I will free you from your life, but your torment is just beginning…

Sorry, just quoting. Although depending on how you find my ramblings there could be some truth to it. Anyway my latest endeavour, I may have last mentioned was God of War II. Second of the series, piecing together any of my unanswered questions and apparently offering special costumes, one of which…is a fish. “Cod of War” was the name. Call me easily pleased but I had to start the first chapter again just to enjoy it a little bit and perhaps find out exactly how far into the cutscenes it was worked. Quite a lot of fishy appearances actually… Only the epic and lengthy cutscenes go without, which is fair. Really amusing though. So! On to my experience…

I have to admit there were multiple occurrences of me googling walkthroughs because man, some of the puzzles are subtle! Not impossible of course, I felt silly most times when I realised. To be fair, going through all the partially- dated God of Wars before trying out my brand new Tomb Raider made me a tad impatient, less collector- more finisher… I did however find this game a lot of fun. I feel for most part that the upgrades in weapons and magic are really noticeable and fighting becomes more of an art form of making it look awesome, as opposed to a struggle of holding your own against enemies. Saying that, I was on easy mode… (must learn to lie a little). I only go with easy because I need to ensure I see a game through in order to fairly comment on it and because I think I may have mentioned I don’t allow myself to stop and replace a game with another until its reasonably complete. This just means I get more games in. When I’m broke and uninspired and crave a challenge I will do my trophy sweep and pursue the more difficult settings.

The story to this game is obviously leading off of the first, so relatively similar missions. The bloody content and the extremities as always, do not disappoint. I honestly had no criticisms about the graphics either and I thought the enemies, particularly the larger bosses were very imaginative. I feel as though most comments I have about this game are going to sound a bit samey because of previous God of War reviews and each game in keeping with the tones of the rest of the series, but its only fair to the others that I reveal my opinions in case people question whether to revisit.

I found the methods to destroying bosses, i.e. weak spots and finding levers etc. really fun to play out. With just the right amount of quick-time, chances to execute combos and option to try multiple weapons out.. Saying that, the quick-time section during the Zeus battle at the end took me a few do-overs for some reason…

You would definitely conclude from the story that Kratos is ridiculously stubborn, and that Zeus really shouldn’t have crossed him (I know I wouldn’t) but he does have feelings and will show remorse at certain points. I think it all blends together really well and though his constant volume level of voice makes me giggle at times, the dialogue isn’t too cheesy either.

In a more topical light I’d like to add that the weapons, though similar to the previous game are a lot of fun to wield and with the additional use of a great big hammer or spear you have something for everyone. I personally found the fights got a lot more fun when we retrieve the golden fleece and learn the throwback attack (as usable with Kratos in Mortal Kombat 9). I really made use of that one…

I won’t say too much else about it as I stated I’ll probably be repeating myself, but I do think you’ll benefit from playing the entire series and there are plenty of challenges to conquer. If you love Kratos, as well as the brutal showdowns, but also enjoy a bit of brainwork then look no further. Its got all you need.

Originally published at angryswan.co.uk.