E3 2006: 'God of War II' (PS2) - Impressions

In today's day and age where prequels are the new rage, God of War II is set to continue moving forward with its narrative when the game is released in February 2007. At the end of the first game, Kratos found himself sitting alongside the gods as the new God of War (get it – hence the title) that he took from Ares during the final battle of the first game.

God of War II takes place literally right after the first game ends. Kratos finds himself dealing with the petty nature of the gods, and so he doesn't have the easiest time fitting it with the rest of the group. After the gods betray Kratos, he soon finds himself facing down death and on a one-way trip to Hades. Kratos, unwilling to simply standby and let this betrayal happen to him, comes up with a plan to traverse the globe looking for the Sisters of Fate. If Kratos can stop the Sisters of Fate from snipping his strings of fate, perhaps he'll find himself in Hades later rather than sooner.

Developed by the same team that did the first one, the game looks and plays almost exactly like the first. Character models appear the same, environments still have that same look and style, and combat for the most part looks and plays identical to the first. Having a game so similar in style to the first could be an issue for some, but when a game like God of War does everything so well the first time around, it is hard to find any fault when the second game chooses to continues that same gameplay and feel.

Though a lot of elements are the same, I was told that the combat is actually more robust for this installment and features several different magic techniques to put to use while stringing together the various combos. Flame and ice spells are to be expected, as are other earthbound elementals more than likely, but they wouldn't go into too much detail regarding the new magic spells. Other new inclusions include Icarus' wings for hovering and Cupid's bow to shoot magical arrows at the enemies that litter the world.

As for the enemies, besides the "press a certain button sequence for a specific combo," quick time events also make their way back into the gameplay by having the player time their presses to their visual on the screen, which seem to be used mostly in regards to boss battles. In the case of God of War II the quick time event button pressing sequence came during a fight with a Cerebus in which Kratos, after pressing each button correctly after dealing so much damage to the boss, ripped one of the three heads off the beast.

I was told during my time with the game that though they have heard the complaints from players regarding the length of the first game, they have gone out of their way to say that they will not make the game longer for the sake of having it be longer. I was told that they will make the game as long as it needs to be to tell their story and not a moment longer.