The game itself is awesome. I do think the first one is better, but anyone who enjoyed the first God of War will love this one just the same. It is a great game and is improved in several areas from the first God of War. Although I will agree with some other reviewers in that some of the puzzles get to be a bit much. I reluctantly had to check out a walkthrough for a couple of the puzzles after frustratingly going at it for an hour or more.

Ok, so why the 3 stars? Well, this game has a fatal glitch that has prevented me from completing it. Too bad too, because it is one of the titles I was most excited about playing on the PS2. I bought a new Slim PS2 from Amazon approx. 1 year ago and it doesn't struggle with any other games at all. So it's very unlikely that it's the console at fault. I bought God of War II at Wal-Mart brand new. The game runs fine without any problems, but about two-thirds of the way through it just freezes and doesn't go anymore. It happens at the Palace of the Fates, after the Auditorium of Lahkesis and just before you make it to the Garden of the Gods (I checked the walkthrough so I know that's what comes next). I enter the room which has spiked walls on either side which begin to close in and Kratos has to take out the huge mass of enemies in order to get the walls to retract and continue. Well, I can take out all the baddies and get the walls to retract and start to move on. But just as soon as I go into the exit door, the little Loading... screen pops up in the bottom-right corner and that's it. It just stays there for eternity. I've played through the whole game twice and that's as far as I get. Bummer.
The game itself is awesome. I do think the first one is better, but anyone who enjoyed the first God of War will love this one just the same. It is a great game and is improved in several areas from the first God of War. Although I will agree with some other reviewers in that some of the puzzles get to be a bit much. I reluctantly had to check out a walkthrough for a couple of the puzzles after frustratingly going at it for an hour or more. Ok, so why the 3 stars? Well, this game has a fatal glitch that has prevented me from completing it. Too bad too, because it is one of the titles I was most excited about playing on the PS2. I bought a new Slim PS2 from Amazon approx. 1 year ago and it doesn't struggle with any other games at all. So it's very unlikely that it's the console at fault. I bought God of War II at Wal-Mart brand new. The game runs fine without any problems, but about two-thirds of the way through it just freezes and doesn't go anymore. It happens at the Palace of the Fates, after the Auditorium of Lahkesis and just before you make it to the Garden of the Gods (I checked the walkthrough so I know that's what comes next). I enter the room which has spiked walls on either side which begin to close in and Kratos has to take out the huge mass of enemies in order to get the walls to retract and continue. Well, I can take out all the baddies and get the walls to retract and start to move on. But just as soon as I go into the exit door, the little Loading... screen pops up in the bottom-right corner and that's it. It just stays there for eternity. I've played through the whole game twice and that's as far as I get. Bummer.