Simply one of the greatest action games of all time.
For those who have yet to play the first one, go and buy it right now. For those who have, read on...
You control Kratos, an angry Spartan warrior who sold his soul to Ares, the God of War, in order to spare his life in battle. As repayment, Kratos became Ares' slave, and used his army to march over endless cities and slaughter thousands. As we all know, in a fit of rage and bloodlust, Kratos accidentally slaughters his family, at which point he denounces his bond to Ares and promises to get his revenge.
After retrieving 'Pandoras Box' atop a prison chained to Atlas, Kratos went on to destroy Ares, becoming the God of War in his place. God of War II begins with you as the God of War, drunk with power and destroying a city. Athena appears and warns you that the God on Olympus will not stand for this, but you are having none of it. You drop toward the city from your heavenly platform, and begin wrecking havoc on the city. Athena decides to shrink you to human size, and in turn awakens the Colossus to destroy you. Struggling with the fight, Zeus offers you a way to destroy the Colossus. A sword drops from the heavens, and when it has devoured all of your power, it will be able to destroy the Colossus. But Zeus double crosses you, and kills you with the sword. You fall to Hades, where you are met by Gaia, a Titan (one of the original Gods, who Zeus overthrew), and are commanded to climb from Hades to exact your revenge. It may all sound a little convoluted, but the game manages to make things pretty clear.
Either way at this point your journey begins, and you will end up searching for the Sisters of Fate in order to go back in time and stop yourself from succumbing to Zeus' double cross. You make your way to many of the other Titans, gaining their powers as you go, before you make your way to the Palace of the Fates, where you must take control of your own destiny.
The gameplay has pretty much stayed the same as the previous game. This means an awful lot of cutting the crap out of undead soldiers and all sorts of Mythical Greek beasts, such as the Minotaur, Cyclops and Gorgons. More important characters from the mythos appear such as Prometheus (the man who stole fire from the gods), Jason (whose fleece you must detain) and Medusa (the most famous Gorgon), and they all play their part in the proceedings.
It's just as well then that the combat is so god damn entertaining! The Athena blades are back, cruely solded to Kratos' arms. Many of the basic attacks are the same, but some of the later combos you unlock are much more satisfying and look great. Other weapons including a giant hammer, an energy bow and a giant staff are also included, but unfortunately none of the melee weapons can compete with the twin blades, meaning the become quite useless.
Basic light and heavy attacks are handled by the square and triangle buttons respectively, and can be used in succession to pull of combos. The circle button is throw, and the x button is jump. L2 handles magic, R1 is block, and the right analogue stick handles rolls and evades. This is because the Camera is always fixed. You never have any direct control over it, as the game decided which view suits which situation. This might spell disaster for some games, but not God of War. i never once had trouble with the camera. Quite an achievement.
The combat itself is very challenging, which is good. It can get a little frustrating, but luckily the save points are quite leisurely thrown around, so you never have to go too far back. Along with the foot combat, they have also included flight combat, where you board Pegasus in order to go from place to place, destroying all in your wake. Unfortunately this only happens twice, which is a pity because it is done very well. Alas, hopefully it will be brough back for the inevitable God of War III.
But if the game was just combat then it might get a little tedious. Luckily, as in the previous game, many intuitive puzzles have been added, that break up the gameplay nicely. Some are grander, but none are particularly frustration, and just require a little common sense. There aren't any incredibly frustrating bits either (like the spinning spiked pires in Hades, GoW I), which is a godsend to many a player who ended up screaming at the screen and throwing their controllers at the wall. The graphics have been upgraded also. A new sheen has been painted over most of the model and surrounding textures. Extra lighting and particle effects have also been added, making things brighter and more lively. The animation as before is spot on, and I only experienced a couple of drops in frame rate. This game truely milks the PS2 for all its got. The locales are truely a sight to behold. They are so gigantic in stature that it's almost hard to fathom. At one point you must cross a giant chain, where each link is about twice the size of you, in order to complete puzzles a top giant horses. The scale is just incredible, with a great draw distance and a great sense of purpose. It can be daunting to gaze up at the behemoth that you must scale, but there was never a point that I didn't want to rise to the challenge.
The sound effects largely return, and all do their job admirably. Blades slice flesh with welcome squelches, parries are decidely *ding*y, and the screams and wails of your assailants are all quite apt. The voicework on the whole is done well, with Kratos as gruff and angry as ever.
Special mention must go to the soundtrack, which is one of the most epic I have ever heard in a videogame. As with the first game, the score is full of orchestral build ups to huge crescendos, with a chamber choir added to the mix. This is A grade Hollywood material, and I wouldn't be surprised if the composer does infact score Hollywood epics.
The game will take between 10-15 hours to complete, but there are a host of extras to unlock including ridiculously hard mode, and a Challenge of the Gods mode. In this mode, you are set challenges and must complete them within the alotted time in order to proceed. On completion, you unlock extra costumes, amongst other things. Special Edition copies of the game came complete with a DVD with a 'Making of..." documentary, but I have yet to check it out.
In closing, if you own a PS2, buy God of War II. Even players who aren't usually fans of action games will likely find enjoyment from this. If you've already played the first one, chances are you were planning on buying this all along. And for those who have yet to buy either...for Ares' sake, go and get them both NOW!