So I've put a good two or three hours into God of War II now, after having finished the original up today. Did it on Spartan (hard) mode, which was cool... got to see the extra stuff I didn't before because I couldn't finish the last fight. I *still* think the last fight is stupid as fuck. Mechanically it's awesome, but it just isn't done right. There are too many variable outside your control so that you can't really do it "right". I found it pretty much just as hard on normal as on hard, but I managed to get through it okay this time. It was a pure luck win, though, because the boss suddenly just stood still and let me get two solid rounds of hits in before he woke up again. Dunno' what that was all about, but it was just the edge I needed to win.
Yeah, so fresh off the first game I went into the second, and while at first I was a little iffy, it seems to have picked up speed. What I mean to say is that the story sort of felt a little odd to me right at the beginning. Maybe it was just because I'd been playing the previous game about five minutes beforehand. In any case, whatever slightly odd feelings I had at the outset were quickly overshadowed by just how awesome everything is right off the bat. The first boss fight is actually quite challenging. I'm playing on God (hard) and you really have to fiddle around a while to figure out how to accomplish a few things, and I got my ass beat into the ground a number of times. The whole initial setup, while more impressive on the whole, I think I like less than the first game. But this isn't really the game's fault, it's just sort of how the plot goes. It just doesn't feel like you have this great thing stretched out in front of you because you really don't in the same way. This is a different kind of journey and hence it feels a bit more constrained.
But yeah, that's an insane niggle, really. Soon as the first area is over and you get going... whammo. The thing picks up speed and just hits you like a truck. There's some truly amazing stuff already, and now I'm feeling great about it. I made it to the game's major gameplay area now, and the high adventure feeling has come back full force. The new stuff I got to play around with has all been great, the new moves are freaking sweet, and everything just feels tightened up from the first game. The bells and whistles are almost the same, but you can definitely tell where they found the means to improve on the graphical front.
Technically, however, there is one thing that happened which threw me -- a bug. Nothing huge, but a bug nonetheless. During a fight with a big character fairly early on, I tried to do a context attack on him. When I pressed the button, Kratos got up, jumped over, and did his crazy stabbage, but the character to whom he was supposedly doing this wasn't in the right spot, and was continuing to animate as though none of this were happening. The hit didn't register. Didn't happen again, and it didn't hurt my game, but it was a little odd. But really, at this point everything seems really nice. The one bug aside, everything's been going smoothly. Performance has hitched up a couple times, but not nearly enough to cause worry, and really not so much during combat or any of the big sweeping scenes. Mostly in some big indoor areas with a lot of environmental effects.
So I'm blabbing on long enough, eh? Case in point, if you loved God of War, you'll love this one too. Some hideously good gaming this is.
