Kratos, a brutally violent Greek soldier, tortured by the memories of his past, has taken the throne as the new God of War and is a very angry and vengeful god. While leading a massacre through a city protected by Athena, Kratos is betrayed by his fellow gods and murdered by Zeus who is wielding the legendary Blade of Olympus. As the arms of Hades prepare to take him into the underworld the fallen god is saved by the titan Gaia. Gaia gives Kratos new life and sends him on a mission to change his fate, a task in which no god or man has ever been successful at. You play as Kratos and fight your way through countless hoards of monsters from Greek Mythology in an attempt to locate the temple of the Sisters of Fate, find the Blade of Olympus which holds your godly powers and take your revenge on Zeus himself. After being betrayed by the gods of Olympus and annulled of his divine powers, Kratos must embark on a journey to meet the Sisters of Fate and take his revenge on Olympus. I don't like to give 10s, to me 10 out of 10 suggests perfection. Well, if there's anything that comes close, it's this game. I'm a huge fan of the first game, and as a seasoned gamer I can honestly say that the first level of the first game and the battle with the Hydra is one of my most memorable gaming experiences. The moment where Kratos is climbing the rope ladder on his way to take on the last (and easily biggest) Hydra head as the music beats out a score that is on par with some of John Williams' creations and as you climb you follow the neck going up… and up… and up… I was totally blown away. The scene was set perfectly, and the action throughout the rest of the game never let up. You'd think nothing can get more epic than the cinematic brilliance of God of War. Needless to say, I couldn't wait for number 2. Have they outdone themselves? Most certainly.<br/><br/>Kratos is an evil guy. No doubt about it. He has to be, because it really makes you believe that he's tough and stubborn enough to take on everything that he comes up against, even death… with a bit of help, of course. Bottom line - you don't want to cross him, or he'll make you pay. Never during this game will you be saying 'yeah right, he could never beat that', Kratos is a guy who is tirelessly fueled by being wronged and getting revenge at any cost. How can one man (former God, granted) take down the divinely-animated and superpowered Colossus of Rhodes? This is what makes him one of the most fun characters to play in any video game, ever. Each time you battle something, anything, in the game, from the smallest foe to the hugest behemoth, you know you're getting your money's worth. Just like the first game, almost every battle will end in a violent, totally brutal cinematic as Kratos dispatches anything that dares challenge him in the most horrible way you can think of, and it's these sequences that give the game its greatest strength. I never tire of seeing a hapless demon-type thing get it's own axe-wielding arm ripped off and said axe, still being held by said arm, impaling the demon's head… and this is only a very minor, quite common cinematic. <br/><br/>All the spectacular moves from the first game are here, with some entertaining new weapons and awesome new Godly powers thrown in, and all can be upgraded to make them more versatile and powerful, and the good thing is, they are all useful and fun. On the harder difficulty settings the game can become quite tactical, especially during the boss fights, as each one is fought in several stages until you finally wear the boss down and the final cinematic onslaught can begin. Victory can come down to what power you use, and when, along with how you manage your power meters, which is very refreshing in a pure action game like this. Sure you can use the same moves over and over, and the trusty Athena's Blades are probably still the most useful weapon in the game, but hopefully you'll find this won't get you as far as you'd think and also, where's the fun? The sound is incredible, fully digital 5.1 surround supported. If you have the means, this is definitely what you want the game to be running on. Each slash and swing of the blades and earth shaking crash and thump are spot-on, and the utterly impressive music score effortlessly complements the action and the epic scale of the game. Graphics are top notch, much more polished than the first game (can you believe it?), and really show what the PS2 can do. The environments are huge and immensely detailed - the camera angles, the jaw-dropping scenery… this is cinematic gaming at its best. I know I keep using that word - cinematic, but that's the best word to describe the game in it's entirety. All the characters are equally detailed and beautifully animated. Kratos himself moves with much more fluidity than the first game. This game definitely would not look out of place on the PS2's bigger brother as it stands at the moment, and that's really saying something. You can run the game on a PS3 and while this does give the graphics a noticeable boost, especially on a HD TV, the differences are negligible and the game still looked ridiculously awesome running with my PS2 and my 80cm curved-screen (yes, not even flat-screen) CRT TEAC. A bigger screen definitely helps, and with a game as epic as this, it's definitely a case of the bigger the better.<br/><br/>As with the first, the game's creators' passion for making such a memorable game really shines through, as does their passion for the classical mythology on which the game is based, and yes, I'm a big fan of that too. They really do it justice. You can tell they loved every second of making this game, and they should be very proud of their achievement. Kratos only knows what they're gonna do with the power of the PS3 to work with for the third instalment, though while after playing through and seeing the end of this game you might (like me) be shouting 'BRING ON THE THIRD", let's hope they take their time to make something even more special. After what they've done with this game on the now pre-generation PS2, it definitely should be. Yes, Kratos is back and he is the God of War. At least for a couple of minutes into the game he is. It really is not all that long before he is stripped of his godly powers so that he can defeat this giant statue with this really powerful sword. Well this turns out to be a trick by the king of the gods himself, Zeus and Kratos is killed. However, this is only the beginning, with the aid of Gaia one of the titans Kratos begins a search for the sisters of fate in a quest to undo the betrayal by Zeus and to kill Zeus. You get to go through more levels this time as there is less backtracking than there normally is in a game like this. So the game stays fresh throughout. Then you get to see other characters from Greek mythology and you normally get to see Kratos rip them apart in very unpleasant ways. There are a couple of good boss fights in this one, most you have to figure some trick to defeat them. At one point when I was fighting the Kraken I just could not figure out why it was not dying, then I figured out the trick necessary to kill him. The fighting is pretty much the same as the first game, but then if it is not broke do not fix it. Though as with the first game they give you extra weapons, but the default blades are still the best. All the other weapons just tend to lag while with the default ones, combat is so much smoother. Though there are a couple of really nice spells in this one as the earthquake spell really did some damage. The game is not perfect though, there are one to many timing puzzles that drove me crazy, and the game is once again on the short side. Still, it is nice to play a game that is not tailored to the online crowd and I am hoping that God of War III is also just a very grand single player adventure.
Wendephi replied
293 weeks ago