God of War 2 - PlayStation 2

I'll admit honestly I was not a fan of the original God of War. All my friends felt as if I was "whacked" for not seeing it as the best game of the year. They might have been right but the point was I hated playing button mash mini games just to beat the bosses and Kratos seemed like a muscle bound tough agro kid on roids. Yes he has a good reason for being angry, psychotic, and sad. Ares made him kill his own family. This is why he agreed to help the gods if they wiped his memory of what he had done. Yet throughout the whole game Kratos was a prick. Imagine the jock you knew in high-school that stuffed you in lockers just for fun, add red paint over part of his face and bam, you have GOW's protagonist! Fast forward and we come to God of war 2. The thing the second GOW does better is everything is balanced. You do not have to tap the "o" button quite as many times to rip a head off or ram your weapons down a Minotaur's throat. The button mash sequences also seem more forgiving and in most battles it seemed like if you got the sequence wrong enough it would finally make the combination easier. GOW 2 like its' predecessor has a good story line. Kratos is tricked by Zeus and loses all his powers thus must get the help of Gaia and the titans to regain his throne. While this may sound straight forward and lack luster the way it is done is truly brilliant. The areas are much more expansive and awe inspiring and between levels sometimes requires you fight ariel foes on the back of a fiery winged Pegasus. Puzzles are normally a bit tough but in a fun way. A little common sense can take you a long way and it is normally the simplest solution that is the right one. As before you get to upgrade your weapons by collecting red orbs and as before you have heavy attack combos (less swings but more devastating) and light hit combos (farther reaching, more strikes, but do less damage.) For those like me who were frustrated "normal creatures" could kill you cheaply with a single attack there is less of that now. Whereas before you seemed forced to slay the monsters a particular way now it is your preference. You can still do instant brutal elite kills if you mash all the right buttons but you can also opt to pummel them by throwing your chained blades around until your foes hit the dirt. Yes, GOW 2 is a bit more forgiving on the casual gamer. While it is challenging is does not feel impossible. This is further implemented by more check points and save points. As you can expect there are spells and other weapons. The barbarian's hammer is a slow but high damage slugger and you can also do feats such as slowing time, summoning shock bolts, boosting your attack proficiency by utilizing rage of the titans, Icarus's wings allow you to gracefully glide over longer distances, as well as turning foes to stone by using a gorgon head. None of this is super innovative but it is fun. One thing GOW as a series can be commended for is it truly is like those 2d plat-formers of the past. You do a lot of sliding down ropes, net climbing,swimming,jumping from plat form to plat form, pulling levers, and falling to your demise down bottomless pits. It's good to know the team saw the greatness of super mario bros., the old castlevanias, as well as Contra. To take what we loved about the retro age and apply it into 3-dimensions is admirable. So is Kratos anymore sympathetic to the audience? Likely not. This game comes off as being so manly it is extremely homophobic in its' over the top violence and blatant nudity but it is all so well done no one will care. The music and visuals are stirring and vibrant able to compete with today's top dogs in the action genre even though by most standards the ps-2 is a dead system. If you have a ps-2 collecting dust there is no reason to neglect it any further if you have not purchased GOW 2. I got my copy for $9.95 and its' a greatest hit. Even if you are a penny pincher this game will not set you back one bit. Considering most of today's games can range up to $60.00 a pop this is a literal god send if you're bored and don't have much money to throw around. Pros +More forgiving to casual gamers unlike its' predecessors. +Better enviormental designs. +Puzzles are fun and not overly complex +Button mash mini games are easier +A large assortment of cool bosses. Also expect to see some familiar faces from the past. +Old school plat-former action brought perfectly into 3 dimensions. +A riveting story of tragedy, betrayal, and loss that uses Greek mythology as an effective back bone. +Aphrodite and those two sultry kinky muses. Nuff said. Cons -Kratos is awesome but he is still a jerk. This is not a role-model for adults OR kids. He has likely spawned some "Kratos spaz-boys" across the internet with the maturity ratio of 9 year old boys who got done watching Rambo movies back to back. Still I rather deal with Kratos imitators than those annoying new-wave Joker nuts. -I love the violence and nudity but I am able to admit it is a bit over the top. This game has a big case of "homophobia extreme" making you question if Kratos loves men in togas but still screams at the top of his lungs he is the best gift to women since Casanova. Doth protest too much Spartan? _If you liked GOW for the fact it was teeth gnashing hard GOW 2 may let you down a little in the challenge department. -There are more puzzles so if you are an action junky I understand your pain. Despite that this is still a thrill-ride so don't pass it up regardless. -Some gods and goddesses do not have much to do with the actual story. Aphrodite is seen in a messed up vision sequence in the beginning and Hades is in a battle scene with Titans but does not pop up later. If some of the deities were not important why even have them listed in the manual?

I also have a review for part 1 of this game on this site and rated it a 5, I rate this a 5 because the game and series is one of, if not my favorites, and I've been gaming since the early 80s, but this still ranks as one of my 5 favorite series'. You know most of the good stuff, Kratos honestly believes no one or thing can kill him, and for the most part, he is right. The weapons are a lot of fun, including the often talked Barbarian Hammer which makes Kratos look like a spinning giant hammer when in combo. The Spear is ok, I only used it a few times, the blades of course are the weapon you start with and in most of the battles in the game, they will be enough. Magic is really good this time around, the Atlas Quake is not only devastating, but fun to watch too. Onto the reason I rated a 3 in fun. First, I'm not for sure that many people can play this game without at least looking at a walkthrough or even videos that show how to do some parts. If you want everything in the game you will use a walkthrough. There are parts, Urn of Gorgons, for example, that you wouldn't even think about how to find it without a walkthrough. I personally don't like that. Having to turn my head to the right reading a walkthrough while looking ahead at the screen, usually pausing, and reading, just isn't that fun. My other complaint in the fun area is the same one I had on part 1. Some of the jumps are as a walkthrough said, "Leaps of faith". And after you jump off a cliff 3 times, trying to hit the wall over to your left, you will get a screen that asks if you would like to switch to easy mode, and in parenthesis it tells you only the toughness of battle is changed if you do. Out of the actual fighting parts, one boss gave me a hard time, the Cerberus, but that was my fault, not using the right weapon. I would say though, Kratos probably died a couple of hundred times. Out of those, maybe 10% were in fighting. Speaking of, the Gorgons are back and now you can parry their attack, problem is, I found myself late in the game, getting between two, so I only can parry one at a time. You know the routine, turned to stone, one hit and you're dead. To make matters worse, you now have wings later in the game, so go ahead and try to jump the gorgons and they'll freeze you in mid-air, and when you hit the ground, you're automatically dead. To me this took a lot of the fun out of the game. I didn't want to stick around in areas to try and find the secrets because I knew there could be another of these jumps or cheap kills like the Gorgons do, around the corner and you go back to the last checkpoint when that happens. Still a 5 overall, I honestly can tell you that I had bright red thumbs and analog stick indention on one finger on each hand from trying to wiggle the analog stick to break the stone the Gorgons trapped me in, over and over and over and over and over and over. Sure the parry works, but when between two you can't jump them since they will freeze you in the air. I thought these parts made the game monotonous. I guess that's what we get for saying the first part was too short.

Muy buen videojuego

Great game already on my 4th new game+. Would recomend

Do not buy this cd as it will not work. It just says ps2 on the cover but it has age restrictions and format issues

Ambos Discos limpios, manual y caja Standard edition, no hay más que decir, producto excelente

Not compatible with Ps2. Format issues. Returned