If you're following me, you probably know that I found the first God of War to be a big disappointment, with the moment-to-moment gameplay being the biggest sinner. Tedious puzzles and platforming, and an overreliance on QTE's that made the already sluggish combat feel even more meaningless. Needless to say I wasn't exactly looking forward to this second installment, but now that I've played it…eh? It's honestly not as bad.
The first game was almost entirely carried by its story and setting. Such a delightful tale of revenge and sorrow set to the backdrop of gods and myths. It's hard to make a followup story that continues in the same vein, and overall I don't think they did quite as good a job in this game. Whereas Kratos's motivation in the first game was a "You made me your humble servant and dealt me irreversible emotional damage, therefore you have to die", in this game it's more "You made me angry by playing on my hubris.", which isn't nearly as compelling. The story in general feels way more like generic here, and it's not helped by the abundance of greek myths present. In the first game, every mythological element served a clear purpose, but in this one it kinda feels like they just threw as many in as possible to make the story feel grander, a tactic that didn't really click with me.
While the story in GoW 2 is notably weaker than in GoW 1, the gameplay has had some very important upgrades. First of all, you now get an item that lets you parry with every weapon, and that's honestly a godsend. One of my biggest complaints in the first game was how the slower weapon was basically useless against multiple enemies because you couldn't parry with it, and I'm glad to see it was fixed here. Granted, there is a little stretch after you get the hammer but before you get the fleece, but the second half of the game had infinietly smoother combat than the first game. It's not just that though, I also got the feeling that the enemies weren't as tanky, and I certainly had an easier time against smaller foes. Unfortunately, while it does improve on the first game's combat quite a bit, there are still imperfections. The QTE-heavy bossfights are still there, and the hitboxes are still really janky. Still, it's a vast improvement over the nightmareish grind the first game threw at me, so overall the combat is a success.
There are other improvements as well, most of them being small, but together they accomplish quite a lot. The way you progress in this game feel way more fluid, the levels loop back around more often, and every task feels like it has purpose, as your goals are typically tied to finding a path to the next areas. I also really liked the wings you get, they make the platforming a lot more managable. The puzzles are better in this game as well, I didn't get stuck nearly as much. Granted, there were still a few times where I had no idea what to do, and often it was tied to the game being really bad at communicating what parts of the environments can be interacted with. This has mostly to do with some blurry visual designs, but it's a shame that some conceptually clever puzzles were butchered by some pieces blending too much in with the environment.
Other random thoughts: I like how a lot of the items are taken from bosses, it makes them feel more grounded in the story, rather than just being given to you for plot convenience. The game has a similar difficulty spike problem as the first, with some late game challenges being absurdly hard and tedious to do. The ending suffers a lot from being in the second game in a trilogy. I assume the somewhat meaningless elements in the finale was added to avoid clearing up too many plotlines before the third game, but at the same time the ending didn't really get me that interested in playing the third game. Too many characters have reached a logical end to their arc, and that left me feeling disinterested in the story moving forward. Still, I am somewhat curious as to what happens next, so I suppose the game did its job.
I don't have much else to say, just that I was very happy with how this game turned out, it's much better than the first in most ways, and I actually feel optimistic regarding the later entries in the series. Time will tell if my interest is misplaced, but for now I don't care.
The first game was almost entirely carried by its story and setting. Such a delightful tale of revenge and sorrow set to the backdrop of gods and myths. It's hard to make a followup story that continues in the same vein, and overall I don't think they did quite as good a job in this game. Whereas Kratos's motivation in the first game was a "You made me your humble servant and dealt me irreversible emotional damage, therefore you have to die", in this game it's more "You made me angry by playing on my hubris.", which isn't nearly as compelling. The story in general feels way more like generic here, and it's not helped by the abundance of greek myths present. In the first game, every mythological element served a clear purpose, but in this one it kinda feels like they just threw as many in as possible to make the story feel grander, a tactic that didn't really click with me.
While the story in GoW 2 is notably weaker than in GoW 1, the gameplay has had some very important upgrades. First of all, you now get an item that lets you parry with every weapon, and that's honestly a godsend. One of my biggest complaints in the first game was how the slower weapon was basically useless against multiple enemies because you couldn't parry with it, and I'm glad to see it was fixed here. Granted, there is a little stretch after you get the hammer but before you get the fleece, but the second half of the game had infinietly smoother combat than the first game. It's not just that though, I also got the feeling that the enemies weren't as tanky, and I certainly had an easier time against smaller foes. Unfortunately, while it does improve on the first game's combat quite a bit, there are still imperfections. The QTE-heavy bossfights are still there, and the hitboxes are still really janky. Still, it's a vast improvement over the nightmareish grind the first game threw at me, so overall the combat is a success.
There are other improvements as well, most of them being small, but together they accomplish quite a lot. The way you progress in this game feel way more fluid, the levels loop back around more often, and every task feels like it has purpose, as your goals are typically tied to finding a path to the next areas. I also really liked the wings you get, they make the platforming a lot more managable. The puzzles are better in this game as well, I didn't get stuck nearly as much. Granted, there were still a few times where I had no idea what to do, and often it was tied to the game being really bad at communicating what parts of the environments can be interacted with. This has mostly to do with some blurry visual designs, but it's a shame that some conceptually clever puzzles were butchered by some pieces blending too much in with the environment.
Other random thoughts: I like how a lot of the items are taken from bosses, it makes them feel more grounded in the story, rather than just being given to you for plot convenience. The game has a similar difficulty spike problem as the first, with some late game challenges being absurdly hard and tedious to do. The ending suffers a lot from being in the second game in a trilogy. I assume the somewhat meaningless elements in the finale was added to avoid clearing up too many plotlines before the third game, but at the same time the ending didn't really get me that interested in playing the third game. Too many characters have reached a logical end to their arc, and that left me feeling disinterested in the story moving forward. Still, I am somewhat curious as to what happens next, so I suppose the game did its job.
I don't have much else to say, just that I was very happy with how this game turned out, it's much better than the first in most ways, and I actually feel optimistic regarding the later entries in the series. Time will tell if my interest is misplaced, but for now I don't care.