Level design is deep, and playing through each stage once will lead to plenty of missed opportunity to find hidden treasure chests. The exploration aspect is addictive. Thanks to finely tuned and wisely designed controls, Kratos automatically jumps forward and the collision with platforms (in terms of grabbing them) is generous. A few minor leaps of faith are saved by an equally forgiving checkpoint system.
Enemies are intelligently spaced out to keep repetition down. Many have a specific fatality sequence that is a thing of beauty in terms of sprite art, pulled off with a series of button presses which clearly appear over the head of the soon to be victim. While the game lacks any massive, large scale confrontation, ripping someone apart with your bare hands or pulling the eyes out of a minotaur more than make up for it. The final boss requires a successful string of these sequences before finally losing his life to Kratos. Environments are likewise rendered beautifully, with a surprising amount of variation.
Unfortunately, that generosity does have its limits, at least on the LG VX 9900. Regardless of how far into a level you are, Betrayal does not save your position in the event of a phone call. While only a few of the ten available stages can be considered lengthy, it’s an oversight that can lead to unbearable frustration when speaking with the caller. In the worst case, progress in the game’s Arena mode (an endurance battle against never ending enemies) can be reset entirely regardless of how many helpless soldiers have been slaughtered once a call comes in.
Then again, you’ll probably want to run through the level again regardless. This is far more than a generic and forgettable time waster that many mobile efforts turn out to be. Betrayal is a full-fledged extension of the God of War franchise, and it earns its title.
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