Every once in a while, a game comes along that oozes such quality and style from every digital pore that it transcends its genre to stand head and shoulders above all the competition. God of War was one such game, becoming an instant classic and garnering almost universal praise. It was the kind of game that featured more action and a bigger boss in its opening level than most games have during their finale. It was stunningly beautiful, with an evocative soundtrack and excellent voice acting. It had the perfect blend of combat, puzzle and platform action and gameplay so addictive that you literally had to tear yourself away because you needed to sleep. It even had a great story, with CGI cut scenes that were as well directed as a top-rated movie. Your jaw dropped at the start and you didn't pick it up again until the credits rolled (at which point there was plenty of incentive to play through again). Despite being such a hard act to follow, God of War II is all this and more, living up to the unfeasibly high standards set by the original and proving that lightning can indeed strike twice.

Picking up where the original game ended, the story begins with Kratos on his throne in Olympus, having defeated Aries and become the God of War. He has continued to wreak a bloody campaign on Earth, leading his army of Spartans on a conquest of bloodthirsty destruction. Leaping from the heavens, Kratos lands in a besieged city to aid his followers in laying it to ruin. However, an eagle swoops down, transferring Kratos's godly powers into a huge bronze statue, creating a colossus as Kratos shrinks down to human size once more. It's disappointing at this point that the opening cut scenes are rendered using the in-game engine - sure, they look nice, but CGI would have been nicer! Don't worry though, because there are plenty of awesome CGI cut scenes to enjoy once again as you progress.

You're thrust straight into the action as enemy warriors attack and you wipe them all out with ease. Despite being mortal once again, you still have some of the powers of a god, while your main weapons, the Blades of Athena, have enough kick in them to destroy even the toughest foe. The two blades are attached to extendable chains, and you have an array of stunning moves with which to brutally slice, slash, behead and eviscerate your enemies. The controls are very versatile, making all of these moves easy and natural to pull off. Square and Triangle are your light and heavy attacks, with combinations of these making for some barbaric combos, while Circle can grab enemies, which can then be thrown or killed with a single blow in some cases. L1 allows you to block, and if you block the instant before an enemy hits you, you can stun them and counter attack while they're reeling. L1 also gives you access to extra moves if you hold it and then use one of the three attack buttons, plus jumping (using the X button) also gives you a few more moves to work with. Sometimes you can't block an attack though, so you need to use the right thumbstick to dodge in whichever direction you push it. Holding down triangle also allows you to launch an enemy into the air, then you leap upwards with them, and slash them to ribbons on the way back to the ground. As you whip, twirl, spin and thrust your lethal blades, it's almost like watching a gruesome ballet, with Kratos putting in a performance worthy of a standing ovation.

This isn't the end of the variety though - there are four magic attacks, selected with the D-Pad and activated by L2. Whether shooting a bow at distant targets, shaking the ground with an earthquake, shocking everyone in range with lightning or petrifying your victims using a gorgon's head, after which you can smash them to rubble, these are nothing less than spectacular and very useful in tough situations. Only one magic attack is available at first, the others being gained during your journey. The same goes for the extra weapons - beyond the Blades, whose move set is limited until you upgrade them, you get such joys as a heavy and cumbersome yet very powerful hammer and the extendable Spear of Destiny, allowing you to mix things up even further.

God of War II isn't a button masher though - try to just charge in hammering the attack buttons and you'll quickly die, even in the early levels. The enemies are hugely varied and they're intelligent and ferocious too, often dodging or blocking your attacks before coming at you with multiple combo moves. From the undead armoured footsoldiers through to minotaurs, cerberuses, sirens, gorgons and cyclopes (all reprising their roles from the first game but looking even cooler and attacking even more viciously and slyly), you'll have to keep your wits about you if you want to get through a battle without losing too much health. There are ogre type monsters wielding hammers and balls on chains, and faster creatures that twirl and leap around, slashing at you with their scythes. Archers fire exploding arrows, harpies and giant insects hover around and swoop in for an attack, and just when you think you've seen it all, another new monster is introduced. The controls are super responsive too, so you can usually break away in mid combo to block or dodge, making for combat that's strategic, skilful, challenging and a real joy to master.

The reaction-based special kills are also reprised in God of War II - the tougher enemies you face must be weakened until a circle symbol appears above their head. Hit circle to grab your weakened foe and then you'll need to press a couple of buttons that flash up on screen, or hammer circle repeatedly, or whip the left thumbstick around in the way the arrow shows you. Then you're treated to some of the most gory and remorseless death sequences you've ever seen, as you literally tear your enemy to pieces and blood splatters everywhere. God of War II is one hell of a gory game and as such really isn't suitable for children. When you get a minotaur on the ground, you hammer the circle button as you overpower it and thrust your blades into its open mouth. You break necks, slice off heads, rip off limbs and much more - in one finishing move you even rip an enemy's arm off and use their own forearm-mounted blade to impale them!! The gameplay really gets your inner bloodlust flowing as you literally tear the opposition to pieces.

Anyway, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here, so let's get back to that opening level. Even while you fight that first room of guards, the colossus statue is peering in the window, pounding the wall and trying to reach you. As you run down the next corridor, its massive hand punches through, killing a couple of guards in the process. The whole first level is not only one of the most exciting and effective tutorial levels ever created, and not only does it give you plenty of combat experience, but it also serves as a long cat and mouse game between you and the colossus, with several sequences where you face off against it, dodging its massive fists before heading in for some hits. You'll fire yourself at it using a catapult, trap its arm in machinery so you can get some hits in on its head and eventually weaken it enough to punch through and finish it off from the inside - genius!

In order to destroy the colossus, Zeus provides you with the Blade of Olympus, into which you pour the remainder of your godly powers - but then you suffer a lethal blow and, with all your powers in the blade, Zeus comes to finish you off. There's another neat touch - you die in the opening level! Of course, death didn't stop Kratos clawing his way out of Hades last time around and it doesn't stop him this time either - healed by the power of Gaia, one of the Titans, you being a quest to seek an audience with the Sisters of Fate, so you can travel back in time to the moment of Zeus's betrayal and destroy him once and for all - way to up the stakes! It's an excellent story that's well narrated and ties in with plenty of Greek mythology - you'll meet various Titans (including Atlas again), as well as coming across the likes of Jason (with his golden fleece), Perseus, Icarus (whose wings you steal!) and more, as well as some classic monsters for more spectacular boss encounters (including one hell of a vicious, fat gorgon!)

This time around the action takes to the skies as well - there are a couple of flying levels that take place atop Pegasus, the famous winged horse, as you gallop through the air, fending off attacks from griffins, slashing at them as you spin, swerve, dodge and dash around the screen. These sections are just as enjoyable as the land-based parts, and they feature some truly awesome moves that see you leaping onto weakened griffins and ripping their wings right off them before Pegasus swoops back in to catch you! It fits in perfectly with the rest of the game and while not a groundbreaking addition, is certainly a thoughtful and enjoyable one.

It's not all about the combat though - God of War II paces itself perfectly, interspersing the battles (which often see you trapped in an enclosed area until you take out all of Hades' minions that rise from the ground or swoop in from above) with puzzles, exploration and dextrous feats of adventuring. Kratos can use his blades to grapple certain points and swing across ledges, as well as swing around in a circular fashion (there's a fantastic action sequence where you swing and leap your way across a series of collapsing stone columns). You can use your blades to latch onto certain surfaces, climbing not only up walls but along ceilings too, adding another dimension to the way you navigate the landscape. You can swim too, using a power attack to smash through weakened walls. Later on you gain the power to glide (using hot air vents to gain extra height) and even slow down time at certain points, which is used for a number of the puzzles, which are usually pitched just right.

There are block-based puzzles, where you must move statues around to activate switches or block energy beams, there are levers to turn (which you do by rotating the thumbstick) and there are plenty of puzzles that require timing, skill and thought to progress. They come up at just the right frequency too, providing a break from the action without keeping you from fighting for too long. There are also lots of secrets to find down alternate or hidden routes, behind destructible walls, up on hard to reach ledges - searching around rewards you with chests that contain extra orbs (for upgrading your magic and weapons) or a gorgon eye or phoenix feather for increasing your health and magic bars respectively. There are other secrets to find this time too, in the form of six urns that unlock extra powers to use during bonus play after you've completed the game once.

The levels are always intricate and ingenious in their design, making full use of your surroundings to hide secrets and forcing you work to progress, by climbing walls, sidling along ledges, swinging on grapple points, moving objects around, smashing scenery and so forth - and it couldn't look any better. Somehow God of War II manages to upstage its predecessor in the visuals department too, with graphics that constantly have you staring in astonishment. The intricacy of design put into every sculpture, urn, tree, ornament and floor tile is beautiful - shiny surfaces, crumbling ruins, huge statues, foreboding swamps, the flames of Hades, an icy cavern and various temples are just some of the many locations you'll visit on your journey - and each is as spectacular and well-realised as the last. One of the most amazing sights comes in the form of four giant horse statues (and when I say giant, I mean city-sized!) that you must climb your way across in order to reach an island. This whole section is of unprecedented scale, with the sunlight and sea in the background only adding to the grandeur of these enormous equines. At one point you are so tiny that you can barely see yourself, and still the horses more than fill up the screen! Some levels actually take place on Titans too - that's how big these creatures are (they make the colossus on the opening level look like a midget!)

This level of detail runs right through the game too - every one of Kratos's moves are animated to perfection, blending together seamlessly as you desolate your opposition, with some spectacular effects for magic and special attacks. The enemies are just as awesome to look at too; flawlessly animated and designed down to the smallest facet, while the bosses are even more spectacular. The use of a dynamic camera with fixed camera angles returns too, but while it hampered games like the early Resident Evils, here it almost never gets in the way - it scrolls with you, pans out, swings around and zooms in and out, using striking viewpoints that make you feel more like you're in an interactive movie than a game. Indeed, having such a wonderful fixed camera that you never have to worry about setting right means that you can focus on that intense gameplay even more.

The sound department isn't upstaged by the fantastic visuals either - this is nothing short of audio nirvana. Every sound effect, be it Kratos's grunts and roars, the snarls and shrieks of enemies, the clank of blade on armour, the crash of falling rocks, the rumbling of quaking ground, the sizzle of energy or crackle of fire, every single sound effect is meaty and distinctive. The voice acting is pitched just right - dramatic without being cheesy, with some excellent actors delivering some great dialogue (including the narration from Kratos's newly revealed ally, Gaia). The orchestral soundtrack is the crowning audio achievement though, as it's never anything less than wondrous, always fitting in with the atmosphere of the current location. The battle music is dramatic and rousing, making boss battles and action sequences where you're swinging over death-defying drops or dodging rock falls even more frenetic, while areas like the ice cavern, stunning locations inside and outside temples and that chain you traverse to reach the giant horses, are each accompanied by themes that are hauntingly evocative or sublimely grand, sometimes sending a shiver down your spine and completing the atmosphere perfectly, every single time. Without doubt this is a contender for greatest game soundtrack of all-time, as well as greatest everything else.

With all the secrets to discover, a new Challenge of the Gods to tackle when you've completed the game and plenty of incentive to play through on the tougher difficulty levels in order to fully beef up your weapons and make use of the bonus powers, God of War II is also one of the longest lasting action games you're ever likely to find. While your average action game provides little real incentive to revisit it rather than check out something else, God of War II will entice you back - you'll want to do it all over again while the credits are still rolling!

The presentation is immaculate too - press start for a series of screens that allow you to upgrade your weapons and magic, view your items, see the controls for performing every single move and attack, plus check out your game stats (like time taken, number of deaths, orbs gained, number of saves and so on). Save points appear regularly (and they always appear before a section where you are likely to die), plus there are regular checkpoints, so when you do fall, you don't have to replay too much. There are no load breaks either - the game takes a leaf out of Jak & Daxter's book to ingeniously load the next area while you're traversing an empty corridor or moving through a static scene that's viewed from a distance, meaning that there's nothing to interrupt the flow.

What more can really be said about God of War II? It's a game that has everything - a dark and disturbed anti-hero on a quest for vengeance against the God of Gods, the most satisfying and visceral combat system you're ever likely to experience, visuals that yet again push beyond the limits of what we all thought the PS2 could achieve, a soundtrack that puts all but the very best fantasy movies into the shade, and some of the most varied, challenging and intelligent enemies you'll ever come across, with some truly stunning landscapes full of obstacles and puzzles to overcome and platforms to navigate. It's one of the most addictive, entertaining and satisfying games you'll ever play and yet another absolutely unmissable PS2 title that every gamer who's old enough simply must buy. It's a mistake to say that you take control of Kratos; from the moment the action begins, Kratos takes control of you - and he won't let go for a long time to come, so go and buy this game right now, before you incur the wrath of the God of War!

Reviewed by Geoff Holland for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).