God of war II Notes

New game on Normal

Kratos sits on his throne as God of War, surrounded by women. He is shunning the other Gods and basically aiding the Spartans to conquer the world. Athena comes to him and tells him that she can't protect him from the other Gods if he carries on with this course. Kratos tells her that he won't and he owes her nothing. Still bitter about the Gods earlier treatment of him in the first game. He goes down to Rhodes to deliver the final blow to the city as it falls to the Spartans. Athena follows and makes Kratos shrink down to mortal size and makes a huge statue at the cities harbour come alive.
Square for light attack
Triangle for heavy attack
Circle to grab.
L2 for magic.
Right stick for evasion.
Left stick for movement of Kratos.
R1 is use or open.
We start in a sealed chamber and have a load of soldiers to fight.
We then open the door by spamming circle and come out into a corridor.
Through a hole in the wall and out onto a rooftop.
The statue attacks here as do soldiers.
A ballista must be fired at the statue after wearing down it's health as it swipes it's hand at you. You hit the hand after is slams down.
Once worn down the statue slumps and is still for a few seconds. Time to fire the ballista then fire yourself at the statue.
Quicktime sequence as you clamber onto it and jab it in the eye. It grabs Kratos and hurls him across the city. We land in a swimming pool.
There is a sex mini-game here.
Down through the bottom of the pool is a tunnel leading to another room. Here we have a save point and a switch, the switch brings out a grapple point which allows us to grab onto with R1 and swing around.
In the next room the statue tries to stomp Kratos, we have to hammer circle to prevent this.
We get to use climbing up a wall.
Now a boss battle with the statue. It stands at chest level in a large horseshow shape, there is a grapple point in the middle to get across to either side of the semi circle.
The statue pounds at you and you have to dodge and wear down it's health. When you do it slumps and places it's arm near a wheel at either tip of the horseshoe. You go over to it and press circle. Then some quicktime and rinse and repeat.
The statue throws you away again once you have completed this section.
We land in a courtyard then into some corridors for fighting with soldiers.
There is a block we can slide about by holding R1 and we can kick it by holding x and charging out kick.
Pressure plates must be used to progress here.
There is a lift which takes us to a small room with a window, the statue looks in and we get to jab it in the eye. The room must be hit as the whole thing collapses and we end up in rubble at another courtyard.
Zeus talks to Kratos and offers the blade of Olympus to help him in his fight. Kratos is suspicious of Zeus' motives.
We come along a bridge and then through a bulding and out onto an area with lots of balance beams. There are soldiers underneath which once taken care of make the balancing a lot easier.
We go down through a chain rope then get surprised by the statue which knocks a bridge out from under you.
Now we are onto a second stage of the boss battle with the statue, again at chest height it slams at you. The blade of Olympus which Zeus has left for you stands stuck in the centre of the dias. You have to wear down the statues health then it will slump for a bit, allowing you to drain your powers into the blade. This is supposed to charge it and make it effective in killing the statue. Sounds like a trick to me, but Kratos is falling for it so we have no other option but to comply. The statue does a ground pound which makes a pattern appear on the ground that must be avoided. It also slams and swipes at you.
You get to hurl a piece of it's own hand it it. Then use magic. Then just hit it as it swipes.
Eventually all your magic and health bars are drained down to minimal.
You get the sword to wield and this really does hurt the statue, it uses the stump of it's hand like a blow torch here. At the culmination of this scene you break through into the guts of the statue.
Inside are lots of soldiers and wooden platforms. There is glowing blue beams as well and sticking the sword into these drains the energy that Athena put into the statue.
We climb to the top draining nodes as we go. Lots of all the varieties of clambering here.
At the top is a puzzle beams of energy come from a node and link to the statues eye, we are inside it's head. We have to lower a pendulum with a switch, make it swing by hitting it. Then raise the pendulum back up. A rope can then be safely traversed by timing your crossing with the pendulum.
This drains the power from the statue entirely and we jump out of it's mouth. In cut scene Kratos jumps from the mouth as the statue blows up. He stands on the dias shouting at the Gods and isn't watching as the statue's hand falls on him. Kratos is mortal now and is badly hurt, all his armour falls from him. He staggers towards the blade of Olympus.
Zeus arrives and tells Kratos that he was tricked and is now going to pay for plotting to kill Zeus. Which is news to me. Kratos and Zeus fight and it is inevitable that Zeus wins here and plunges the sword of Olympus into Kratos. Zeus then rubs salt in the wound and destroys every last man of the Spartan army.
Kratos dies and is taken by the arms of Haded into hell.
Gaia intervenes the titan, she tells Kratos that the titans will aid him and he must seek out the sisters of fate in order to find a way to kill Zeus.
We now are clambering around in hell and have to swipe away lots of arms and get back out of the hole in the dias where we fought the statue and Zeus.
A spartan remains alive, Kratos tells him to go back to Sparta and raise another army.
A winged horse arrives for Kratos.
Now we have a flight sequence where we fight with gryphons and other type of bird flying into the screen in a space harrier style.
The enemies can be cut with our blades or rammed with the horse.
Occasionally you wear down enemies health and get a circle and a quicktime sequence of stunning violence.
Kratos flies into a cave and we see a Stone titan in here. The horse is trapped by the hand of the titan. We have to find a way to free it.
We now have some clambering and fighting with soldiers on the walls. We can hang from ceilings now, which is new to this game.
We come out of the icy tunnels and onto the cliff side. Snow is falling heavily.
There are some mintotaurs here to deal with and archers on scaffolds we can destroy.
On a huge hand like statue we find a Prometheus who gave fire to mortals, Zeus has sentenced him to be chained here forever and a bird eats his guts every day and kills him, then he is healed and the torture never ends. He begs Kratos for release.
I give him a few swipes with the blades to see what happens, he falls off the hand and dangles by the chain over a fire. We can't seem to do anything else at present so I carry on down the path.
We meet our first gorgons and harpies in a fight trap.
Shiny areas can be interacted with, we knock over some icicles and make a new pathway.
Then we are at the Titan's head, he is called Typhon, we have to run along narrow ledges fighting Harpies and avoiding his freezing breath as he tries to blow us off the ledges to our death. We then push over a rock to make a bridge up close to his eye. Using his eye as a grapple point Kratos launches over and stabs the titan in the eye then steals Typhon's Bane, a bow from his eye.
This is a ranged weapon, Holding L2 makes a target appear over a nearby enemy and then pressing square lets loose a bolt of energy. We get to shoot Typhon in the other eye then take out some soldiers and archers. We have to shoot away a cage blocking a grapple point and grapple back out away from the now blind Typhon.
We make our way back out to the cliffside again. We can shoot out some grapple points and bring down a rope to make a shortcut. Back at Prometheus we shoot the chain and knock him into the fire. He burns up and Gaia tells us that he is now free.
We get the rage of the titans in return for helping him.
This is a meter that fills and when full we can use it for a limited time of increased power in all attacks.
The only alternative is to go back the path I came. At the titan's hand I realise you can now use the rage of the titans to make the fingers move, each one must be hit in turn and Pegasus is freed.
We now have another flying sequence. We are going to the Island of Creation where we will find the sisters of Fate. They can take us back in time and we can change what happened.
Yet more fighting with birds and bird riders until we get to the island.
On the Island  we clamber up the side onto the temple. Here we fight soldiers. We climb up into a large courtyard. There are dogs and skeletons hanging from chains above the courtyard. The dogs are killed and I find that a fresh body falls from the chains rather than just disintegrating like the skeletons do. This body is used in a nearby puzzle. We take the body down in a lift then place it on a pressure pad. We can then use a crank to open both sets of double doors. By using the body I have time to run and dodge through the doors before they close.
In this next room we come out onto a balcony and see the Island of creation in the distance, we still need to cross from this temple to it. Kratos speaks to Gaia and asks why she is helping him. Gaia goes into the history of Zeus. His mother had to give up all her children to Cronos the titan to eat. She kept Zeus away from Cronos and tricked him. Gaia raised Zeus.
We now climb along a crumbling ledge into a square area. Here we fight a three headed dog and some small dogs.
Then a block puzzle has to be solved to move on. In the next area we have a lot of clambering around underneath structures.
Then a fight on top of that structure with dogs, soldiers and archers.
Then we go inside and down in a lift to a large cylindrical room. Here we have to fight sirens, each time one dies their scream cracks the door a little until we can leave the room.
Now we can see the steeds of time in the distance. A gift from Cronos to the sisters of fate to curry favour.
We cross from the temple to the steeds by the chains that hold them to the temple. There is a locked door on the back of each steed. We have a lever to pull which lets down a rope to slide to the next steed. Here we meet Theseus who is the keeper of the keys. We have to fight him.
He starts of attacking us with his staff and once we have him worn down he jumps onto the top of the door and fires down at us. Two minotaurs spawn and we have to take care of them while avoiding his groundspike attack and fire from above. We can fire at him using our bow and after two sets of minotaurs I have him worn down. Inside is a book telling us about Cronos.
there is a door leading to the top of the steeds. I cross back to the first steed and enter it's door. Here Chronos talks to us and gives us his rage power.
This is a magic attack that makes blue balls of lightning envelop up to three enemies.
We are now free to wander around on top of the steeds. There is a control on the yoke that tethers the steeds together it has four colours on it and there is a corresponding colour on the brow of the steeds.
Turning the crank at each colour makes a lock open up on the brow of the horse. There is a time limit before it shuts again. I get the easiest red one and insert the horse key. The blinkers are taken off the steed. Looks like we have to get them all unbllinkered.
Specific Harpies can be uses as grapple points here. I manage to get two more horses unblinkered fairly easily.
The last one is easy as well. That was far too easy.
We turn a switch and the platform rises. We now have to do some quicktime to whip the steeds with Kratos' blades. This  results in a cut scene where the steeds come to life and pull on the chains, they pull the island closer to the temple so that we can now get across the gap we saw earlier. Looks like some backtracking.
back to the temple it is.
We clamber around the temple walls and find a way into a new area with a large statue.
There are some new large fly type enemies here that explode when you kill them.
This temple is a puzzle. The hands of the statues come down when you stand on a pressure pad, however there is no way to weight the pad from here.
Down below there is a gate with a switch that only lowers it halfway.
A pool in the middle has a fountain that can be shifted aside to reach a tunnel underwater down to the other side of the gate.
In this chamber a statue provides us with the amulet of the fates.
The amulet of the fates allows us to slow time for a limited period of time.
We use this instead of a weight on the pressure plate, we have to use it twice to get up the statue's face. Simply stand on the pressure plate and then slow time to have enough time to make the jump.
The fate statue tells Kratos that he won't get what he wants, so he smashes it.
The head falls into the courtyard outside which is where the gap was earlier that we could not cross.
We fight some wraiths and flies here.
Then down into a two tierd square. We are blocked in by a blue barrier being generated from the eyes of a statue. We have to move statues that have shields into place to block the beams. One of the statues is trapped by a lip and needs to be taken up on a lift and kicked over the lip.
There is a cyclops or three to fight as well.
We go through the gates into a new area we are in a bog and heading to a spire we can see in the distance where the sisters of fate live.
A horseman attacks and drags Kratos behind him for a bit in quicktime. This is the barbarian king that was about to defeat Kratos when he appealed to Ares in the first game. He has clawed his way back from hades to fight Kratos.
This is a fun boss fight. He starts on the horse and is surrounded by souls. He rides around and attacks. Using the bow is the best way of attacking him.
The first circle event sees you kill his horse. He then attacks with his hammer and conjours souls to fight against you. He then grows bigger and keeps  on going with the hammer. He strikes the dias and makes it smaller at times as well.
Eventually you get another circle event and quicktime him to death with his own hammer.
We get the barbarian hammer as a prize.
We continue through the forest to the temple of Eurayle.
Lots of bones outside and snake haired women on the door, looks like gorgon city.
To one side of the main door I find a locked gate that needs Euryale's key and on the other side I find a dead man with the key. A soldier in the distance asks for our help as he is carried away by minotaurs.
At the medusa door skeletons appear. the doorstep is a trap and anything standing on the step gets turned to stone by gorgon green beams.
On the other side we can use the key to open a gate. This takes us into an area where me meet cyclops for the first time. When they die we pull out their eye. Little soldiers can ride the Cyclops and be protected by them.
Once the cyclops are done with we can enter a ruin. There is a part of the ruin that moves around dangerously as we go from side to side. Although it does not look like it is actually going to fall apart just yet. There is a movable block here though it does not look like the time for this puzzle is at hand yet. There is a door to go through.
Inside are some corridors then a door out into another cave like area.
Here we fight some flies and wraiths before knocking down some rocks to make a grapple point available Some extended grappling here.
An area with a vine rope to scale for extra items. Then some new fireball hurling soldiers.
We have to knock down pillars here to get to them then rock a pillar back and forth which brings down some masonary and opens the path.
The next dias room has a gate which is operated by two pressure pads. There is a lever as well. The lever opens a gate where we can find a body to put on one of the pressure pads.
There are false walls with little flowing water chambers behind the gates. There are two flame soldiers as well.
I find I can use the bow to shoot away some vegetation from a grapple point and get up to some secret items. There are bits of body floating in the water but I can't pick them up.
The secret is to put the body in the water so it circles around the stream to the other side and you can place it on the leftmost switch, this is prevented normally by a set of spikes which you can't jump when carrying things.
The switch there can now be depressed with the body and you can make the gap between the gate and the middle pressure plate. It wasn't obvious and I needed a walkthrough here.
We come out onto a river side and see more spartans in trouble at the hands of the monsters.
We have to negotate three diases on rivers which are moved by cranks, soldiers run interference.
In the next area a rock monster attacks. We have to pull over a tree to make a new path.
Now we have a vine to negotiate. In the next area is a large spinning wheel. Behind a door is a statue that we can use to slow time.
Over the wheel we go and into a corridor with a conveyor belts and lots of beams that turn you to stone. Soldiers provide the fun here and make it hard to get along the corridor without getting turned to stone and smashed.
I push a block out of the wall here to make a door and we end up back at the rocking piece of temple. Pushing  the second block over to the far right makes two blocks and the temple leans a bit further over. We can now get Kratos to push the whole thing over.
This makes a path for us, some clambering and knocking out bushes to progress.
In the next area are some stone creatures and a dying man. He tells us that Jason is here with the golden fleece and they are trying to kill Medusa. Didn't we kill her in the last game?
There is a large grinding wheel in the way here of us getting into Jason and the beast that is holding him captive. I find that we have to pick up the body of the wounded soldier and toss him into the grinder which breaks it and we can smash it with our blades.
The creature that has Jason is a three headed dog and we have to fight it. Jason looks a little worse for wear as the creature has it's arm in it's mouth.
Eventually I wear it down and we get the golden fleece which can bee used to deflect enemy projectiles and beams. We have to tap L1 at the moment before impact.
We now have to get back to the medusa temple door. We can use the fleece to open it now as we can reflect back the gorgon beam and blow the door open.
Inside the temple we have some soldiers then down a ladder into a square for large gollums with flaming poles. Also soldiers in numbers here.
We come to a room with two crank elevators. A soldiers steals the crank from the far away one. Both move at once with the one crank and you have to make them stay half way up the shafts so that you can jump onto the lift when it's higher than ground level. You can then climb up the shaft. A soldiers then a save point.
Now we have whirling razor blades to negotiate whilst hanging from the roof. A puzzle with a spike trap. You have to pull a lever and lift a door before the spike trap gets you.
In the next area is the boss battle with Euyrale, she is a bigger fatter gorgon.
She attacks with her huge tail and stone beam. She retreats to two pillars after taking damage. Eventually when she is worn down you get a circle event and pull her off the pillar. This is done twice, she then attacks relentlessly before the final circle event and quicktime sees you lop off her head.
We get the head to use as a weapon. Holding down L2 to activate then Square to fire it.
Now we have a series of puzzles. We have to raise grapple points, each one is separated by walls and there are gates in between. The first needs the time statue to pull a lever then get through the gate before it shuts. The second needs the underwater dash to make it through two underwater gates. The third door just needs bashed down.
In the final area is a fight with some soldiers and flame soldiers. The grapples are now all set up for a spin around the square to the exit. We just have to use the time amulet to slow things down twice and get it done before one of the grapples sinks too far to make the leaps possible. Frustrating but not as hard as it could have been.
Then we have to fight some dogs in a crusher before making our exit and leaving the dogs to be crushed.
We then have a rock monster and some hydras to kill.
And now after a climb back up some stairs we are back at destiny's atrium. Now we can get past the fire spitting rock face we could do nothing with earlier.
We come to a large set of grapple points out under the cliff face facing the steeds of time.
Then up into another courtyard. We can hear someone shouting for help and telling us they are trapped.
There is a lot of wraiths to fight in the courtyard.
We enter a room and find some health then have a fight with minotaurs and new enemies that spawn minotaurs endlessly until you kill them. Some kind of magician.
There is a puzzle where you have to put a block on a lift then jam another block under it so you can get up to a high point.
We find a bridge that is out. Backtacking down to the bottom the the stairs we fight some satyrs.
We push a block out of this room and end up back in the courtyard with the trapped man.
I push the block until I find a half ladder I can use to get up to the upper level.
Here there is a statue producing two beams blocking our way again with a force field. We need to find the statues that will stop the beams. One of them is nearby although it is missing it's shield. I jump between the beams to the other side and find a door to a new room. Here we fight some soldiers.
We go out and across some grapple points.
Then into an area with a large tree in the middle. If we stand on a special pressure pad made of wood branches grow out to the main tree in the middle from four points. We have to freeze time using the statues to be able to make it across. I find my way inside the temple again.
The man who was trapped is Perseus. He thinks the fates want him to kill Kratos.
He uses his invisibilty helmet, sword and shield. Each one must be worn down in turn. He is invisible for the first part of the battle. Handily we are in water so can see his footsteps.
After a bit of beating he loses his invisibilty helmet. Then he fights with his sword which we break. Finally his sheild which he uses to blind us. Eventually we wear him  down and quicktime him into a horrible death on a hook.
We now have a shield to use on the statue. I get the statue down and put in on the bridge that the crank raises. This only does one eye beam though.
We have to use the golden fleece to reflect the other.
We go out into a stepped region. There is a corridor, however a pressure pad brings a gate down and we cannot pass yet. There is another route though.
This is a little maze of corridors. I find a switch and pull it, it opens a gate. I find a giant bird with an arrow sticking in it.
I pull the arrow out and this is the spear of destiny.
It is a new weapon.
The puzzle here is how to get across a gapped bridge, there is a pivot which won't let you get across. However if there was a time freeze you could. The trouble is the statue is facing the wrong way. You find a crank which turns a disc. You place the movable statue on the disc, spin it around and put it back and now you can get across the bridge.
There is a set of grapple points that collapse, they suck the fun out of it due to poor control.
Now we go through some tunnels with fight rooms. Sirens, bulls, satyrs and larger soldiers.
We now come to an area called the great chasm.
Here we meet Icarus in cut scene, he is madder than a mad thing and insists that he is the one to fly across the Chasm. We fight him in pseudo quicktime and it's a pain in the bum.
Eventually I get past him and pull his wings off. We both fall into a chasm and into a cave containing a bound titan who is holding up the ceiling. Kratos uses the wings to land on the titan while Icarus falls to his doom.
This titan is Atlas. Gaia tells us that we need to get back to the surface.
We climb up Atlas' face and then have to use the wings to glide onto platfroms suspended from chains. We enter an organic looking orifice. The wings work by pressing X to jump then X again to double jump as normal, you then hold X and glide with the wings.
There is a puzzle with a piece of vertebrae that is moveable and used to reach a platform.
In the next room is a rock troll, this one is a bit harder than most. It is on a platforms which halfway through the fight it makes sink. We have to grab the wall and clmaber around avoiding it's rocks until the platform comes back then have another go at it.
It leaves behind a rock that lets us out of this room when it dies.
In the next area we have to free a rock that floats on the lava so we can make a jump to a grapple point.
There is then a long clambering section which sees us cutting something organic and dropping it into a delicate looking organ. This seems to be doing something near the hand that is holding up the ceiling.
The vent is open now and we can use it to glide further using the wings.
We now have to fight hydras and soldiers on a dias. Then raise the dias and make the jumps and glides on a series of moving platforms.
Now we have a puzzle where we have to stack blocks to get up to a high ledge.
Now some clambering with falling rocks from above causing havoc.
At the top we smash a chain and this brings us to Atlas's attention. Atlas tries to squash us until Kratos tells him he is trying to kill Zeus. This triggers a cut scene showing the end of the titan war where the Gods of Olympus used the blade of Olympus to end the war.
Atlas is willing to help and gives Kratos earthquake magic.
He then lifts Kratos across the chasm and back up towards the tower of the fates.
We glide to the temple of fate and stand on the threshold. We have a puzzle even to get inside. A fight with cyclops, cyclops riders and fireball soldiers is tough here.
Then we have to move the whole cylindrical hallway around to align the door of the temple with the outer door. Inside is a switch and what looks like a few hallways off the main cylinder. There also looks to be a lot of spike holes all over the place. I have a feeling that pulling the lever in the middle with perforate Kratos if I am not fast.
The spikes on the floor of the dias move randomly, however there is warning to get of a panel of flooring before it spikes you. Flies attack while you try and work out what to do. Basically the cylinder rotates and the door moves past alcoves where you can collect chests and items. You can't dawdle though as the spikes will get you if you spend too long in an alcove. There is a pull block which is the key to it all. All you have to do is pull it out far enough and it jams the mechanism. This allows you to get all the orbs and a crank with ease. A corridor opens up as well.
In the next room is a vast area with two huge statues facing out onto a view of the tower of fate. A horn stands in front of a face of the God of Wind. Looks like we need to make him blow it. There are two key locked doors and a ladder up to a crankless handle. We place the crank we got from the cylinder here.
The crank seems to turn off a flame blower that is blocking the way to the side of the platform. There is also a pressure pad that opens a plate on the floor and reveals a vent. We need something to place on the pad to keep the vent open.
The corridor with the flame blower leads to a circular corridor with doors barred by bars.
A switch makes one of the grates lower but you can't get back to it in time. There is a vent here. It looks like you could pull the switch and run to the vent and fly up and over the grate before it closes but the timing seems just too tight. I am missing something. Probably a time slowing statue but I can't find one. No you just have to be really quick.
This corridor leads to a fight with some soldiers and dogs. then another large room.
This is the auditorium of Lahkesis. There is a book, a scaffold and hanging block.
I break the scaffold as it seems to be in the way. The block can now be pushed about.
The book is written in a language Kratos can't read. The block seems to need to be put in the picture behind the scaffold but we can't lift it.
I go along the other route here and come to a man praying in a small chapel. He can be picked up, however, a pressure plate he is sitting on locks the door when you try and carry him out of the room. The block from the scaffold is handy for pushing to the pressure plate and gets him out of the room. We are then told to protect the translator. Lots of satyrs, magess and soldiers later we get him to read the book. This consists of bashing his head against it until he reads it. The book is an incantation to the sisters and requires blood sacrifice to gain an audience. The translator is duly smashed up and his blood runs into channels making a bird shape on the floor. The tower of fate spreads huge wings and a ghostly sister of fate appears in the room. She tells Kratos that he is on the way to gaining an audience but he has much to do.
The key of the ram appears. We have a shotcut back to the main hall. Now the ram door leads to a spike trap which requires you to kill and awful lot of soldiers before it stops and retracts.
In the next room Athena speaks to Kratos in the form of a statue, there are other God statues as well. Athena warns that Zeus fears Kratos and that his current path is more dangerous than Kratos realises for everything, not just Zeus. She warns that the Titans are not to be trusted.
We have to shimmy along a ledge then drop into a square room with two switches.
Here the switches make fire shoot from nozzles in the opposite wall. Sirens appear and we need to make a fire sacrifice to the sisters of fate to open a door. Simply you have to stun the siren in the right area and go pull the appropriate switch. Do this three times and you get to move on.
The next room leads to an underwater tunnel. I come up into a room with a frozen statue of a bird encased in ice. There is also a door that looks ice covered.
There are three cranks which turn rings surrounding the bird statue, these rings have symbols and a mirror. The bird has a  crank to turn it and a switch at it's bum. Pulling the swithc makes it breath fire and melt the ice in one of the alcoves. This releases a statue. The statue is movable and has a mirror on top. I notice climbing alcoves on the walls and get up onto the ceiling. Here we smash ice with our blades to make shafts of light point down. The statue can be moved into these light beams and the light if trained on Ice will melt it. The trick is to get it to shine where you want, some of the alcoves are in the wrong direction.
I realise that the mirror with the cranks must be placed correctly and the statue in the right place to make the beams bounce around and free the central bird statue from ice. If this is done you can crank it around and free all the alcoves with it's fire breath. Now you can leave the room with health and items.
In the next area we have to wipe out some fly nests to be able to be left alone to crank as grapple point down from above, we then ride the grapple point up to the higher storey of the room.
In the next dias room we fight three headed dogs and giants with maces.
There is a little puzzle to get past some gates. Then we find a statue for time slowing that seems to have no use, yet. Another book and a translator, only this one sees us coming and jumps to his death rather than let us progress.
Pulling the switch lets us enter the room, there is a locked door, and a shimmering portal. The portal lets us go back in time, but it does not seem far enough, we get to see the man jump again but can't get the lever open in time to stop him.
I go back and bring the statue and jam it in the door frame. This means that when you go through the portal you can trigger the time slowing and catch the translator before he goes over the edge. Kratos gets him to read and the tower of fates reveals itself to be a phoenix.
The Fat appears and tells us to free the ashes of the phoenix if we want to progress.
We get the warrior skull key.
Through this door is a little puzzle with a steam vent which must be made blow harder with a lever and it's grate opened with a crank to get up to the ceiling.
Now we are back to the main hall.
We fight four cyclops before getting to open the locked door with the skull.
The next room sees us fighting skeletons on a dias, the dias can be pushed down a shaft by making Kratos pull a large chain. The incentive is that spikes are coming down from the ceiling. We have to pull the dias down to the ground and open a gate before getting crushed. The skeletons run interference.
Now we have a room with a rope across it. Halfway across archers cut the rope, we must climb up to them and kill them, along with some gorgons to progress. Now we can clamber on the ceiling and get through to the other side.
I Come to a rotating pillar, it has vine like spikes protruding, it looks like we need to fly past it with good timing or end up in the lava.
Now we can see an urn with the ashes of the phoenix, of course getting it won't be that easy.
A book tells us to place the ashes in the fire to resurrect the phoenix.
This is a large square chamber there is a corridor to the right. There is a save point and a hidden chest behind one alcove here.
Down the corridor is a spike trap. We have to break an obvious fake wall to reveal some monsters and a statue. The statue can be used to slow time. The lever in the middle of the room lowers all the spikes but only for about ten seconds.
We need to reach a crank and find the hail of boreas. The crank opens a gate to the right, we have to use the crank then freeze time and make it through the gate before getting spiked.
We now have a room where fire walls come at you regularly. You have to push a statue which you can hide behind to avoid being burned to a crips. Soldiers and hydras run interference. You have to put the statue on a pressure pad and stand on another one yourself. This lowers a grapple and opens a gate, you have to be very quick as the grapple and roll under the gate must be done very quickly. A tip here is to go to the back of the room to fight the enemies as fighting in the fire just is too hard. If you go to the back of the room the monsters follow as long as you stay in the actual room and don't go into the corridor.
Under the gate is the urn which we push off a pressure pad which makes the room descend, we can now push the urn only into a hole in the floor. Going to a lever starts a fight with minotaurs and skeletons. Once done pulling the lever puts the urn in the lava with the use of a crane type mechanism.
The Phoenix is born and rises up the shaft to the main hall.
We can now use vents to get up to a platform that was inaccessible before.
Up the stairs to the main hall again. The lift has moved the horn away from Boreas' mouth. We can now use the key to open this door.
Behind here we get some items a save point and the chance to blow the horn.
The horn frees the phoenix from the shaft of flame in the centre of the hall.
It knocks over the giant pillars and flies to the dias in the distance.
We can use these new platforms to get to a new area. In this room we have a lift puzzle.
Hitting some chains by clambering on the ceiling makes a door open giving us a movable block.
The lever in the room makes the lift go up and down but you can't be on the lift and use it.
I jamb the pedastal in the lift door and it goes halfway up. This means we can get into the lift as it tries to go up. Pulling the pedastal into the lift allows you to ride in the lift. Here you have to use the pedastal in the lift to reach a chain which opens the door at the top.
Here we turn a crank and this makes the platforms that were just formed rise.
Another crank makes a door open. Going through triggers a fight in a darkened room against a human soldier. He is fairly easily defeated. It turns out to be the soldier we saw when Zeus killed Kratos. The one Kratos told to go back to Sparta and defend it. He tells Kratos that Zeus stormed into Sparta and laid it to waste. Kratos is angry and shouts at Zeus. He almost doesn't notice the huge sea monster that appears behind him.
When we get control back Kratos is despondent about his beloved Sparta. He won't respond to our controls and the Kraken grabs him. In cut scene he is about to be crushed. In his mind he is standing on a hill Above Sparta as it burns. His wife walks up the hill to him. Kratos asks for her forgiveness. She speaks but it is Gaia's voice. Gaia urges Kratos to continue and vows that he will lead the Titans into action against Zeus. She gives him the fire which consumed Sparta to fuel  his rage for Zeus.
We get an upgrade to the rage of the Titans.
The kraken is a fairly easy boss fight. You must put the body of the spartan on the pressure plate which opens the vent. The vent allows you to hit it's head.
The Kraken keeps the pressure pad covered and you must hit it's tentacle to move it.
Once you hit the head enough the Kraken attacks with a powerful rear tentacle, it has two of these. The tentacles get stuck and you have to climb on them to reach a hard part which can be broken. Break it and you get a circle event which cuts off the tentacle.
Rinse and repeat and the two tentacles are off. Now you have to bash both small tentacles off the pillars. This makes the kraken nearly fall back into the water. Pull the switch that extends the bridge and you kill the Kraken.
We can now reach the Phoenix. A bit of quicktime and we tame it and ride it to the top of the tower of fate.
The room is large, water fills the bottom. Time is frozen here.
There is a large fate statue at one end, there is a beam of light going to a crystal hanging on a dias. We can grapple up to the crystal and smashing it sets time in motion.
There is a large gold bar on a chain which when time restarts moves and rings a bell.
There are two bells, one has Zeus's image the other Cronos.
Under the area where the crystal was is a mechanism, looks like we have to turn the ram so it rings both bells.
The trick is to ring both bells at the same time with the aid of time slowing.
You have to leave the ram at one bell then on foot go to the other bell and ring it by hand. YOu then freeze time and quickly grapple to the ram and use it on the other bell. This rings both at once and the statue in the middle of the fate cracks. You then turn the ram to it and smash it.
This lets you into the corridors behind the face.
We come to a large dias which we are informed is the throne of Lahkesis.
A fate appears and tells Kratos that he cannot change his destiny. The fate tells him that there is nothing more powerful than the fates, not even Zeus. They have decided that Kratos won't be killing Zeus and will not be defied. Kratos of course rejects this and we are into a fight with the sister of fate.
This is a hard fight. She uses a green magic attack which can be reflected back for a good amount of damage. She flies around using various attacks and her staff. There are grapple points which can keep us up high when she makes the ground dangerous to stand on.
She is tough but I manage it, a tip is to grapple up high and glide towards her and attack with your blades.
Eventually she gets bored and another fate appears. This one takes us through a portal to the  fight between Ares and Kratos in the first game. She tells us that she will destory the sword we used in the fight thus making us die long before we ever got to the temple of fates.
We now have another fight on the sword against this fate. She tries to shoot the sword rather than you. Soldiers run interference. I use the bow to shoot at the fate when I can and clear away the soldiers. She shoots green orbs at you which you can reflect back. When she is defeated Kratos goes back through the portal and she is locked on the other side.
The other fate is waiting that we fought at first. She is angry now.
We now fight both fates, the one behind the portals can't get in but can stick her top half through and fight.
We have to wear the first fate down until it slumps. This allows us to freeze time and then attack the fate halfway through the mirror.
When you do this you smash the mirror.
Twice for this then a final fight with both fates at the remaining mirror. A quicktime sequence sees both fates killed and the mirror smashed. Kratos goes through the corridor opened up behind the mirror and we get a save point.
There are three doors here, one with a man on top of a pile of bodies. One with the Titans fighting the Gods. One that looks like the three wise men following the star.
The final sister of Fate is a huge goliath comapred two the other two.
We now have to make our way down a spiral slope outside the last fates room.
There are an awful lot of mixed enemies in the way.
We now enter the loomb chamber. This is where the threads of time are made.
The fate is entombed in rock here. There is a area where we have to climb up and clamber along the roof of a rock wall. There are small arms that need to be stunned so we can do this. We now get to climb up a chain to the next floor. Here we have to pin the arms using traps and spikes that are attatched to switches. The hardest part here is working out how to get to the lift out of this story. You climb the chains that are holding the arms down.
We are now face to face with the last fate.
We have to hit it's arms to paralyse them. Then knock some bodies that are in the way down.
We then have to bring up a blade from below. We then turn the blade and postition it in front of the fate. Finally some quicktime to drive the blade through it's head.
We come to a large mirror, we need to set it to the correct time then step through.
We have to go back to the place where the fate is after pulling a lever by the mirror. There are now lots of threads in the room, we have to choose the right one, this is simple trial and error, I tried three before getting the right one. If you get the wrong one you simple are knocked away from the thread. When the right one is found you have to hammer circle until you get to the right time period. Then you have thirty seconds to run back to the mirror and dive through.
A cut scene shows Zeus with his blade plunged into Kratos.
The portal appears changing history and Kratos comes through and attacks Zeus.
Zeus and Kratos stuggle and Zeus flies them both up high into the air. Deposited on a mountain top we have the final battle with Zeus. Zeus is huge.
The first part of the battle sees Zeus throw lightning and pound at you. He also spawns Sirens. The sirens are handy though as they seem to hurt Zeus as well when they scream in dying.
Eventually we get a circle event with Zeus' hand and Kratos sticks  the blade of Olympus into his hand.
This makes Zeus come down to normal size.
Here he attacks with punches and lightning. I tried for about an hour to do this and despite at least two places where there should be checkpoints there are none.
I nearly snapped the disc.
I went away for a day or so, work got in the way and I am glad it did. When I came back to this I found the fight easier. Using Atlas Quake and Rage I managed the early part of the battle quickly. You have to events where you bring down masonry on Zeus. Eventually he gets bored of fighting you and goes back to large size.
He makes you defend against relentless lightning bolts.
Seeing that this won't work Kratos tries a ruse.
He tells Zeus that he is laying down his arms and slumps defeated. Zeus returns to normal size and come to deliver the death blow with the blade of Olympus. Kratos dodges and a quicktime sequence ensues. At the end of the quicktime scrap Kratos is plunging his blade into Zeus. Athena comes and gets in the way, she tells Kratos that he cannot kill Zeus without destroying all Olympus.
She ends up geting in the way of Kratos as he tried to finally see off Zeus.
Killing Athena Kratos is distraught. Zeus runs and Athena tells Kratos that Zeus is his father. Kratos even more enraged watches Athena die. Gaia reminds him of his time travel abilities.
We have to go back to the loomb and rewind time even further. Kratos returns to the far past where the Titans were fighting the Gods. Kratos asks Gaia to come through the time portal with him and take on all the Gods in the future. The Titans are brought into the present.
Zeus, Poseidon, Helios, Hermes and Hades stand atop Olympus planning what to do about Kratos. They hear noises and go out to the window to see the Titans climbing Olympus with Kratos riding atop Gaia.

60% of tropies on first playthrough.
19:40 on the game clock.