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Bigger, Badder, Better, and a whole lot bloodier than the original.

While one could hardly call the original God of War a sleeper hit, not many people (myself included) really expected the new franchise to blow up as much as it did. The studio behind it, Sony's Santa Monica Studio, only had one game under their belt at the time and that was the respectable, but not particularly memorable racing title Kinetica. When the game finally did come out at the beginning of 2004, people were blown away by the beautiful graphics, the completely badass main character, the fluidity and depth of the combat system, and the level of gore that the game exuded among other things.

Now it is 3 years later and the sequel has finally hit store shelves. The question is: does God of War 2 surpass the seemingly impossibly high standards set by the original? The short answer is hell yes, and for the long answer you'll have to read on.

Athena! You Conspire Against me?!

God of War 2's story picks up right where the first game left off. Kratos has killed Ares and assumed his position as the new God of War. However, for whatever reason, Kratos is shunned by his fellow Gods and is all but an outsider on Olympus. It is of no matter to Kratos however, as he's got his Spartan army and his own newly founded godly powers with which to conquer city after city with no one able to stand in his path. Seeing that Kratos is beginning to become too enamored with his own power, Athena warns him that if this never-ending cycle of conquest doesn't come to an end, she will no longer be able to protect him from the wrath of Olympus. Yet, Kratos pays no heed to her warning and descends down to Earth himself to aid in the conquest of the city of Rhodes. While laying waste to the city, a magical bird comes flying on to the battlefield and somehow shrinks Kratos back down into the size of a human along with bringing the Colossus of Rhodes to life.