The team tasked with the eagerly anticipated sequel to the Playstation 2's epic adventure God of War clearly worked off of the idea: don't fix it if it ain't broke. Everything you loved about the first outing of brutal Spartan, Kratos, returns in the sequel and the minor gripes you had are now fixed. The epic feel, brutal combat, and vicious main character all return bigger and badder than ever.
The first God of War quickly became infamous for its savage and visceral combat but Kratos has improved his craft for the sequel. The combat system has been upgraded with more moves meant to help you rack up combos which can easily reach into the hundreds. Add that to newer, even gorier finishing moves and new weapons and powers that maximize blood shed the combat in God of War II promises to be even more intense. Believe me, you'll know what I mean the first time you smash an enemies head in with the new Barbarian Hammer and with the various new beasts to slay you won't have a shortage of foes to massacre.
The combat isn't the only thing that has improved, the puzzles in this game have reached new heights in inventiveness, but are hardly ever frustrating. A new ability to freeze time adds a lot of depth to the landscape of puzzles that dot the ancient scenes of Greece. And new tweaks to the platforming system means you can go about traversing the epics levels in more creative ways. Krotos can now swing with his blades (al la Spiderman), dig them into ceilings to cross open spaces like monkey bars, and Kratos' new set of wings will come in handy to glide around the expansive levels.
With all of these new tweaks you might be worried about getting used to the new controls, but all the additions come very naturally and you'll be sending souls aplenty down to Hades in no time. Plus things that annoyed you last time around have been fixed; It is now easier to switch you're auxiliary weapons and you can now toggle the Rage of the Titans power on and off, so no more wasting your hard earned meter accidentally. The only problem that has persisted is the sore lacking of a free look function so you are sometimes hampered by the computer misplacing the camera. It is only a problem in platforming or combat rarely but it would have been a smart miss. All nitpicking aside, no one should let anything stop you from playing the best game on a Sony system this year; and it ain't on the $600 dollar PS3 its on the good 'ole PS2. Hooray longevity!
