God of War 2 is simply put one of the best action games ever made. It's the perfect game for the PS2 to end with a bang.
I know this game came out months ago and many of you have played this game, but I thought why not review it. The game is a continuation of the first game. It takes place right after the first game. Kratos is back better than before… is now the new God of War. He commands the Spartan army for one reason… he desires world domination. Taking over every city by city. The gods are in chaos over Kratos because of his actions. Even Athena herself tries to warn Kratos, but doesn’t care for what she said. After he descends down to the city of Rhodes to deliver the final blow… Until one of the gods betrayed and kills you and makes you no longer a god. While your body descends to Hades, an unknown person resurrects you and tells you that you must journey to the ends of the earth and seek out the sisters of fate in order to change your destiny. There have been many huge improvements that they made over the last game. The biggest thing I believe that one of the biggest changes is more boss battles. In the first game there were 3 boss battles, and I think a few mini bosses. Here in this game there are around a dozen boss battles, and they are simply put awesome! You will fight against enemies that if you know your Greek Mythology will definitely recognize or realize whom your fighting. Some are huge epic scale fights, and some are one on one fight with other people. I like how they have different varieties of boss battles.
Another great feature is the magic’s. I believe they are better than last game, they look better, and this time you can move around while using the magic’s you use to aim with. For example if you remember the first game when you had Zeus lighting bolts, you couldn’t move while you fire them. Well here when you get the Typhoon Bane, you can fire and move around. The same thing with the gaze, you can turn enemies to stone, while free to move around, as you like. Like before you have 4 magic’s which you use the d-pad to choose from. You do start off with Poseidon’s Rage, and you able to use this magic on bonus play when you unlock it. The 4 magic’s you received are these: The Typhoon Bane, which is a bow that that lets you target your enemies from a distance. Cronos Rage, which lets you create lighting attack that can target many enemies and build up your hits really high. The Euryale Gaze that turns your enemies into stone and it is an improvement of the medusa’s gaze. The last one to mentioned is the awesome Atlas Quake, which is like an earthquake attack that is perfect to use if you are surrounded by a group of enemies, and very useful against bigger foes. This is one of the best attacks magic’s to use…especially once it is fully powered up. Once this magic is fully powered, you first do a huge quake attack, and then Kratos will start punching the ground, releasing a lot of huge rocks that will damage your opponents very well, then do another big quake attack. The magic’s are amazing improvements, and are a sight to see.
Everyone remembers that there was only one main weapon and a sub weapon, which was the blade of artemis. It was this huge blade that was powerful, but wasn’t very useful, so people stick with the blades of chaos. Well now you have your main weapon and 3 excellent sub weapons, and the best part of it is you only have to tap the R2 button and it changes to your sub weapon right away. I do mean excellent because you will be using these weapons a lot in your adventure. Each sub weapons have their strengths and weaknesses and I like that because it evens all the weapons out and you wont be using just one sub weapon. Lets talk about the sub weapons.
You have the Athena Blades, which you will be using the most since they are your main weapons. Later on you get the Barbarian Hammer, which is very slow and you can’t roll, but it is hands down the most powerful weapon of the 4. Then you will get the Spear of Destiny, which has great moves, and an awesome launcher and air combo. This weapon is perfect for you to put your enemy in the air to set up an air combo. The last sub weapon to mention is the Blade of Olympus, which is a very powerful weapon with good combos (especially when its fully powered, which cost a lot). Each weapon has a series of combos and special moves that will help you demolish your enemies. I heard that people though the puzzles in the first god of war were a little too easy. Well the puzzles here do actually require more thinking. There was even one puzzle that took me quite some time to finished. They are more challenging, and take more time to solve. If you played the first game, you will remember the Rage of the Gods. When activated, it makes you very powerful and can perform moves that were amazing. But the huge problem with this is that it takes forever to fill up that meter and once you use it, you cant shut it off on demand, you have to use it all up at once. Well that isn’t the case here. While on your adventure, you get the Rage of the Titans. I believe it is a huge improvement over the Rage of the Gods and I think it looks way cooler than before and here is why. When you activate it, you will be engulf in flames and then can perform freaking incredible moves, you cannot be stunned from any hit, your way more durable than you are playing regularly, and unlike the first game, it fills up quicker, and you can shut off the rage of the titans or activate it at anytime you wish. Once you power up your blades all the way, the rage of the titans will be more powerful than before. When you tap the block button, you can create a huge inferno tornado that will literally tear your enemies to shreds…that depends on how big your combo is. The bigger your combo is, the bigger the tornado will be. Awesome move!
Speaking of powering up, lets speak on that for a second. Like before you must find red orbs and create huge combos to fill up your orb meter so you can level up your weapons and magic’s. Only this time, it will take you quite some time to fill it up, because they take a lot more orbs than the first game, and you have a lot of stuff to power up. You got the Athena’s blades, which go up to level 5, and you got your 3 other sub weapons that go up to level 3, and your 4 magics, which go up to level 3. So like I said before it will takes some time, but that’s the beauty of it. Here are a few more abilities that are new to use in God of War 2. First one ill talk about is the Amulet of the fates. This amulet lets you freezes time, everything will be moving in slow motion while Kratos will be moving at regular speed. Great to use to get the upper hand on you enemies and can be used as many time, as you want. The only thing is that it can only be used when the statue with the green symbol is on screen, and lasted for a brief moment. Another ability is the Golden Fleece, which helps you reflect projectiles that are thrown at you from enemies, and reflects attacks as well if you time it right. For example if you block at the perfect time when the gorgon tries to turn you to stone. It reflects back right to her, and turns her into stone as well as everything else that are hit by the reflection blast. It also reflects arrows, fireballs, and will help you solve some puzzles and pathways. Another ability is a new thing you can do with your chain blades. Whenever you see a white glowing shape, Kratos has the ability to throw his chain up to it and swing to get to his destination. It works smoothly, One that you’ll be very grateful to use is the Wings of Icarus. They allowed you to glide for a brief period of time, and to help you proceed throughout the game. But be careful, you can only use them for so long at a time, cause they will dissolve. It is an awesome feature because it helps you with certain jumps, can be used for attacks, and it blends in well with the Greek Mythology theme. Speaking of Greek Mythology theme, a brand new feature in the game is to be able to ride the Pegasus. It’s a neat way for how it helps you to get to point A to point B, and the Pegasus scenes are thrilling and a lot of fun. I remember hearing from some people that the first God of War was a little bit on the easy side. Well that isn’t the story here because this is quite a challenging game. But it is a great challenge because even though it might be hard at points, you still want to try to beat it while still having fun.
God of War 2 now haves a brand new difficulty mode called Titan Mode. You can only unlock this mode once you complete the game. Let me tell you this folks, this is one of the hardest things I have ever beaten in gaming. It’s so hard that first time beating it, I died 75 times. So if you’re really looking for a challenge, bon appetite. Like before, the controls for the game are excellent. The combat system like before is simple to learn, but difficult to master. That’s what I always love about the god of war franchise is that the learning curve isn’t difficult at all. You can perform a ton of moves that are not only awesome to do to your enemies and are easy to do because it is so well organized, but they are eye candy. Watching you performed movies that combined your weapons and sub weapons, your magic’s, and your rage of the titans, and all of the many moves that you can show of, it’s really is amazing to see. One of my favorite gameplay elements in the game is the level design. It fits so well in keeping with the tune of Greek mythology. It looks amazing, and it keeps up with the pace of the overall game. And the best part of it is there’s tons of variety for you to see on your travels to seek the sisters. My favorite level in the game takes place on a titan. That’s right, you literally climb on a gigantic titan. It’s a site to see.
The Last and certainly not least is the mini games. Like before when your enemy or boss character is near death, a circle icon appears above your head, if you can grab your enemy…it lets you play a button sequence to finish your enemies. People remember how cool, unique, and simply put awesome the kills were. Well, this game has some of the best finishing moves I have seen in a game. They are over the top, satisfying, unique, and really funny. Also there are so many finishing movies in this games that it will take me forever to name them all…so instead here are a sample of my favorites: Ripping out the eye of the Cyclops, ripping an enemies arm off and smashing it right threw his head, stabbing with both blades right underneath the juggernauts and flipping over to rip his head off, taking the weapon away and using it against them. All of the “circle” kills are awesome and it never gets old.
Once you beaten the game, you have the option to play the game over with all of the weapons, orbs and magic’s that you collected the first time you played through called bonus play. You can also pick a different costume to try out as well and there are numerous kinds. Also this mode will help you level up all of your weapons and magic’s. However this only works on the difficulty that’s the same or lower, not on a harder difficulty. When you think about it, it actually makes perfect sense.
With all of the new content, very useful and new items, an enhanced combat system with better magic’s, weapons, new moves, and amazing boss battles, you can’t go wrong with the sequel. It is really amazing on how much they can cram so much awesome material and yet still keep it perfectly organized. Graphics
I said before that Metal Gear Solid 3 had hands down the best visuals on the Playstation 2. Except for now. That’s right, this is the best looking game I have ever played on this system. Even better looking than the original god of war, which was excellent. The characters, and enemies are way more detailed and the cutscenes are just incredible to see. Also when playing the game, I literally hand to stop playing for a moment, just to look at how amazing these huge big screen shots were. Ill end it with this, games just don’t look as good as this on the Playstation 2. Audio
Just like last game, the musical score is epic; it flows with the action perfectly, the sound effects are right on the spot, and the voice-overs are even better than before. Once again you have TC Carson as Kratos, and this time he has a lot more dialog and sounds better than the first game. Linda Hunt once again as the narrator, which will please fans from the first game. You got Michael Clarke Duncan as the Titan Atlas. Even Harry Hamlin (whom you know as Perseus in the film clash of the titans) reprises his role as Perseus in this game. What an awesome cameo! Just brilliant!
Replay
If you remember, the first God of War game was a little bit short. When I finished it, it ranged from around 10-12 hours first time playing through. Well in God of War 2, it is longer. First time playing through took me a little over 15 hours or so. Also there are a great amount of features to unlock. For example, finding the Urns that are scattered throughout the game. If you find one, it unlocked an ability that you can only use on your bonus play. Another one is very original and unique. The way you kill the Cyclops is awesome, one of the best kills in the game when you rip out his eye. If you collect enough Cyclops eyes, you will unlock a costume. So like I said before a good amount of stuff to unlock.
Here once again they have the challenge missions. Here it is the Challenge of the Titans. The big difference between the first game and this one is this, unlike the first one where you have to complete all 10 of them at once, not one at a time, which was very frustrating. This time you play one challenge at a time. Here there are 7 challenges for you to complete instead of 10, but they are very difficult to complete. After you complete them, they rank you on how well you did on this challenge. You can play them as many times as you wish to try to get the titan ranking. Once you get an overall titan ranking on all of them combined, you will unlock the Arena of the Fates.
This mode lets you set up your own fight against any enemy or enemies you want to face. You set up the health, magic, and titan rage. This is a good mode to have fun, or to help you practice to get better.
Like the first game, you can try out new costumes and play through out the game. Some outfits have their own positives, negatives, and a special ability. For example one character ability is the rage of the titans; another one is strength, or health…you see what I mean. The costumes, they have great variety to try out and have fun with.
Like the first game, it acted like a DVD, which had a great amount of extras. Well here it is a 2-disc set. The first game is the game, and the second disc includes all of the special features of the game. It is packed with extras such as the making of the game, voice over, deletes scenes, the voiceovers, and a lot more…when I was watching this I was wondering why don’t most games have these feature.
So overall the replay value is excellent. You got the 4 difficulty modes, which you will be playing through again to power up all of your gear. You got the urns to find throughout the game. All of the costumes are available for you to try out once you unlock them. And you have the challenge of the titans for you to accomplish, and the arena of the fates for you to either have fun or practice on. Then you got the second disc to check out the special features so you got a lot to work with. You’ll be playing this for a long time for one reason, this game is just so much fun!
Flaws
The only flaw I can think of…well it is actually a positive and a negative, let me explain. The new Titan Mode is one of the hardest difficulties I have ever played in my life. It actually almost took me as long as it did to beat the game the first time through. I died around 75 times, and if you try it out…you might feel like this mode maybe impossible to beat. However on the positive side of it, once you beat a certain part of the game that you were stuck on, it feels like you accomplish something, and feel you must continue to try to beat it. Once you beat it, you will want to try to beat it again and again. Basically it is a challenge that you will want to try to complete and it does help you become a better player at this game, and now this is the mode I always play it on. Other than that…you know what folks, I really can’t think of another flaw to this game.
Conclusion
God of War 2 is simply put one of the best action games of all time, and probably the best game to buy for your PS2. The presentation alone is worth the purchase because of its amazing scope, fantastic storytelling, amazing audio, and it has hands down the best graphics for the Playstation 2. If you are a fan of the god of war games, or you love action adventure, you simply must go out and buy this game immediately. This game not only live up to the expectations, but also proceed to be better than the original. This is everything that you could of ever wanted in a sequel. Like I said before, this is the perfect game for the Playstation 2 to go out with a bang.