David Jaffe is one Hell of a video game director, as he proved with the first God of War game, which presented some pretty familiar beat 'em up thrills, yet did so in an unexpectedly innovative, clever, and thrillingly ultra-violent manner, making it one of the very best games of the PS2 era on any platform. God of War 2 sought to build on the first game right out of the gate, making it clear that it was a force to be reckoned with, so Jaffe has players fighting the Colossus of Rhodes on the very first level, a battle so epic that for many developers, they would have settled to make it the final boss, not the first one. This fight appeared around the time that developers were starting to be a little more ambitious and fashion larger-scale boss fights like the sort we'd already seen in Shadow of the Colossus. While the first God of War had some great battles, it had absolutely nothing like this, a fight in which you have to avoid the gigantic Colossus' giant fists, before climbing up him and administering some real pain. It's an unforgettable way to start a game, and clearly paved the way for even more ambitious fights in the third game, notably the super-epic stand-off against Cronos.