Kantor

User Score
9.8

Presentation - 10
Gameplay - 10
Value - 9.0

The PS2 was launched in 2000. It saw incredible titles through its entire lifespan, from SSX at launch to Persona 4 in December 2008. And it continues to sell, and be successful.

It was for this reason that Cory Barlog decided to develop God of War II for the PS2 and not the PS3. While I would have preferred it in 1080p, God of War II is a technical marvel even on a last-gen system.

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That's a PS2 game. I swear.

God of War II begins where God of War left off: Kratos, once a servant of Ares, having travelled around Greece, and even returning from Hades, has finally defeated the corrupted deity. As a reward, Zeus named him the God of War, and gave him some nice shiny armor to boot. But Kratos isn't happy. He still has nightmares about killing his wife and daughter, Calliope (who features in Chains of Olympus), while in a rage sent by Ares, his old master. Years before, Kratos had called out to the God of War for help in a battle, and was forced into ten years of labour for the gods in return. Now Kratos is a very angry man. What do you do when the king of gods refuses to free you from your nightmares? You destroy a city.

The city he chose, in this case, was Rhodes. It may not be Athens, but Zeus doesn't like his cities being obliterated, so he weakens Zeus, strips him of his godly powers, and kills him. But Kratos never seems to stay dead. With the help of the Titans, he escapes Hades, and travels to the Island of Creation to turn back time and kill Zeus.

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The Colossus of Rhodes, the first boss in the game.

The majority of the game takes place on the Island of Creation, home to the Sisters of Fate, who weave the threads of destiny. However, this island is extremely varied. You will see areas of lush greenery, and charred wastelands. Sometimes it will be raining (the rain looks amazing, as it bounces off Kratos and his environment), sometimes sunny. On this island you will meet many people familiar to anybody who likes Greek mythology (like myself): Perseus, Theseus, Euryale (Medusa's sister) and many others. Each of these special enemies are defeated in different ways in a boss fight. Theseus sends Minotaurs to attack you, Perseus is invisible, and of course, Euryale can turn you to stone.

To kill each of the game's ten or so bosses (from the Colossus at the beginning to a final showdown with Zeus at the end), and indeed every enemy in the game, you once again have your trusty dual blades. But now, they have no ties to the deceased Ares. Rather, these are Athena's Blades. They function in the same way, and have the same combos, but they are named differently and look different, at least to begin with. The blades start off gold, and as you kill enemies and progress, they get redder and redder until they are indistinguishable from the Blades of Chaos.

God of War 1 only had one secondary weapon, and quite a pathetic one at that: the Blade of Artemis. That blade is back, and more powerful than ever before, in the form of the Blade of Olympus. You only get this around two hours from the end of the game, though, so you will be using your Blades of Chaos for the majority of the adventure. You do have other weapons, however. You receive a large hammer named the Barbarian Hammer from the Barbarian King whom Kratos defeated with the help of Ares, over a decade ago, which is extremely powerful, but painfully slow. You also take the Spear of Destiny from a gryphon rider, around halfway through your journey. I personally prefer it to the Barbarian Hammer, but you will find that the Blades of Athena are your best weapon right through the game, perhaps even better than the Blade of Olympus, for one reason: upgrades.

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Kratos using Athena's Blades

Killing enemies, having sex with women in bathhouses (seriously. Break the partition in the Rhodes bathhouse), and breaking things, will net you red orbs. There are three types of orbs in God of War: Green orbs, which restore health, Blue orbs, which restore magic, and Red orbs, which allow you to upgrade your weapons. Upgrading is simple: different weapons will have different amounts of red orbs required to upgrade to different levels; perhaps 2,500, perhaps 10,000. Once you have put in all of the orbs, the weapon or spell upgrades, and a pop-up shows the improvements.

You are not limited to weapons, however. You have a range of magic powers to aid you, gifts from the Titans. These range from a spell which drops balls of electricity that shock enemies to spells that have you cause a miniature earthquake, and even one which you receive after defeating Euryale, similar to Medusa's head in God of War: it turns your enemies to stone. These will take differing amounts of magic to use. Magic does not recharge, and is only refilled by consuming blue orbs. The magic powers are extremely varied, and help to spice up the normal weapon combat.

Orbs can be gained from killing enemies or breaking things, or found in chests. Chests can also contain Phoenix Feathers and Gorgon Eyes. Acquiring six phoenix feathers permanently increases your maximum Magic, while Gorgon Eyes do the same for health.

Quick time events feature quite a bit in God of War II. Unlike most games, where these are painful, annoying, and far too common, God of War varies them and uses them sparingly. Most bosses will be finished off with a button press sequence, while you will need to tap circle to shove your blades down a minotaur's throat, and twist the left analog stick to rip the head off a Gorgon.

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Ripping the eye out of a Cyclops.

God of War, unlike many hack and slash games, is not a game where you can button mash (beyond, perhaps, the easiest difficulty). You will need to string together combos by using strong attacks, weak attacks, jumps and grabs. Different combos are used in different situations, against different enemies.

Of course, God of War II is not all about combat. You will, from time to time, come across a puzzle that requires you to think. In many games of this genre, "puzzles" generally involve nothing more complicated than pulling a lever. God of War II, in contrast, will have you reflecting light onto a mirror to melt ice so that you can pull that same lever. Icarus Wings are new to this installment. Occasionally, you will have to glide in updrafts so that you can reach a high doorway.

God of War II is widely accepted as the best looking game on the PS2. The blood effects may not be overly realistic, and it's no match for some of the best graphics in this current generation (Killzone 2, Uncharted, MGS4, Gears 2), but taking into account that this is a PS2 game, it looks incredible. The water looks like water, rain lands on the ground and bounces off, and the animations are perfectly smooth. It is even beyond some of the more plain graphics of games on the PS3.

Poseidon's Rage, your first magic power. Unfortunately, you lose it at the end of the first level.

The soundtrack sounds very mythological, and complements the action and intense boss battles, as well as the quieter puzzles. The sound effects are just as great, and sound realistic. Finally, the voice work is excellent. Kratos is perpetually angry, while Gaia sounds wise, and Zeus is generally quite annoyed. In fact, Kratos won the 2005 Interactive Achievement Award for best character performance in God of War 1. Character speak with passion, and their voices reflect their personalities.

You would think that a hack and slash like God of War could not possibly have even a mildly interesting story. You would be wrong. While not as interesting as the story of the original, the second game, particularly if you are a fan of Greek mythology, will have you playing as much to know what happens next as you do to continue having such ridiculously violent, gory fun.

The game ran smoothly from beginning to end, not a single crash or even a glitch of any kind. Framerate remains steady, and there are no noticeable slowdowns. Even loading screens are rare: every hour or so, the game will stop, and a small "LOADING..." will appear in red in the bottom right corner. These last a few seconds, and then leave you to continue playing. I personally hate few things more than long loading screens; they break up the action, and can be intensely boring.

I can recommend God of War II to anybody who is not squeamish. Certainly, there is a hell of a lot of violence, but the blood doesn't even really look like real blood. Surprisingly, it never gets boring. The difficulty curve is great, and it doesn't suffer from the punishing difficulty of Ninja Gaiden. The story is interesting, the graphics and sound are amazing, and it runs like a dream. It's much longer than the original, clocking in at around 12 hours, plus the Challenge of the Titans, seven challenges with different goals, unrelated to the main story. This is, in my opinion, the best of the PS2's 1500+ games, and I have never had as much fun with any other game as I have had with God of War II. Highly recommended. A phenomenal experience.