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God of War 2 will pick up right where the original game left off. Kratos has taken his revenge on Ares and taken his throne as the new God of War. Kratos’ story doesn’t end there however, as he isn’t quite accepted with open arms by his fellow Gods and Goddesses. Kratos being the badass that he is doesn’t really care though as he’s too busy pillaging and destroying towns and villages with his newly acquired powers. Athena fears that Kratos is actually becoming even more ruthless than Ares ever was and decides to take away the power that she had once bestowed upon him. Now that he’s once again mortal, Kratos sets out on yet another epic quest that has him traveling to the farthest reaches of the world.

From a gameplay standpoint, what you should expect is more of the same sword slinging, torso ripping, head chopping goodness that was so prevalent in the first God of War. Kratos still has the Blades of Chaos (actually he’s got the Blades of Athena that he received at the end of the first game) as his main weapon, but during his adventure he’ll also find a giant hammer, a giant sword called the Sword of Olympus, and a giant blue spear. We have also seen Kratos sporting some new magic attacks like a magical bow and arrow that shoots wind arrows, a new lightning attack that allows Kratos to lay lightning traps on the ground which will continue to hold enemies in place while continuously dealing damage to them, and a new version of Rage of the Gods where Kratos becomes set on fire and is able to unleash even sicker combos that deal even more damage than usual.

In addition to the main game, the Challenge of the Gods will return with a new name and much less frustration. The new mode, now called Hall of the Titans, is a series of seven difficult challenges similar to those found in the original’s Challenge of the God’s mode. The biggest gripe with the Challenge of the Gods mode wasn’t just that the challenges became excruciatingly long and difficult at the later stages, but that you could not save between rounds. In other words, you had to complete all ten challenges in one sitting.

Thankfully, Hall of the Titans gives players the option of saving after they complete a challenge. Another addition made to the mode is that the game will grade your performance in each challenge with a title of mortal, god, or titan. The only downside is that this mode will only offer seven challenges as opposed to the ten found in the original’s Challenge of the Gods. However, with ability to actually save between rounds and the replay factor involved with trying to obtain the titan rank for each of the challenges, I’d take the Hall of the Titans over the Challenge of the Gods any day.