God of War II
Description official descriptions
The brutal warrior Kratos returns as the new vengeful God of War. The second chapter of the series focuses once more on a tale of revenge. Having defeated Ares and now a god himself, Kratos proves to be a more vicious and power-hungry god than Ares ever was. Eventually he finds himself betrayed, with his godly powers and abilities removed from him. Kratos sets upon another epic quest to find the Sisters of Fate and do what no mortal or god has ever done: change his destiny and reclaim his power.
Like its predecessor, God of War II is an action game with platforming and puzzle-solving elements. Still utilizing the Blades of Chaos, Kratos must rip apart his enemies and and other gods, heroes, and monsters from the Greek myths that stands in his way to revenge and power. As before, the higher the combo achieved from killing an enemy, the more red orbs will be awarded to Kratos for upgrades. Kratos has a selection of spells which utilize the blue orbs. Some are familiar from the previous game, while others are new to the sequel and its storyline.
In addition to the action and light puzzle-solving, Kratos takes to the sky in the sequel with some rail-based flying levels on the back of either a Pegasus or gryphon. He also learns several new abilities for combat as well as for solving the puzzles in the game, such as for example the ability to slow down time.
Included with the game is a second disc that has such bonus features as deleted levels, the voices of God of War II, the musical score, and a documentary about bringing the game to life.
Spellings
- God of War II: Shūen no Jokyoku - Japanese spelling
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Credits (PlayStation 2 version)
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[ full credits ] |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 93% (based on 104 ratings)
Players
Average score: 4.2 out of 5 (based on 110 ratings with 7 reviews)
The Good
I didn't like this game, but before we start complaining, I am going to be fair and say what I did like about this title.
First of all: the story is fairly interesting for me because I was planning to learn more about ancient Greek and its gods. While not 100% historically accurate, seeing a character appear and hearing their name is enough information because the rest I can look up on Wikipedia. For all its blood and gore, God of War II does trigger me to learn something, even if it isn't teaching me directly. A good example is when I saw some guy on a mountain who was cursed by Zeus to be healed every night and be savagely eaten by a giant bird in the day. What is his story? Did it really go like that? Are there paintings based on this moment? Those are all questions this scene brought up in me, so I applaud the game for that.
I don't really believe in "games make children violent", which is something that people who have never played games yell around. If anything this game allows me to blow off steam by killing some enemies in a consequence-free environment, rather than getting arrested for rioting at some football match.
The game also requires a degree of skill which is important for games like this or else they turn into button-mashers (like Ninety-nine Nights). There is a large variety of enemies and they all have different attacks and moves, so you will have to adapt to those on the fly. There are the fairly standard soldiers, but in the middle of a fight with them a Minotaur can emerge from the ground and you suddenly have to stop chopping blindly to actually change to a hit&run tactic instead.
The game boasts some really nice visuals and just like Shadow of the Colossus it really delves into the graphical power of the Playstation 2. Especially the boss-fights tend to be huge and some of the environments are just as amazing (such as a group of gigantic horses created by a titan, where a platforming section took place). There was also an amazing flying section fairly early on where I rode on Pegasus.
The Bad
While the game is very entertaining when it focuses on combat, it just utterly and completely collapses when it tries to be a puzzle game. While most of them boil down to pushing blocks unto switches (I swear I am not going to reference Zelda in this review!), it is just irritating to be interrupted in the middle of an action-packed scene. The game is also rather backtracking-happy and while on the earlier mentioned mountain stage I was constantly walking in circles, constantly gathering new items that had me do the circle all over again.
The puzzles are also made worse by the fixed camera angles the game uses. Naturally my first instinct when faced with a puzzle is to look around the area for objects that could be related to the puzzle, but lacking a first-person looking mode this will only result in Kratos rolling around a bit. There was a puzzle early on where there was a dead body hanging next to some skeletons and the idea was that I had to drag this body to a switch, so it would keep it down while I entered through the gate. However, after cutting down the skeletons for points, I just didn't see the corpse because I couldn't take a closer look due to the camera.
The violence also quickly starts to grow dull and repetitive, see Kratos cutting the head of a three-headed dog once and you have seen it all. The insane amount of violence just started feeling childish to me after a while and it was kind of hard to explain to people when they walked into my room.
The story feels really odd to me, while I am interested in Greek mythology, Kratos as a character just perplexes me. He is the God of War at the start of the game, but decides to cheat and constantly help his favorite faction raids cities for no real reason. He then acts like he doesn't deserve getting his powers taken away and to top it off he becomes a whiny little cunt along the way too. There is nothing more unreasonable than claiming you are killing everybody, simply because the "Gods made you so", Kratos is literally incapable of taking any sort of responsibility and as a character he falls flat.
The Bottom Line
While God of War II would certainly be entertaining if it focused more on the fighting, it just cripples itself with needless puzzles that make me sigh deeply every time they break up my adrenaline trip and the camera angles that contribute to why these puzzles are bad. The poor story and constantly backtracking around the stages are what deals the killing blow to this game for me.
If you are a fan of this franchise then you can go ahead and buy this game because you will surely like this. If you aren't a fan yet, then it depends on whether or not you can handle some simplistic puzzles and low-quality puzzles in your action game and if you actually care about the story. If your answers were "yes" and "no" respectively, then go ahead and try this game, otherwise I can't recommend this title.
PlayStation 2 · by Asinine (956) · 2012
The Good
God of War II continues its successful predecessor with a deep-less story, out of focus in Kratos himself's drama and focused on Kratos' revolution fighting the Gods.
There is a really obvious improvement in other aspects of the game like graphics, FX, music and gameplay. God of War II reinvents the classic Beat 'em up genre which was a little dead and resurrects it as a new genre who influenced many other games of the same genre.
Graphics are better, but just because the stages are majestic, everything is really, really big (maybe some Shadow of the colossus influence here), colossal than the previous game. There are new combos and movements are more dynamic. Everything's well harmonized with the music composed by Marino, Fish, Reagan and Velasco.
The game has evolved on its own concept, now the battles are more epic, moving away from the (sometimes) redundant minor battles which God of War I had, making it a special game for the player. Big bosses are all over the game, with less small battles and more epic battles.
The replayability is now better with new unlockable mods once you've finished the main game.
The Bad
The player will miss some new enemies because they're (most of them) the same as before. Also, maybe because it's really funny, the game is short beside the new mods included.
Many players will be a little bit disappointed when they try the game and notice that there are not many new movements for Kratos, not many new combos and nothing characteristic on this matter.
The Bottom Line
God Of War II is one of the best Beat 'em up games of this generation of platforms. Everything is apocalyptic and it will make any player who loves this kind of games to play it again just when he finishes it.
PlayStation 2 · by NeoJ (398) · 2009
Wonderful, almost like a movie!!
The Good
I loved everything about this game, right down to the Gorgons that you must fight through out. this game just floored me when I first played it, it not only out does the first God of War game. It also sets a new standard for video games the world over. the storyline just sucks you into your television screen, and keeps you on the edge of your seat. I loved the story, very well thought out, very well put together. And wow the music, wonderful, words can't even describe how great the soundtrack was in this game. It felt just like a movie soundtrack, and even the sound effects were very realistic and at times make you jump, when there are sudden bumps and bangs.
The Bad
I didn't like the fact that there were fewer extra's in this installment of God of war. I liked all the extra story elements of the first God of War. But in this installment, there just are not as many extras to choose from. But other than that, a wonderful game a game that you must buy and try out if you haven't already.
The Bottom Line
I would describe this game as an epic, pure and simple and epic. It's great, even my grandmother enjoyed this game, however she didn't play it, she just loved watching it. Because it's so entertaining and immersive.
PlayStation 2 · by David Bryan (21) · 2007
Discussion
Subject | By | Date |
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Bug | DreinIX (10265) | Feb 8, 2009 |
Trivia
1001 Video Games
The PS2 version of God of War II appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.### Advertisement
In March 2007, Sony launched the website islandofrhodes.org with a large countdown that ended on 11th April 2007. Initially, after the countdown, the site only showed a wallpaper and production videos, but a user at GameFaqs.com discovered a page with hidden Greek letters. If you spell Kratos by clicking on them in order (Kappa - under iota, middle right, Rho - upper left corner, Alpha - bottom right, left of soldier's waist, Theta - under upsilon, Omega - upper right, Sigma - bottom right, by soldier's foot) and then hit proceed, a new page appears.
It shows instructions to enable a hidden feature, added at the very last moment on Christmas Eve 2006 when the beta was just finished. It allows players of the PS2 and PS3 versions to unlock a HD friendly resolution for the game: 480P with full size buffers (640x448) rather than the original 480P resolution. It looks prettier, but runs a little slower. The instructions can be found in the Tips & Tricks section.
References
The Greek Hero Perseus is voiced by Harry Hamlin. Hamlin also played Perseus in the 1981 film Clash of the Titans and he was cast specifically for this role.
Awards
- GameSpy
- 2007 – PS2 Game of the Year
- 2007 – PS2 Action Game of the Year
- 2007 – PS2 Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)
- Golden Joystick Awards
- 2007 - PlayStation Game of the Year
Information also contributed by Mark Ennis and piltdown man.
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Related Sites +
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God of War II
Official game website - US -
God of War II
Official game website - Japanese -
Wikipedia: God of War II
Information about God of War II at Wikipedia
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Guy Chapman.
PlayStation 3 added by MAT.
Additional contributors: Jeanne, Sciere, DreinIX, Caelestis, Patrick Bregger, Charly2.0, GTramp, FatherJack.
Game added March 25, 2007. Last modified September 11, 2024.