Grecian 2007

The newly enthroned God of War crashes back to the mortal world next year in an all-action sequel, so we caught up with the Sirens and Satyrs at Sony’s Santa Monica Studios to separate the myths from the myth-takes.

It’s been over a year since we were all drenched in blood and history as we battled through the original God of War, now, still scrubbing the stains from our togas, Kratos is due to return for more Acropoliptic anarchy in God of War II. We've already got our hands mildly gory playing through the demo at this years' E3, but we wanted to find out more about one of the most eagerly awaited action adventures of 2007.

With a myriad of other hack 'n' slash platformers out there (Devil May Cry for one), the original God of War was a bit of a surprise when it arrived, amazing press and gamers alike with just how much fun was left in a genre that many had dismissed as over-saturated. Game Director Cory Barlog himself had mixed feelings when the game was such a massive hit, "Part of me was like "Yeah, of course they like it - we worked our collective asses off to make that game." But then there was another part of me that was thinking "Man, I really hope people get this." We loved the game but there was always a possibility that it would end up not connecting with people. So many great games go unnoticed by the masses and the possibility that our game could suffer the same fate was never far from my mind."

Jase and the peeled warriors

But a success it was and the sequel looks set to wow the gaming public all over again, particularly with an all-new myth-busting storyline. It was always going to happen, but we at playstation.com were chuffed to see GoWII reference the classic tale (and even more classic movie) of Jason and the Argonauts, complete with Golden Fleece, skeletons and Jase himself. Cory told us, "I studied a ton of the mythology while working on the first few drafts of the script for the game. There really is a never ending well of ideas to draw from in mythology and the real difficulty is picking things that really fit within the story of Kratos as well as being easy to swallow for audiences."

"We wanted to make a game that literally just sucked people in and made them forget they were playing a game. That sense of atmosphere not only comes from having one of the best freaking art teams I have ever worked with, but also one of the most dedicated teams of programmers, designers, composers and animators."

Chaos engine

But as well as being prettier than Aphrodite after a makeover, God of War II also sports an array of weapons that would certainly catch Ares' eye. "The Blades of Chaos are the main weapon for God of War II," Cory told us. "The big thing we are trying to do with the additional weapons is give them solid purpose and place within the framework of the current system."

"The Wind Bow is part of the new magic suite built for this game. In part 1 the Gods were responsible for helping you out on your quest to take down Ares. For GoWII, we took the power-ups in a new direction and are basing them on the elements... the Wind Bow is only the beginning of some of the great things we have in store."

But with PlayStation 3 heading our way in 2007, we asked Cory if he felt PlayStation 2 was still a viable platform for kick-ass games with the might of PS3 casting such a long shadow. "I think that there is still some power left under the hood of PS2." explained Cory, "The programming team here has been able to find some new tricks to really push PS2 even further and our art team has found even more optimisations with characters and levels that allow us to push things further. We are able to put more higher resolution characters on-screen [in GoWII] than the original God of War."

Cory's boasts certainly ring true with us with GoWII delivering some of the best visuals we've seen in a game of this type, rivalling even the mighty Shadow of the Colossus. But of course, being PlayStation fanatics we can never have enough, so before God of War II is even finished, we pushed Cory for a third outing, "For me, the story has always played out in a trilogy, but we take the games one at a time. There are certainly hooks within the story that could set up for a continuation just as in the first game, but we are planning on finishing the game and seeing how the fans react. If all goes well with this one, then maybe we will see a completion of the larger overarching story, but as of right now we are focussing all of our attention on God of War II."

These attentions are certainly paying dividends from what little we have seen so far of God of War II. The game is slated to step down from Olympus next March, and you can be sure playstation.com will have more Kratos coverage between now and spring 2007.