God of War II
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God of War II is a third person action-adventure video game developed by Santa Monica Studio and published by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE). First released for the PlayStation 2 console on March 13, 2007, it is the second installment in the God of War series, the sixth chronologically, and the sequel to 2005's God of War.
Summery
Taking place after the first game, Kratos goes on a quest to find the Sisters of Fate and defeat Zeus.
Why It Rocks
- The game makes many improvements over the original.
- The game is relatively less difficult than the first one.
- The puzzle sections are less frustrating.
- Leveling up is less of a hassle especially with the Blades since they were the most expensive thing to upgrade.
- "Rage of the Titans" power can be turned on and off at any time, while the "Rage of the Gods" could only be used after fully charged and quickly used up after activation, meaning it had to be used sparingly.
- The game introduces lots of new weapons, magic, and relics.
- Weapons:
- Athena's Blades: Magical blades Bestowed on Kratos by the goddess Athena. They function as the same weapon as the Blades of Chaos, but these were given to Kratos as he ascends to Godhood by Athena, and after Ares had taken the Blades of Chaos from Kratos during the final battle in God of War. Weakest of the other weapons, the Blades of Athena are still fast and reliable in close combat.
- Barbarian Hammer: A slow but powerful close combat weapon originally wielded by the Barbarian King. With it, Kratos can deliver powerful slams and smashes, and also summon legions of souls.
- Spear of Destiny: A weapon originally used by the Dark Rider. With it Kratos can perform deadly swipes and stabs, and can also fire dangerous piercing projectiles at enemies.
- Blade of Olympus: A divine sword so powerful it was the blade that allowed Zeus to defeat the Titans it can also harm and kill other Gods. The weapon can be powered up with experience orbs to increase its power and add new attacks. However, the Blade of Olympus, normally a weapon provided solely by plot developments, can only be used during the fight with the Colossus, fighting Zeus in the last bit of gameplay, and via Bonus Play.
- Magic
- Poseidon's Rage: This is a magic from the first God of War game. Kratos uses it in the first part of the game (at Rhodes) but then loses it upon losing his godly powers. However, Kratos can use this through the Urn of Poseidon. (WIR #7)
- Typhon's Bane: A magical bow and arrow-like weapon that allows Kratos to fire rapid blasts of wind.
- Cronos' Rage: An attack using electricity to strike multiple targets via orbs of lightning. Higher levels spread farther and attack more targets, and even create an explosion at the end of its duration.
- Head of Euryale: The severed head of Euryale, which can be used to turn enemies to stone (similar to the Medusa's Gaze from the first game, however, the Head of Euryale is powerful enough to turn other Gorgons to stone).
- Atlas Quake: A wide area ground pounding attack in which Kratos summons strong earthquakes and rocky debris.
- Relics
- Rage of the Titans: This power is gained from Prometheus, which is similar to the "Rage of the Gods" from the first game. This power can only be activated initially when a meter has been filled either due to Kratos dealing damage or collecting Gold Orbs. Activating the power increases Kratos' attack power for a short time and also allows him to take less damage from enemy attacks. The player is allowed to activate and deactivate Rage of the Titans whenever they wish, unlike Rage of the Gods which had to be fully charged and then could only be fully drained.
- Amulet of the Fates: A relic that allows Kratos to slow down time when close to a Fates Statue.
- Golden Fleece: A golden armlet which Kratos can use to reflect directed shots back at their sender.
- Icarus Wings: A pair of feathered wings that Kratos takes from Icarus. With them, he can glide short distances after jumping.
- Weapons:
- The graphics look amazing with it being one of the best looking games on the PlayStation 2.
- Great story that shows how Kratos would eventually turn against the gods themselves and shows that Kratos plans to destroy all of Olympus.
- Awesome soundtrack.
- Incredible bosses, additionally, there are now fifthteen bosses to defeat (unlike the first game, which only had four bosses).
- Colossus of Rhodes
- Typhon
- Dark Rider and Dark Griffin
- Theseus
- Wild Cerberus
- Barbarian King (Alrik)
- Mole Cerberus
- Euryale
- Perseus
- Icarus
- The Last Spartan
- Kraken
- The Sisters of Fate battle 1: Lahkesis &Atropos
- The Sisters of Fate battle 2: Clotho
- Zeus
- Just like before there are costumes to unlock when beating the game under certain conditions.
- Cod of War: When used, Kratos is shown wearing a blue fish costume, and his Blades of Athena are replaced with a pair of fishhooks. Wearing this costume doubles the value of any Orbs Kratos collects. His strength and defense remain the same.
- Hydra Armor: Wearing this costume doubles Kratos' armor, and the value of any Green, Blue, and Gold Orbs that he collects. However, this costume also depletes Kratos' overall strength by half.
- Dark Odyssey: This costume shows Kratos as quite an evil individual from the outside, as well as the inside by making his skin all black, his eyes solid white and his tattoos bright gold. His clothes also don the black/gold theme. Wearing this costume doubles Kratos' strength, and also greatly increases the value of any Red Orbs he collects. However, this costume also depletes Kratos' overall defense by half.
- Athena: By beating the game on the hardest difficulty, the character model for God of War is changed from Kratos to Athena. Kratos' Blades of Athena are also changed to Athena's dual battle swords. Wearing this costume gives Kratos a massive boost in the value of any Green or Blue Orbs he collects, and also doubles the value of collected Red Orbs. At the same time however, wearing this costume also gives Kratos a small decrease in defense.
- Hercules: By beating the game on the hardest difficulty the character model changes from Kratos to Hercules. Wearing this costume gives Kratos a 50% increase in strength, but also reduces his armor by half. All of Kratos' other stats stay the same.
- General Kratos: This costume shows Kratos' aspect before he murdered his family, and his skin was covered with their ashes. It appears similar to Kratos' standard appearance, except that his skin is normal colored, opposed to its "ghostly" white. Also, the Blades of Athena retain their blue skin, seen also in the God Armor. Wearing this costume greatly increases the value of any Red Orbs Kratos obtains. His strength and armor, however, are reduced in half, and the value of any Green Orbs, Blue Orbs, and Gold Orbs he obtains are greatly reduced. With almost all of Kratos's stats being reduced in half, this costume could be considered the worst costume in the whole game. Although many players nickname it the "Challenge Armor" as it does weaken Kratos overall by half, it implements that players need to strategize and time in order to beat the harder difficulties.
- God Armor: Wearing this costume doubles all of Kratos' stats, making it the most advantageous costume in the game. The God of War Armor here is unlocked by receiving a ranking of "God" or better in Challenge of the Titans.
- Throughout the game, the player can find Urns that grant special abilities when playing New Game+.
- Urn of Gaia: Gain ten times the normal amount of Red Orbs.
- Urn of the Gorgons: Weapons' attacks will turn enemies into stone on contact.
- Urn of Olympus: Grants Infinite Magic.
- Urn of Prometheus: Grants Infinite Rage of the Titans.
- Urn of the Fates: Extends the time of the combo meter allowing longer combos and slows down enemies for a few seconds.
- Urn of Poseidon: Allows Cronos' Rage to be replaced with Poseidon's Rage magic.
- Even better story than the first one along with better characters, with elements to prepare for the franchises' universe without feeling forced.
- There is now New Game+ which allows Kratos to use and upgrade Blade of Olympus as well use his equipment from the player's last save.
- Challenge of the Titans, which is an improved version of "Challenge of the Gods" with you being able to choose what challenge you want to play without having to play them all in one playthrough.
- Great voice acting with Terrence C. Carson clearly being much more comfortable in the role of Kratos.
- Incredible ending that sets up God of War III.
Bad Qualities
- The game creates several plot holes (Some of them were resolved with the PSP games, but few of them were left unresolved).
- Atlas claims that Kratos is responsible for having him hold the world up, however this is the first time we've ever seen Atlas in the games. This was resolved in God of War: Chains of Olympus.
- The most common point brought up is towards the end of the game when Kratos is given the power to go back in time. He's able to go back and attack Zeus after trying to kill him and even bring the Titans to destroy Olympus. If Kratos can go back in time, why doesn't he just stop himself from killing his family?
- Similarly, why does Kratos never see someone sucker-punch Zeus since present day Kratos shows up after his past self is impaled?
- It's implied that Zeus destroyed Sparta and all the Spartans, but Kratos stopped Zeus before he could destroy all the Spartans and Zeus had yet to destroy Sparta when Kratos went back in time.
- Switching weapons can be a burden since you can only carry 2 weapons, one of which is the blades of Athena (your main weapon). Switching to other weapons requires you to go to the orb menu.
- The original PS2 version suffers from screen tearing, usually when running around highly detailed areas, or fighting a boss or a large amount of enemies.
- Missed Opportunities:
- Typhon could have made for an epic boss fight, and instead he's just a lame giant that does nothing but blow at the Player(s) in attempt to push them off the edge.
- On that note, Icarus could have also made for a great boss fight, but all his fight amounts to is a series of button presses and quick-time events while falling in the abyss.
- The game spends far more time setting up for the encounter with the Sisters of Fate than it does building up to Kratos fighting Zeus. And yet, the game itself largely treats them as stepping stones when they could have easily worked as the main villains, considering they are effectively responsible for everything that's happened to him in his life.
- Typhon could have made for an epic boss fight, and instead he's just a lame giant that does nothing but blow at the Player(s) in attempt to push them off the edge.
- There are a number of frustrating levels.
- There's the part where you have to protect the Translator. It basically involves carrying around the ultimate Squishy Wizard on your back and trying to protect him from the game's most frustrating Demonic Spiders, the Satyrs and the Minotaur Priests, enemies you would be lucky enough to survive against yourself! It's only moderately difficult on some of the more human difficulty levels, but on Titan, it can be seemingly impossible. If you haven't upgraded just right up until this point (usually by exploiting infinite respawn and / or magic areas for experience orbs), you could be stuck in an Unwinnable situation. To add insult to injury, you can totally see the final boss lair from the balcony!!! At least when / if you ever get past this part, you immediately get to smash the fragile little bastard's face into a book to vent your frustrations.
- By itself, one of the late-game sections is tedious. You're basically grabbing the chains in a pillar and pulling them to make the elevator move down, but a ways down, the ceilings sprouts spikes and starts coming down, so it turns into a race to get to the bottom and open the door before you're impaled and crushed. Problem is, the skeletons you saw just lying on the ground since you entered start coming to life and attacking you. Not only do you have to keep them off of you while you move the elevator, but the skeletons will occasionally get stuck in the gears moving the elevator and stop them entirely, so you have to go after them anyway. The whole thing is more tense than anything, though spamming Cronos' Rage or Atlas Quake or shattering the skeletons after petrifying them with Euryale's Gaze makes it much more manageable.
- On your way back to the Phoenix Chamber, you encounter a room full of spikes that disappear for only a few seconds when a lever is pulled. You have to turn a crank in the middle of the spikes to open a gate and escape. While you can use the Amulet of the Fates to slow down the spikes, touching the crank stops the time freeze.
- The gauntlet of enemies preceding Clotho's Chamber in the end game. Little-to-no health/magic recovery from beginning to end, and you have to face several rounds of almost every enemy you've ever seen in the game, from Satyrs to Cyclopes. With no checkpoints.
- On Titan Mode, every part of the game that's merely tedious turns into pure frustration, but one notable example is at the end of the first Pegasus segment, right after the prologue. During the Dark Rider portion, he traps you in a draft and shoots bursts of dark magic at you that you have to dodge, the last of which is unavoidable and ends up railroading Kratos into the next section of the game. The problem is that now, each hit takes off over half of your life bar, so you have to avoid everything up to this point or you're dead. The only problem is figuring out how to dodge THAT DAMN PENULTIMATE DARK BURST! Even when you go on the opposite side of the draft from where it'd logically hit you, you still get damaged by it!
Reception
God of War II received "universal acclaim" according to review aggregator Metacritic with a score of 93 out of 100, and a score of 92.68% from GameRankings and is regarded as one of the best PlayStation 2 and action games of all time. It has been praised for its story and improvements over its predecessor, such as gameplay and graphics. Chris Roper of IGN said that God of War II is "one of gaming's most intense and engaging experiences available." He said it "is practically devoid" of the minor flaws of the original, citing an example that players can now quickly navigate wall climbing, such as being able to vertically slide down walls. Furthering his praise of the gameplay, he said that it is one of the most "polished and refined experiences...in gaming." Although he said that the combat mechanics were practically identical to the original, he had no complaints, stating it is "for good reason as it was already perfect the first time out."
Kristan Reed of Eurogamer said that "God of War II sports one of the most satisfyingly honed game designs we've ever come across." He said that it would not overwhelm players and that it motivates them to improve their skills. He said that the balance "always feels spot-on," and the "learning curve is just right," adding that the magic attacks are more useful than those in God of War. He also said that God of War II's gameplay, like the original, "finds a comfortable middle ground" between hardcore and casual players. He would even say that if players can find any flaws, they are based on "personal taste", but also stated that regardless of refinement, "you can never quite replicate the wow factor of the original—even if it ends up being a better game." Alex Navarro of GameSpot praised the pace of the game and the puzzle designs, and said the "scale of some of the levels is unbelievably massive." He also said that the story is interesting because it is more about what happens around Kratos, than what happens to him. As for the combat, he would describe it as "overly straightforward...and still prone to button mashing," and said that it was "a bit disappointing" that more was not done to the combat system. He criticized the cliffhanger ending and said a few of the bonus challenges "aren't all that great." Matt Leone of 1UP said that the strongest aspect "is how it excels as both a story and an action game," and it is the story that "allows the game to feel like a true sequel."
Awards and accolades
Both IGN and GameSpot consider God of War II to be the "swan song" of the PlayStation 2 era. In 2007, it was awarded "PlayStation Game of the Year" at the 25th annual Golden Joystick Awards, and UGO awarded it "PS2 Game of the Year". At the 2007 Spike Video Game Awards, it was a nominee for "Best Action Game" and "Best Original Score". At the 12th Satellite Awards, God of War II received the Outstanding Platform Action/Adventure Game award. At the 2007 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Video Game Awards, God of War II received the "Story and Character" and "Technical Achievement" awards, and was a nominee for "Action and Adventure", "Original Score", and "Use of Audio". In 2009, IGN named God of War II the second-best PlayStation 2 game of all time—five ahead of its predecessor. In November 2012, Complex magazine named God of War II the best PlayStation 2 game of all time—where God of War was named the eleventh-best—and also considered it better than its successor, God of War III.
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