The original God of War trilogy are games that have a really fun gameplay but the story is really bad.
As a teenager, I could excuse the latter for the former. As an adult, I cannot. I have to say it, I hate everything about Kratos as a main character in this. He's a stubborn, violent brute whose tragic backstory doesn't excuse what he does in this game. His characterization doesn't go beyond: "I'm angry, therefore I'll murder everything around me." He isn't sympathetic; the occasional, casual cruelty to random civilians (such as the man in the Hydra's maw in the 1rst game, or the priestess in the 3rd game) kill off any sympathy I've had for him from the 1rst game.
Usually, I'm forgiving of how certain games and movies utilize Greek mythology, for I even enjoy things such as Disney's Hercules, but God of War II fails to take full advantage of the mythology it's taking inspiration from, focusing more on the "rule of cool" over everything else, on top of showing nudity and gratuitous violence to fuel the power fantasies of a hormone-filled teenager in the early 2000's
Things in the story just happen for the sake of it, and the motivations of every character are really flimsy. At times they're not explained and require you to have played a side game beyond the 1rst God of War to understand why certain characters act the way they are, such as the gods being jerks and fearful of Kratos because of Pandora's Box, but it's never explained outside of a chunk of lore not present within the game, meaning I had to do research outside of the game to fully understand it.
Meaning that this game, which is about 12 hours long, failed to fully develop its story for the sake of a shallow power fantasy made for edgy teenagers who wanted to feel like big boys.
As a teenager, I could excuse the latter for the former. As an adult, I cannot. I have to say it, I hate everything about Kratos as a main character in this. He's a stubborn, violent brute whose tragic backstory doesn't excuse what he does in this game. His characterization doesn't go beyond: "I'm angry, therefore I'll murder everything around me." He isn't sympathetic; the occasional, casual cruelty to random civilians (such as the man in the Hydra's maw in the 1rst game, or the priestess in the 3rd game) kill off any sympathy I've had for him from the 1rst game.
Usually, I'm forgiving of how certain games and movies utilize Greek mythology, for I even enjoy things such as Disney's Hercules, but God of War II fails to take full advantage of the mythology it's taking inspiration from, focusing more on the "rule of cool" over everything else, on top of showing nudity and gratuitous violence to fuel the power fantasies of a hormone-filled teenager in the early 2000's
Things in the story just happen for the sake of it, and the motivations of every character are really flimsy. At times they're not explained and require you to have played a side game beyond the 1rst God of War to understand why certain characters act the way they are, such as the gods being jerks and fearful of Kratos because of Pandora's Box, but it's never explained outside of a chunk of lore not present within the game, meaning I had to do research outside of the game to fully understand it.
Meaning that this game, which is about 12 hours long, failed to fully develop its story for the sake of a shallow power fantasy made for edgy teenagers who wanted to feel like big boys.