This makes those split-second reactions a lot harder due to circumstances outside of the player’s control. On Easy, this is just an inconvenience, but on Titan difficulty, it could mean the difference between life or death (and perhaps a broken PS Vita slumped against a wall).

My other concern with this collection stands in comparison to the God of War Saga Collection released on PS3. Will the same thing, or something similar, be released on PS Vita? Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for more and more games being released on a handheld that could use them. However, with just extra trophies as the carrot for a series that is seen on multiple systems, with multiple releases, only the hardcore of fans and Trophy hunters will have a need to pick it up.

All in all, this is God of War. If you are a fan of the series, it’s a good pick-up for your PS Vita collection. Need another Platinum for your Trophy collection? Feel free to take on the challenge, which many hunters don’t think is very hard. But if you are not a series fan, or already have the Saga collection on PS3, there is nothing new to see besides wonkier controls.

Score

7.5

The Final Word

Only trophy hunters and hardcore fans of the series will have the need to play through the original games for yet another time.