Review #507: God of War II

 Our favorite angry psychopath is back.

Welcome to die. That quote never falls out of style.

 God of War 1 was pretty flippin' good, and y'know what they say, why fix what ain't broken? And that's the mantra they went with with this game, few things have changed... for good or bad.

 Remember how the first game closed with the narration saying that Kratos would go on to live as the God of War for ever? Well, scrap that, because after being betrayed by the God of Olympus he now finds himself stripped off his godly powers and his life... until a new benefactor joins the scene: Visit the sisters of fate and change your fate by going back in time and taking the Blade of Olympus, the sword that Zeus used to slay the Titans and that now holds Kratos' godly powers, for himself and exact your bloody vengeance upon Zeus. The story is much more straightforward than before, which isn't necessarily bad, but it has a few interesting turns of events. I guess everyone know by now that the game ends on a very nasty cliffhanger, so nasty that God of War 3 picks up exactly where this one left off.

A lot of cyclops were harmed during the making of this game.

 The brunt of the game remains the same as the first game: Weak slash and strong slash attacks, dodging by tilting the right analog stick, blocking and parrying, defeat enemies to collect red orbs to spend on upgrading your weapons and stats, etc. Most of Kratos' moves are exactly the same as they were in the first game, although he gains a few new ones, which, honestly, I didn't really use since the returning attacks are so good. Kratos still has access to magic, albeit his four spells are now different... although you still have a projectile spell and a petrifying spell, so you'll be right at home here. Pressing both analog sticks gave you Rage of the Gods, but now you have Rage of the Titans, which is basically the same: You are invulnerable and stronger for a short while.There're still QTE finishers if you decide to off enemies with grab attacks, as well as mandatory QTEs to finish almost every boss battle. Same ol', same ol'. It worked great the first time around and it still does. To the game's credit, the combat feels a bit tighter and smoother

 The previous game gave you an alternate weapon which was pretty neat... but now you get three! The Hammer, the Spear of Destiny and the Blade of Olympus, which you get on the very last boss so you'll probably only get to use it during a New Game+. Each weapon has their own moveset and style, which is pretty cool. Something that the game does very well is how it handles rewards: You'll get a new move or a new weapon pretty frequently, which helps keep the player engaged. You'll get the ability to slow down time when close to Fates' statues, which helps in combat and to solve puzzles, you'll get the ability to glide as well as the ability to reflect projectiles. Remember how the Medusas would try to petrify you? Now you can reflect their gaze and turn tables around. Yes, there're no truly groundbreaking additions to the game, but these few new abilities do add some spice to the game.

The Cerberus returns, but they are not as tough as they used to be.

 The previous game masterfully mixed combat with puzzle solving, so that you were never doing the same things for a long while and this game is no exception. The puzzles are easier than before, and I'm pretty sure that there's more battling than puzzles, but this game introduced a few boss battles that are actually puzzle bosses and are defeated by figuring out how to defeat them, rather than mashing square and triangle. I preferred the usual hack-and-slash bosses, but the few new puzzle-bosses add a new twist to the game. Beating the game also unlocks challenge arenas, just like the first game, which require both brawn and brawls.

 And now it's time for a few nitpicks: You can't turn on subtitles, which sucks. Beating the game let's you use different costumes, if you unlock them, but there's a few caveats, namely, they alter your stats. Want to use the Hydra armor? Tough luck, now you get more defense but less attack power. The God of War armor looks cool, right? Well, it makes you stronger and sturdier which might not be what you want. In my opinion, costumes are better if they are just cosmetics.

That's just the first boss. The game is every bit the visual spectacle that the first game was.

 God of War 2 is a fantastic game, but only a little teeny tiny bit better than the first game. A lot of fluff was added to make exploration more diverse: Gliding with your newfound wings, reflecting projectiles to open up doors, stopping time.... but that's all it really is: Fluff. The new additions to the combat are neat too, the new weapons are dope, even if I favored the Blades of Athena most of the time and getting to reflect projectiles in combat added a fun new twist to it.... but, but the game would've been almost just as good without them, because the game is better for it. The thing is... this was probably the safest way to go about making a sequel, since God of War 1 was already fantastic and changing things just for the sake of change rarely works well. As it stands, God of War II did what it had to do really well.
 9.0 out of 10