God of War II

"Kratos the Villain"

In bullfighting, the matador is rewarded for killing the bull with grace, a single thrust, and as little pain to the animal as possible. In video games, the avatar is rewarded for the opposite, rarely with grace or a single thrust, and always inflicting as much pain to his enemy as possible. In that light, Kratos of God of War is gamedom's most skilled matador, reveling in his opponent's blood and thriving on their pain. Perhaps it is one of God of War's originalities that its hero is in fact the game's villain. He seeks to destroy everything in his path; he seeks vengeance for punishment justly given him; he seeks to not only defy the gods and fate but destroy them. If given the opportunity to blank all of existence he would do it, if only to seek revenge on his own existence. Somehow, by the end of the game, his cause his somewhat noble—it's just too bad it takes that long to find the game's worth.

The Good:
+ The game's final two hours are its best
+ The boss fights are mostly good

The Bad:
- Early story segments are confusing, hard to follow
- Many of the game's puzzles don't provide enough hints to figure out
- Combat is too repetitive

The Ugly:
~ Having to perform some of Kratos' brutal death segments

Part of me finds the game morally repulsive, part of me finds the story stupid, part of me finds the combat repetitive and easy, but part of me enjoys it all. What both of the God of War games do semi-competently other games do better. You'll find a better combo system in Ninja Gaiden, more strategy and challenge in Devil May Cry, and better platforming and puzzles in Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. You could also compare this to the likes of Mark of Kri, a game that actually punishes the gamer for using the same combo over and over. People might be upset that I compare this to those games, but the comparison is just. People might complain when I say, if video games, like movies and literature, are continually played throughout history, future gamers will most likely not view the God of War series as favorably as we do now. While it is easy to compare this to better games, that doesn't mean GoW 2 isn't without its moments of fun.

To begin with, the story is confusing. Following characters' motives is impossible and trying to reason out the game's scenarios is fruitless. Kratos, as the new God of War, defies and angers the gods yet again; he was born to defy. He is someone I would not want as an ally because he would inevitably turns against me. In a confusing turn of events after the god's strip Kratos of his god-like power, though not all of it, and seemingly attack him in the form of a giant statue, they then assist him in defeating this statue, which you soon realize is not a god but a titan, an enemy of the gods. Why they want Kratos to defeat it rather than someone like Zeus, I don't know, but oh well. As soon as Kratos does his job further confusion ensues, though I won't reveal any further plot points. Try not to think about the reason for what happens or worry about the fact that Kratos probably deserves what's given him and you might enjoy the story. Try not to worry about the fact that the game's hero glorifies values such as vengeance, vengeance for a just punishment against him, which makes him little more than a spoiled brat. A spoiled brat with the strength of the gods.

The story becomes less confusing after the introduction, but it never gets any better. Sony throws at random characters from ancient Greek mythology into the story to keep it afloat. Some people might like the use of such characters as Prometheus and Icarus placed into a rewriting of ancient Greek myths; a theme of the game, in fact, is changing destiny and fate. Some will find these characters used to little creativity, mere pieces of a puzzle to allow Kratos to continue his journey. I lean more towards the latter. GoW 2 seems ambivalent towards anything represented in the game, most especially Kratos' attitude. On one hand it celebrates his attitude through its visceral, glorified violence, but on the other hand the game provides characters that criticize his destructiveness rather than see it as something cool. Perhaps Sony does have a plan on how they wish gamers to portray Kratos' attitude, though we'll probably have to wait for the third game to know the answer. I would be relieved to see them reveal Kratos to be in the wrong, at least in his means, since otherwise video games would be celebrating poor principle. The heroes of westerns represent good, strong values or are punished for poor values. Kratos so far is rewarded for his lowly values.

Certain parts of this game are morally repulsive. Sony takes gratuity to an extreme. Any anti-video game advocate would say that the entire game, filled with as much violence as it has, is morally repulsive. True, this sort of violence has desensitized our generation, myself included, but the violence can still go too far. Against one boss, for example, a guardian doing his job and not deserving of the means of his demise, Kratos mimics The Bride from Kill Bill in her scene when she shows a little intimacy to her buddy Buck. In Kill Bill the scene was gross, but Buck deserved his fate. In God of War the enemy does not deserve his brutal death; also you, the gamer, are forced to perform it. And this is one of many repulsive scenes, all of them done against persons undeserving and innocent. Video gamers should stop praising such gratuitous violence. Why can't games, like movies and literature, focus on morality?

Not that I renounce all violence in games or anything. Without it we would not have the many fun and creative games that are out there. And GoW 2's combat is competently done. The controls are fluid and combos are easy to pull off. I still think fighting hordes of enemies is less creative than fighting less enemies that require more strategy. Pressing the square button over and over is surprisingly effective throughout the game, with a few situations requiring a little bit more variety and dodging/blocking. Probably my biggest problem with the God of War series is its lack of creativity, for the most part. Most of the regular enemies you fight in the sequel return from the original. The boss fights are the only truly original elements, though the game does pull off a few stunts other games have been doing for years, and they, in turn, are what makes the game fun at all, especially the larger, more epic bosses. They sort of make the hordes of redundant, boring enemies worth your while.

GoW 2 has the same sort of magic system as the first game, but new spells. The game's first spell, the arrows, is useful early on and against one of the bosses later, but not useful otherwise. The next spell, a lightning orb, proves to be not only a lot of fun but the game's most useful spell. The other two spells are okay at best, one of them a rehash of an old spell. Sony does solve a major problem in the original game, in which the spells took to much magic to use, making them worthwhile only against bosses. Spells now take smaller chunks from the magic bar and you can find more blue orbs to replenish it (though maybe too many, at least on normal difficulty). Along with the magic is a new feature, that of slowing time to a crawl temporarily. It's an ability you get semi-early in the game and that you can use only in certain scenarios. It gives the game a little more depth with its puzzles, which is nice, but I have one problem. To activate it requires pressing the L1 and R1 buttons at the same time, but often it takes several attempts for Kratos to finally trigger it, as the game will act as if only one button was pressed. Strange because activating the Rage of the Titans in a similar manner isn't so difficult.

GoW 2 is a platform/puzzle game as much as it is an action game. The early puzzles are incredibly simple, but they do establish important ground rules for how you will be expected to tackle the game's later puzzles. The later puzzles, however, break a few rules. They don't establish all of the elements of the puzzle up front and the camera doesn't always provide the proper clues about how to solve them. I spent a lot of time on several of the puzzles clueless before I finally resorted to gamefaqs; each time I wondered why the game didn't give a better hint or visual clue. Puzzles should not, by any means, be easy, but if I'm scrounging for the solution until I'm bored and have to look at the guides, something's wrong. Being unable to figure out a puzzle in this game has less to do with them requiring patience and intelligence, like those of Myst, and more to do with the fact you don't know what a crank or lever you just activated did. The puzzles, in fact, were more frustrating than the combat. Kratos also spends a good chunk of time climbing along walls or ceilings (and no, wall combat is not anything special or fun), which is fine, except when the game fails to clearly define certain walls as climbable, or fails to clearly distinguish the climbable wall from the regular wall. This also got me caught up in certain parts of the game.

In the end the game will take about ten to twelve hours to finish. It doesn't have the great start the original does, but it does have a great finish. The game's final two hours are filled with a string of boss fights, as well as a long and difficult section of regular enemies, and these bosses are the game's best. Perhaps they will make you wonder why they surround themselves with the means of killing them. If they simply removed certain objects or didn't summon certain creatures they would be impossible to defeat. Oh well. It's a video game; if logic were applied all throughout it wouldn't be any fun. Also, some of the game's sights are impressive, especially those regarding monstrous beings and their interactions with Kratos. While the story doesn't impress me I do have to say the cliffhanger ending makes me curious about the third game. It's a cliffhanger ending that other games and even movies could learn something from; it's just right and not abrupt and promises something epic to come, unlike the infamous cliffhanger of Halo 2. Although God of War 2, like its predecessor, has been hailed as a classic, I still don't think it deserves that status, but it is heading in the right direction.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/25/08

Game Release: God of War II (US, 03/13/07)