God of War II Hands-on (Ps2)

[UrgeLoL]

Etter å ha lest previewen er en ting sikkert, dette spillet skal jeg kjøpe! Hva disse folkene klarer å presse ut av den gamle ps2'en er sinnsykt. Og vil tro at dette spillet kommer til å selge meget godt.

 

 

 

January 12, 2007 - While the PlayStation 2 is showing its last signs of life, it still has one very big trick up its sleeve. The original God of War was a unanimously praised title, and one that easily ranks as one of the greatest action games ever released (and my personal favorite). Sony's Santa Monica Studios managed to perfectly blend Greek mythology with its own lead character and storyline to create one of the most intimidating characters ever to hit a console. With God of War II, Kratos is set to take a break from his throne and rein dominance upon the gaming world once again.

 

We had a chance to play through the first section of the game just yesterday and to say that we were impressed would be a bit of an understatement. What we saw was perfectly in line with what we experienced in the E3 demo back in May - the set pieces are bigger than ever, Kratos is still really, really pissed off and the game looks to be about as epic as possible. Even though we've barely scratched the surface, it's hard not to claim God of War II will be a contender for the best PS2 game yet.

 

 

The game opens with Kratos sitting upon his throne. Some of his soldiers are destroying a city as he overlooks their progress in a pool of water. The god of war decides that they aren't doing as much damage as they could be inflicting and descends upon the town as a giant, identical to how we saw Ares destroying the city at the beginning of the original game. After a warning from someone who appears to be Athena and for unknown reasons, Kratos is stripped of his godly powers and left standing as a mortal (but still incredibly powerful) man in the middle of the city. This is where the game actually starts and you wrap your hands around the game's still-perfect combat mechanics.

 

There are plenty of questions left unanswered with the game's opening as we're told that the sequel will use the same flashback story techniques as the original. As the first game garnered our pick for 2005's best story, we'll take this bit of info with a smile on our faces.

 

 

When Kratos is cut down to size, so to speak, a giant colossus statue is brought to life and quickly begins attempting to take out our anti-hero. As you make your way through the city, his hands will rip through the environment as he makes large swipes at you, blocking some paths and opening others. It's obvious from the get-go that God of War II's scale and set pieces are bigger and more involving than last time, if you can believe that.

 

The battle with the colossus takes place over the course of the entire first level. You'll have a number of "small" battles with him, sometimes winning and pushing him back and sometimes losing and getting tossed across the level. The first meeting sees him throwing dead bodies at you as if they were a collection of pebbles. After stunning him and tossing yourself at his enormous head, you make a couple quick slashes before you're tossed away. Meeting up with him again near a set of docks, you need to stun him and climb up his arm to do a bit more damage. At one point his foot comes crashing through the level, and you need to quickly catch it and toss him back. It's a long, back-and-forth battle that we haven't seen the end of yet, but promises to not disappoint. It's a seriously intense opening, to say the least.

 

Though you lose your godly powers at the game's start, you aren't empty handed. You still have the Blades of Athena and the Rage of Poseidon magic, so you're actually starting off a little better equipped than you were last time out. A number of new magic types will become available over the course of the game, including some sort of electrical magic that you'll obtain from Kronos. You can manually place up to three of them at any time and they'll continuously cause electrical damage from their spot. You're able to use them to essentially tie down enemies or line them up to cause damage to a boss, for example.

 

You'll come across three different weapons in the game, not including the Blades of Athena. One will be the Barbarian King's hammer that you'll earn from defeating him which can summon undead warriors to fight for you, somewhat similar to the tormented souls magic from the first game. Each weapon will be individually upgradeable, and you can swap between one of them and your blades mid-combo at the touch of a button to deal extra damage.

 

 

Should you need a little extra help through the game, a number of unlockable mini-games are at your disposal. Challenge of the Gods has returned, along with a new battle mode that lets you put whatever creatures you want into an arena to fight. Both of these now tie directly into your save game, so if you go and earn some red orbs in any of the extra modes, you'll have them when you load back up your main game. This allows you to upgrade your character outside of the game in case you get stuck on a really tricky part, as well as provide a more cohesive feel to the whole package.

 

The Challenge of the Gods has been tweaked a bit since last time out. It's still said to be incredibly difficult, but the rules have changed a bit. For one, each challenge now has some sort of ranking system attached to it, allowing you to pass the challenge if you complete the lowest ranking, while still giving you the biggest rewards for perfecting the challenge. As well, you'll be able to save your progress after each challenge. Nope, you won't have to leave your system on for days at a time anymore, thankfully.

 

While you were rewarded with some rather cool costumes for completing the Challenge of the Gods in the first game, this time you'll earn various urns to give you power. These will let you mix and match upgrades while also allowing you to put on your favorite costume so that you're not "stuck" with one set of armor. And as an added bonus, once you've beaten the game you'll be able to jump in at the same or lower difficulty setting and play through again with everything you've already collected.

 

 

One thing that was great about the overall package last time out was all of the included bonus material. God of War II will up the ante a bit when it ships as a two-disc set. No, this isn't the collector's edition (there won't be one) but the standard edition. The second disc will include a number of bonuses including a full-length, behind-the-scenes documentary that was filmed over the entirety of the game's development, starting with the very first playtest. Cool stuff indeed.

 

God of War II is very near completion and will ship on March 13th. If you're one of the 100 million folks who own a PlayStation 2, you owe it to yourself to keep an eye on this one and some spare cash in your wallet. For now, check out our media page for new screenshots and movies, and especially our video interview with director Cory Barlog.

 

Her finner du bilder fra spillet!

[Enigma123]

Ser fram til GOW2. Digget den første, og nr 2 ser minst like bra ut. Ligger et par videoer på Gametrailers..under "usermovies".

[Landeplagen]

Kan du vennligst skifte emnetittelen til "GoW2 hands on (PS2)"?

[Knebel]

Jaggu er det ikke fremdeles liv i gode gamle svarten (PS2).. Dette skal spilles!

[paranoide]

Det ser fantastisk ut. På en annen side syntes jeg det er herlig at de kan få presset noe så bra ut av en 6 år gammel konsoll, og det gjør meg bare enda mer spent på hva de kan få til med denne generasjonens maskiner.

[tidus2k4]

God of war (1) er jo noe av det sykeste jeg har sett når det gjelder å skvise ps2. Blir utrolig spennende å se hva de kan gjøre med 2'ern

[Mala]

GOW på PS2 er eit mesterverk ja, så dette skal nok i hus med tiden

[Bagge]

Dette og Final Fantasy XII blir trolig de siste nye PS2-spillene jeg kjøper.

[Avean]

Eneste spillet hvor du virkelig få utløp for sinnet ditt. Om en fiende slenger deg rundt og irriterer deg, kan du klikke amok på kontrollene og du slår virkelig fra deg

 

Digger Kratos, han gir fingeren til gudene og faktisk utfordrer dem, respekt

[Toreal]

Gleder meg sykt mye til GOW 2, og det ble ikke mindre etter jeg så God of war preveiw video. Ser veldig lovende ut

 

Tror aldri jeg har spilt igjennom et spill så mange ganger som orginalen, det var bare perfekt i mine øyner.

Mye bedre enn mange såkalte nextgen spill

[EthanHunt]

Gleder meg sykt mye til GOW 2, og det ble ikke mindre etter jeg så God of war preveiw video. Ser veldig lovende ut

 

Tror aldri jeg har spilt igjennom et spill så mange ganger som orginalen, det var bare perfekt i mine øyner.

Mye bedre enn mange såkalte nextgen spill

7723760[/snapback]

 

Etter å ha sett den preview videoen og de nye gameplay videoene er jeg atter en gang solgt. Dette ser bedre ut enn orginalen (og det sier jo litt), enda mer brutalt og den bossfighten de viser ser helt rå ut. At de klarer å få dette til på Ps2`en er veldig godt gjort. Husker fortsatt hvor overbevist jeg ble over videoene som kom ut på forhånd til 1`ern og disse klarer å skape samme engasjement hos meg. Det skjer ikke for ofte med andre spill.........Herregud, hvor jeg gleder meg til Mars

Endret 15. januar 2007 av EthanHunt

[Mala]

Ja PS2 er nok den last-gen maskinen som imponerte meg mest teknisk sett, tatt hardwaren i betraktning.

[_norse_]

Ja PS2 er nok den last-gen maskinen som imponerte meg mest teknisk sett, tatt hardwaren i betraktning.

7724465[/snapback]

 

Helt klart. En tilnærmet perfekt spillmaskin for alle aldre, med full fokus på spill og ikke noe annet. Det er vel den siste i sitt slag. Framover vil vel bare konsollene bli fyllt med fler og fler funksjoner helt til det blir en PC ut av det.

[Niskivara]

Ja PS2 er nok den last-gen maskinen som imponerte meg mest teknisk sett, tatt hardwaren i betraktning.

7724465[/snapback]

 

Helt klart. En tilnærmet perfekt spillmaskin for alle aldre, med full fokus på spill og ikke noe annet. Det er vel den siste i sitt slag. Framover vil vel bare konsollene bli fyllt med fler og fler funksjoner helt til det blir en PC ut av det.

7724504[/snapback]

Det er vel strengt tatt feil, i og med at Ps2 var en av de første som kunne gjøre noe utenom spilling, ikke den siste rene spillemaskinen.

 

Men det forandrer uansett ikke faktum at det er sinnsykt imponerende å se hva utviklere greier å presse ut av PS2 den dag i dag, og God of War 2 ser enormt fett ut. Har ennå til gode å se noen "next-gen"gameplayvideo med like stor "wow"faktor som Kratos mot kolossen blant IGNsnuttene

[UrgeLoL]

La oss bare krysse fingrene for at vi får God of War 3 til ps3 i løpet av 2008

[EthanHunt]

Boxshot`en ser slik ut ----> http://www.gamespot.com/pages/image_viewer....php?pid=932295

 

Likte den

[tidus2k4]

Man kan jo spørre seg hvorfor nesten alle ps2 spill loader så j*vlig lenge, når god of war er nærmest loadefritt.

 

Må sitte noen meget kloke hoder i GOW teamet

[Bear^]

Tar tid å utnytte en konsolls HW, noe GoW 1 og 2 er et levende bevis på. Til å være en såpass gammel konsoll, er jeg imponert over det grafiske de presterer å presse ut av den lille sliteren til Sony. Får bare håpe at Sony inser at PS2 er gull verd selv i dag og ikke skviser den totalt ut når PS3 kommer.

[UrgeLoL]

Ps3 er da kommet til "store" deler av verden. Og sony har da ikke skviset den ut enda Og når ps2 er den best selgende spille konsollen etter DS så er det vel enda mye liv i den.

Endret 15. januar 2007 av Mgs

[Enigma123]

La oss bare krysse fingrene for at vi får God of War 3 til ps3 i løpet av 2008

7724796[/snapback]

 

 

Får håpe det;b Ser veldig fram til Heavenly Sword (som ser ut som GOW-kopi med ei babe) som vistnok er utsatt til jul.