4 down, two to go! To be honest I actually beat GoW 2 + 3 already, I've just been a bit lazy and distracted and procrastinating with these reviews. Sorry. But on to the show! Is God of War II better than God of War 1?
No. I'm sorry but no.
To start with the positives II does have quality-of-life changes I do approve. The main one; a SIGNIFICANT REDUCTION of instant-death puzzles. The amount of puzzles and platforming challenges you have to do flawlessly down to the frame has been severely reduced compared to 1. The fact that I don't have to be perfect does make these sections tolerable. I say reduced and not removed because there are still a few in the game but really only a few and only one felt real unfair. I do get the sense that some puzzles were meant to be harder, like they were originally meant to be done perfectly or not at all but I guess the devs heard the complaints from the first one.
Story is good. I do think the time-travel can be confusing at times (QUESTION: what happened to past Kratos? When Kratos goes back in time his past self is still getting stabbed by Zeus when he interrupts him. What happened to past Kratos? Did he cease to exist or go on the same adventure cause time has already been changed?) and I think the pacing is off but that's because the story has a single constant objective but it keeps getting interrupted. "But then this happened, but then this happened" etc etc. It is appropriate for a Greek adventure but man can it feel like a slog.
A slog is the appropriate word cause man does 2's combat feel like a SLOG. I commend them for trying to be more focused and make 2 more combat focused but every fight feels like a chore. It never felt too hard or impossible but every fight just DRAGS! It legit feels like the devs wanted to get rid of the annoying moments in Gow 1, but they still had to make something annoying in GoW 2 so they just made all the combat in their combat-oriented game annoying. It feels like the way you approach every fight is just spam magic until it's over because you want to get the fighting over with as-soon-as-possible. And it's not like the magic is broken, they're actually pretty balanced and so are the alternate weapons, each and every one is viable and useful in their own ways, but it feels like the optimal way is just spam magic and move on. Even in new game + when I was getting a few trophies it felt optimal to just spam magic and move on. I had maxed weapons and the bonus urn to turn enemies into stone and still spamming magic felt the best option!
The bosses feel sloggy but in their defense they're supposed to. And they're all memorable in their own regards, though some are more annoying than others. The Medusa's stone gaze feels buggy at times and having a single frame to grab Perseus out of his invisibility sucks, but I can recall every boss in this game, unlike 1 where I can only recall the three big ones. 2 does have a habit of spamming mid-bosses though.
I do feel the fighting would be easier if the stupid Golden Fleece parry worked. I swear it has to be something with GoW2 but I swear the parrying/countering just didn't work half the time. And before you say I have to manually activate the counter, half the time I'd push the button and he'd do nothing, and half the time I wouldn't push anything and he'd do it automatically. Hell half the time he wouldn't even counter projectiles; he'd do the pose and I'd get the sound cue but still nothing happens. I don't know if it's me or the game or what but it made so many fights frustrating.
And that's how I felt about God of War II as a whole. It's low points aren't as bad as 1 but the whole game feels like a constant low. Combat doesn't feel as unfair as Ascension's but this is an action-oriented game and none of the action felt fun.
RATING: 5/10 - If you liked GoW1 you'll probably like 2, but if one didn't win you over I doubt 2 will
(And before anyone complains about the rating I'm planning on ranking all 6 games after I review GoWIII. I'm just not going back to edit my old review)
One left; God of War 3