Good God of War II

A week or so ago I was idly writing an article lamenting the fact that there aren’t any video games aside from, say, Guitar Hero that I’m really excited about playing. Scrrrrratch that immediately.

Go get God of War II.

I missed the first game mostly because I never, ever play games using the PS2 game pad. I know (many) people who swear up and down that it’s the best game pad ever made, but I think they’re bonkers. I can’t can’t can’t use it.

But this game is well worth the effort. It strikes that delicate balance of badass action and puzzle solving, just like Prince of Persia Sands of Time did for the Xbox several years ago when it came out (is it really four years? damn). In fact, Prince of Persia was probably the last game that hooked me the way this one has.

One cool trick that took my friends and I about three hours to notice is that there are no load times in the game. Somehow they managed to pull of that neat trick while still shoving unbelievably good graphics onto the PS2. I can only imagine if this game were for a newer console how nuts it would look.

Without wanting to say too much, the controls are intuitive, the cutscene-driven story is *gasp* interactive, which avoids the Final Fantasy trap, and you play the God of War is he embarks on a brand new quest of revenge to defeat Zeus, the conniving bastard king of Olympus. How much better does it get?

Go play this game.