Game Sequel We NEED: God of War II

In keeping with the "God" theme, this post is about a sequel I'm dying to get my grubby lil' hands on, God of War II for the PS2.

Damn Kratos looks sexy...

GOWII starts right where the first game ended; Kratos after defeating Ares the God of War ascended to Mt. Olympus to become the new God of War. Evidently, Kratos makes a rather cut throat and ruthless God of War. And keeping with Greek mythology the other Gods of Olympus conspire against him which soon lands our, um, hero, back on a journey to regain all that was taken from him. Above all else Kratos is searching for a way to rid himself of the memories of his past. [Those of you who have played the first game, know what that means. Those of you who have not played the first game, slap yourself. Hard. Then go out and buy it!]

Now, if GOWII was just more of the same it would be worth picking up. The gameplay of the original game was just ballz out fun. Kratos opened up so many can's of whoop ass in the first game that it was addictive. No matter how many times that tunnel with the spiked walls closed in on you before you could reach the other side and you died, you hit that damned continue button and tried again. More brutal fights, more reaction commands, more puzzle solving, more stunning backgrounds...count me in. But GOWII is more than just another quick jump to start a franchise. The developers have really fought hard take a good thing [Hell, great IMHO] and make it better. I respect that.

If you played through the first game you saw some of the bonus videos that featured some gameplay elements that the team just could not get into that game. Well guess what? Some of those things have made it into GOWII. Like the wings of Icarus. Yes you read that properly. Kratos will have the gift of [limited] glide. It's not really flight because the implimentation stays true to mythology; the feathers are stuck together by wax and begin to disintegrate after a short period of use. But they are in the game. For now, that's all I need to know.

For those of you who have [and have not--shame upon you and your entire lineage] you'll be glad to know that GOWII has refined the equiping of sub weapons. When playing through the first GOW you get a nice and heavy damage inflicting weapon called The Blade of Artemis. The only frustrating thing about using this weapon was that you had to hit both the L1 and R1 buttons simultaneously to equip it, which made pulling off combos via weapon switching difficult. It wasn't impossible, but it was damn near close. Occasionally you would be able to land a single hit with whatever weapon you switched to if you had a gnarly air combo already going. Not so in GOWII. The weapon switching has been simplified...to one button people! Magic has been re-tooled as well. It's not just for repelling large swarms of enemies anymore. New to GOWII are an ice attack that acts like a shotgun blast and a wind harpoon that can be charged up to a whirlwind state launching your victim[s] aloft. You can now use magic to combo you little black heart out.

*Example*
Use the wind attack to whirlwind your opponent into the air, pummel them with your sword attach, as it looks like they are about to fall to the ground switch to your blades to grab the enemy and draw them into you, then kick their ass to the ground and "lern them to mock your skillage!" [Yes I know I typed the words "lern" and "skillage"...if Stephen Colbert can make up words, so can I] Unleash your inner ruthless badass people.

Did I mention that Kratos can now grapple and swing around within the levels using the Blades of Chaos? I didn't? Mah bad. He can, using special grappling points within the levels. You can't miss em. If you hit Kappy's Liquor Store, you've gone too far. ;) Yes I made a smiley face. Kratos makes my heart happy. Knowing that Cory Barlog is at the helm of this outting for Kratos now that David Jaffe has gone up another rung on the ladder [ok, he went up a FEW rungs on the ladder...I won't playa hate] eases my mind.

Knowing these guys stuck to delivering this title on the PS2 in order to release a stunning game focused on bringing quality gameplay elements to the player makes me feel so special. They could have rushed to make it a PS3 launch title delivering a sub-par GOWI port with new levels, but they took the high road. For that reason [amung many more] I'll be ponying up my $50 bucks come Feb 2007 to add God of War II to my game collection.

See ya at GameStop!

NinJaSistah out--

p.s.
obviously these images are from IGN's website and are theirs. you should check them out to get some cool desktops, video previews, and shizzole like that.