"God of War 2 serves as a fitting cap to its now-ancient host’s lifespan."

It's not often that a single game propels a franchise to become the iconic representation of a gaming console. Of all console manufacturers, past and present, Sony understands this the most. With the PlayStation, they went through a succession of moderately recognizable poster series, but never found one that captured the same level of following as, for example, Nintendo's Mario or Zelda series. When the PlayStation 2 came along, they were beaten to the punch again, with Microsoft launching the Halo property to international recognition and impressive sales. It may seem frivolous, but such an asset can be crucial in earning gamers' dollars, and Sony always knew it had to find a blockbuster hit of its own.

Then, finally, along came God of War. GOW was the type of game that a console maker dreams of having – an enormously popular and critically acclaimed first-party title, with the potential for numerous revenue-producing sequels. Upon its launch in March of 2005, the game sold extremely well, and almost overnight its main character, Kratos, became synonymous with the PlayStation 2. Meanwhile, as GOW was captivating the gaming industry, Sony was in the process of putting together the PS2's successor, for which hype was beginning to increase as well. Such a combination must have seemed heaven-sent for Sony executives: an exclusive, mega hit game, whose sequel would be due out right around the launch window of a brand-new gaming console.

However, as many a good story has begun, a funny thing happened to God of War 2 on the road to the PlayStation 3. Gamers' assumptions were proven wrong – the sequel to Sony's sensational action game would be released for the PS2, and not for the newfangled PS3. Some cried foul – no doubt desirous of a next-gen Kratos adventure – but the logic behind such a move is infallible, for every fan of the first game is now able to enjoy the sequel without needing a separate, expensive purchase. Of course, the game itself still needed to avoid a sophomore jinx to turn in the type of remarkable performance that catapulted its predecessor to such accomplishment. Luckily for gamers, any worry about whether or not that would occur was heedless, as GOW2 is a fittingly epic and enjoyable addition to the PS2's library.

Visuals:

You could say that GOW2 was fortunate, from an aesthetic perspective. Its forerunner featured perhaps the most outstanding visuals of any game on the PS2, and as a sequel to such a game, it had access to all of those excellent materials to build its own graphical design. Thanks in large part to that stroke of luck, this game contains what could arguably be called the best-looking graphics of any game in the now-ending console generation.

GOW2's visuals really stand out in two majors areas. The first section, and the one that will grab your attention right out of the gates, is the game's environments. For any currently existing human being, it could be fairly difficult to imagine how Greece might have looked 3000 years ago, and understandably so. If you were asked to put your impressions into motion, though, you'd better believe that they'd probably look like the game world in GOW2. The architecture, the flora and fauna, the weather effects – everything is strikingly detailed, and each setting in the game features its own unique aspects. Perhaps the most extraordinary achievement in the environmental design is the sense of scale it manages to portray; Kratos will progress through, over, and around some absolutely huge areas, and each time you'll want to take a second to marvel at how amazing your surroundings are. They're quite interactive, too, with plenty of objects to break or use.

Compounding the significance of those settings is the second particularly exceptional area, the game's animation. Kratos – and every other person and monster in the game world – moves very smoothly. That's not because they have a limited array of animations to cycle through; no, most enemies have several distinct attacks, and Kratos has at least several dozen. You'll get a feel for how varied and slick the game is as you get to hectic points in battle, where you'll flow effortlessly between the many disparate attack motions at your disposal. Those various attacks all look markedly brutal, which serves to further illustrate Kratos as a dangerous person. Equally striking is how stable the frame rate always remains – you'll rarely encounter even a hint of slowdown, regardless of how crazy the action gets on screen.

Not all is perfect with GOW2's visuals, though. As with its precursor, this game utilizes mostly static camera angles to frame the action on screen, and it suffers the exact same pratfalls as a result. To be fair, for a vast majority of the time, the camera works great, and isn't a hindrance; regrettably, it's the handful of times that you'll get Kratos cornered out of view and subsequently suffer a cheap death that will in all likelihood stick in your memory. Those seem like a fair tradeoff for the spectacular views the camera provides during the course of the campaign, but it's still a shame that this problem hasn't been (or can't be) rectified.

Between game-engine cutscenes and some impressive pre-rendered videos, GOW2 features a good amount of expository events to advance the storyline. All of these fit perfectly into the game's overall look, and they do an excellent job of conveying the interactions between the characters involved. Additionally, you'll usually be treated to a sweeping overview of any major area you enter for the first time, which serves as both a smartly practical way of acquainting you with your new surroundings, and an artistic way to give you a sense of the game's wonderful design.

From animation to videos, GOW2 is easily one of the best-looking games of its kind. It still has some kinks in its camera system, but nothing so terrible as to detract from the general feel of awe you'll get from watching it in motion.

Score: 9/10

Sound:

With a wealthy library of first-rate sound effects to draw from, thanks to the first God of War, GOW2 manages to continue the tradition of exceptional acoustics during the course of gameplay. Your weapons are a major part of Kratos' mystique, and they sound as powerful and treacherous to use as they look. You'll use them on a wide variety of monsters, each of which have a distinctive set of noises that fit their dispositions perfectly. The racket made by the game's assortment of environments is brilliant as well, suiting the ambiance to either the clamor of a huge battlefield, or the deafening silence of a closed-in temple.

All of the major players from the voiceover cast of the first game return in GOW2, which is a very welcome occurrence indeed. The wise narrator voiced by Linda Hunt is once again the star of the show, projecting the same judicious tone into her role as she did before. The actor giving life to Kratos does a good job as well, portraying the utter disdain his character feels for the gods and mortals he must deal with in every line. Some of the peripheral characters' roles come across as a little flat – Michael Clarke Duncan's Atlas springs immediately to mind – but on the whole the performances are as solid as you could hope for.

GOW2's larger-than-life choral and orchestral score easily surpasses even the amazing quality of its ancestor's music. Every epic moment in the game is enhanced by the sweeping soundtrack, whether it's played subtly in the background or straightforwardly along with the action. As the action dies down, it fades away just as quickly as it awoke, suitably outlining the flow of the game at all times.

Much like the game's aesthetics, the sound presentation in GOW2 lives up to the standards of its antecedent in every area – a few rogue acting performances notwithstanding.

Score: 9/10

Gameplay:

Sound and look are not the only areas in which GOW2 shines. While those production aspects are indeed top-notch, they serve as little more than punctuation in the face of the exciting and enthralling gameplay that is offered up during the course of the campaign.

God of War was somewhat unique in its approach to its introductory sequence. There was no training area, or walkthrough of gameplay basics – just a series of pop-up messages outlining the controls for each move as they were earned. More importantly, though, those controls were utilized right off the bat to fight the gigantic and imposing hydra boss battle. Now, not many games can throw players directly into the fire that way and survive with the majority of their audience in tact; in fact, such a design decision goes contrary to every traditional thought in the school of game development. The decision worked, though, because of how well the fight portrayed the epic nature of the gameplay.

With GOW2, you'll once again be faced with a daunting – and huge – monster to slay at the outset, although you're much better prepared this time, thanks to the arsenal of abilities Kratos earned in his ascent to deity in the first game. You'll move through the city of Rhodes, frequently being hassled by the now-animate Colossus of Rhodes; eventually, you'll make your way inside the beast and destroy it from within. If that sequence sounds exciting to you, you're right on the money – it's the perfect way to draw anyone who enjoyed the first game back into the fold.

Of course, it wouldn't be much of a game if you retained such immense power for the duration, and so you'll soon be conveniently betrayed by the gods of Olympus, lose almost all of your abilities, and be tossed into Hades, where the game proper begins. You'll earn back most of your techniques of war by purchasing them with red orbs, much the way you did last time around. For the uninitiated, Kratos collects those orbs by defeating enemies – and, just as before, you can increase the payoff for each foe by means of murdering them in more impressive or brutal ways, some of which can be quite difficult to pull off. While the game never explicitly requires such extravagant shows, it's often to your benefit to see how far you can push yourself, thanks to the orb payoff from the returning combo system.

Then again, you'll almost certainly want to beat the daylights out of those enemies in every possible way anyway, thanks to the deep, flexible fighting system in GOW2. Kratos still has his Blades of Chaos – those sharp-looking, flaming things chained to his arms – and swinging them around is as intuitive as can be. You'll now have access to up to three other weapons, which can be equipped on the fly with a touch of the R2 button, once you unlock them at certain points in the story. The amalgamation of these new toys, when combined with the limited magic system, gives players a huge battery of potential methods to dispatch everything that gets in Kratos' path – and, thanks to the excellent graphics, sound, and tight-as-a-drum control scheme, each separate approach is uniquely appealing.

Most God of War fans will agree that it is infinitely more pleasing to dispatch your enemies via the context-sensitive button presses that pop up when you've diminished an enemy's life sufficiently. GOW2 rolls out a great many new animations for this end alone, and as you progress through the storyline, you'll find that each new one is more awesome than the last. The feeling of having played an active part in such a breathtaking scene as (for example) tearing out a Cyclops' eye is one entirely exclusive to this series, and it manages to feel fresh and exciting for the entire duration of the ten-to-fifteen hour storyline.

Without question, these context attacks are put to their best use during the game's numerous boss fights. Yes, that's right, I said numerous boss fights – GOW2 has definitely learned from its ancestor's mistake, and now features no less than eight major boss encounters, on top of many mini boss-type skirmishes. This is one of the most welcome additions to the gameplay, as almost all of these meetings are both an intriguing challenge and an awe-inspiring testimonial to the talents of the game's designers. A couple of the fights are a little flat when held up to the others, but the game more than offsets these with sheer variety.

While the combat maintains its excitement throughout the entire game, it's far from perfect; in fact, generally speaking, it can feel quite unbalanced. Most of the time, even an average player should be able to cruise through the fighting rather easily, and without even utilizing any other attacks besides the default Blades of Chaos. Despite this, there will inexplicably be the occasional area that you'll have to play through repeatedly just to get by. It's disappointing that the fighting engine couldn't be refined a bit more, as it makes this first-class game feel a tad underdeveloped.

That's not all in GOW2 that hasn't met its full potential. The only other noteworthy addition to the already-amazing gameplay is that of two fairly brief on-rails sequences. In these, Kratos is tasked with guarding himself and the flying horse Pegasus from attacking gryphon riders as it flies between Rhodes and the Island of the Fates. While these segments aren't anything to get terribly excited over, both do offer a solid and entertaining diversion for the short time that they last. They occur very early in the game, though, so they're somewhat easy to forget; in truth, they're only memorable at all because very little else has been added to the original God of War formula for this sequel. Admittedly, this can be construed as a criticism if you were one of the few who didn't enjoy that game in the first place, but it doesn't make any of the rest of the game any less enjoyable.

Puzzle solving is a crucial characteristic of most action-adventure games today, and GOW2 contains a handful of interesting, if not terribly demanding, dilemmas for Kratos to solve. Much like the first God of War, most of this game's puzzles are integrated together with the levels. This is a very subtly engaging touch, as it helps to give you the feeling that you're slowly piecing together your path forward, rather than just unlocking a few doors to progress – although there are several key-fetch quests and typical box puzzles mixed in. On the whole, none of the puzzles are too complicated to work out, so it's not likely that you'll end up spending very much time trying to decipher what to do next.

GOW2's gameplay skimps on innovation, choosing instead to stick to its already-popular roots. What's still in there – solid control, a deep fighting system, and a gamut of larger-than-life boss fights – more than adds up to an incredible experience on its own, in spite of its blatant lack of originality.

Score: 8/10

Story:

Kratos in the first God of War fit the bill of the tragic hero perfectly. His quest to rid himself of his horrible past by murdering the being responsible made for a fittingly epic tale, and the excellent script and acting brought it to life impeccably.

GOW2 tells another tale of betrayal and vengeance. This time, Kratos is deceived by Zeus, who locks up his divine powers and casts him off of Mount Olympus. He soon finds new benefactors in the Titans, who were defeated by Zeus and the rest of the gods long ago. With the help of Gaia, the leader of the Titans, Kratos must try to change his fate, by seeking out the Sisters of Fate and using their powers to return to the moment when Zeus turned on him. He's not the only Greek hero out to change his fate, though, as through the course of the game you'll come across several names you may remember from Greek mythology – and, naturally, you'll murder them in spectacularly brutal ways.

The story picks up much quicker in GOW2 than it did last time around, spelling out your motivation quite early in the campaign. Kratos is once again the star of the show, as his character remains likeable for his ruthlessness and colossal strength. The rest of the plot flows very well, but it tries much too hard to top the adventures of the first game. It doesn't wrap up as nicely, either, as you'll be treated to a pretty disappointing cliffhanger ending after you've finished the game. It's still a very good – and fitting – story, albeit one that clearly benefits from the fact that it's complemented by such addictively fun gameplay.

While it's not as good as the tale from the first God of War, the storyline in this sequel does its job adequately, even though it ends badly.

Score: 6/10

Features/Modes:

GOW2 consists of three difficulty settings out of the box, with a fourth that must be unlocked by finishing the game once. Upon completing the game, you'll also open up a moderately fun challenge mode, as well as a handful of extra costumes and bonus materials for use during replays of the game. These few incentives are the entire extent of the game's replay value, although the quality of the story campaign is high enough that it should encourage replays.

Luckily, the game package includes a ‘special features' DVD to offer more value to players. This disc is mostly dedicated to the course of GOW2's development, as it chronicles the processes behind crafting the music, levels, and voiceovers. The material is on par with most major movie release bonus discs in the quality and depth of information it provides; the fact that it costs nothing extra past the price of the game is a smart move, as it adds significantly to the overall value of the purchase.

While the actual game features a moderate amount of replay value, the included bonus DVD adds a good deal of worth to the game.

Score: 8/10

Total Score:

God of War 2 is not going to change anyone's mind about anything. In fact, it will probably cement gamers' opinions of the first title even further. This is in no way a bad thing – the gameplay is as inherently entertaining as ever, and the entire package is executed almost flawlessly. Changing people's opinions is definitely not what GOW2 concerns itself with. It chooses instead to focus on what's important about videogames: providing gamers with an extremely enjoyable and accessible experience – and, as it so happens in this case, one that they'll remember for a long time.

If you're a PlayStation 2 owner, then GOW2 should be the final game that you purchase new for your aging console. If you liked the first God of War, or just action-adventure games in general, you should also make every effort to go out and play this game. And finally, if you're one of the handful of people who didn't enjoy this series' debut, then you shouldn't expect anything new from this iteration.

Score: 8/10 (not an average)

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Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/07/07