God of war II review

Kratos is as crazy as ever in God of War II for the Playstation II, for players of the the original game this will be recognised as more of the same, if you are new to the series, now is a really good time to jump in and start ripping off some heads. The God of War series started just a couple of years ago and turned out to be a real gem, it's always nice to play a great action adventure game where you can semi mindlessly kill hundreds of dudes in some fast paced action. God of War delivered it and now God of War does the same, new creatures, new weapons, more killing. It's not all about Kratos' rage though, often you'll find a door you can't get open, or a ledge you can't reach, this is where the puzzle elements come into play to slow you down and give you a short break before the killing resumes. People who would avoid the Zelda series for it's puzzle nature need not fear this element of GOWII's gameplay, puzzles are brief and simple usually involving you pushing a block onto a switch or just testing your timing so you avoid some spinning blades. These pauses are pretty infrequent and short and play a lesser part than they did in the first GOW, the balance feels about right and any puzzles are usually solved long before they become frustrating, although I seem to have some problem in identifying walls that can be climbed.

Large amounts of enemies are no problems for an angry Kratos

One of the improvements over the first game is the graphics, there are some new effects and what feels like a slightly improved art style. The first game was definitely not bad to look at, but when you put the high def cheat on the game looks more like a current gen title rather than last gen, the PlayStation 2 is really pushed to it's limits. The high def mode is a strange one, you have to hold down a series of buttons as the game starts to activate this and it's not available in the European version as the space on the disk is required for the extra languages available. Not having the high def in Europe is a shame, but it shouldn't deter anyone from experiencing this game, the graphics still look great without it. GOWII also features the same style of cinematic cut-scenes as the first, with similar high quality. The overall graphical presentation is a high class package all the way.

Magic powers will be unlocked throughout the course of the game and leveled up

Boss fights come at you throughout the game, you'll find that on average you'll have one of these fights every hour or so throughout the 13-14 hour game. Right from the get-go you'll encounter the Colossus of Rhodes this is one of the largest and most impressive boss battles of the game, it really helps set the pace for the whole experience. The other battles vary from single one-on-one battles to other large scale battles like the giant Kraken. These battles vary as much in impressiveness as they do in difficulty, playing through on medium I often found I fell to some bosses 4-5 times before I claimed a victory, it wasn't overly frustrating and felt to be the right degree of challenge. When you're not fighting bosses or solving puzzles then the minions will be keeping you busy, these vary as much as the bosses, some can be ripped up with just a couple hits, where as others you'll need to use a little strategy and slowly work them down until you can finish them with a few context sensitive button presses.

Fighting some of the larger creatures can be tricky, epically when there is more than one

A few RPG elements appear in GOWII as they did in the original, these are noting major but rather than the same endless fighting the character improvement system does make it feel like you are achieving a goal rather than just furthering the plot. You'll start with just the ability to just improve your Blades of Athena, but as you earn new weapons and skills you'll be able to upgrade them also. This includes new attacks, more damage, combos, and with the skills you'll collect you'll be able to drop more balls of lightning or just in general increase the effectiveness of your magic. This also increases re-playability since you'll keep your red orbs (that are used to level up) when you start a new game, so you can play through with a different strategy and different weapons. As well as testing out new weapons you may find yourself crawling through the game a second time to find the 6 hidden urns which will grant new abilities and cheat like skills, such as infinite magic.

The scale of some of the areas is just fantastic

Overall GOWII improves on it's predecessor, fans of the original will love it, and fans of this game type will find it one of the best of it's class.

Graphics 10 Gameplay 9 Sound 9 Length 8 Overall score 9

Great graphics Fast action gameply Huge levels and bosses Battles can get repetitive