This review contains spoilers
I’m sorry, I thought I could write a review without spoilers, but quickly found that to be an impossible task. That said, the story is so godawful (pun intended) you aren’t missing out on much learning about the presence of certain characters/events beforehand
NOTE - though a direct sequel to God of War 1, this game references events that occurred in Ghost of Sparta, and while not necessary to play it, you may end-up confused by one scene
Played as part of the God of War Collection for PS3
Every now and then, you’ll come across a work of fiction that really annoys you: whether it’s a video game, movie, or TV episode, I guarantee you’ll find a project so vexing, you’ll want to nitpick every bone in its body till it’s laden on the ground in a puddle of splinters: deadly to the touch to anyone who would dare follow-up your diatribe.
Yes, God of War 2 provoked that kind of response in me. While I had enjoyed the first one quite a bit, it’s clear Santa Monica took the wrong lessons from its success: the end product here doubling-down on all its worst aspects, most notably the story. In the first game, Kratos was, without a doubt, one of the most unlikeable a$$holes ever conceived in gaming: a sociopathic, screaming dipsh!t who was so unpleasant, I genuinely didn’t know if I was meant to be rooting for or against him. Still, there was an element of Greek Tragedy to his arc, and the idea of someone successfully subverting the oppression of the gods had a tinge of deconstructionism to it.
Unfortunately, you don’t get any such nuances here. God of War 2 had the perfect opportunity to tell a cogent tale about the wrongdoings of the Greek Pantheon, yet opts to forgo that in favor of a highly-generic revenge story made all the more worse by its protagonist being a reprehensible piece of sh!t. The premise is Zeus has betrayed Kratos out of fears the man will usurp him on Olympus, castigating him to the depths of the Underworld whilst taking away his divinity in the process.
Right off the bat, this synopsis reeks of plotholes, its conception indicating not a single second was spent on basic script oversight. For starters, why does Zeus suddenly feel this way? And if he was so scared of Kratos’s potential, why let Athena turn him into Ares's replacement in the first place? Worse yet, Kratos’s whole plea at the end of GoW1 was to die so his nightmares could end, so why not just approach the man and offer him the relief he desires?
But no, to answer these questions would require, you know, effort, something the team at Santa Monica evidently wouldn't learn until 2018.
Oh we’re not done yet - heeding the words of the Titan Gaia, Kratos climbs out of the Underworld to begin his journey towards vengeance….only, hold-up, how in the world did he accomplish this? We just saw Zeus take away his godhood, yet you’re telling me he’s still capable of clawing his way out of a (literal) hellish pit like it's a casual Sunday? This is a problem you’ll see constantly plagues the game: the notion that Kratos is capable of accomplishing inhuman feats despite being rendered a mere mortal by Zeus. During your odyssey, you’ll consistently come across a situation or monster that should have the upperhand on the deposed god, yet falter for reasons that can only be described as @sspulls.
Now I know there’ll be two counterarguments to this, the first that Kratos is granted blessings by the Titans akin to the ones he received from the Olympians (the same ones that allowed him to beat Ares), and that’d be a valid point were it not for a couple of setbacks: one, Kratos does a fair amount of crazy stuff before he even gets his first power; and two, some of the bosses he faces should be insurmountable even with such gifts. During the fight with the Sisters of Fate, for example, they repeatedly state how they can easily sabotage his past, so WHY THE F#CK DON’T THEY (one of them literally spends the game bitch-slapping Kratos like a silly nanny instead of using her “vast” power)? Another moment sees Kratos reencounter the barbarian nemesis who bested him before (and who claims to have gotten much stronger since), so why is this brute casually riding around on his horse instead of fighting mano y mano? Don’t even get me started on the final scrum with Zeus, nor the game’s comical (plot hole-ridden) take on time travel. Seriously, the amount of nonsense you have to put up with to justify Kratos’s “badassery” here is beyond laughable at times.
The second argument pertains to a twist reveal at the end, and no, it doesn’t resolve anything either (+).
Of course, overpowered protagonists aren’t inherently bad - we’ve all played titles that indulged in the power fantasy, and God of War certainly gained fame for popularizing that motif for western audiences. However, the MC needs to be somewhat affable; have a trait that makes them worth investing in for the long haul, and not only does Kratos not have that, the writers literally went out of their way to make him insufferable. There are several instances where he’ll just kill an innocent person without remorse, or do some heinous action(++), and what’s amusing is how it’s all played straight. Like, if the game had at least adopted a darkly humorous tone towards its violence ala Quentin Tarantino I could maybe see myself enjoying the man’s antics, but no, everything’s treated like Oedipus Rex and rendered worse as a result.
I think what makes GoW2 particularly irksome is there was so much potential here for a better tale. The idea of a human witnessing the horrors of the gods and choosing to do something about it could’ve been the source for an invigorating yarn. One scene early-on, for instance, has you meeting Prometheus (the Titan who gave mankind fire), and beholding the excruciating fate Zeus deemed fit for him was tough to stomach (no pun intended): imagine a game where such incidents formed the backbone for Kratos’s motivation over the stupid sh%t he brought upon himself (that’s right, never forget, Kratos is responsible for his own nightmares). But no, you don’t get that, the writers instead preferring to concoct ridiculously idiotic scenarios that genuinely feel like someone had a bone to pick with Greek Mythology.
No seriously, what’s up with sheer venom on-display towards the Greek World? Such lore has been home to some of the most powerful myths in human history, yet the lion’s share of them here have been stripped of their bearings in a pathetic attempt to provide Kratos with fodder to chew on: classical heroes like Theseus and Perseus are rendered lame boss fights (more on that later), the Phoenix needlessly tortured, and Typhon literally turned into a worse version of Temari from Naruto. When you put even a modicum of thought into things, the macro events underscoring every beat become thoroughly unpleasant.
And that’s really the perfect word to describe God of War II’s narrative as a whole - unpleasant. I didn’t feel like an antihero on a semi-justifiable excursion, but a complete jack@ss acting out like a toddler on steroids. While I’ll never judge anyone for liking something I don’t, Kratos’s rise to popularity does say a lot about the kind of pop culture we’ve cultivated in western society.
But look, it’s the gameplay everyone will care most about, and on that front God of War II is still a step down from its predecessor. One of the things I enjoyed most about the first game was its incorporation of puzzles - yes, a few were outright frustrating (the collapsing floor comes to mind), but overall they were nice and helped break-up the pace of the game.
Well, in designing the ones here, the artisans at Santa Monica evidently thought it better to indulge in pure annoyance -- do you guys remember that scene in GoW1 where you had to kick that stupid box across the ship deck? Well, not only does God of War II have its own version of it, but they somehow managed to make it worse via spamming the field with fire and enemies who can counter you. Another moment saw me wasting a good 10 minutes trying to deduce how to redirect light to this flame-spewing effigy, only for the solution to be to climb up a specific section of the wall to free loose sunbeams from the roof (and no, there was barely any visual distinction between the ascendable & unascendable sections of said wall, with the final icicle being hidden in a lanky corner).
I’m not saying everything is bad (there was a time puzzle later on that I kind of enjoyed), but when the quality, as a whole, is at a diminished value, it makes these moments aggravating to partake in.
Luckily, the combat remains as fun as ever, with Santa Monica programming so many new combinations, you can literally button mash to your heart’s content and STILL come away with a fresh move each time. God of War popularized the modern hack-and-slash template back in the day, and I’m proud to say it more than holds up here amidst its countless inspirees.
That said, no improvements were made to the base formula, with Santa Monica, in many cases, outright doubling-down on its prequel’s worst elements: magic attacks remain sharp bursts inorganically woven into the mainframe, executions are the same rehashed finishers you saw aplenty in 1, heavy enemies still boast vexing stunlocks, and, worse of all, quicktime events galore have been shoved into every major encounter. I genuinely don’t understand who thought these minigames would be a good idea as they are incredibly infuriating - you often only have a second to hit their respective prompt, and failing to do so will result in heavy damage (or, in the case of the final fight with Zeus, death). While nowhere near as intrusive as Fahrenheit’s, they definitely took away from any on-screen action, and I guarantee they’ll be the cause of your demise every now-and-then (ESPECIALLY during that Zeus brawl).
Speaking of Zeus, bosses make a return and they’re as mediocre as I hinted at above. True, the first game’s weren’t the greatest thing ever, but they still had a sense of grandeur and logic to their composition. GoW 2’s, au contraire, are tedious and boring, their tactics largely coming down to avoiding a stunlock-inducing attack as you wear down the enemy health bar in order to trigger a, you guessed, QTE! Out of all the clashes, the only ones I truly ended-up enjoying were Lakhesis and Atropos during the third act.
Minibosses, to their credit, fare much better, but one thing I disliked in II was whenever the game would introduce a brand new version, have you slay it, only to then immediately follow-up said encounter with the SAME boss x2 or 3 or 10(!). It begged the question of why they even designed a unique wrangle if they were just going to subvert it with a repetitive montage the second it was complete.
Lastly in the gameplay department, II brings over the upgrade system from afore at the expense of my favorite weapon the Blade of Artemis, replacing it with two slow-swinging clubs you're better off ignoring in favor of the default chains. Ditto with the magic -- sure, you're given a fair amount of spells to play with, but you're better off saving your orbs for the lighting-based Chronos Rage.
For all my harping, the one area God of War II has unilaterally improved upon its forebearer in is the graphics. Once again, I played the PS3 remaster, and once again I was blown away by the sheer crispness of the visuals: you got non-blocky 3D models, top-notch anti-aliasing, reflective surfaces that actually bend light, and some of the best artistry I’ve ever witnessed in gaming. When Santa Monica began development, I have a feeling they really wanted to take players to places they had never dreamed about before, and on that front they more than succeeded: from the fiery heat of the Great Chasm’s interiors to a sprawling flesh-composed dungeon to the streams of blue thread that adorn the Loom Chamber, this is a diverse and thoroughly-awesome treat for your eyes. Even places commonly-used in video games like marshlands and lavapits are often transfused here with some additional element that bears them apart from the crowd, such as blood red swamp water and spiderweb meshing respectively. And for all my harping about the story, the artists clearly did their research on Greek architecture, resulting in those gorgeous columns, bricks, and painted murals commonly-associated with said culture (every temple is a stunning masterwork).
Unlike GoW1, where the developers were unable to boost the cutscene files, here Santa Monica must’ve found the corresponding folder cause these babies look consistent with the base game, their resolution easily rivaling early-7th gen prospects whilst providing expansive grand spectacle….in some cases too grand. See, like I said in my review of the first game, the God of War series was always used by Sony to push the boundaries of their console, and while they certainly achieved this task, a lot of the cinematics you’ll witness on-hand can’t help coming across as self-indulgent to a fault: each scene seemingly showcasing a new physics-rendering capability of the Kinetica. You’ve got the naturalistic flow of liquids, collapsing of buildings, movement of the Titans, surging of velocious air -- one of the best feats I ever saw entails you witnessing the actual regrowth of Prometheus’s innards as he heals overnight. And yet, such pageantry can’t help coming across like someone at Santa Monica did this purely out of an initiative to pat themselves on the back.
Other miscellaneous graphical bits I liked included the Chains of Athena changing color as you upgraded them (more on that later), the lightsaber-hued orbs found in chests, and the incredibly-fast loading times.
The only derogatory hit on the whole system has to do with any depictions of penetration. The PS2 simply was not capable of accurately generating this for weapons, and given that many of Kratos’s executions rely on it, you’re going to be noticing a lot of haphazard merging that walks the line between clipping and blended simulacra.
Sound is where the game dips the most in stature, starting with the music - it is bombastic to a fault. Once again the work was outsourced to a bunch of composers, yet unlike before where they managed to create something unified and cohesive, here it’s just loud for loudness sake. 90 percent of the tracks employ horns and vocals to mimic that stereotypical brashness typically associated with Greek Hymns, but the boisterous volume combined with the repetitive melodies ends-up making it all unnecessarily overbearing. This is the only time I’ve had to constantly pause an OST while listening to it, and that speaks to the score’s inherent obnoxiousness.
Voice acting continues that trend, with TC Carson giving a headache-inducing performance as the titular character. Yeah, as if I needed to tell you guys, God of War II emphasizes Kratos’s angrier-side, meaning you get A LOT moreb!tching yelling from the ousted deity than before, and it is painful to listen to. It truly is a shame because Carson is a talented actor: there’s a part in the back-half that lasts all of 10 seconds, but which showcases the kind of dramatic delivery the man is capable of doing, yet the simple fact is he’s just not granted many chances to do so. To pour salt in the wounds, the devs rehashed some of his dumber grunts instead of re-recording them, meaning you’ll be hearing a lot of mooing while moving stuff.
Despite his limited screen-time, Zeus is somehow worse, and just like with Ares, you’ll be shocked to learn his voice actor is a noted thespian in the form of Corey Burton. Fans of DC-based works know Burton’s given plenty of wonderful performances elsewhere, yet here comes across like a senior resident whose cords have been clogged from smoking too much weed.
The others are fine, serving their roles well-enough, but the overarching quality does feel like a step down from 1 where it truly came across like a cast of Royal Shakespeareans doing their best job according credence to the project.
SFX has its good-and-bad: slicing enemies never gets tiring, and I appreciated the spark-chinking that resounded whenever you hit boulders and walls, but none of the non-singing monsters were memorable, and there were times where the developers outright faltered in terms of synchronizing appropriate noises. For example, one scene has you walking along a giant chain that sways like a fiber rope; another has you facing dog-like beasts that bark like a regular ole hound. Overall it’s sufficient, but could’ve been more.
Unfortunately, that sentiment isn’t applicable to the entire game as I did not enjoy it. It’s a technical marvel done at the expense of the most important tenets of a video game, and while it did a lot for the industry and PS2’s legacy, it’s best left forgotten.
NOTES
+Kratos is revealed at the end to be Zeus’s son and, consequently, a demigod. This is no doubt an instance of the writersripping-off paying homage to other popular figures like Herakles, but the problem is they clearly didn’t do their research as even those individuals with divine heritage were severely handicapped compared to their Olympian parent.
++Using the Argonaut to stop the cog, torturing/murdering the Priests, tearing off Icarus’s wings (honestly, can we just take a second to observe how stupid it was to turn Icarus of all people into a boss fight? This is a guy whose wings were famously burned to a crisp and died, yet here he’s somehow alive and actually able to hold his own against Kratos? There are so many discourses throughout the game which indicate the writers studied past Greek myths, so why they outright sabotaged them with worse retellings is beyond me).
-There is a challenge mode for you completionists out there.
-No subtitles (again), but at least they sped-up the orb procession.
-Thank the lord they moved the door opening button to O instead of the right bumper! It alleviated my fingers tremendously.
-There’s an awful sex minigame early-on that’s both narratively-intrusive and built on QTEs (worst part is you don’t even get to see any of the action).
-Hated how slow Kratos became whenever he carried bodies. I get this was done to make some of the boss fights artificially-hard, but the man is literally capable of moving giant cinder blocks yet somehow gets encumbered by a mere corpse?
-There’s a track from the OST that literally sounds like a Diet Coke version of the famous trailer song Preliator by Globus.
NOTE - though a direct sequel to God of War 1, this game references events that occurred in Ghost of Sparta, and while not necessary to play it, you may end-up confused by one scene
Played as part of the God of War Collection for PS3
Every now and then, you’ll come across a work of fiction that really annoys you: whether it’s a video game, movie, or TV episode, I guarantee you’ll find a project so vexing, you’ll want to nitpick every bone in its body till it’s laden on the ground in a puddle of splinters: deadly to the touch to anyone who would dare follow-up your diatribe.
Yes, God of War 2 provoked that kind of response in me. While I had enjoyed the first one quite a bit, it’s clear Santa Monica took the wrong lessons from its success: the end product here doubling-down on all its worst aspects, most notably the story. In the first game, Kratos was, without a doubt, one of the most unlikeable a$$holes ever conceived in gaming: a sociopathic, screaming dipsh!t who was so unpleasant, I genuinely didn’t know if I was meant to be rooting for or against him. Still, there was an element of Greek Tragedy to his arc, and the idea of someone successfully subverting the oppression of the gods had a tinge of deconstructionism to it.
Unfortunately, you don’t get any such nuances here. God of War 2 had the perfect opportunity to tell a cogent tale about the wrongdoings of the Greek Pantheon, yet opts to forgo that in favor of a highly-generic revenge story made all the more worse by its protagonist being a reprehensible piece of sh!t. The premise is Zeus has betrayed Kratos out of fears the man will usurp him on Olympus, castigating him to the depths of the Underworld whilst taking away his divinity in the process.
Right off the bat, this synopsis reeks of plotholes, its conception indicating not a single second was spent on basic script oversight. For starters, why does Zeus suddenly feel this way? And if he was so scared of Kratos’s potential, why let Athena turn him into Ares's replacement in the first place? Worse yet, Kratos’s whole plea at the end of GoW1 was to die so his nightmares could end, so why not just approach the man and offer him the relief he desires?
But no, to answer these questions would require, you know, effort, something the team at Santa Monica evidently wouldn't learn until 2018.
Oh we’re not done yet - heeding the words of the Titan Gaia, Kratos climbs out of the Underworld to begin his journey towards vengeance….only, hold-up, how in the world did he accomplish this? We just saw Zeus take away his godhood, yet you’re telling me he’s still capable of clawing his way out of a (literal) hellish pit like it's a casual Sunday? This is a problem you’ll see constantly plagues the game: the notion that Kratos is capable of accomplishing inhuman feats despite being rendered a mere mortal by Zeus. During your odyssey, you’ll consistently come across a situation or monster that should have the upperhand on the deposed god, yet falter for reasons that can only be described as @sspulls.
Now I know there’ll be two counterarguments to this, the first that Kratos is granted blessings by the Titans akin to the ones he received from the Olympians (the same ones that allowed him to beat Ares), and that’d be a valid point were it not for a couple of setbacks: one, Kratos does a fair amount of crazy stuff before he even gets his first power; and two, some of the bosses he faces should be insurmountable even with such gifts. During the fight with the Sisters of Fate, for example, they repeatedly state how they can easily sabotage his past, so WHY THE F#CK DON’T THEY (one of them literally spends the game bitch-slapping Kratos like a silly nanny instead of using her “vast” power)? Another moment sees Kratos reencounter the barbarian nemesis who bested him before (and who claims to have gotten much stronger since), so why is this brute casually riding around on his horse instead of fighting mano y mano? Don’t even get me started on the final scrum with Zeus, nor the game’s comical (plot hole-ridden) take on time travel. Seriously, the amount of nonsense you have to put up with to justify Kratos’s “badassery” here is beyond laughable at times.
The second argument pertains to a twist reveal at the end, and no, it doesn’t resolve anything either (+).
Of course, overpowered protagonists aren’t inherently bad - we’ve all played titles that indulged in the power fantasy, and God of War certainly gained fame for popularizing that motif for western audiences. However, the MC needs to be somewhat affable; have a trait that makes them worth investing in for the long haul, and not only does Kratos not have that, the writers literally went out of their way to make him insufferable. There are several instances where he’ll just kill an innocent person without remorse, or do some heinous action(++), and what’s amusing is how it’s all played straight. Like, if the game had at least adopted a darkly humorous tone towards its violence ala Quentin Tarantino I could maybe see myself enjoying the man’s antics, but no, everything’s treated like Oedipus Rex and rendered worse as a result.
I think what makes GoW2 particularly irksome is there was so much potential here for a better tale. The idea of a human witnessing the horrors of the gods and choosing to do something about it could’ve been the source for an invigorating yarn. One scene early-on, for instance, has you meeting Prometheus (the Titan who gave mankind fire), and beholding the excruciating fate Zeus deemed fit for him was tough to stomach (no pun intended): imagine a game where such incidents formed the backbone for Kratos’s motivation over the stupid sh%t he brought upon himself (that’s right, never forget, Kratos is responsible for his own nightmares). But no, you don’t get that, the writers instead preferring to concoct ridiculously idiotic scenarios that genuinely feel like someone had a bone to pick with Greek Mythology.
No seriously, what’s up with sheer venom on-display towards the Greek World? Such lore has been home to some of the most powerful myths in human history, yet the lion’s share of them here have been stripped of their bearings in a pathetic attempt to provide Kratos with fodder to chew on: classical heroes like Theseus and Perseus are rendered lame boss fights (more on that later), the Phoenix needlessly tortured, and Typhon literally turned into a worse version of Temari from Naruto. When you put even a modicum of thought into things, the macro events underscoring every beat become thoroughly unpleasant.
And that’s really the perfect word to describe God of War II’s narrative as a whole - unpleasant. I didn’t feel like an antihero on a semi-justifiable excursion, but a complete jack@ss acting out like a toddler on steroids. While I’ll never judge anyone for liking something I don’t, Kratos’s rise to popularity does say a lot about the kind of pop culture we’ve cultivated in western society.
But look, it’s the gameplay everyone will care most about, and on that front God of War II is still a step down from its predecessor. One of the things I enjoyed most about the first game was its incorporation of puzzles - yes, a few were outright frustrating (the collapsing floor comes to mind), but overall they were nice and helped break-up the pace of the game.
Well, in designing the ones here, the artisans at Santa Monica evidently thought it better to indulge in pure annoyance -- do you guys remember that scene in GoW1 where you had to kick that stupid box across the ship deck? Well, not only does God of War II have its own version of it, but they somehow managed to make it worse via spamming the field with fire and enemies who can counter you. Another moment saw me wasting a good 10 minutes trying to deduce how to redirect light to this flame-spewing effigy, only for the solution to be to climb up a specific section of the wall to free loose sunbeams from the roof (and no, there was barely any visual distinction between the ascendable & unascendable sections of said wall, with the final icicle being hidden in a lanky corner).
I’m not saying everything is bad (there was a time puzzle later on that I kind of enjoyed), but when the quality, as a whole, is at a diminished value, it makes these moments aggravating to partake in.
Luckily, the combat remains as fun as ever, with Santa Monica programming so many new combinations, you can literally button mash to your heart’s content and STILL come away with a fresh move each time. God of War popularized the modern hack-and-slash template back in the day, and I’m proud to say it more than holds up here amidst its countless inspirees.
That said, no improvements were made to the base formula, with Santa Monica, in many cases, outright doubling-down on its prequel’s worst elements: magic attacks remain sharp bursts inorganically woven into the mainframe, executions are the same rehashed finishers you saw aplenty in 1, heavy enemies still boast vexing stunlocks, and, worse of all, quicktime events galore have been shoved into every major encounter. I genuinely don’t understand who thought these minigames would be a good idea as they are incredibly infuriating - you often only have a second to hit their respective prompt, and failing to do so will result in heavy damage (or, in the case of the final fight with Zeus, death). While nowhere near as intrusive as Fahrenheit’s, they definitely took away from any on-screen action, and I guarantee they’ll be the cause of your demise every now-and-then (ESPECIALLY during that Zeus brawl).
Speaking of Zeus, bosses make a return and they’re as mediocre as I hinted at above. True, the first game’s weren’t the greatest thing ever, but they still had a sense of grandeur and logic to their composition. GoW 2’s, au contraire, are tedious and boring, their tactics largely coming down to avoiding a stunlock-inducing attack as you wear down the enemy health bar in order to trigger a, you guessed, QTE! Out of all the clashes, the only ones I truly ended-up enjoying were Lakhesis and Atropos during the third act.
Minibosses, to their credit, fare much better, but one thing I disliked in II was whenever the game would introduce a brand new version, have you slay it, only to then immediately follow-up said encounter with the SAME boss x2 or 3 or 10(!). It begged the question of why they even designed a unique wrangle if they were just going to subvert it with a repetitive montage the second it was complete.
Lastly in the gameplay department, II brings over the upgrade system from afore at the expense of my favorite weapon the Blade of Artemis, replacing it with two slow-swinging clubs you're better off ignoring in favor of the default chains. Ditto with the magic -- sure, you're given a fair amount of spells to play with, but you're better off saving your orbs for the lighting-based Chronos Rage.
For all my harping, the one area God of War II has unilaterally improved upon its forebearer in is the graphics. Once again, I played the PS3 remaster, and once again I was blown away by the sheer crispness of the visuals: you got non-blocky 3D models, top-notch anti-aliasing, reflective surfaces that actually bend light, and some of the best artistry I’ve ever witnessed in gaming. When Santa Monica began development, I have a feeling they really wanted to take players to places they had never dreamed about before, and on that front they more than succeeded: from the fiery heat of the Great Chasm’s interiors to a sprawling flesh-composed dungeon to the streams of blue thread that adorn the Loom Chamber, this is a diverse and thoroughly-awesome treat for your eyes. Even places commonly-used in video games like marshlands and lavapits are often transfused here with some additional element that bears them apart from the crowd, such as blood red swamp water and spiderweb meshing respectively. And for all my harping about the story, the artists clearly did their research on Greek architecture, resulting in those gorgeous columns, bricks, and painted murals commonly-associated with said culture (every temple is a stunning masterwork).
Unlike GoW1, where the developers were unable to boost the cutscene files, here Santa Monica must’ve found the corresponding folder cause these babies look consistent with the base game, their resolution easily rivaling early-7th gen prospects whilst providing expansive grand spectacle….in some cases too grand. See, like I said in my review of the first game, the God of War series was always used by Sony to push the boundaries of their console, and while they certainly achieved this task, a lot of the cinematics you’ll witness on-hand can’t help coming across as self-indulgent to a fault: each scene seemingly showcasing a new physics-rendering capability of the Kinetica. You’ve got the naturalistic flow of liquids, collapsing of buildings, movement of the Titans, surging of velocious air -- one of the best feats I ever saw entails you witnessing the actual regrowth of Prometheus’s innards as he heals overnight. And yet, such pageantry can’t help coming across like someone at Santa Monica did this purely out of an initiative to pat themselves on the back.
Other miscellaneous graphical bits I liked included the Chains of Athena changing color as you upgraded them (more on that later), the lightsaber-hued orbs found in chests, and the incredibly-fast loading times.
The only derogatory hit on the whole system has to do with any depictions of penetration. The PS2 simply was not capable of accurately generating this for weapons, and given that many of Kratos’s executions rely on it, you’re going to be noticing a lot of haphazard merging that walks the line between clipping and blended simulacra.
Sound is where the game dips the most in stature, starting with the music - it is bombastic to a fault. Once again the work was outsourced to a bunch of composers, yet unlike before where they managed to create something unified and cohesive, here it’s just loud for loudness sake. 90 percent of the tracks employ horns and vocals to mimic that stereotypical brashness typically associated with Greek Hymns, but the boisterous volume combined with the repetitive melodies ends-up making it all unnecessarily overbearing. This is the only time I’ve had to constantly pause an OST while listening to it, and that speaks to the score’s inherent obnoxiousness.
Voice acting continues that trend, with TC Carson giving a headache-inducing performance as the titular character. Yeah, as if I needed to tell you guys, God of War II emphasizes Kratos’s angrier-side, meaning you get A LOT more
Despite his limited screen-time, Zeus is somehow worse, and just like with Ares, you’ll be shocked to learn his voice actor is a noted thespian in the form of Corey Burton. Fans of DC-based works know Burton’s given plenty of wonderful performances elsewhere, yet here comes across like a senior resident whose cords have been clogged from smoking too much weed.
The others are fine, serving their roles well-enough, but the overarching quality does feel like a step down from 1 where it truly came across like a cast of Royal Shakespeareans doing their best job according credence to the project.
SFX has its good-and-bad: slicing enemies never gets tiring, and I appreciated the spark-chinking that resounded whenever you hit boulders and walls, but none of the non-singing monsters were memorable, and there were times where the developers outright faltered in terms of synchronizing appropriate noises. For example, one scene has you walking along a giant chain that sways like a fiber rope; another has you facing dog-like beasts that bark like a regular ole hound. Overall it’s sufficient, but could’ve been more.
Unfortunately, that sentiment isn’t applicable to the entire game as I did not enjoy it. It’s a technical marvel done at the expense of the most important tenets of a video game, and while it did a lot for the industry and PS2’s legacy, it’s best left forgotten.
NOTES
+Kratos is revealed at the end to be Zeus’s son and, consequently, a demigod. This is no doubt an instance of the writers
++Using the Argonaut to stop the cog, torturing/murdering the Priests, tearing off Icarus’s wings (honestly, can we just take a second to observe how stupid it was to turn Icarus of all people into a boss fight? This is a guy whose wings were famously burned to a crisp and died, yet here he’s somehow alive and actually able to hold his own against Kratos? There are so many discourses throughout the game which indicate the writers studied past Greek myths, so why they outright sabotaged them with worse retellings is beyond me).
-There is a challenge mode for you completionists out there.
-No subtitles (again), but at least they sped-up the orb procession.
-Thank the lord they moved the door opening button to O instead of the right bumper! It alleviated my fingers tremendously.
-There’s an awful sex minigame early-on that’s both narratively-intrusive and built on QTEs (worst part is you don’t even get to see any of the action).
-Hated how slow Kratos became whenever he carried bodies. I get this was done to make some of the boss fights artificially-hard, but the man is literally capable of moving giant cinder blocks yet somehow gets encumbered by a mere corpse?
-There’s a track from the OST that literally sounds like a Diet Coke version of the famous trailer song Preliator by Globus.
Very similar to the first game with the very minimal plot and some bad checkpoints but overall still quite fun!
I feel like they improved the combat a lot here between games.
I feel like they improved the combat a lot here between games.
For a sequel, I was hoping they had improved on the formula somewhat. Instead, this was the same game as the first, but without the origin story making it better. This is one I could have saved myself some time and watched a video of the cutscenes. It did serve as a good reminder of how awful Quick Time Events are and how glad I am that they aren't as bad as this anymore. It's hard to believe that this originally came out in the same year as games like Bioshock and Heavenly Sword.
Its highs are damn high but its lows are lower than the pits of Tartarus
Probably the most polarising game I've ever played.
I'll preface this review by stating that I started the playthrough on God (Hard) difficulty. An extremely foolish decision on my part, but having beaten the first game in Hard and still feeling let down by the simplicity of the final boss I wanted to ensure that it would be challenging this time around. However, with this games outdated difficulty settings there's no turning back as the only option to change the difficulty is to die repeatedly until you're given the prompt to go straight to easy mode. Too prideful to admit defeat I pushed through around 80% of the game before giving in. Most frustratingly of all it wasn't a boss or even a miniboss that broke me, just a generic room. This is because the way these games scale difficulty is by ramping up enemy health, damage and spawn rates drastically with what appears to be no regulation whatsoever. Consequently, some areas are practically impossible to beat because the player becomes utterly overwhelmed with what I would call artificial difficulty, where the challenge lies in the sheer volume of threats rather than a section that designed specifically to be technically difficult. When this is the case, the player is often forced to brute force their way through, making it lot more tedious and far less rewarding when you do succeed because there was no learning curve. This frustration lead me to shelving the game, nearly indefinitely, however my desire to play the rest of the series brought me back. Reluctantly I played the remainder of the game in easy, and to my surprise it was really enjoyable. Granted, I still wish I had played normal from the start and there's no doubt in my mind I'd have enjoyed the game a lot more if I did, but that's on me.
The saving grace of this game is its story really. I am fascinated by greek mythology and it's always exciting to see various interpretations. This game exceeds the first in storytelling, having some really awesome moments and amazing twists. Boss fights in this title are also much better because they incorporate some really unique mechanics and have creative ways of keeping gameplay fresh. The final boss was really exciting this time around, with a sense of spectacle and a good difficulty level, albeit not the most creative fight in the game.
Some sections of the game were straight up trash, for example fighting Mole Cerberus and the escort level in the Temple of Lahkesis. Both of those make you want to cry because of their obnoxious anti-player and anti-fun designs. The numerous YouTube tutorials for each show I'm not alone on that.
Overall this is probably worth a playthrough if you care for the narrative of the series and while it does have some awesome moments it's nothing too incredible that warrants playing just for gameplay alone. Safe to say I'm glad to be done with this title, but it succeeded in making me excited to play the next installment.
Probably the most polarising game I've ever played.
I'll preface this review by stating that I started the playthrough on God (Hard) difficulty. An extremely foolish decision on my part, but having beaten the first game in Hard and still feeling let down by the simplicity of the final boss I wanted to ensure that it would be challenging this time around. However, with this games outdated difficulty settings there's no turning back as the only option to change the difficulty is to die repeatedly until you're given the prompt to go straight to easy mode. Too prideful to admit defeat I pushed through around 80% of the game before giving in. Most frustratingly of all it wasn't a boss or even a miniboss that broke me, just a generic room. This is because the way these games scale difficulty is by ramping up enemy health, damage and spawn rates drastically with what appears to be no regulation whatsoever. Consequently, some areas are practically impossible to beat because the player becomes utterly overwhelmed with what I would call artificial difficulty, where the challenge lies in the sheer volume of threats rather than a section that designed specifically to be technically difficult. When this is the case, the player is often forced to brute force their way through, making it lot more tedious and far less rewarding when you do succeed because there was no learning curve. This frustration lead me to shelving the game, nearly indefinitely, however my desire to play the rest of the series brought me back. Reluctantly I played the remainder of the game in easy, and to my surprise it was really enjoyable. Granted, I still wish I had played normal from the start and there's no doubt in my mind I'd have enjoyed the game a lot more if I did, but that's on me.
The saving grace of this game is its story really. I am fascinated by greek mythology and it's always exciting to see various interpretations. This game exceeds the first in storytelling, having some really awesome moments and amazing twists. Boss fights in this title are also much better because they incorporate some really unique mechanics and have creative ways of keeping gameplay fresh. The final boss was really exciting this time around, with a sense of spectacle and a good difficulty level, albeit not the most creative fight in the game.
Some sections of the game were straight up trash, for example fighting Mole Cerberus and the escort level in the Temple of Lahkesis. Both of those make you want to cry because of their obnoxious anti-player and anti-fun designs. The numerous YouTube tutorials for each show I'm not alone on that.
Overall this is probably worth a playthrough if you care for the narrative of the series and while it does have some awesome moments it's nothing too incredible that warrants playing just for gameplay alone. Safe to say I'm glad to be done with this title, but it succeeded in making me excited to play the next installment.
Continuing the replay for Ragnarok
It’s a phenomenal sequel that easily tops the original, but like I said in my old review (that I deleted for some reason) it’s not the best in the series
It’s a phenomenal sequel that easily tops the original, but like I said in my old review (that I deleted for some reason) it’s not the best in the series
Replaying God of War II for the first time in 15 years reminded me why I loved this game so much as a teenager and why it is still my favorite of the trilogy. The PS2 has a library of over 1000 games and even so you'd be hard pressed to find many that reach the same heights as God of War II, truly one of the finest games available on the system.
God of War II picks up roughly 13 years after the events of the first game. Kratos is now the new God of War. Shunned by his fellow gods for his destructive ways, Kratos finds a new family in his Spartan Army and starts to lay waste to Greece one city at a time. Naturally this angers Zeus and he takes matters into his own hands by betraying Kratos, stripping him of his godly power and killing him out of fear that Kratos will kill him first. Kratos finds new allies in the Titans who are the sworn enemies of the Gods and after crawling out of Hades itself he sets out on a new quest for revenge against the Gods by journeying to the Island of Creation and seeking an audience with the Sisters of Fate in hopes of turning back time, changing his fate and stopping Zeus' betrayal before it ever even happens.
Running nearly double the length of the first game, this story is just simply epic from start to finish and I love the themes of defying the Gods and taking fate into your own hands. Kratos' quest to change fate itself mostly takes place on the Island of Creation, but the level design is so well crafted, creative and diverse you'd think it was an epic sprawling adventure across the whole world like the first game despite being much more secular in nature. My personal fave area has to be the Palace of the Fates near the end of the game, the way all the individual areas and puzzles are so intricately connected in the Palace of the Fates is just masterclass game design.
The first God of War primarily focused around building Kratos' backstory and giving him character development, but God of War II puts more emphasis on expanding the world of God of War and boy does it do so marvelously. Bringing in many various legends and myths from the story of Chronos and the Titans to the three Sisters of Fate Lachesis, Atropos and Clotho or Jason from Jason and the Argonauts (Shout out to the skeleton enemies that have animations and move similarly to the ones in the 60s Argonauts movie) Icarus, Prometheus and Perseus (Who is also voiced by Harry Hamlin who played Perseus in the 80s Clash of the Titans movie) among others. This game is filled to the brim with references to heroes and legends in Greek myth and so much detail went into making them feel authentic in this world and that's one of my favorite parts of the game. No other game has captured Greek myth as well as God of War II has.
While the combat is mostly the same as the first there are some newly added magic powers and an expanded weapons arsenal adding a couple new sub weapons (although I honestly find those kind of useless), but where the gameplay of God of War II is truly expanded upon is thanks to Kratos being able to grapple onto things alongside getting many items including an amulet which lets him slow time Prince of Persia style or a pair of wings to glide with which add an extra layer of dimension to both the platforming and puzzles that are found throughout the game.
God of War II is a game that takes everything I loved about the first and turns it up to 11 making it more grandiose. Whether that be the higher stakes narrative, detailed world-building with much love for the mythology it represents or expanded gameplay systems, if God of War (2005) set the standard for action adventure games then God of War II redefined it and raised the bar in every way imaginable. A sequel just as iconic and memorable as its predecessor and a journey well worth going on even 15 years later.
God of War II picks up roughly 13 years after the events of the first game. Kratos is now the new God of War. Shunned by his fellow gods for his destructive ways, Kratos finds a new family in his Spartan Army and starts to lay waste to Greece one city at a time. Naturally this angers Zeus and he takes matters into his own hands by betraying Kratos, stripping him of his godly power and killing him out of fear that Kratos will kill him first. Kratos finds new allies in the Titans who are the sworn enemies of the Gods and after crawling out of Hades itself he sets out on a new quest for revenge against the Gods by journeying to the Island of Creation and seeking an audience with the Sisters of Fate in hopes of turning back time, changing his fate and stopping Zeus' betrayal before it ever even happens.
Running nearly double the length of the first game, this story is just simply epic from start to finish and I love the themes of defying the Gods and taking fate into your own hands. Kratos' quest to change fate itself mostly takes place on the Island of Creation, but the level design is so well crafted, creative and diverse you'd think it was an epic sprawling adventure across the whole world like the first game despite being much more secular in nature. My personal fave area has to be the Palace of the Fates near the end of the game, the way all the individual areas and puzzles are so intricately connected in the Palace of the Fates is just masterclass game design.
The first God of War primarily focused around building Kratos' backstory and giving him character development, but God of War II puts more emphasis on expanding the world of God of War and boy does it do so marvelously. Bringing in many various legends and myths from the story of Chronos and the Titans to the three Sisters of Fate Lachesis, Atropos and Clotho or Jason from Jason and the Argonauts (Shout out to the skeleton enemies that have animations and move similarly to the ones in the 60s Argonauts movie) Icarus, Prometheus and Perseus (Who is also voiced by Harry Hamlin who played Perseus in the 80s Clash of the Titans movie) among others. This game is filled to the brim with references to heroes and legends in Greek myth and so much detail went into making them feel authentic in this world and that's one of my favorite parts of the game. No other game has captured Greek myth as well as God of War II has.
While the combat is mostly the same as the first there are some newly added magic powers and an expanded weapons arsenal adding a couple new sub weapons (although I honestly find those kind of useless), but where the gameplay of God of War II is truly expanded upon is thanks to Kratos being able to grapple onto things alongside getting many items including an amulet which lets him slow time Prince of Persia style or a pair of wings to glide with which add an extra layer of dimension to both the platforming and puzzles that are found throughout the game.
God of War II is a game that takes everything I loved about the first and turns it up to 11 making it more grandiose. Whether that be the higher stakes narrative, detailed world-building with much love for the mythology it represents or expanded gameplay systems, if God of War (2005) set the standard for action adventure games then God of War II redefined it and raised the bar in every way imaginable. A sequel just as iconic and memorable as its predecessor and a journey well worth going on even 15 years later.
Much more of a spectacle than the first. Pretty to look at for a ps2 game, but without much of a narrative to drive it forward, it feels like you’re just going from random place to random place solving environmental puzzles and killing hoards of enemies. Like the other games, there’s one or two cool spells that are fun to use and the rest I never really bothered with. Ultimately pretty fun but really don’t see a need to ever replay.
pretty much just the first game but with more variety and cooler spectacle
7/10
7/10
God of War 2 improves upon its predecessor in nearly every department: cinematics are more detailed, setpieces are bigger, and combat and general controls were improved as well. Thankfully, there are way less platforming sections and box shoving puzzles this time around, and the QTEs no longer feel like they were designed to make you destroy your controller's circle button.
Unfortunately, the game suffers heavily from being the second installment in a trilogy. Concluding the story on the more powerful ps3 was the right call to make, but it also left God of War 2 with very little plot development to work with. Most of Kratos' backstory was already explored in the first game, so his character doesn't develop and he starts to feel like a one dimensional revenge machine. There's also a solid two hours in the middle of the game that feel like inconsequential filler and while the level design is never truly bad, it's also not engaging enough to keep players from getting bored.
Luckily, the game ends on a high note, with several impressive boss fights and an excellent setup for the third game. I just really wish it was shorter, as I don't see myself slogging through that middle part again anytime soon.
Lastly, a note on the ps3 port: as with the first game, the GoW collection presents the game in 16:9 widescreen, cutting off the top and bottom of the original 4:3 image in the process. I've encountered some minor glitches and a lot of performance issues (mostly due to fire and particle effects) during my time with the game. None of that is really game breaking, as the game is mostly running at 60 fps, but there are certainly better remasters out there.
Unfortunately, the game suffers heavily from being the second installment in a trilogy. Concluding the story on the more powerful ps3 was the right call to make, but it also left God of War 2 with very little plot development to work with. Most of Kratos' backstory was already explored in the first game, so his character doesn't develop and he starts to feel like a one dimensional revenge machine. There's also a solid two hours in the middle of the game that feel like inconsequential filler and while the level design is never truly bad, it's also not engaging enough to keep players from getting bored.
Luckily, the game ends on a high note, with several impressive boss fights and an excellent setup for the third game. I just really wish it was shorter, as I don't see myself slogging through that middle part again anytime soon.
Lastly, a note on the ps3 port: as with the first game, the GoW collection presents the game in 16:9 widescreen, cutting off the top and bottom of the original 4:3 image in the process. I've encountered some minor glitches and a lot of performance issues (mostly due to fire and particle effects) during my time with the game. None of that is really game breaking, as the game is mostly running at 60 fps, but there are certainly better remasters out there.
A sequência de God of War me surpreendeu pelos pontos altos com o combate e narrativa, mas perde um pouco o fio da aventura no meio, retornando a um bom ritmo apenas nas horas finais.
God of War II gave me a lot more of what I wanted out of God of War. More fights against gods, more exciting combat, an really just an overall better game. I do think I like the story in the first God of War just a bit more, but overall its still a good game.
The Wraiths are soooooo annoying 🙄
One of the greatest action games of all time, only matched by the recent god of war entry
God of War 3: Part 1 is great. An improvement on 1 in every way.
Kratos sigue sin ir a terapia
jogão esse aqui, é incrível como atualmente sua gameplay ainda é fluida e responsiva. Acompanhar toda a jornada do Kratos em busca de vingança enquanto ele cada vez mais vai perdendo a sua mente é sensacional, e o clímax do final é absolute cinema.
Big improvement on the first one, story and gameplay-wise. The mechanics were improved upon and there were satisfying bosses…still hate the grappling.
I know that this was considered more or less the peak of the series before the reboot, but I actually found it to be somewhat disappointing. It’s certainly bigger, but I felt like it was retreading a lot of ground.
The one big improvement was the focus on bosses – there are a ton of them – and given how full of colorful characters and monsters this world is, that was definitely the right way to go.
I’m honestly not exactly sure what it was that I wanted^ from a sequel after being so impressed by the original, but this wasn’t quite it. It’s mostly the same, but it feels a tiny bit less inspired. Still a solid, polished action game, no doubt.
^Oh, I know one thing I DIDN’T want from this game: for it to end on a bullshit cliffhanger.
The one big improvement was the focus on bosses – there are a ton of them – and given how full of colorful characters and monsters this world is, that was definitely the right way to go.
I’m honestly not exactly sure what it was that I wanted^ from a sequel after being so impressed by the original, but this wasn’t quite it. It’s mostly the same, but it feels a tiny bit less inspired. Still a solid, polished action game, no doubt.
^Oh, I know one thing I DIDN’T want from this game: for it to end on a bullshit cliffhanger.
The story builds off the original splendidly and the much larger amount of boss fights add more value to the combat. This is how all sequels should add onto their originals.
god of slowly turning cranks
once the novelty of the first game wears off, the flaws in the game design make themselves apparent. there aren't as many bullshit platforming sections, but there are glaring flaws in the design that make this shit borderline unplayable. the combat is repetitive and shallow. half the game is spent winding up cranks and pulling levers. why does every door have to be opened by button mashing? what was the point of that? like, what does that add? is it meant to be fun? ironically, this game was easier than the first one but i still felt so unfulfilled by the end because the gameplay was so soulless and boring. not to mention how uninspired this story is. i feel like there's so much more you could do with a guy taking on the gods than this. the narrative isn't all bad though. it's got me hooked enough to get the third game and play it. but i guess dark souls kind of ruined hack and slash games for me.
Apparently this is an unpopular opinion on here (which makes sense coming from me lol) but I prefer the first game.
Don't get me wrong, this isn't a bad game by any means, but fuck me it feels wayyy too long. It drags real bad.
This game doesn't really improve on any of the problems I had with the first game, in fact in some cases, it's worse here.
but let's start with the positives.
the combat is been slightly updated to be a bit more fleshed out with more combos and new spells to use, however just like the last game I really only used 2 of the spells and ignored the rest.
ya know actually now that I think about it, I think every positive thing from the first game has been slightly ruined in this one.
Combat is better yeah, there's more weapons, but they're all crap unlike The Blade of Artemis. More spells yeah, but I only ever used like 2.
Also I complained last time about the damage scaling and the fact basic enemies can take forever to kill, it's even worse here, even with maxed out weapons you can be there for like 5-7 minutes trying to take out a wave of enemies, it just gets boring and annoying.
Actually one think that has genuinely improved, the world. The locations you explore are really cool, they were cool in the last game, but even more so here. I loved The Steeds of Time and the whole Atlas area.
The story is... it's not great. It really does feel like JUST the setup to the next game instead of it's own thing. I saw someone on here say "God of War 3: Part 1" and yeah honestly that's the perfect name lol. Also once again, you just spend the entire game looking for one thing, in this case three people. But for the full 11-12 hours it's just "find the sisters of fate" and it gets so tedious and boring.
I did like the ending though, the ending got me hype.
The main thing I complimented the last game for was boss fights, and yeah there are more here, however.... most of them are fairly crap and forgettable. I think the only boss fights I enjoyed were The Kraken and The Sisters of Fate, those boss fights went HARD. but man I dunno, Euryale and the others just were not fun at all, even the final fight against Zeus was a bit shit. I guess the Perseus fight was neat, but I had just watched Clash of The Titans like the day before so I was just excited to see him lol.
Also it's a small thing really but I don't like how they batched the trophies together in this one. In the last game you would get an individual trophy for certain story events or boss fights or weapon pickups but in this they're just batched together, like Boss Batch Trophy 1 and 2 etc. Like i want my cool individual trophies to feel like I'm actually progressing >:((
Oh and speaking of progression, thanks to the games extensive runtime, progression feels slow as fuck weapons and magic wise which kinda sucked.
Overall, I wouldn't call this a bad game like I said, but I do think it's a step down from the original, maybe the fact I played these back to back ruined my experience a bit, I really shoulda learned from Uncharted and KH that marathoning isn't the best idea for enjoyment lol. I'll probably play something else before GoW 3, so I can go into it feeling more fresh.
Don't get me wrong, this isn't a bad game by any means, but fuck me it feels wayyy too long. It drags real bad.
This game doesn't really improve on any of the problems I had with the first game, in fact in some cases, it's worse here.
but let's start with the positives.
the combat is been slightly updated to be a bit more fleshed out with more combos and new spells to use, however just like the last game I really only used 2 of the spells and ignored the rest.
ya know actually now that I think about it, I think every positive thing from the first game has been slightly ruined in this one.
Combat is better yeah, there's more weapons, but they're all crap unlike The Blade of Artemis. More spells yeah, but I only ever used like 2.
Also I complained last time about the damage scaling and the fact basic enemies can take forever to kill, it's even worse here, even with maxed out weapons you can be there for like 5-7 minutes trying to take out a wave of enemies, it just gets boring and annoying.
Actually one think that has genuinely improved, the world. The locations you explore are really cool, they were cool in the last game, but even more so here. I loved The Steeds of Time and the whole Atlas area.
The story is... it's not great. It really does feel like JUST the setup to the next game instead of it's own thing. I saw someone on here say "God of War 3: Part 1" and yeah honestly that's the perfect name lol. Also once again, you just spend the entire game looking for one thing, in this case three people. But for the full 11-12 hours it's just "find the sisters of fate" and it gets so tedious and boring.
I did like the ending though, the ending got me hype.
The main thing I complimented the last game for was boss fights, and yeah there are more here, however.... most of them are fairly crap and forgettable. I think the only boss fights I enjoyed were The Kraken and The Sisters of Fate, those boss fights went HARD. but man I dunno, Euryale and the others just were not fun at all, even the final fight against Zeus was a bit shit. I guess the Perseus fight was neat, but I had just watched Clash of The Titans like the day before so I was just excited to see him lol.
Also it's a small thing really but I don't like how they batched the trophies together in this one. In the last game you would get an individual trophy for certain story events or boss fights or weapon pickups but in this they're just batched together, like Boss Batch Trophy 1 and 2 etc. Like i want my cool individual trophies to feel like I'm actually progressing >:((
Oh and speaking of progression, thanks to the games extensive runtime, progression feels slow as fuck weapons and magic wise which kinda sucked.
Overall, I wouldn't call this a bad game like I said, but I do think it's a step down from the original, maybe the fact I played these back to back ruined my experience a bit, I really shoulda learned from Uncharted and KH that marathoning isn't the best idea for enjoyment lol. I'll probably play something else before GoW 3, so I can go into it feeling more fresh.
An improvement on the first game on every level. Its so fuckin good. The cutscenes are fantastic, the gameplay is improved. The story is really fun. Everything I loved about the first game is here but better.
Like the first one? This one has more fleshed-out mechanics, more engaging combat, better story direction, cutscenes that don't look like molten turds, and is overall a superior experience in every way. Still don't think these have anything on the DMC series - especially not while this still has one of gaming's worst evade systems and fighting that's too easy to get caught in a move with no real way to course-correct - but the work they've done on these environments is simply gorgeous. One thing these games always excel at is placing an ant-sized character in a variety of massive, megalophobia-inducing levels and having you gaze upon how epic everything looks. From pristine Greek marble interiors, great long chains to run across over an endless sea, sticky swamplands, and island-sized gigantic mobile horse statues with metal armor - it all looks amazing, especially on the HD Origins collection (the cinematics there also look incredible). Though at this point Santa Monica is still unable to create challenge modes in these games that are even remotely enjoyable or well made. "Challenge of the Titans" is somehow, against all odds... WORSE than "Challenge of the Gods".
A great improvement to the original in many ways, grand in scope and scale but I love how the game feels like a action packed but crescendoing burn to one of the craziest finales in video games. The last few boss fights are absolutely insane and the narrative resolution just expands upon the original games story in a satisfying way, even with a cliffhanger ending this is easily hands down one of the best cliffhanger in video games that despite my nostalgia still gives me chills. Absolutely loved returning to this despite some moments of frustration... but gonna blame that on my stupidity. This is one of the best sequels in games ever.
I first started this as a dumb kid who couldn't make it through the first puzzle. Today I'm a slightly less dumb adult that at least had the know-how on how to beat this game, which isn't saying a lot. My verdict is that it's pretty good but can be really frustrating at points. A lot of it felt the same as God of War 1 but slightly harder at times, and with some difficulty spikes at times that made me feel like Santa Monica Studio made them specifically as a "fuck you" to the player. Still an enjoyable game and an absolute must for any GoW 1 enjoyers.
Ah bah voilà, là on s'amuse ! Bien meilleur sur tout les points que le premier opus, les décors sont somptueux pour de la PS2, et l'histoire toujours aussi bien. Je me suis régalé !
I'm very impressed by this game. I didn't think that the gameplay of the original aged all too well, so I was surprised to see that the sequel ironed out a lot of kinks that the original had (QTEs require WAY less mashing, the parry window is much more forgiving, etc).
What really impressed me about this game was its plot. You start off with all of your abilities, only to lose them all at the beginning of the game (similar to Metroid Prime), and you end on a cliffhanger that sets up God of War III, but it didn't feel cheap. I won't spoil anything, but it makes sense that this game ends the way that it does.
So yeah, overall I enjoyed this one.
What really impressed me about this game was its plot. You start off with all of your abilities, only to lose them all at the beginning of the game (similar to Metroid Prime), and you end on a cliffhanger that sets up God of War III, but it didn't feel cheap. I won't spoil anything, but it makes sense that this game ends the way that it does.
So yeah, overall I enjoyed this one.
This review contains spoilers
The quest feels a bit arbitrary in this game. The main goal of reaching the Fates never changes after the tutorial level, but our progress feels halted on a whim. Kratos literally flies to the Fate's lair but ends up stranded on an outcropping island (the boss that caused this ended up crashing closer to our goal than the player). Kratos deactivates a portal preventing him from the path forward, but is then kidnapped by a Barbarian. Upon returning, Kratos decides not to proceed with the original path, so he has to deactivate a second portal in order to continue. After all of these detours (not to mention the visits to two separate Titans) the player finally end up at the Fate's temple.
Aside from this, GoW II is a massive improvement on everything from the original. The new weapons and magic are nice inclusions, and the Rage meter is properly useful.
Aside from this, GoW II is a massive improvement on everything from the original. The new weapons and magic are nice inclusions, and the Rage meter is properly useful.
I'm starting to finally get it...
God of War 2 was an absolutely pleasant suprise in my trip through the God of War series, and it helped me to understand why these games were praised. This game in particular feels likes an action-adventure game filled to the brim with varied and interesting levels, suprisingly fun puzzles, bosses each with their own gimmicks and solutions, with a simplistic combat system that is quite mashy. God of War 1 felt more like a half-backed hack and slash game with barely any bosses, not enough puzzles and varied level design, but a magnificient spectacle. I am so glad that the developers went into this direction rather than doubleing down on making combat the main draw.
The combat encounters have been reduced to allow platofrming, puzzles, and bosses to shine, so the combat is no where near as exhausting as the first game. The enemy variety has increased as well, adding a bit more complexity to how to take down enemies rather than your simple square square triangle spam. These levels are fantasitic. Whether be that God of War spectacle with the music and visuals, the tightly crafted tests of the new powers you achieved, or the puzzles that were fun shakeups to the pacing of the game, I was having a blast. I kept saying to myself, "oh, we are doing this now? Cool!" and I could not wait where the game took me next. The bosses were the best part of the first game, so I am glad there are way more in this game. They kinda went all-out with the first boss of the game, which really made a lot of the later bosses feel much less exciting, but still fun regardless. Bosses boiled down into straight up duels, or setpiece bosses with small little puzzle solving to take them down. The best bosses were ones that combined both of these designs, and I hope GoW 3 really plays into that.
I still have my gripes with the mashy combat. Magic is still incredibly powerful, but each magical ability felt viable in comparison to the electric power dominating the first game. Certain encounters feel near impossible (especially aon hard) without magic, and the game never refills your magic automatically at savepoints. Crowd control moves are still the way to go for most of the enemies, leading to yet again juggling and air combos to be left in the dust of the combat loop. I hope they atleast flesh out the grapple you can do with the blades of chaos (Or I guess Athena's blads in this game), because the juggle potential from bouncing enemies is fun, but by no means helpful, as you tend to get swarmed anytime you attempt to use it. The spear and the hammer feel pointless because the Blades of Chaos is much more fun to use, and far more optimal for larger crowds. The game is built around using the Blades, so I felt like I was limiting my moveset by using any other weapon. There may be some enemey speciifc weaknesses that each weapon can take adavantage , but I never had the motivation to experiment.
The story is still solid, but I don't think it is as engaging as the first. The emotional turmoil and how that fuels Kratos's character in the first game was amazing to see, but this game seems to put that more personal look of Kratos on hold as revenge becomes the main focus. I also think this game relies heavily on the third game to complete its story, while the first game feels like a more condensed story that could have ended or continue at its finale. I've heard that the psp games lean more into what I like about the first game's story, so we will see.
I'm a fan of God of War now. I think this game solidified that. On the Ps2 in 2007, I could see why this game was so impactful to the Ps2's library. I cannot wait to see where the series goes from here.
8/10 ;)
God of War 2 was an absolutely pleasant suprise in my trip through the God of War series, and it helped me to understand why these games were praised. This game in particular feels likes an action-adventure game filled to the brim with varied and interesting levels, suprisingly fun puzzles, bosses each with their own gimmicks and solutions, with a simplistic combat system that is quite mashy. God of War 1 felt more like a half-backed hack and slash game with barely any bosses, not enough puzzles and varied level design, but a magnificient spectacle. I am so glad that the developers went into this direction rather than doubleing down on making combat the main draw.
The combat encounters have been reduced to allow platofrming, puzzles, and bosses to shine, so the combat is no where near as exhausting as the first game. The enemy variety has increased as well, adding a bit more complexity to how to take down enemies rather than your simple square square triangle spam. These levels are fantasitic. Whether be that God of War spectacle with the music and visuals, the tightly crafted tests of the new powers you achieved, or the puzzles that were fun shakeups to the pacing of the game, I was having a blast. I kept saying to myself, "oh, we are doing this now? Cool!" and I could not wait where the game took me next. The bosses were the best part of the first game, so I am glad there are way more in this game. They kinda went all-out with the first boss of the game, which really made a lot of the later bosses feel much less exciting, but still fun regardless. Bosses boiled down into straight up duels, or setpiece bosses with small little puzzle solving to take them down. The best bosses were ones that combined both of these designs, and I hope GoW 3 really plays into that.
I still have my gripes with the mashy combat. Magic is still incredibly powerful, but each magical ability felt viable in comparison to the electric power dominating the first game. Certain encounters feel near impossible (especially aon hard) without magic, and the game never refills your magic automatically at savepoints. Crowd control moves are still the way to go for most of the enemies, leading to yet again juggling and air combos to be left in the dust of the combat loop. I hope they atleast flesh out the grapple you can do with the blades of chaos (Or I guess Athena's blads in this game), because the juggle potential from bouncing enemies is fun, but by no means helpful, as you tend to get swarmed anytime you attempt to use it. The spear and the hammer feel pointless because the Blades of Chaos is much more fun to use, and far more optimal for larger crowds. The game is built around using the Blades, so I felt like I was limiting my moveset by using any other weapon. There may be some enemey speciifc weaknesses that each weapon can take adavantage , but I never had the motivation to experiment.
The story is still solid, but I don't think it is as engaging as the first. The emotional turmoil and how that fuels Kratos's character in the first game was amazing to see, but this game seems to put that more personal look of Kratos on hold as revenge becomes the main focus. I also think this game relies heavily on the third game to complete its story, while the first game feels like a more condensed story that could have ended or continue at its finale. I've heard that the psp games lean more into what I like about the first game's story, so we will see.
I'm a fan of God of War now. I think this game solidified that. On the Ps2 in 2007, I could see why this game was so impactful to the Ps2's library. I cannot wait to see where the series goes from here.
8/10 ;)