God of War 2 (PS2)

And there was me thinking I probably wouldn't end up writing any updates about PS2 games, since I couldn't think of any decent ones coming out.

What I love about God of War 2 is the fantastic sense of scale and drama. You've got to admire any team that has managed themselves and their game so well that they can spend a lot of time and effort on relatively throwaway sections of the game, making it all blow your socks off.

The puzzles in it are also very nice for the most part. There are a few that had me stumped due to the solution being a special case that I wasn't aware of, or being obscured by the camera (which is an interesting choice in itself - the camera is an active part of many puzzles, in particular hidden areas are usually accessed by paths that are slightly outside of the standard path through an area, which you could never do in a game with an degree of player controlled camera).

Overall I felt this was struggling more than the first one though.

In the first game felt like I was being dragged along by the story - though I had an overall goal, I was always being directed to a new figure or place that could help - whereas this one largely seems to be propelled by interest in seeing where you go next - the story sits at 'go and visit the sisters of fate, they're just over there, so fight through this next bit' with you travelling the linear path to reach them.

This game is a lot more reliant on quick time events, which to me is a shame since I find them largely shit. While your character does something awesome in the background you have to concentrate on pressing symbols as they pop up. I thought everyone agreed that Dragon's Lair was rubbish, but apparently not.

Finally, it often feels like it's just throwing mythological characters at you just for the sake of using them up. Some of them don't make sense either - in one particular case a (normal, not superhuman) character had managed to get ahead of me, despite him going to another location first, whereas I went directly there. Given the route I had to take to get to that point, I have no idea how he got there.

Overall it's a great game though - one of those where you end each playing session going over what you've just been through in your head. I can't wait to see what they do in the sequel.