In last month's rave about Sony Computer Entertainment's God of War II for Playstation 2, we termed MTV News' Stephen Totilo our gaming sensei. That's because back in 1999 when we began seriously covering videogames at NEWSWEEK, Totilo was an intern fresh out of Columbia's School of Journalism. He had far more experience with interactive entertainment than we did, so we tasked young Totilo to help fill in the massive gaps in our knowledge base as we got up to speed. He did so while delivering terrific reporting for some of our earliest videogame stories, and for that, we are forever grateful. Nearly two years into his job as the videogame correspondent for MTV News, Totilo is turning out what is likely the best cultural reporting on this medium, with on-air features, stories for the Web site, an MTV blog called Multiplayer and a blog of his own, where this discussion is also being posted. Yet he still makes time to help us keep our gaming skills finely honed.

Beginning today, in a "previously recorded" email conversation that's as epic as the game itself, we tackle such varied topics as how much originality and innovation we should expect from a sequel, whether God of War II is a late-in-the-console-life-cycle triumph on par with the likes of Paper Mario or Yoshi's Island, and why God of War II may be one of the best-written videogames in recent memory. We'd like you to join the discussion as well, so feel free to add your own comments in the message boards. First up: Stephen Totilo.

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To: N'Gai Croal

Fr: Stephen Totilo

Date: February 26, 2007

Re: Challenge of the Gods

N'Gai,

I'm ready to tell you how I feel about God of War II. And I don't think it's what you're expecting. Actually, it wasn't even what I was expecting. Back on February 22nd you were kind enough to let the world know that I am your gaming sensei. This is true. I sparred with you. I made you do push-ups. I even had you break boards with your bare hands. It was all so you could be a better gamer. On the 22nd you also mentioned on your site that you were eager to know what I thought of God of War II. You were immersed in your review copy of the game and were quite convinced that I was be as bowled over by it as you, that I'd also nominate it as a late-system great.

I was certain you'd be right.

I started playing the game on a Saturday, a couple of days after you wrote that. By Sunday I had played the game so much that when I finally stopped midday, went to the bathroom sink and closed my eyes to wash my face, I could see God of War icons (to be specific: the circle-button cues that appear above the trolls when they're vulnerable to a grapple attack). I had locked six serious of hours of play. I'd dug deep, even as I'd found some time to mess with Sonic and SSX on the Wii. (I didn't see any icons from those when I closed my eyes).

Much of the game was indeed bowling me over. To keep the Greek theme, consider that I was Sisyphus with poor reflexes, getting bowled over in mighty fashion again and again. The opening of the game is stunning and epic, doing what every great video game level does: letting me vicariously do something I never knew I wanted to do and making sure I had a great time doing it. I'd read about the Colossus of Rhodes. I never knew it would be fun to run away from it, have it peek a look at me through a window at the end of a long hallway and then let me run and that eye and stab it with a sword. Good stuff! (By the way, I know we're planning on making this exchange public. I just wrote a spoiler. But it's a level-one spoiler! Fair game, right?)

Anyway, the game is epic in all the right ways. I feel powerful. And not just is this game epic on its own terms. It's epic when compared to other games. In fact, one of the best touches of the game is a moment when I feel like its basically talking smack to Zelda. The moment? Well, I don't know how far you got, but let's just say that Zelda has gotten some good mileage out of Link riding a horse. Kratos, being God of War's Link-on-roids, shows that up by riding not one horse but four big ones. Remember the scene? I don't know if it was intentional, but I think it was. Let's have more games "talking" to other games like that.

To my point: how did this game actually not meet my expectations, or the expectations you had for my expectations? In your NEWSWEEK post you cited me citing Paper Mario and Yoshi's Island as great late-system games. Like God of War neither were wholly original. Paper was sort of a successor to Super Mario RPG, itself a highly regarded (though I didn't like it) late-gen SNES game. Yoshi's Island was merely a sequel to Super Mario World. Ah, but here's the thing. Both of those games were radical departures from the old. Paper Mario introduced the whole pop-up book conceit to the game's graphics and gameplay. Yoshi's Island boldly challenged side-scrolling convention by making its lead character invincible. Like God of War II they were games made with technically confident hands comfortable with a familiar console and adept at flexing artistic muscles. But the games you cited me citing took advantage of that situation to challenge the fundamentals of their genres' design.

God of War II doesn't do that. It's got artistry in spades. Phil Harrison wasn't just doing good marketing when he said the game was the apex of PS2 development achievement. But the game feels safe. It reminds me, actually, of Twilight Princess, another sort-of late-gen game (Gamecube game, remember?), in that gamers get a beautiful game, but one that goes places previous games in the series have already been. Kratos put in a situation where he has to sacrifice a pleading soldier in order to solve a puzzle? In the first game, and in the second game too. Kratos walking across giant real-world objects to span massive chasms? We had the broadsword bridge in game one. A giant chain as a bridge in game two.

I've only mentioned two examples, but these were two of the most striking things in the first game. The first was a triumph of using level design to define a character's personality; the latter was a victory of using a smart art choice to put some wow into the game world. I feel like this new game, in using these same two devices from the previous game, is trying to express the same fine qualities about Kratos and his world but is doing so by showing a disappointing lack of imagination about how to express those qualities in a new way. That's why I'm surprised to see you praising the writing of the game. Yes, the dialogue is specific and flows, but what the game is expressing--and the way its expressing it--is something we already got in the first game.

So I'm feeling, six hours in, like I did playing Twilight Princess. The game is a virtuoso piece of design. It's beautiful. And if I didn't know any better I'd say it's among the best games made in years. But it's also re-treading A LOT of material and A LOT of tone. Twilight Princess did too, mostly ripping off material and feeling from Ocarina of Time. I was torn with that case, because, from a technology standpoint I would have to recommend Twilight Princess over Ocarina to a Zelda neophyte. But, really so much of the ground it covered has already been traveled. That left me disappointed in the Zelda team. And I'm feeling some of the same concern here.

I'm hoping to be proven wrong. But what do you think? Is God of War II excelling on its own merits for you? Do you agree that so much of what it does was already done by the first game, and, if so, does that drag down your opinion of it at all?

And how far in the game are you anyway? You did get past the eye-stabbing Colossus of Rhodes part, right?

-Stephen

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To: Stephen Totilo

Fr: N'Gai Croal

Date: February 28, 2007

Re: It's called God of War II--what did you expect?

Stephen,

Your email perfectly demonstrates why you're my gaming sensei. You've reached back into the gaming pantheon, knowing perfectly well that I've yet to play more than an hour of any single Zelda title. There, I've been forced to out myself as a gaming philistine. Advantage: Totilo.

That said, I must confess that I'm completely baffled by your line of attack on God of War II. You're effectively complaining that it's--gasp--a sequel, with all that entails. In my paean to the game, I didn't praise it for being original, I praised for being incredible. You write that it's, "re-treading A LOT of material and A LOT of tone." Um, it's called God of War II--what did you expect?

Now, I'm not saying that games can't be faulted for a lack of originality. And since aesthetic criticism is simply a way to articulate one's in-the-moment responses--both emotional and intellectual, gut and head--to a piece of art or entertainment, I'm certainly not trying to delegitimize your response to the game. If you're feeling an unconscionable amount of deja vu while playing through God of War II, then yes, that would be the fault of the team at Sony Santa Monica. But before our readers rule on your objection, you're going to have to be A LOT more specific (see what I did there?) about exactly what you're objecting to here--and why. Because the objections you've raised here seem rather piddling. Kratos ran across a giant broadsword in God of War...so he shouldn't be allowed to run across giant chains in God of War II? Kratos sacrificed a soldier in the first game...so there mustn't be any of that in the second? Sensei, I'm going to have to disagree.

Furthermore, you write, "I feel like this new game, in using these same two devices from the previous game, is trying to express the same fine qualities about Kratos and his world but is doing so by showing a disappointing lack of imagination about how to express those qualities in a new way." Isn't it possible that maybe, just maybe, Kratos is the same guy that he was in the original God of War--an angry, grieving, guilt-stricken *** with a death wish? That the fulfillment of his god complex at the end of the first game hasn't brought him any peace? That Kratos deliberately sabotaged himself so that he could be brought low and forced to start all over again from the bottom, making a whole new set of powerful enemies so that he can have a machine to rage against? (By the way, doesn't all of the above sound A LOT like a certain outspoken game creator?) And if Kratos is the same guy, doesn't it make sense that he would do many of the same things?

Three other points:

1. If your weapon of choice is an encyclopedic knowledge of games, mine will be comparative media analysis, especially since my entree into writing was as a film major/movie critic in college. I've written some about music, and I've dabbled in theater. So let's try this analogy on for size: many rappers who've been in the game for a minute will sometimes quote their own earlier lyrics in subsequent songs; some producers will even sample themselves. And as a fan of true school hip-hop, you'd judge such tracks on their entirety, right? Or would you dock them points for doing so? You stated that you'd like to see more intertextuality in games, so why do you have beef with intratextuality in games? (I think I just made that word up, but you know what I mean.)

2. The original God of War wasn't all that original to begin with, something that series creator David Jaffe has freely acknowledged for many moons. He voluntarily confessed to ripping off numerous videogame classics--foremost among them, Super Metroid--in order to craft his magnum opus. So if Jaffe freely borrowed from other games to create God of War, why wouldn't his successor Cory Barlog freely borrow from the first game?

3. My music sensei, screenwriter and veteran journalist Cheo Hodari Coker, once said of P. Diddy's myriad critics, "Never let your mind get get in the way of acknowledging a song that makes you shake your ass." Now Diddy may never be the producing equal of DJ Premier or the Bomb Squad by whatever criteria you or I would choose to employ. But I guarantee you that even now, ten years after it dropped, that if you were to go to a club and the DJ played "All About the Benjamins," the whole crowd would be on the dance floor shaking its collective ass. And since Jaffe has become a fan of musical analogies, I'll happily apply one here: God of War II may not be perfect--and I'll get into that in a subsequent email--but it is unquestionably a game that will make you shake your ass. And that's my point of departure when assessing the quality of my gameplay experiences. Not originality.

Cheers,

N'Gai

Next: Totilo comes off the ropes to land some haymakers of his own.