By dragging their hero down to the underworld, Santa Monica has taken their series to dizzying heights.
That mantra belongs to the team behind the other GOW franchise, but it couldn't apply more to God of War II. The game proves Sony Santa Monica is a studio mature enough to recognize their mistakes and learn from them. In doing so, the team has created what just might be the most improved sequel I've ever played.
The game picks up where the first left off, with Kratos sitting on the throne as the new God of War. As Lord Acton has taught us, power corrupts, and since Kratos wasn't exactly a shining pillar of righteousness to begin with, he is corrupted to an overwhelming degree. His Spartan Army is parading around the Greek countryside, destroying all in its wake. Eventually, the power trip becomes too much for the Gods of Olympus to ignore, and Zeus arrives to kill Kratos. He succeeds.
But Kratos is far too badass to be stopped by a petty thing like death, and he crawls his way out of the Underworld to hunt down Zeus and make him pay for what he's done. It's one of the most fun revenge stories this side of Kill Bill, and much better suited to the character than the first game's misguided story of redemption (it was rather hard to buy Kratos' whole 'I'm sorry for the sins of my past' thing when he was sticking pointy objects into anything that moved). The story also makes better use of Greek mythology than the first, referencing more real persons and events. Well, not REAL, but you know what I mean. You might actually learn a thing or two about Greek mythology by playing.
GoWII's gameplay is very similar to the first game. There are two buttons for attacks, and you can pull off even the flashiest moves without memorizing any complicated button combinations. The new addition is a parry move, which is activated by blocking at just the right time. This requires some skill and precise timing, adding some depth to the combat. The rest of the changes are mostly in numbers - there are more moves, more weapons, better spells, and far more variety in the enemies you fight.
Like the first game, the combat is broken up with puzzles and platforming, but unlike the first game there is a better balance between these three. It took me twelve hours to beat GoWII, almost double the length of the first game, and nothing ever felt stale.
The puzzles are bigger and better designed than in the first game, often taking up whole rooms. Most of them still involve moving a statue onto a switch to open a door, but the obstacles between the statue and switch are more varied, and some of the solutions are downright brilliant. A couple hours into the game, Kratos gets an artifact that allows him to briefly slow time, which comes into play in some of the larger puzzles.
Platforming is handled better this time around, thanks in no small part to a smarter camera which will rarely get stuck in an inconvenient spot. The controls have also been improved, especially on those balance beams which I always fell off in the first game. There's nothing here as wretched as the Blades of Hades or the spike room in the Cliffs of Madness. Kratos can also use his blades as a grappling hook to get through the bigger platforming sections, which are as fun to watch as they are to perform.
Every so often, there are the boss battles - gifts from the gods themselves. Half of them are against foes about your own size. They're not very deep - dodge attacks, wait for an opening - but the fun factor more than makes up for it. They give the feeling of being engaged in a duel, a gladiatorial battle to the death. And I'm fully aware gladiators are a Roman thing, but the feeling's still there.
The other bosses are massive. Often small parts of them are enough to fill up the entire screen. Defeating these guys takes a little more finesse - there are multiple steps you need to take before you can actually damage them. Figuring out these puzzles and ultimately taking down the monsters is one of the most satisfying things I've done in my gaming career. The first boss probably takes about an hour to beat, and I had more fun on him than all sixteen bosses in Shadow of the Colossus put together.
Compared to other games on the PS2, God of War II looks so good it's almost unfair. The animations are flawless, the creature designs are bursting with imagination, and the sense of scale on the grander levels is unmatched. And the graphics still hold up; playing through it today, I had trouble believing I was playing a three-year-old game on the weakest last-generation system. The soundtrack builds on the first game's, with the ominous choral arrangements, shrieking strings and insistent percussion providing backbone for one of the best video game scores you'll ever hear.
I can't remember the last time a sequel has left me this dazzled. It's an interesting paradox - by dragging their hero to the depth of the underworld, Santa Monica has taken their God of War series to dizzying heights.