God of War II [PS2]

Sony's had a couple of big PR snafus in recent months, but if anything can gloss over such difficulties, it's a magnificent piece of software. Fortunately for everyone, God of War II is exactly that. It's both an ideal sequel to an amazing game and a perfect standalone achievement. The Olympian sense of wonder starts within five minutes and never lets up until you've put the entire story to bed. If the inexorable pull of a new console generation has to force closure on the PlayStation 2 era, there's no better finale than this.

From one perspective, God of War II is a continuation rather than a sequel. The story picks up right after the end of the first game, with Kratos seated on Ares' throne. Bitter at his forced position as a new god, the anti-hero begins assaulting Greek cities one by one, forcing the gods to take action. Busted back down to mere mortal status, Kratos must rebuild his powers and exact revenge upon Zeus and all the gods of Olympus.

Even with the tight link to the original, it's easy to see newcomers getting into the action immediately. So, many of the core elements are familiar, thanks to the Greek setting. The tale is steeped in mythology to a higher degree than before, with better and more plentiful beasts (Pegasus, Cyclops, re-designed gorgons, and many more) and a deeper, more pointed look at the petty humanity of the gods.

Complaints were voiced when Sony announced this sequel as a PlayStation 2 title, but with the game in hand the decision seems very sound. Could the PS3 have provided a more robust technical base? Perhaps. But even on the aging PS2, this is a monumental achievement. You've never seen anything on this scale on any console before; everything else pales, even the first game. The game's architecture and sense of scale are stunning at every turn. It's not just that things are big, though they certainly are. It's that the scale is consistently used to underline the story, and is manipulated to make almost every action in the game more enthralling or exciting.

That massive scale is in action everywhere. While some of the bosses are mere humans (not that they're a disappointment) others are even bigger than anything Kratos has faced before, and the struggle to take them down often becomes truly epic. When a single boss battle feels larger and more involved than some entire games, you know things are working.