God of War II

El primer juego que me terminé, tenía 12 años, simplemente una joya y lo que me introdujo más a fondo en el mundo de los videojuegos así. En realidad, lo jugué en mi psp, una experiencia maravillosa y entretenida, algo estresante con ciertos jefes, pero sin duda alguna, uno de los juegos más importantes para mí

This is where Kratos becomes the biggest asshole in all of Greece, worse than Zeus, and I lose interest in whether he's human or godlike, dead or alive. What a pile of nonsense. Characters are added just to barely justify the action and the climax is a mess. The first game had such a strong story and it was a big element to the game's distinctive intensity. All that drama, that rage made me want to button-mash everyone. Some of that epic intensity has been lost, despite this probably being the better game.

Here the combat is more deliberate, fewer enemies allow to better choose what to do with each one. Personally, I'd rather smash large groups of enemies than hammer a couple of them. The good thing is that, since the base game already existed, there was time to polish it all up and add more variety of enemies, items and boss fights. They get creative with it, changing the context of the battles, plus there's cool stuff like the wings of Icarus, the shield of perseus... The barbarian hammer is effective but not particulary fun. It isn't perfect but it makes it hard to go back to the first game.

What really improves this game over the first one is the excellent level design. My God, does it feel good to move around these maps! Every corridor, every staircase, every enemy is in the right place, and the graphics, the colours.... The traversal sections are faster, shorter and better placed, with more ceilings and fewer overhangs. The moment-to-moment flow is impeccable, cutscenes are seemless, this is only interrupted by a few puzzles that, at worst, offer a great moment to put down the game. I wish GoW 1 and 2 could be combined.

“God of War 2” surpasses the already high bar set by the first chapter and offers some of the best graphics for Play Station 2, intense action, and even a slightly bigger focus on narration. The platforming elements that used to drag the pacing down in the first game have been greatly improved, even though a few puzzles had solutions that I wouldn't exactly call intuitive.

The combat system remains unchanged, if not for the addition of a bunch of secondary weapons and magical abilities. Button mashing becomes a little monotonous with the regular enemies, but the more frequent and epic boss fights help keep the player motivated throughout.

Para além dos avanços técnicos e em gameplay que traz, constrói uma aventura de tom mais épico e eleva a power trip do primeiro à outro patamar.

Ainda que não tenha a "alma" do original, é simplesmente um jogo melhor em qualquer aspecto possível.

É também o jogo mais graficamente impressionante do PlayStation 2 e tem o melhor boss da trilogia original.

Kratos returns after a fulfilling effort in 2005 with the first God of War sequel. God of War II doesn't change up a lot at all, with a lot of UI elements and mechanics virtually untouched since the first title. This doesn't in any way work against the game, though. Almost everything that made the first game great is improved upon, and the few new things that are introduced play their part in making this game even better than the original.

Along with the classic chain-sword slinging action that made the first game such a success, God of War II adds three total sub weapons, all with completely new gameplay styles, reworked spells, and new parrying system. You're more offensively potent, and defensively formidable. After collecting the Golden Fleece, you can even parry projectiles back at attackers. This adds a great new tactic in combat, and an occasional tool in puzzle solving as well.

The game handles most encounters in a much more fair way than the first game did, as well. You'll have fewer instances where you're stun locked, and overall, the monsters just feel slightly better designed. Now whether this is due to me having an entire game to get used to the nuances of the combat or it truly is better designed, I'm not completely sure, but I know there were overall way fewer unfair sections in this game. That goes for the platforming, as well. Every area feels very carefully made to maximize your fun and wonderment.

On the topic of design, the world building in this game, I think, far surpasses the original. As is the God of War format as of this point in the series, you have an opening boss battle in a major Greek city, go through some transitional areas, and then spend the bulk of your time in one huge destination. This time, instead of Pandora's Temple, you're spending most of the game at the Isles of Creation. Suffice to say, they're absolutely beautiful. From the second you see them in the distance from the Steeds of Time to when you first set foot inside the first temple, the use of color is staggering. The game is truly beautiful, and could pass as a PS3 launch title in some places.

Thanks to the locales visited, the game also doesn't suffer from the same visual repetition of its predecessor. Whether it's city streets, ice caves, swampland, the underworld, you name it, there's variety everywhere. The music remains as consistently solid as before, and the story is a direct continuation, involving more god killing glory. Kratos continues to display a completely despicable side while still giving the player justifiable reason to want to see him succeed. It's a story that exists purely to launch the gameplay forward, but in the best, most enjoyable way.

All in all, God of War 2 exceeds expectations. It mops up some of the issues of the first God of War, all while developing a gorgeous world for you to systematically shred to pieces. The extra features such as gameplay altering suits and bonus modes make it fun to play again and again, as well. The game deserves the praise it got on release, and continues to be an absolute joy to this day, albeit if it still at times has the same feeling of repetition at times.

God of War II is easily the best God of War game for me, it has the best design, the best enemies, the best boss fights, the best platforming, the best puzzles, the best story, and most replay value. God of War 1 was a decent game, but the game hasn't aged incredibly well with stiff controls and awkward design and the platforming wasn't too great. This fixes most of the issues I had with the first game, and it feels like a stronger game. Sure it is a little easier than the first but that's mainly because the controls are tighter. I had a lot of fun playing this in the PS3 collection before the Winter break of my final year in high school. Sure this game has flaws too, it does feel a tad generic at points, the story does get silly at times, the game design is a bit too basic at times, and character development is pretty poor, I mean Kratos still feels like an asshole in this who I don't really like. God of War II is a pretty good hack n slash but still comes nowhere close to touching the Devil May Cry franchise. This game comes so close to being pretty good but falls just a hair short, if it had a bit of a stronger story and character development and slightly less linear design it could have been better but its still miles above the first game and way better than 3.