God of War 2 is bigger, better, and more epic in every way than the first game.
This all out battle has Kratos attempting to bring down a massive animated statue in order to stop it from attacking a city. When you start the game, you'll realize that combat is virtually unchanged from the first game. You have your trademark Blades of Athena (acquired near the end of the first game) from which you can execute combos effortlessly as before. Much like all of the God of War games, you're going to not have any real powers initially and acquire them throughout gameplay.
This time around, the Gods of Olympus are no longer your ally. Although Athena attempts to talk you out of your quest, no other god will have anything but contempt for you (as well as every other character you meet in the game). Instead, you forge an alliance with Gaia and the Titans in order to seek out the Sisters of Fate to change your fate.
While God of War 2 is largely in most respects the same as the first game, it does differ in several key points. First, you'll acquire a slightly different set of magical powers, relics, and weapons. Most are acquired throughout the course of the game linearly so if you encounter a section you can't get to, it's likely because you haven't acquired the right item or power.
God of War 2 focuses a lot more heavily on puzzle solving and platforming than the previous game. Most of these puzzles are fairly clever and take a little bit of thinking on the part of the player. I didn't find them to be too difficult, but some people will get tripped up on them though.
However, I did find many of the platforming sections to be extremely frustrating. Some of them require pinpoint jumping or keying in buttons at the risk of immediate death. This leads to seeing the Game Over screen far more often than I would like. There were many moments when I just wanted to throw my controller down in frustration.
Combat is a bit more varied thanks to new weapons and combos that Kratos can learn. Like last game, Kratos gets additional weapons, however, this time you have the option of using up to three different sub-weapons in addition to your blades. Each of these weapons have their own powers and work well in certain situations or against certain enemies.
Enemies come at Kratos in much greater numbers than last game and require the use of careful blocking and rolling in order to defeat. There's also much less context button moments in this game than the last making combat a much more fluid affair.
Visually, the game is step up from the first. While the character models look largely the same in detail, environments are larger and more detailed. Epic moments like scaling a Titan or a mid-air battle with an enemy create a much larger sense of scale in God of War 2.
The familiar booming score of the first game is still present here and voice work for the game is still excellent. It does seem like Kratos speaks a lot less in this game however. Still, the sound design for God of War 2 is nothing short of masterpiece.
The value for God of War 2 is better than the first as well. This game clocks in at around 10-12 hours as opposed to the 8-10 of the first. There's the Challenge of the Gods like before. Of course, there's the option to do a New Game + after beating it once for those perfectionists that didn't get every weapon upgraded at the end of the first play through.
Overall, God of War 2 is a much slower affair in the narrative. Unlike the first game where we are learning about Kratos and what he did, God of War 2 is much more subdued, opting to take us on a journey about the war between the Titans and Olympians. I don't feel the story was a fulfilling as the first, but it certainly isn't any less interesting. God of War 2 is a game worth picking up whether on PS2 or in the collection for PS3.
The Good: Excellent visuals, great voice acting, epic score, combat is still satisfying, environments create a great sense of scale.
The Bad: Narrative isn't quite as good as the first, some extremely frustrating platforming moments.