God Of War 2

Story
Remember the first God of War title? It featured one of the most famous bad asses in gaming history: Kratos, the only human that dared to take on the gods. Based on the Greek mythology, the God of War saga tells the tale of the gods of Olympus that have to face this brave spartan, called Kratos. In the first title, the warrior defeated Ares, becoming the new God of War and now he's challenged the gods yet again. In GOW 2, Athena and the other divinities plot against the spartan, who has become a real threat towards Olympus. As he's "supervising" a fight between mortal armies, Kratos is transformed into a human and he'll have to face the colossus of Rhodes, awaken by Athena. He eventually wins, but Zeus interferes and lures the hero in a trap, draining all his godly power inside a sword.

You're about to read a couple of spoilers, but don't worry as there's lots to find out as you'll get to play this in the first quarter of hour in the game. What's next? It's Kratos versus Zeus, round 1 and it's pretty clear who won the fight. Too bad that our favorite dies such a painful death, as you'll see in a very beautiful cutscene. He'll end up in hell, almost in the grasp of Hades. Ok, ok enough with the spoilers. It's enough to say that the titans and Gaia (or Geea) the mother of all the gods and titans join forces with Kratos in an attempt to dethrone Zeus. So, hop on your flaming Pegasus and go to the Sisters of Fate that will make you turn back time to the moment when Zeus fooled you and drained your power.

Concept
Now that we've just gave you all the reasons to see the storyline for what it really is (a straight ten), be prepared as we're about to unveil the background details of this beautiful title. It's third person action adventure game, that hasn't suffered many changes when compared to the first GOW. The similarities with Prince of Persia are kept and you'll be jumping, double jumping and hanging on the ledge just like the famous prince. Don't even let the word "rip-off" come to your mind, because we're dealing with a completely original title, from all the points of view that you can imagine. Fights rely mostly on combos and all sorts of abilities that will have you mashing all the action buttons. The wonderful cutscene-like sequences are still here and they'll be triggered once you push the right buttons.

All the environments have become more interactive and now you'll be able to use a catapult to jump on the colossus' head or throw objects towards your foes by grabbing them with your chain-blades. Speaking of which, is it just me or have those cool weapons increased their range? Kratos will also wield a sword, which proves to be a pretty unlucky one as it'll cost him his life, but it has the ability of smithing all the foes with a single blow. Remember those annoying wooden sticks that you had to walk on in the first God of War before facing the Hydra? They're back and you'll have to do that a lot, but be warned that those analog controls are not much of a help. There are puzzle elements too in God of War 2, but they're pretty basic since this is a combat-oriented title, that emphasizes the use of muscles instead of brains. It's all stuff like "push this object over there so that you open a certain door".

Do I smell blood?
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Kratos will have to open crates to gain health, replenish his magic or gather souls that help him unlock all sorts of abilities or magic attacks. As you might have noticed, the whole gameplay stays the same as in the first title, the crates look the same, there are the eternal Gorgon eyes to collect and those red souls to absorb. We could have used a little variation, although I admit that there's a ton of new stuff to do, from riding that cool Pegasus in the air to swinging on chains or walking on a spiral stairs inside the colossus of Rhodes. The magic attacks from GOW 2 look as good as they did in the first God of War, even better sometimes, although you start with one of the attacks that was featured in the the previous title: Poseidon's Rage. That adds a little bit of continuity to the whole experience and those that play both titles will certainly get more of the whole GOW saga. There's no Medusa Gaze this time, so Kratos will have to use Head of Euryale, a similar attack that turns the enemies to stone.

Each of the abilities or magic attacks, even the weapons can be improved by using the experience orbs that you get throughout the game. That way you'll have better attacks and nicer combos to watch, specially in those tough boss battles. One thing that I felt was the lack of variety in the enemy compartment and it was all
soldiers, soldiers, soldiers in the first level or the same two or three flying creatures that fight you while riding the Pegasus. They're all target practice anyway, since even if you play the game on the hardest difficulty kicking some serious butt never gets tough. Aside from the storyline mode, there's also a bonus mode called Arena of the Fates that is unlocked once you get the Titan ranking in the Challenge of Titans.

Gameplay
If playing the whole God of War game with the same weapon, Athena's Blades bored the hell out of you, it's time to change the arsenal a bit. In the second installment Kratos will use a Barbarian Hammer, the Spear of Destiny and the Blade of Olympus. Those are fancy names for really useful tools of destruction that can have more powerful attack s if you use those experience orbs on them. The Spartan hero sure doesn't look like a wizard, but he can do some magic like the famous Poseidon's Rage attack, Typhon's Bane, Cronus' Rage, the Head of Euryale or the Atlas Quake. These can be ranged magic attacks, or they can turn the enemy to stone, perhaps violently shake the earth underneath them. You can power them up with the same experience orbs used for weapons increasing their damage and range. There's also an ultimate magic, called Rage of the Titans, that remind of the Rage of the Gods attack from GOW. It makes you almost invincible for a short period of time and your damage is increased, but you'll have to take a lot of damage to activate it, or collect golden orbs from your enemies.

Head over heals in love with Kratos
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Kratos will now have to collect relics too, aside from the Gorgon eyes and the souls that he'll continuously absorb. Those items can be used to open doors or give our hero special abilities like breathing underwater, slowing down time or reflecting shots. They affect the gameplay in a positive way giving it the much needed variety that keeps us from calling this game a button mashing experience. If there are gamers among you that thought "this is way too serious and gruesome" when playing the game, the producers have the perfect way of bringing the smile to your face. Once you finish the game you'll be able to wear costumes or change appearance, making Kratos look like Athena or Hercules. The bold hero will even wear a fish costume called "Cod of War". Now, how funny is that? Let's talk a bit about the AI, which is not much in the second God of War and it wasn't much in the first one either. That applies to the normal enemies mostly, because the bosses have a tendency to be invincible till you reach the neat-looking sequence that has you pushing buttons in a certain combination in order to get killer combos. Square, triangle, circle, square again, these may seem just another senseless combo, in fact you'll have Kratos pulling the eye out of the colossus' head or twisting a harpy's neck.

If you know a bit of Greek mythology you'll feel right at home fighting creatures like the Cerberus, Theseus, Icarus or the mighty Kraken, that even made it to the Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Enough about bosses, because the little enemies can provide some entertaining sequences every now and then. After you'll deal some serious damage, you'll see an indicator above the enemy's head and it shows that you're about to do a brutal kill. Remember the brutalities in Mortal Kombat? This is almost the same, a little piece of pure action, spiced with tons of blood and beautiful swordplay. There's a lot of stuff to do too while riding the Pegasus, the legendary flying stallion with flaming wings. Kratos will slash to the left or to the right and the Pegasus will use its own attacks to dispose of the flying enemies. Be careful, through, when using the boost, because your flying companion can go into an "engine stall" sequence and you'll be dead in no time.

Video
Roast beef
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No flaw! I can't get myself to give the graphics section less than 10! Apart from a few camera problems, that are in fact ways of transforming the game into a playable movie, God of War 2 is a shining star, exploiting the PS2's capacity to the max and delivering groundbreaking graphics. After playing a title like this, it almost scares me to think about how the next GOW title will look like on the PS3. You'll see arrows stuck in Kratos' legs or hands, beautiful environments and the cutscenes that create a wonderful atmosphere and an excellent story. I was impressed by the scene where you could control Kratos, as he was badly injured and had to fight Zeus, with his last forces. The spartan walks slower, drags his feet and bleeds badly, just before his death. As you descend to the Island of Fate, on the back of the Pegasus, you'll pass through the clouds and gain speed as you battle harpies and jump on their backs breaking their necks.
The game shows you brilliant graphics from the beginning, as you'll be walking through a normal corridor for example and you'll suddenly see a giant hand breaking the walls and searching for you. It's the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the best designed bosses in game history. It's almost as if this guy has a personality and he has a very violent way of showing it. A couple of deadly combos and the fact that Kratos will pull out his eyes with Athena's blades will keep you glued to the screen throughout the game, not missing one single FMV.

Sound
Hans Zimmer would be jealous if he listened to the music that you can hear while playing God of War 2 and I'm talking about the man who created the soundtrack for "The Gladiator". The OST in this title is similar to that in the movie I mentioned before, filled with oriental influences and those female voices that will give you spine chills. There are also the classic heroic songs that come at the right time, during the battles and give you THE drive, which combined with the stunning combat sequences create a superb atmosphere. Kratos is as arrogant as ever and the voice acting is decent, specially considering that we have a narrator to tell the story every now and then. While fighting huge bosses, you'll hear the walls breaking, the ground will crack and the creatures will keep growling and screaming, becoming frustrated by the fact that you're still alive.

Conclusion
This is the best game I've played in 2007, by far the best action-adventure title for the PS2. The producers managed to use the same recipe that created the hit God of War, without creating an annoying and repetitive title. It's filled with new content, new characters, beautiful environments, tons of combos to do, lots of violence and there's even a sex scene (censored of course) added for the adult public. God of War 2 is a must for anyone that calls himself a true gamer, because it's a masterpiece and the ultimate exploitation of the PS2's resources.

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