God of War II

E3 2006 Hands On Preview

One of my main goals of E3 this year was to play God of War 2, so I made sure it happened. Luckily Sony knew it would be a hit and had plenty of demo units set up on the floor.

In the E3 demo, Kratos is looking for the Golden Fleece, a popular subject of mythology. Like in the first one, it’s far out of reach. I could see it pretty early on, but had to figure out a way to get there. So, taking the only paths I had available I started to solve the puzzle.

God of War 2 plays exactly like the first. There are light and heavy attacks, and alternating the two buttons during battle produces different combos. The demo also offered a few of the more powerful moves, such as the moves you do by attacking while holding down the block button. Kratos had a few new moves of this type, but other than that combat was pretty much the same.

I noticed that there were more timed button presses this time around, too. A lot of the enemies had special ways to kill them, and as expected each one was extremely brutal. I also noticed that Kratos had a different style of “throw” for each enemy. You can also cast magic very quickly, so in the demo I was able to knock an enemy in the air and then quickly pull out my wind bow and juggle them with magic arrows.

The environment was very cool. It was extremely detailed, and the same level of art direction that God of War is known for. The graphics are the same quality as the first God of War, if not better. The game looks great and proves that the Playstation 2 still has untapped power.

After navigating beautiful architecture and taking down Cyclops’s, a Cerberus, zombie warriors, skeletons, imps, and little armored ogre things I find myself back where I started, but now I have the necessary blocks to reach the fleece. After solving one last puzzle the fleece is in my possession, and I learn that it can reflect the medusa’s gaze. Using it to gain access to the final area, the demo ends right as I get attacked by the big mommy medusa.

God of War 2 basically plays just like the first one, but with new combo moves and new brutal fatalities. It seems to be headed in the direction of a perfect sequel: new puzzles, environments, music, story, magic and combos, but the same great gameplay that made the first God of War so amazing.  

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