The creative chaps at Sony’s Santa Monica Studio has done a superb job of blending Greek mythology with its own unique spin of characters and settings. Following God of War, where it told the story of the once fearsome warrior Kratos and his journey in seeking redemption with the Gods after his acts of violence, the second game picks up with Kratos in his rightful position of being the God of war. Details regarding the second game have been kept well under wraps, but from recent impressions it appears that the outspoken, and generally bad-arse, Kratos is drawn back to Earth with certain goals in mind. This apparently causes a bit of a stir with the other Gods, especially Athena, and ultimately stripping him of his previous God powers (and size). Where that leaves our protagonist is anyone's guess.
Riding a Pegasus and cutting off Gryphon wings is only the tip of the iceberg.
The gameplay has adapted to suit the needs of casual and hardcore action fans in a number of ways. While the original structure of basic attacks and magic are firmly in place, the combat system has been slightly refined to allow gamers to switch to different weapons on the fly in mid-combo - allowing for some more deadly attacks - and a handful of new magic abilities. If that wasn’t all, gamers can expect to see themselves in a number of new situations where they’ll be flinging themselves across great gaps and soaring great heights on the back of a Pegasus. The Pegasus areas shown have provided a slight reminiscence of Panzer Dragoon Orta where you’ll be able to navigate your Pegasus in several directions, as well as determining its speed. If you accelerate your Pegasus too quickly it’ll cause it to tumble, requiring gamers to carefully shake the analog stick to return it to a steady pace. During these sequences you’ll need to fight off Gryphons and all sorts of other creatures, ensuring for a great experience and a major breath of fresh air in mixing up the gameplay. There also ensures to be a stronger mix of puzzles, boss fights and pure action carnage. Lovely.
God of War II will also provide the most hardcore of gamers with an array of unlockable content to indulge themselves in. Besides a handful of costumes, there will be a few modes to explore after completion of the main game. The first being the ‘Challenge of the Titans’, which consists of a series of extremely difficult challenges – with seven in total being available to unlock through the main game. And the second is called ‘Arena of the Fates’, in which allows you to customise which, and how many, enemies you’ll fight. Obviously, there will also be a harder main game difficultly level to unlock and play once completing the game – this time being Titan Mode, replacing the previous God Mode from the original.
More than just redemption for Kratos this time round..
In terms of visuals, the game has already showcased its potential, often putting first generation games on newer consoles to shame, highlighting that the PlayStation 2 is still capable of some amazing visuals and technical defeats. From start to finish, there’s no doubt that the scale of environments, excellent model work and fluid animation will be on par (and then some) of the original.
Additionally, all versions will include an extra disc chock-full of bonus material, including ‘marking-of’ videos covering lost levels, the stress of preparing for press events and music, plus a bunch of artwork - among other things. So, practically all the good stuff that’ll get any God of War fan all giddy.
God of War II is expected to be released in PAL territories on March 30, 2007.
), so I'm definitely looking forward to this. And what's that about unlockables for the hardcore gamers? BRING IT!!! xD
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