The true magic sauce binding the God of War II experience together is its pacing. The magic trick is pairing of the loud, brutish and outrageous maximalism with soft and still quiet time.
Your first boss fight starts almost immediately. Its a long, multi stage, multi arena affair featuring gratuitous violence, a towering colossus and combos on combos on combos. Kratos is betrayed and then double crossed by two different gods, shoots himself out of a catapult to stab a giant, kills a few hundred soldiers with flair, and then dies taking a god powered sword to the gut by Zeus himself. This is the opening hour. The game is energy all the time, every which way. But the most striking part of the design isn’t any of that bombast, but instead just how seriously God of War II takes its quiet time and how it weaves those moments into a larger sequence.
For small sections, here and there, the noise and energy of the game’s world will abate. Sometimes to near silence. The enemies stop spawning, the music subsides and a chest usually waits to replenish your health while, more often than not, a puzzle blocks your way forward. The puzzles range from the simple get-the-box-over-there variety to the “What the hell am I missing?” head scratchers. Its a drastic change of pace these quick breaths of safety sprinkled into each sequence and a way to reset the tension to start building it again in a new way.
My favorite aspect of these quiet times is just how sudden they can appear. The very first quiet moment Kratos enjoys only comes immediately after being hurled across the city and breaking through several stone floors to the bottom of some poor Athenian tower. And likewise, rest times can end just as abrupt leading directly into a boss you will fight at least a dozen times, or an intense platforming session. Or it might just be an ambush. Eventually the puzzles may start trying to kill you back. Nevertheless, a true respite always seems to come at the right time. The designers knew when to give the player some relief and when to push a little more. Its these small, quiet times scattered in just the right places that keep the pacing tight and fast without getting exhausting. Its that pacing that, in my opinion, makes the whole thing work.
God of War II is fast. Sequences are dense and constantly trying to outdo themselves . Kratos does not speak. He yells. And the game yells back, but no matter the pressure, you’ll find that next quiet spot right where it should be, take a deep breath and then power through.
Your first boss fight starts almost immediately. Its a long, multi stage, multi arena affair featuring gratuitous violence, a towering colossus and combos on combos on combos. Kratos is betrayed and then double crossed by two different gods, shoots himself out of a catapult to stab a giant, kills a few hundred soldiers with flair, and then dies taking a god powered sword to the gut by Zeus himself. This is the opening hour. The game is energy all the time, every which way. But the most striking part of the design isn’t any of that bombast, but instead just how seriously God of War II takes its quiet time and how it weaves those moments into a larger sequence.
For small sections, here and there, the noise and energy of the game’s world will abate. Sometimes to near silence. The enemies stop spawning, the music subsides and a chest usually waits to replenish your health while, more often than not, a puzzle blocks your way forward. The puzzles range from the simple get-the-box-over-there variety to the “What the hell am I missing?” head scratchers. Its a drastic change of pace these quick breaths of safety sprinkled into each sequence and a way to reset the tension to start building it again in a new way.
My favorite aspect of these quiet times is just how sudden they can appear. The very first quiet moment Kratos enjoys only comes immediately after being hurled across the city and breaking through several stone floors to the bottom of some poor Athenian tower. And likewise, rest times can end just as abrupt leading directly into a boss you will fight at least a dozen times, or an intense platforming session. Or it might just be an ambush. Eventually the puzzles may start trying to kill you back. Nevertheless, a true respite always seems to come at the right time. The designers knew when to give the player some relief and when to push a little more. Its these small, quiet times scattered in just the right places that keep the pacing tight and fast without getting exhausting. Its that pacing that, in my opinion, makes the whole thing work.
God of War II is fast. Sequences are dense and constantly trying to outdo themselves . Kratos does not speak. He yells. And the game yells back, but no matter the pressure, you’ll find that next quiet spot right where it should be, take a deep breath and then power through.