AN EPIC REVIEW OF AN EPIC GAME!!! (God of War 2 (Special Edition) (PS2))

Member Name: dlb74

Product:	God of War 2 (Special Edition) (PS2)
Date:	09/09/07 (161 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fantastic in just about every way imaginable!!!

Disadvantages: A cliffhanger ending that will have you demanding GOW III NOW!!!

Well… I’m back at last with another video game review.

I had to write this now, while time allows as at the time of typing this, I am merely weeks away from becoming a daddy!!! As you can imagine, I’m getting my games-playing jollies now while I still can and am not having to change cack-filled nappies!

Anyway, as always I digress… What game am I spraffing on about this time around, I hear you ask (well… not really… but humour me!)?!?

GOD OF WAR II – THE SPECIAL (2 DISC) EDITION!!!

YES!!! I’m back in hogs heaven (well video gamer/geek heaven) with the main man, Kratos!!!

God Of War II was released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Europe on April 27, 2007 and I’m pleased to say that having played and loved the first God Of War game, I didn’t wait so long to pick up this title.

For those of you who haven’t read my original God Of War review (Shame on you! Please go and read it now! When that baby comes along, I’ll need all the 3p’s I can get!) all I will say is that I LOVED it… but what about this sequel? How does that rate against the almighty original?

Read on and I will give you my honest opinion…

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THE STORY

Before I get into the story, let me firstly say that what follows is not a spoiler! As with the first game, the story in the sequel is great and I wouldn’t want to ruin any of it for you! Secondly, I will add that I’m not going to go into too much back story of the original game…

But…

I will say that this game follows on an unspecified time after the happenings of the first game. Having slain the God of War – Ares, at the end of the original game, Kratos was elevated to the peak of Mount Olympus as the new God of War. There he sat on his throne watching the increasingly blood-thirsty mankind wreak havoc upon itself…

This game kicks off with Kratos fully armoured up and looking very God-like in his throne room. He is watching the Spartan army which has continued its conquest of Greece. During another vicious battle that is taking place in Rhodes, a Spartan soldier looks up to the heavens and addresses Kratos to advise him that another city is ready to fall.

Athena then enters Kratos’ throne room to advise him of the growing anger among the other Gods with his continued assistance with his old army.

Athena: “Enough, Kratos! With every city you destroy, the wrath of Olympus grows. Soon I will no longer be able to protect you.”

Kratos: “I need no protection!”

Athena: “Don’t forget that it was I who made you a God… Ghost of Sparta! Don’t turn your back on me!”

Kratos: “I owe you nothing!” (Is Kratos a closet Bros fan?!?)

Athena: “Then you leave me no choice…”

Kratos then descends from Mount Olympus to Rhodes to physically assist his old army. Given that he is now a God, he towers high above the besieged city – dwarfing everything. This is very reminiscent of the original game when we saw Ares doing exactly the same thing. It seems that in being blinded by his hatred of the Gods not releasing him from his torment, Kratos has become that which he hates the most.

An eagle flies down from the sky and with an impressive electrical discharge shrinks Kratos back down to the size of a regular man. The eagle then flies across the harbour of Rhodes and lands on a massive statue that is the Colossus of Rhodes – a gigantic statue of the Greek God Helios which stands astride the entrance to Rhodes harbour – that at this point in the game is nearing completion with work men still finishing it off.

As the eagle touches down on the statue, it emits more electrical discharge – and brings the Colossus to life! With Kratos still shrinking down to the size of a mere mortal, the Colossus strides across the harbour toward the building that Kratos is in – steeping on boats as if they were toys. With this enormous enemy approaching, Kratos suspects that this is all the doing of Athena.

As Kratos battles the Colossus across the battle ravaged remains of the city, Zeus calls out from the heavens and offers Kratos help in the form of the Blade of Olympus – a huge, magical sword used in battle by Zeus himself. Zeus advises Kratos that in order to win this battle with the Blade of Olympus, he must drain all of his godly powers into the weapon. Kratos weighs up his situation against this advice and does as Zeus says.

At the end of the battle with the Colossus, Kratos receives massive internal injuries that are to prove fatal to him. As he attempts to get up, all of his armour falls away piece by piece – exposing his battered mortal body. At this point, the eagle flies down from the sky again and transforms… into Zeus!

Zeus asks that Kratos swear allegiance to him but realising that he has been tricked, Kratos refuses immediately. Zeus then picks up the Blade of Olympus and drives it through Kratos’ chest.

As Kratos dies, he gets taken back into the underworld of Hades. Before the evils of this hellish place can claim their prize of the fallen God of War, Kratos is saved by a Titan names Gaia. Gaia is the mother of the Earth and has been watching Kratos through his whole life. Restoring Kratos’ powers, Gaia tells him that he must seek out the Sisters of Fate as this will allow him to change his past and change his destiny. Gaia is also seeking revenge on Zeus as he led the Gods in a battle against the Titans – which saw them all suffering eternal damnation in the depths of Hades.

If you’re worrying that I’ve already laden this review with spoilers then worry not! All of the above happens within the first few moments of the game and actually heralds the start of another truly epic quest that Kratos must undertake.

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GAMEPLAY

The gameplay is a joy once again. To anyone who has played the original God of War game, the control system will be instantly familiar and will have you in full flow instantly. For those who haven’t played the first game, I would whole-heartedly recommend that they play the original game first as it’s also stunning and will ensure that you have this sequel to look forward to!

It’s an arguable point that God Of War II gives the gamer ‘more of the same’ but when you consider how amazing the original game is, that is definitely no bad thing!

The gameplay has been tweaked a little from the original game but as the control system was nigh on perfect in the first game, there is very little to improve on in this game. Suffice to say that the gameplay in the game is just great from the very start – in keeping with its predecessor.

There have been some changes to things such as weapons etc. Instead of having the Blades of Chaos as in the original game, Kratos is now similarly armed with Athena’s Blades. These blades were given to Kratos by (no prizes for guessing!) Athena when he was given the role of God of War after the defeat of Ares.

There are other weapons that can be had along the way – such as the Spear of Destiny and the Barbarian Hammer etc.

There are new magic spells to cast in this game too. You will be able to unleash hell on enemies with the likes of Typhon’s Bane (a very useful long-range bow-like weapon), Cronus’ Rage (a devastating electrical discharge) and the Head of Euryale (which is very similar to the Medusa’s Gaze attack seen in the original game) among others.

Instead of the Rage of the Gods meter seen in the first game, Kratos can now harness the power accumulated in the Rage of the Titans meter. It works in an almost identical fashion to the Rage of the Gods meter and can only be activated when the meter reaches the top. This can be achieved by knocking seven bells out of enemies – therefore increasing the rage within the meter or by finding and opening a chest which contains yellow orbs that fill the meter up.

Speaking of chests, the chests for upgrading your health (green orbs) and weapons or magic (red orbs) can be found scattered around as in the first game. Another familiar find scattered around the game are the chests that contain Phoenix Feathers and Gorgon Eyes which increase the meters for magic and health respectively. As in the first game, collecting six of these items will increase the relevant meters.

Also ensuring the great continuity from the first game is the method with which you save your game. This is done with a ‘Save Alter’. As before, these are represented as a little area bathed in a glowing ray of yellow light. Once in the light, press the R2 button and Bob’s your uncle.

There are other new elements of gameplay which have been introduced in this game which keep things fresh and exciting. There were some great climbing sequences in the original game and there are more in this one! In this game, Kratos will be able to scale certain walls and grab ceilings etc… There are other exhilarating moments when Kratos will fly on the back of a Pegasus or even a Phoenix!

I would say that Kratos himself cannot fly – but this wouldn’t be entirely true. After a meeting with Icarus, he “inherits” Icarus’ wings which don’t let him fly as such but do enable him to glide from large heights and to reach otherwise out of reach areas with the help of hot air currents (no the hot air doesn’t come from me!).

As well as Icarus’ wings, there are other relics that will be discovered along the way – including the Amulet of the Fates which will allow Kratos to slow down time when he is near a Statue of the Fate and a Golden Fleece which can be used to deflect enemies magic back at them!

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GRAPHICS

As in the first God Of War game, the graphics in this title are simply stunning! So much so that at times, it’s actually hard to believe that the game is running on a trusty old PS2 and not on an all singing, all dancing, next-gen PS3!

The environments are massively detailed and convey a perfect sense of beauty, horror and scale – depending on what part of the game you are in. It just simply ticks every box on what can be done right when it comes to video games. It’s clearly a labour of love that has not been rushed and has got a lot of very, very talented people working on it – without whom, the game would not be as amazing as it is.

The frame rate within the game is simply brilliant – with fluid movement and no slow down – even when there are lots of enemies to kick the crap out of… BUT… there are some moments when Kratos turns a corner etc and the back ground has to move fast to keep up that I did sometimes notice a VERY MINOR glitch in the graphics system. It seemed that perhaps the PS2 simply cannot run at quite a fast enough speed at times. Don’t get me wrong, given that the game is a PS2 title it is amazing that it is as technically superior as it is. The minor graphical glitch I mentioned only showed very occasionally and in no way affected the gameplay or the enjoyment of the game.

Once again the character graphics are just great! The level of detail on them is incredible and the range of sizes from man-sized characters to some absolutely enormous ones is truly awe inspiring. The sense of scale is just perfect. I defy you not to be amazed (and yet somehow bricking it) when you first start fighting the Statue of the Colossus at the start of the game!

Here are some of the monsters you will be up against in God Of War II – if you think you’re hard enough:

UNDEAD SOLDIERS: They do what it says on the box, basically. They’re soldiers, they’re dead… no… wait… they were dead and now they’re undead and want a piece of your arse! Wipe them out… All of them!

SKELETONS: Yes!!! Reanimated skeletons in the good old-fashioned Ray Harryhausen style! They take a hell of a beating and can mostly only be killed (again) when you use a finishing move on them – otherwise their bones just rise up off the floor again and resume kicking you into next week!

HARPIES: These buggers were in the first game and they’re still a right royal pain in the arse in this one! These bird-like creatures have the bald heads of monstrous-looking women, long claws and the taste for human flesh. A hellish enemy that is made all the harder to kill due to their airborne attacks.

GRYPHONS: These big, winged beasties have the head of an eagle and the body of a lion. They attack you in the sequence when you are flying on the Pegasus. The coolest way to get rid of them is to jump onto their back and hack their wings until the fall from the skies. Just remember to jump back onto the Pegasus!

MINOTAURS: Another monster as seen in the first game and still dealt with in the same way. Half-man and half-bull, the Minotaur is a formidable enemy at around eight feet tall. Though you can still beat them down until you sit astride them and thrust your weapon through their chest (yes – you still get a very satisfying geyser of blood!) you can also finish them off with their own weapon!

GORGONS Half woman, half snake, all ugly. These creatures are quick, vicious and can turn you to stone with a stare. Wait a minute… I thought they were half woman, half snake?!? That sounds 100% woman to me!

CYCLOPS: No… I’m not going to make any one-eyed monster jokes! How smutty do you think I am?!? These buggers are big, mean and hard to hard to kill.

CERBERUS DOGS: These hell hounds have three vicious heads and can spew out puppies which sounds all nice and harmless – but these infants can quickly grow to the same size of the adult beast who created them almost instantly. Let’s put it this way… even Barbara Woodhouse would have had her work cut out for her with these buggers! “Siiiii-iiiiit!!!”? I think not!

SIRENS: These were once beautiful women who were cast out into the wilds and now lead people to their deaths with their songs. They attack you with high pitched screams that have Kratos rocking on his feet with his hands over his ears. I think these characters must have been based on Girls Aloud or the Spice Girls… or maybe they just cloned the talentless mess that is Victoria Beckham?

SATYRS: These creatures are mixed breed of goat and man and are excellent warriors. They can quickly outnumber you and are extremely fast.

As you can tell, there are lots of different enemies to keep you occupied and to ensure that your journey to find the Sisters of Fate will not be an easy one. There are many more enemies that I haven’t mentioned here but I’m sure you will have fun finding them!

It’s worthy of mention that unlike in the first game, there are more boss battles spread throughout the quest. Some of the boss fights are absolutely incredible and are very different from the last – so there is a great deal of variation. The bosses come in many shapes and sizes, and some are easier to beat than others. One boss that was a strange sight to behold was Clotho – one of the sisters of fate. She is apparently a massive silk-work type creature who spins the threads of fate. She’s a massive fat grey blob with numerous arms and lots of breasts. I couldn’t help but thinking when I was fighting her “Bloody hell… This things nothing but arms and tits!”.

Speaking of ladies breasticles, it’s worth mentioning that like its predecessor, God of War II features a few female characters with their bare chest either partially or fully on display… oh… and there’s a completely nude woman seen lying down with a very attractive looking bare arse – but as it’s not a real woman, I’ll move swiftly on!

Another thing shared by this game and the first – nudity aside – is that they are both pretty damned gory and are both 18 certificates. I suppose it’s really a worthy 18 certificate though but if you can handle the material within, you should really enjoy this game!

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SOUND

I had high expectations of the sound in God of War II as the sound in the first game was top notch. I found very quickly that the sound in this game was also brilliant!

There are so many things that once again make this so right. The general sound effects are very atmospheric and always fully convey what is happening on the screen and accompany it all perfectly.

Voice acting is once again top-notch in this game. The worry with so many video games is that they can so easily fall foul of terrible voice acting who just sound totally cheesy and unconvincing. This is not a problem with the God of War series. Everything sounds… just-so.

There was one initial concern near the start of the game when Kratos used magic on enemies. The first few times he shouts out “I AM the God of War! I will make you suffer!” when magic is used and I remember thinking to myself “Please… don’t have him doing this every time magic is used”. This wasn’t something that happened in the first game and thankfully, my prayers were answered in this one as Kratos stops shouting that line out after the first few times.

However, he doesn’t stop shouting – full stop. I know Kratos is a very pissed off character and that he won’t be up for resolving his disputes with Zeus and the other Gods over a cup of tea and a scone (that has just conjured up the most surreal image in my head!) but does he always have to shout?

Perhaps if Kratos ever find himself out of work, he can take over from that annoying sod Barry Scott (who I’ve just discovered is actually a fictional character used for advertising!) in the Cillit Bang adverts. I can just see it now…

Kratos: “HELLO, I’M KRATOS. I USED TO BE THE GOD OF WAR BUT NOW I’M HERE TO TELL YOU ABOUT CILLIT BANG! IT’S IDEAL FOR CLEANING BLOODSTAINS FROM UNDEAD SOLDIERS, MINOTAURS AND OTHER MYTHICAL MONSTERS FROM YOUR KITCHEN AND BATHROOM WALLS! TRY IT NOW! NEW CILLIT BANG *GOD STRENGTH* TO REMOVE ANNOYING GODS LIKE THAT BACK-STABBING SON OF A BITCH, ZEUS!!! GRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!”

Anyway… now that I’ve hailed a black cab back to Real Street, I’ll move swiftly on towards the long-overdue end of this review… Not long now… Honest!

The music in God of War II is perfect. Like the music in the original game, it rivals some of the best movie music and works perfectly with the visuals and is the best aural icing on a delicious audio-visual cake.

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VALUE

My initial thoughts were on whether or not I would love this game as much as the original – or if I would love it more…

I can’t really answer which of these options is the case. It’s a perfect continuation of the first game and if you have played and loved that then needless to say, you WILL love this.

It’s remarkable that a game this great is still on PS2 and is a perfect game to show what the PS2 has been capable of. If anything, this game being released on PS2 AFTER the release of the PS3 shows how confident Sony were that it could hold its own against the initial trickle of next-gen titles coming out for their new console.

In fact, the game does so much more than hold its own. It actually serves as a perfect swan-song to the PS2 era as more eyes now turn to that console’s successor. The two PS2 God of War titles will still be worthy of owning and playing even to those who own a PS3 (please check that they are both compatible with PS3 first though as the backward compatibility issue has been a bit uncertain with some titles – although I have heard that Sony are continuously updating patches which are letting more and more PS2 titles run on the PS3). Of course the word on the street is that when God of War III is released, it will be on the PS3… All I can say is that judging by how good the two PS2 games have been, I expect the third game on PS3 to be nothing short of utterly amazing.

I’ll be there… Will you? After playing the original game followed by this one, I’m willing to bet that I’ll see you there!

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EXTRAS

As I’m reviewing the two disc ‘Special Edition’ of this game, I thought I would mention what’s on the disc 2 DVD. Apart from the fact that there are lots of unlockable extras to be had in the main game itself, there are loads of extras on disc 2!

THE MAKING OF GOD OF WAR II

CHAPTER 1

The opening chapter is a very interesting look into the Sony Computer Entertainment’s Santa Monica Studios in California. It follows around the director and producers of the game and is very insightful into the very stressful work that these highly talented people create. It almost makes you feel guilty for taking the game playing experience for granted!

CHAPTER 2

Another showcase for the huge amounts of hard work that went into this game behind the scenes, chapter 2 focuses mainly on the art department and the level design people. Without a shadow of a doubt, the work these teams put into the game is responsible for a vast amount of the experience of you will have when playing it.

From the designs of the characters to the look, feel and interactivity within the levels, this is very insightful stuff.

CHAPTER 3

This chapter focuses mainly on how the team perceive the director of the game, Cory Barlog. It shows that although Cory is very demanding on the various teams behind the game, everyone knows that it’s all for the greater good of the game itself.

It is mentioned that although the team is not perfect, the team does work. There’s no doubt that everyone’s opinion appears to be that Cory’s direction contributed greatly to the game. Having played it and loved it, I can only agree with them.

CHAPTER 4

This chapter focuses on the E3 Electronic Entertainment Expo which is where companies take playable demos and trailers for their games to raise public awareness of the upcoming title.

This shows just how unbelievably stressful the preparation for the E3 Expo was on everyone in the team. The director is playing the playable demo in a meeting with the producers and leads from all other departments. As he’s playing it, he finds lots of bugs that he is obviously not happy about and the stress levels from all concerned are clear to see on everyone’s faces.

As the E3 Expo approaches, there are huge amounts of problems that need to be resolved. This results in the teams putting in lots of overtime and effort to ensure the demos are up to the standards that they and gamers will be expecting.

This chapter ends with the team at the E3 Expo and much to the relief of everyone involved, the crowds are flock in to play the demos and love what they are seeing. It’s a relief to see this positive reaction even if you’re not one of the people who has worked their arse off on the project!

CHAPTER 5

This final chapter shows ‘The Final Push To Alpha’ which is to get the game into what will be mostly in its final form before final tweaks make it presentable to the general gaming public.

It also shows all the team getting rewarded for all their hard work with a big Halloween party which finally shows them all being relaxed and having fun for a change!

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INTERVIEWS

VOICES OF GOD OF WAR II

This is a really cool extra as it shows the voice cast recording their voices for the game! This includes TC Carson who lends his voice to Kratos himself, Linda Hunt who voices The Narrator / Gaia, Harry Hamlin who voices Perseus (the character he himself played in the classic film ‘Clash Of The Titans’) and Michael Clarke Duncan (Armageddon, The Green Mile etc) who voices the mighty titan Atlas!

It’s really something to see the mutual respect between the voice actors and the voice director. As the director and producers of the game hear their long-planned dialogue fleshed out with real emotion is also very insightful.

GOD OF WAR II MUSIC

As a very integral part of the whole God Of War experience, the music has to not only live up to what is going on onscreen but to compliment it. This is something that works perfectly with the game.

This segment is very interesting as it tells us about the four different composers who made the score and also shows the live orchestra performing the score. The brass sections were recorded in London whereas the strings and forty voice choir were recorded in Prague! All of these elements when mixed with the synth tracks from the composers equals anything you could expect from a blockbuster movie soundtrack!

WHAT IS TECH ART?

This follows the technical artists who have to figure out new ways to create the new and demanding animation issues that are raised in making a game like this.

One of the issues that this briefly mentions is how they created the feather effects for the Pegasus segments of the game. It’s all very interesting and shows how many layers of knowledge and hard work went into this project.

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EXTRAS

TRAILERS

This has three trailers to announce the arrival of God Of War II. Press event, game share, E3.

All three trailers show a mixture of game play and full motion video.

ENVIRONMENTS

This shows some incredible concept art of the scenery and buildings that are proposed to be featured in the game.

CREATURES

This segment shows lots of fantastic concept of the beasties that Kratos will face. The quality of the artwork is highly detailed and amazing to look at. The problem is that there are so many creatures that feature in Greek mythology that it was impossible to put them all into one game. This is probably a blessing as not only does it prevent this game feeling too full of different creatures but also gives the team behind this new ones to introduce in future God Of War games!

TESTING THE GAME

This is an incredibly insightful look into the world of games testing! I know I’ve often thought about how great it would be to land a job testing video games but this shows that it’s not all about fun. It’s a very responsible thing to do.

This shows a handful of gamers who have been brought in to test an early level of the game. Everything they do is recorded – both on a video camera and with tape showing how they actually played the game. If they all fail on a certain point, it’s regarded as being a problem that needs fixed.

We then see points five months after the original test session and another final one a further five months ahead. The scariest thing is that the final game testing is done only about three weeks before a final version of the game is due.

HALLOWEEN

This is more footage of the team enjoying their Halloween bash. It’s nice to see they still managed to fill in a little fun amongst all the hard work they did!

PRESS EVENT

This shows the game being projected onto a huge screen and presented to the salivating press.

The great thing is when you hear the press people laughing and clapping when they see something on the screen that they like.

HOW TO PLAY

This is a little tutorial on how to play the game that is voiced over by the game director, Cory Barlog. Proof that this guy does over and above what is expected of him.

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SPOILERS

Now, I’m not going to go into details on this one!!!

I will say that the headings for each section are as follows:

Creating Kratos, Initial Concept, Lost Levels, Level Design, Creating Zeus, Combat System, Animation, Cinematics and Boss Concept Art.

As you can see there is a lot of information to be had here and to be enjoyed at your leisure!

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SUBTITLES

Here you can choose subtitles in foreign languages. Namely: French, German, Italian and Spanish.

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MY (VERY MUCH LONG OVERDUE) CONCLUSION:

You’ve probably noticed that I loved this game just a little bit.

When I reviewed the first God of War game, I said:

“Bold, bloody, beautiful… buy it!!!”

What on earth can I say this time?

“More bold, more bloody, more beautiful… more buy it!!!”

D’OH!!!

Seriously though… this is a fantastic game. It obviously won’t be everyone’s cup of tea but once those nutters have all been rounded up, put into a rocket and fired into the sun, it’ll just be us sane folks left to enjoy stunning slices of gaming like this. If gaming gets much better than this, I haven’t found it yet. Enjoy!!!

Once again, many, many thanks for reading this.

Derek.

Summary: I just love this game! BUY IT NOW!!!