A worthy successor to the best action game of all time.
The graphics are pretty great, but considering that the previous NG was probably the single best looking game on last gen consoles I would be lying if I said I wasn't expecting a bit more in this department. The animation and the framerate are liquid smooth, but the environments are rather sparse and not too interesting. Furthermore, the environment is mostly undestructable. I was really hoping there would be more stuff I could break. It kind of pulls you out of the immersion when you can can't cut through some bamboo with your katana blade. This is pretty minor though, and to be fair most games still suffer from this annoyance. I assume that in order to allow for numerous enemies, complete with flying limbs and blood, detail in and interaction with the environments had to be restricted. That's a totally acceptable compromise and a good design decision.
Now, I've heard complaints about the story in NG2, and I will admit that it is nothing special. On the upside, at least it was easy to follow this time around, unlike the last NG. But in all honesty, if you're playing NG2 for the story, there might be something wrong with you. Here's all you need to know: you're Ryu. You F dudes up. Bad. The end. If you don't like that story go read a book. You see, NG2 is a bit old school in its design in that it actually favors gameplay over story. I know, a strange concept in this day and age. But this gameplay stuff is really quite cool. I promise.
OK, so you basically just go from stage to stage in a mostly linear fashion, brutally destroying any person or thing dumb enough to stand in your way and generally being a total badass. If you thought the last NG was brutal, you ain't seen nothing yet. NG2 takes the violent combat of its predecessor and cranks it up to the highest degree possible. Ryu's attacks are an absolute joy to perform and behold, as each is animated with such incredible ferocity that you can virtually feel the immense pain that you've just inflicted on your hapless victims. And now instead of occassionally lopping off a victim's head, you can pretty much guarantee that every enemy you encounter will lose at least one body part (but usually more), resulting in a fountain of gore. The amount of blood and mangled body parts that litter the floors and walls after every battle is equal parts shocking and amusing.
NG games have always been notorious for their high difficulty levels and NG2 is no different. You're gonna die a lot in this game, but it's really your own fault the vast majority of the time. But the number of save points have been substantially increased which virtually eliminates any frustration that might occur from multiple deaths. And for some reason I never minded dying in this game. The combat is just so insanely fun that you don't really mind playing parts over and over. The one exception is with the bosses who seem a lot more unbalanced this time around. Sometimes they are insanely easy, whereas other times they will rip you a new one again and again until you either get lucky or figure out their pattern.
Finally, I guess I better mention the camera since everyone seems to complain about it. Well, it's pretty much the same as it was in the last NG as far as I can recall. It's not perfect as it doesn't do a very good job of keeping up with Ryu. Personally, I never had a problem with it though. Sure, it might not always be perfectly centered behind Ryu (although tapping the right trigger will do this), but it allows for a much more cinematic experience. I definitely think that there was a conscious design decision to have the camera the way it is as opposed to pulling it away from the action. By having the camera come in close to the action, the brutality of the fighting is intensified even further. Think about it: if you were watching a fight scene in a movie, would you rather the camera be close to the action or have it fifty feet away? Much like the somewhat bland environments, it's a compromise to allow for the absolute best combat in any game ever. You can't have your cake and eat it too, so Team Ninja chose awesome combat over better visibility. I think they made the right choice.
So there it is. If you liked the last NG, there's pretty much no way in hell you won't eat this one up too. And if you didn't like the last NG, well, what the hell is wrong with you anyway?