God Of War 2 Review

Greek mythology, as reviewers have no doubt mentioned in the past, lends itself to videogames and cinema perfectly. Granted, in the film sense, no-one has really bothered that much since Ray Harryhausen with his stop motion classic ‘Jason and the Argonauts’, or the 1981 box office hit, ‘Clash of the Titans’ (which is currently in pre-production for a 2010 remake). God of War on the Playstation 2 was a prefect example of how well this translated, and combined puzzle, platform and extreme violence very well, as well as taking the characters from Greek mythology, and creating a universe of its own.

Skip to now…the ‘next gen war’ is officially on. Xbox 360 has been out for roughly 18 months, Wii for 6 months and the PS3 debuted just under two months ago. I have played games on all formats, and I can honestly say the best game I have played in the past year is God of War 2 on the Playstation 2. For me it is a shining example to all the naysayers about Sony, that in the end, they have introduced the gaming world to some fantastic franchises, and continue to do so.

It is hard to review this game without descending into the hyperbole of an ADHD suffering 10 year old child…So I am going to give up now, and let my inner child explain the game to you…

“This fucking dead hard guy from god of war one, right, he is all pissed off ‘cos all the other gods have been gypping his tats, and he keeps like, starting on everyone for lolz, so one of the god dudes takes away his magic god powers, and he is all like “whatever, Zeus, outside now, y’cunt”. He does this cos even though he is a normal bloke again, he is still DEAD hard and could probably have all the gods in a fight with the right sword, which he doesn’t have, so he starts chinning EVERYONE, ripping off peoples arms and taking their eyes out and shit, and at one cool bit, slams someone’s face in the door like Vinnie Jones in that film my doctor said I should never have watched. Some bits get a bit boring, like when there is no-one to kill, but sometimes there are two chicks with their ta-tas out which you can totally pork and make a bald dude sandwich with!”

Back to reality…it really is that much fun. Kratos is the ultimate anti-hero, he is aggressive, violent and you want him to win for fear that he may possibly exist, a little like the mythical Chuck Norris. Except Kratos could easily beat him in a fight (see, even now, the hyperbole slips back in). The game is pure unadulterated cartoon style violence, many of the ‘special’ kills resembling some of the over the top parodies of video games you see in programmes such as the Simpsons and South Park.

Aside from the joy of killing, there are the very basic puzzle elements too, but none of it seems to outstay its welcome. The game is perfectly designed to leave you scratching your head at some points, but not to the point where the game becomes frustrating, you tend to figure out the problems quickly, and get back to more killing. It has been noted that the game is longer than the first, I couldn’t confirm or deny this, but it does seem to be over all too quickly, but again, that is a testament to how no particular part drags, and that the game designers have not implemented the ‘time honoured’ tradition of forcing the player to go backwards and forwards in the same locations to achieve goals (Spiderman 3, I am looking at you).

I never count graphics as much as a plus or negative in games, pop up doesn’t bother me, and neither does a game having to have the ‘next gen’ look. God of War 2 looks nice, has spot on collision detection, the only minor quibble being the fixed camera angles can sometimes be a tad frustrating, but nothing that can’t be fixed by simply moving further on.

Giving a game a 10/10 score is pretty redundant, it would suggest that it is the PERFECT game, with no little faults, and has a lot of long term appeal. And that is where this game slips up. I completed it twice, and while there are a couple of extra modes, and opportunities to do the game on an increased difficulty setting, The game held my attention for two days (granted, they were FULL days), but after that I had no real desire to go back…maybe in a few months time I will, but I will have invariably traded it in by then. With this in mind, I have to give the game a solid 9/10.