LogFAQs > #948903888

Gall posted...

It's safe to say I've been bitten by the Civilization bug, and I promise I will return to the game in the future, but now it's about time I start my journey into New Vegas...

That was pretty good improvisation, to use the Volunteer Army policy like that. As you go up to higher difficulties you'll have to emphasize armies more and more, even if it's only to dissuade the AI from attacking. No matter how angry they are with you, they won't declare war if your army is a lot bigger. I think part of the design intention behind ideologies was for them to cause conflicts in the later game. A lot of the time, you can be on good terms with someone for a long time only to get denounced the second they pick an ideology besides yours. Have fun with New Vegas, and remember to put points into lockpick!

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The Temple of the Fates really is the last stretch of God of War II. There was one little puzzle section left when I started today, followed by what is essentially the game's final boss rush. First up, the Fates. God of War II portrays two of the sisters as pretty close to being human women and the third is closer to an eldritch abomination, though more specifically it resembles the Broodmothers from Dragon Age. It's a giant mound of grey flesh covered in small arms and big breasts. I couldn't tell you which of the three sisters that's supposed to be. They all look pretty similar in the old Greek depictions I've seen of them.

You fight the two "normal looking" fates first, starting with Lachesis, who is basically a normal boss fight. You can dodge some of her attacks by grappling onto four hooks throughout the arena. A lot of her attacks can be deflected. Later on she starts flying and you have to grapple and then glide to hit her. It's not bad. I like this game best when it's about learning enemy attack patterns and playing the combat correctly, which this boss fight satisfies.

After a while Lachesis is joined by one of her sisters, who brings Kratos back to the final boss fight from the first game and fights him on top of the giant statue-sword that he killed Ares with. This phase is kind of dumb. It reminds me a little bit of the Moonlight Butterfly from Dark Souls, where you're standing on a bridge fighting a flying enemy that's out of reach most of the time. Bringing a spell like Soul Arrow makes the Butterfly a lot easier, and likewise I mostly just plugged away at this boss with my bow. The big problem with it is that low-level enemies are constantly spawning and you can kill them for health and mana. It's basically impossible to lose even if you eat every single attack because you can always just snack on the mooks for a little extra HP. Once that part's over with, you go back to the initial boss fight with Lachesis except her sister peeks out through a mirror every now and then and you have to smack her until she goes away. Pretty good boss fight.

There's a long hallway section where you fight normal enemies for the last time, and then you go up against the broodmother Sister of Fate. She's another one of those puzzle boss hybrids like the tentacle monster, which I still don't really like. You have to beat up her arms so that they sit still long enough for you to mess with machinery without her interrupting the animation with her attacks, but they don't stay down all that long, so as you're figuring out the correct process you have to repeatedly knock her out and it gets a little annoying. It's also just not really challenging and doesn't make use of the core mechanics.

With the Fates out of the way, Kratos can commandeer their loom and use it to travel back in time and fight Zeus with the Blade of Olympus. The first phase of this fight where Zeus is giant also doesn't make any sense from a game design perspective. He keeps summoning the siren enemies and occasionally attacks you while your actual fight is against them. Not only is it lame to be dealing with regular enemies during the final boss, but every time you kill one and make it scream with the pre-animated takedown Zeus disgorges a large amount of health and mana, so it has the same problem as the sister on the bridge where getting hit doesn't actually matter. Spamming the Earth Shaker spell is the way to go in this fight. After every scream Zeus punches the ground and gives you a chance to cut up his hand. Eventually Kratos drains some of his God-power and turns him to human size and the actual fight begins. This phase is perfectly good. It's a little repetitive. You fight a bare-handed Zeus for a bit, then he steals the Blade of Olympus and fights you with that, you knock him out and drop a marble pillar on him, and then the whole process goes around again. He's actually more threatening with his fists than the sword, or so it seemed to me. He tries to throw lightning bolts at you sometimes and you can deflect them for health and mana, but it's a smaller and more balanced amount compared to the earlier fights. It ends with a little QTE section. Admittedly, I got taken off-guard by the circle mash at the end and had to repeat that part once.

Athena intervenes and saves Zeus' behind, getting herself impaled on the Blade of Olympus in the process. Kratos acts like he's sad and tells her he doesn't want to destroy Olympus, just Zeus, but as soon as she's dead he goes back in time to gather the Titans and attacks the mountain of the Gods, shouting about how much he's going to enjoy destroying Olympus. That's where God of War II leaves off.

Final Thoughts on GoW II in a moment.

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 13/129
Currently Playing: God of War II