God of War 2 - SCE Studios Santa Monica - PS2

[Margalis]

God of War 2 is very similar to the first. Most of the additions add little to the enjoyment and many of the changes are for the worse. Everything about the game is derivative and it's clear that the creators were trying to replicate a formula by aping it, even down to the two hot chicks with fake tits (in ancient Greece...yeah) minigame.

Additions include a bullet-time style effect that exists only to introduce tedious puzzles and a superfluous third meter, the ability to swith on the fly to a couple of fairly useless sub-weapons, the ability to move while hanging from the ceiling with nonsensical controls, a Space Harrier flying portion that is the definition of tacked-on and collectible items, because collecting items is fun or something.

There are a few nice tweaks, such as improved control on the wall/rope sections, but many of the tweaks are negative. Air combos are harder to do for a variety of reasons. Moves have been either removed or altered to be less fun and less effective, and that combined with encounters that focus on larger numbers of enemies makes the best combat strategy poking with a couple of quick moves while evading and blocking rather than more acrobatic stylings.

The plot is ridiculous and the bosses while more plentiful are less impressive. By God of War 3 I fully expect to be fighting Euclid, Inubis and Hitler's grandfather. God of War 1 broke the action up into mini-encounters  -- chunks of gameplay with different smaller objectives -- but God of War 2 ditches this approach and exposes the fundamental monotony of the underlying gameplay by throwing a constant stream of enemies at you minus the novel scenarios. God of War 2 is a literal sequel like Dumb and Dumberer or the later Family Vacation movies, sticking close to a now-established formula without the heart or artistry of the original.

Verdict: Rent It.

[Yegolev]

There was one cool thing about the game, which was when I first saw the room with the murals depicting the titans, the gods, and then the one with the three wise men.  Too bad the game went all Soulreaver.

[Margalis]

Oops I guess I should have said "Try It."

It isn't bad by any means but it's basically more of the same but less fun. Maybe because it's actually less fun or maybe because it's more of the same and the novelty has worn off. When I played it with my friends they weren't interested and we switched to Silent Hill 4.

It feels like they were really reaching to tack on some new gameplay elements while retaining the exact same formula. The fact that the director is a different person is no suprise, it has that feel of a guy who doesn't want to fuck things up so instead just adds useless junk around the edges while trying to retain what made the first game great without really understanding what that stuff was.

[Ookii]

Saying to rent this game instead of demanding people buy it means you're with the terrorists and in the axis of gaming evil.

[sidereal]

The plot is ridiculous

Compared to what?  Mario? 

It's an outstanding game (outstanding enough to make my avatar!).  Some of the most fun I had all year.  Button mashing the faces off of random Titans and Gods.  That's why video games were invented.

The review is summarizable as 'Not as good as the original.  Still not as good as the original.  Worse than the original.  I preferred the original'.  Less of the comparative, more of the "is it fun", plz.

I still wouldn't buy it, though.  0 replay value and no multiplayer.  Great rent.

[Margalis]

Mario basically has no plot, so it doesn't matter what the plot is.

GOW2 tries to have a plot. It has a lot of cutscenes (that you can't skip) and talking and the entire arc of the game follows the plot. It was their choice to put the plot front-and-center, but the plot doesn't warrant that at all. It's bad to how it should be given how much air-time the plot is given.

I assume that most people have played GOW1, that's why it is comparitive. And unlike say Mario 64 compared to SMW the game is basically identical, it's nearly an expansion pack. So comparisons are in order. Again they invited them by sticking to the exact same formula.

[Hoax]

You know what.

GoW wasn't even good.  Honestly.  I mean yeah I enjoyed every new monster type, killing them with the really really cool finisher move.  But the boss fights were mostly annoying chores & shit like those doors I had to button mash to open were a drag too.  Basically the gameplay was stale and tired long before I even got to the final stage.

I felt like posting that here, I really was annoyed with the hype on this one.

[Margalis]

Having just beaten this I'm tempted to say that "rent it" was too generous.

The plot is painfully awful, I mean forehead slapping awful, and the cinemas are nothing special either. The plot of the first one was basic and the entire game was questing after a giant McGuffin but it wasn't plain insulting. This stuff seems written by a 12-year-old. It's that bad, cringe-inducing.

For a second I thought the game was picking up when I had a GOW1-style encounter with a mini-objective. Then right after that I hit an area where there is some tedious puzzle in every single fucking room. Seriously the last 25% of the game is this:

You go into a room.
There is a switch.
You press the switch.

It was torture. Enough fucking switches! Because of the bad camera angles half the time I can't even tell what the switch is doing, I'm rotating some lever and I have no idea what it is doing. The camera angles in this are awful, I can't see wtf is happening, the action is zoomed out too far making combat a complete mess, etc. When there is a mess of guys on the screen it's impossible to tell who is swinging at you.

At the same time suddenly the whole game turns into zelda. Let's see, I fly with my leaf, err I mean wings yeah, over hot air vents to float around. I fight a boss where I reflect bolts back at the enemy and they reflect them back in turn..you know like Gannon has been doing for the last decade. Jesus. And none of it makes any fucking sense. "We control time and fate but um...somehow we let you travel all the way to our palace and then kill us, 'cause we're real dumb like that!" Oy...

Man it is clear they totally ran out of ideas. Time travel? Luke I am your father?

The game is incredibly easy, I died a lot falling into pits and shit but I think actual enemies killed me by hitting me maybe 3 times in the entire game. Of course in the last quater of the game there are barely any enemies to fight...

This totally killed my interest in GOW3. Wow. What a terribly dissapointing sequel. Flipping switches is not fun, jesus christ. I pulled enough levers in the last 2 hours to last me a lifetime. It really became a chore and I only beat it just to beat it.

Edit: I think this is the kind of game people feel compelled to give a good review to, because it's basically GOW1 with some extras. Except everything is worse. But it's hard to articulate how it's worse so better to just give it a good score. I suspect that in a couple of years people will llook back and agree it was a mediocre sequel.

After I beat GOW1 I beat it again on the hardest mode. I'm never touching this thing again. Anyone want it? Seriously. There are far too many tedious parts for a second playthough. I'll give it away for free.

Keep in mind I liked GOW1. My first impression of this was "like GOW1", then "like GOW1 but worse", now "like GOW1 but much worse." Ugh.

[schild]

To put it succinctly, the level design in God of War 1 - particularly Pandora's Temple. However, HOWEVER, the shit getting drawn by the horses was just absolutely goddamn awesome art direction. Also, I enjoyed the ending. God of War is brainless, it makes me feel like a 12 year old. Some people get their kicks from playing Wii tennis. I get my kicks from brainless action games. Zone of the Enders anybody? Heavenly Sword? Call of Duty 4? I like blockbuster action games.

At the very least though, I expect a certain level of structure and inspiration. Which might be why I still play FPS titles on the PC whenever possible and find Halo to be deplorable.

[Azazel]

To put it succinctly, the level design in God of War 1 - particularly Pandora's Temple

what was going to be at the end of that sentence?

[schild]

To put it succinctly, the level design in God of War 1 - particularly Pandora's Temple

what was going to be at the end of that sentence?

Sorry, was a little early to be posting I suppose.

It was freaking awesome. Pandora's Temple was awesome.

[Margalis]

Yes, the temple was great. The levers there did cool things. The fact that turning the crank rotated the entire room was very neat and added a lot to the sense of scale and power.