God of War II is a finely polished, epic adventure that ends the PS2 era with a resounding bang!
The thing about the combat system that impressed me most was the sheer amount of variety that the designers used with the context sensitive mini-games. The kills are SUPER BRUTAL and very imaginative. From the very beginning battle with the Colossus you could see the developers wanted to create something very epic. I absolutely love the way Theseus dies! I also really love the battle with the Barbarian King (the horse in particular), and the Scylla. The animations are absolutely vicious and well thought out. On more than one occasion I played this game with some friends watching and we all yelled out, "Holy $*iT!!!" when we saw some of the ridiculously cool things Kratos does in the game.
Compared the first game, the levels are HUGE! This game is considerably longer and harder than the original. I'm a God of War veteran and it took me about 17 hours to beat the game on God Mode. The difficulty of God Mode in God of War II feels considerably more difficult than in the first game. I used to be able to go through entire levels without ever getting it; I died a lot this time around. I am looking very much forward to playing this game again on Titan Mode. Back to level design though...This time around Kratos must climb walls and ceilings far more often to get to where he needs to go. There are more puzzles mixed into the game and they are not as easy as the ones in the original game. Sometimes they can be a little frustrating, but I think overall, they're a very welcome addition to the game. There are a LOT more bosses in this game. YAY! I like how the beginning of the game starts off by giving you access to ALL of Kratos' powers before taking them from you and making you earn them again. The Rage of the TItans meter can now be turned on and off anytime; this is very helpful throughout the game. Kratos is also given more abilities this time around. Examples of this are the ability to glide using Icarus wings, slowing down time, and counter attacks. In the first game, you could only counter an enemy with a swipe of your Blades of Chaos. In this game, you can counter attack just about anything. It is so cool how you can absorb and redirect projectiles with a properly timed parry in this game. I love fighting the gorgons and using their Stone Gaze against them. It is simply awesome!
One thing that stood out to me about the original God of War was its excellent, compelling soundtrack. The soundtrack to God of War II is just as good as the original. I'm not going to say that its better because that's debatable, but lets just say that it doesn't blow me away the way the soundtrack of the original did. Again, there's absolutely no shame in that because the soundtrack is better than 99% of most games. Sound effects are superb and voice acting is spot on and very professional done. I like the addition of the Pegasus game, but found that it was too short. I know for a fact that the developers spent a lot of time creating it. It is well done and I wish it was a little bit longer. Is there anything about God of War that I do not like? The puzzles and platforming parts were somewhat annoying at points. I couldn't figure out the whole Icarus wing part for a while and died many times while trying to float around Atlas. Some puzzles took me a significantly long time to figure out. I just wanted to kill more enemies so I looked the solutions up online. After looking at the solutions the puzzles made more sense, but again, I thought there was still some room for improvement. In the scheme of things though, these are very trivial complaints and should not detract anyone from buying this game. I'm not one to normally spend $50 on a video game. Never mind $50 on a PS2 game...This game was worth every single penny and some. This game is an absolutely masterpiece and a load of fun. The graphics and sound are awesome and the story is genuinely compelling. The ending of the game leads right into the inevitable God of War 3. Some people may be turned off by this, but I think that is nonsense. After playing a game of this quality, it is only natural that a trilogy be made. Although the story ends with a cliffhanger, it does not break the story at all. I can't even imagine what God of War 3 on PS3 will look like. If Sony would accept pre-orders for that game, I'd happily mail them a check today. God of War set an almost impossibly high bar to match when it was released in 2005; this game not only meets that bar, but far exceeds it. I hear many people ask, "Why should be spend $600 on a PS3?" Play this game. Then think about what they could do with hardware that is 10 times more powerful...God of War is Sony's flagship series...BUY THIS GAME NOW!