“I got a parking ticket this morning and was pretty pissed about it and this game makes me feel happy,” explains a God of War II play-tester in one of the two plus hours of DVD bonus features included with the blockbuster game sequel. “At the end of the day, whenever somebody fucks with me, I come home, I just sit down and just beat the shit out of people, there’s screaming, blood everywhere, and I feel good.”
As the game’s developers point out, you might not want to meet this dude in a dark alley since “he’s fucking out there with his love of violence” but after spending a few gloriously gory hours cathartically dismembering vast hordes of enemies in GoWII, you’ll realize the psycho’s got a point.
As does the game's bonus disc, surprisingly enough.
The making-of docs -- ranging from concept art and musical score creation to the staffers stress-relieving Halloween hijinks -- offer an intriguing glimpse into the clearly exhausting development process (Jesus, game director Cory Barlog boasts some serious eye-bags).
The voice-over segment is particularly cool, especially watching the slight actor TC Carson boom out his badass Kratos dialogue, the enormous Michael Clarke Duncan embody the world-carrying Atlas or Harry Hamlin, most recently of Veronica Mars fame, recreating his character of Perseus from Greek mythology classic Clash of the Titans.
Sure, it won’t matter to anyone that wasn’t already a fan of the franchise, but for the millions of us Greek geeks who are, it’s like manna from Olympus.
Of course, the game itself is even more rewarding. Unlike movie sequels which invariably pale before their progenitors (save for the odd Empire-like exception), game follow-ups can benefit from technological advancement and gameplay refinement to craft something both bigger and better. Usually they don’t, but GoWII is to ordinary sequels like The Odyssey is to a weekend roadtrip
After a prologue explaining how Kratos assassinated Ares, took his Olympian throne and pissed off his new neighbours so much that Zeus stripped the ex-Spartan warrior of his God status, GoWII launches into an hour-long boss battle against the ridiculously enormous Colossus of Rhodes. Then it ups the epic with graphics so beautiful, levels so well-designed and load-times so non-existent you’ll hardly believe your playing on your last-gen PS2 (though the linear story progression may admittedly remind you).
The new game delved even deeper into the mythology textbooks with appearances by Cyclops, Cerberus and even a pilot-able Pegasus. One thing, however, which is missing is Atlantis. The DVD explains that the entire underwater stage was deleted but the creators also cryptically mention, “maybe it will come back some other day.”
So expect to take the battle to Poseidon in the inevitable PS3-based conclusion to what has become Sony’s defining series.