God of War 2

God of War 2 is a fairly safe sequel that capitalizes on the core elements of the first game for great effect, bringing a violent revenge-driven protagonist, and a simple yet effective combat system, while expanding the scope of the adventure. It brings some new ideas to the table, but they could have been more developed.

In the story, the protagonist, Kratos, after becoming the God of War himself, cannot control his violent instinct and thirst for blood, raging unmotivated war throughout the lands. Consumed by hatred, the warrior has become the second version of his archenemy, Ares. To contain the Spartan’s violence, then, Athena and Zeus plot his downfall, which makes Kratos war against the Greek Gods themselves.

The game kicks off with an impressive set piece: the Colossus of Rhodes, under Athena’s control, is decimating a city while looking for Kratos. The hero can only strike small parts of the enemy at first, such as its hands and eyes, leaving scars on the metal, while pursuing it through the crumbling city. Soon, the Spartan manages to get inside the Colossus and we must climb the enormous statue from within to defeat it once and for all.

God of War 2 excels when it comes to building a sense of scale. In one scene, for example, Kratos is walking along the chains that attach giant stone horses to a temple, and the camera moves away from the Spartan to leave him minuscule in comparison to the massive environment, reinforcing the size of the setting. The first God of War already made good use of this camera technique but here the effect is even more impressive.

Kratos, as a character, is a force of nature, destructive and relentless. His typical lack of empathy translates well into the gameplay: corpses of his fellow Spartan warriors, for example, are mere tools for him, they’re objects to be placed on pressure devices or used to activate deadly mechanical contraptions. When he meets Prometheus at the beginning of the adventure, the Spartan tries to release him from his eternal prison but only because this will suit his needs. Kratos doesn’t care for Prometheus and the rescue is even punctuated by acts of violence.

Compassion is an alien concept to the character. When he encounters Icarus, Kratos’s first thought is to tear the guy’s wings off and stick them to his own back. The important thing for Kratos is to reach his goal, no matter what it takes to get there and who gets in his way. This cycle of eternal violence is then imbued with a good dose of tragedy by a revelation at the end, as the game concludes with a hook for a sequel, promising an increase in the scale of the war.

God of War 2 feels more like an adventure than its action-heavy predecessor. We travel around the world now, from the volcanic prison of Atlas to the snow-capped mountains that guard the eternal suffering of Prometheus: the environments Kratos traverses in God of War 2 are much more varied than before, ranging from forests and temples to dark caves.

These places are crawling with monsters taken from Greek mythology, and to destroy them we have a simple but effective combat system, which continues to be based on two types of attack – weak and strong – that we can combine to form a small number of combos. Bringing three additional weapons to the table, alongside some spells, the game tries to add something new to the combat system but forgets to explore the potential of these new weapons. Kratos’ main weapon remains the same, the Blades of Athena, with the same basic combos – and the title offers no incentive to not use these blades all the time. If players want diversity in the action, they will not find it here: since there are not even enemies more vulnerable to these extra weapons, there is little incentive to use them.

Regarding the labyrinthine level design of the previous title, which was marked by the sheer number of deadly mechanical traps and apparatus, God of War 2 comes up with a few new ideas: there is still a plethora of spinning blades and spikes-attached-to-things-that-will-hit-Kratos. A new element introduced is the ability to stop time near certain statues, allowing Kratos to pass obstacles that were previously insurmountable. However, this is an ability that never evolves: it will always be used to allow Kratos to pass some now-disabled device or to walk through a door before it closes. Some puzzles involve making the statue approach these obstacles, but the puzzles never go beyond that in terms of complexity.

God of War 2, then, is an engaging action-adventure game that lives up to its predecessor’s success. In some areas, however, it could have dared to go a step further and better develop its ideas and mechanics.

January 20, 2025.

Review originally published in Portuguese on November 30, 2018.