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There have always been two distinct strains of fantasy. The most well-known is epic, high fantasy – a lineage that encapsulates Nordic myths and medieval romances, then finds expression in Tolkien and his literary descendents. It’s a fantasy of vast forests, misty mountains, magic swords, mighty wizards and decisive battles between the forces of good and evil. The second branch is perhaps less popular these days, but reached its height with the pulp fiction of the 1930s, the novellas and short stories of Robert E. Howard, and the writers who followed in the mould. These stories aren’t complex, inspirational or elegant; they don’t pride themselves on three-dimensional characterization or the detailed depiction of fantastic races, languages or cultures. These are simple blood and thunder tales, full of muscular warriors, scantily clad maidens, mysterious sorcerers, foul curses and ancient evils. They live and die on their visceral imagination and their sheer narrative drive.

And in many respects, that’s God of War all over. The setting for this PlayStation 2 game is mythical Greece – and as anyone with the most cursory knowledge of The Iliad will tell you – that’s a world where blood and thunder is hardly an alien concept. However, this is a game steeped in heroic fantasy, and with exactly the same basic strengths: it keeps things simple, doesn’t try too hard to be original or intellectual, but constantly delivers a thrilling, atmospheric experience.

Your muscle-bound protagonist is Kratos, the Spartan. Once the agent of the war god, Ares, and now slowly driven mad with remorse, his only chance of redemption is to take one last mission from the gods of Olympus; destroy Ares before he wrecks Athens, with the aid of the mythical Pandora’s Box. What this effectively boils down to is this: take one heavily armed maniac, rush him headlong through a series of levels, dispatching hordes of hideous beasties and solving the odd puzzle along the way. In terms of basic gameplay, the closest comparison point is Capcom’s Devil May Cry series, but with a few key differences. Firstly, while Kratos can unleash awesome combo attacks and earn magic powers to boost his offensive capabilities, he eschews Dante’s matrix-inspired acrobatics in favour of epic, toe-to-toe slug-a-thons. Secondly, God of War does the impossible: comprehensively outdoing the mighty Devil May Cry 3 both for relentless pace and epic feel.

It’s the sense of scale that does it. God of War hits you hard straight in with a storm-lashed battle on a wrecked Aegean fleet against zombie warriors and an enormous, screen-filling hydra. This gives you an immediate taste of the Spartan’s chosen modus operandi, using two flaming blades on lengths of chain to work a gory path through the enemy. It’s bloodthirsty and impressive in equal measure – the sort of level that, in any other game, would form a highlight.

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