God of war 2 review
Any game i review in a blog i wont review before beating the game atleast once.
GoW2 is an amazing game. From start to finish your time playing as Kratos is pure enjoyment. This sequel trumps the original in almost every category (The only thing i felt it lacked was a better more well rounded story, This story is damn good.. but it leaves you with the whole "theyre working towards something bigger feel" that movies like the recent Pirates of the Caribbeans movie did. Just a slight point off for that.)
Story: 4.0
If your a fan of Greek mytho's or not youll enjoy GoW2's story.... Well maybe not so much as if your a huge fan of Greek mytho's. Some very prominent characters from Greek lure run into Kratos and proceed to get their @sses pwned... HARD. The story goes deep into the creation of Zues and the fall of the titians, Although alot of liberties are taken with greek mytho's its enjoyable in almost a syndicated Hercules the Legendary Journeys TV show... With over the top Brutality.
Odd thing is by the end of the game i didnt see Kratos the same way as i did when i started... at the risk of spoiling anything i'll just leave it at that.
Gameplay 5.0
Alot of my issues with the first GoW have been fixed. A skilled player will hardly get raped by having a horde of enemies confronting him.
The Blades of Chaos are much more controllable then they were in the first game and your able to have a sub weapon ready to switch mid combo like DMC3. The weapons are alot better rounded. Of course some weapons are better in certian situations, but non of them are slightly useless. (well one spoiler... Spear of Destiny FTW!!!! Power this up ASAP!)
Combos can now reach into the mid hundreds thru linking melee attacks with certain spells which will continue the combo chain creating massive damage.
One thing you will need supreme knowledge over is the button placement on the PS controller. While playing this game its best to get into the mind set you had while playing Sega's Shenmue 2... Dont sit back and watch cutscenes... get ready to enter in button presses in QTE events. The games bosses can only be beaten after inputting these correctly, Failure to do so will rob you of some energy and you'll have to weaken the enemy before trying again in most cases.
Speaking of bosses....
Bosses 5
GoW2 has some of the best boss battles in gaming period. Some boss battles can rage on thru different settings and the fight can get exhausting, But the games creators were nice enough to give you mini check points in the longer clashes. Some of the later boss fights can be hard to figure out at first, but they all have patterns. Learn them and they become cake walks (yes, even the final boss fights).
Puzzles 3.5
This time around they felt too easy, most of them require just common sense, Some require you just to survey the area your stuck in looking for clues. First person view would have really helped with this part... but that would have made them even easier.
Graphics 5
Graphically GoW2 is almost in a league by itself. Its only comp in the graphic category is MGS3 & RE4. RE4 still gets the best PS2 graphics award *imo*, but just barely over GoW2. One thing im really looking forward to in GoW3 on the PS3 (its coming, no sense denying it isnt), Purely due to the PS3 being able to render all cutscenes "real time". The CG scenes in GoW2 are good, but time of CG cutscenes are at an end... or atleast should be.
It doesnt matter if your playing on a standard tv or a HDtv in 480p, Your in for a graphical treat.
Overall 4.5
im about 1/3 of the way thru the game in titan difficulty and the game is still very enjoyable. Only real gripe i had with the game is the games lenth once again. Although longer than GoW1, GoW2 is still a little shorter than i expected.
Theres a ton to unlock and most of the good unlockables will take more than 2 times completing the game to unlock. The average gamer will complete the game their first time in under 12 hours of playtime. A few extra modes will make replaying the game fun.
1 big gripe i had was only 10 save slots to save data on. 10 seems like alot until you start bookmarking parts of the game you want to replay when friends are over... I guess just proves how great the game really is.
