Two years ago, God of War rocked gamers' worlds with a violent and compelling action/adventure title. Its critical and commercial success was such that GameDaily BIZ anticipated doing a Chart Toppers for the sequel as soon as it was officially announced. We've even had a title in mind for this article for months.

Now, God of War II is here, and much like a deposed war god, our expectations have been shattered. The game offers more of what made the first one so fun, and should quench any reasonable fan's bloodlust. While the series is next moving on to the PSP, fans can bask in the glow of what is likely this year's best PS2 title.

We had the privilege of speaking to Cory Barlog, Director for God of War II, and we discussed everything from the present success of the title to the future adventures of Kratos.

God of War II dominated all other titles in March, and was far and away the best selling title overall during the month. 833,000 units were sold in total, which was more than double that of the second place title, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2. Sony anticipated this demand, shipping 1 million copies of the game to retail the first day of availability.

"It's unbelievable, you know. I was honestly a wreck before this game came out because it was my first game as a director," confessed Barlog. "A couple of scenarios were running through my mind. One was people loving it and saying, 'It's great beyond expectations!' In the other one, people want to string me up for ruining God of War and crying out for [Sony] to bring back David Jaffe."

The sales so far would also suggest that releasing the game on the established PS2 over the fledgling PS3 was a good decision. Barlog agreed: "Hey look, this is still a strong system and we wanted to push it as far as we could, even though many people said, 'Are you crazy!?'"

Along with this commercial success has come extensive critical success. The game has averaged roughly a 94% on meta critic sites; an overwhelmingly positive mark and likely a sign that it will compete for "Game of the Year" honors on numerous sites. Chris Buffa's GameDaily review says it "delivers one of the best gaming experiences in video game history."

With this sort of reception, we asked Barlog if the positive reviews were a boost, or if the handful of negative reviews (like one by Edge Magazine) pushes him to do even better. "I am actually way more critical of myself than others ever could be," he responded. "Low reviews don't make me think I could do better, because I'm always thinking about things I could do different. Still, it is kind of like a small dagger in the side when Edge Magazine and other smaller sites give some negative review.

"Sometimes, it's a healthy motivating factor to see what they're talking about. Still, you've got these fan reviews that might be mostly positive, then they give it, like 0 out of 10 stars. I think a lot of sites are just trying to get more traffic."

One of the great bonuses of God of War II is a second disc featuring extensive behind the scenes information about the game. Anyone curious about the oftentimes arduous development process is encouraged to check it out, as it gives some pretty intimate details behind the composite approach to making modern games. It traces the history of the game from the earliest stages to the exhaustion of creating a demo for E3 2006 to the relief and excitement of having entered the final stages of development.

Among the videos on the second disc is one featuring interviews with many of the primary voice actors for the game. TC Carson returns to provide Kratos with an appropriately bombastic and angry tone and Michael Clarke Duncan lent his deep and powerful voice to the titan Atlas. Harry Hamlin is also featured, giving an incredibly dynamic if brief performance as Perseus, which he originally played in the seminal Clash of the Titans.

Barlog noted that he personally pushed to get Hamlin for the game. "Clash is a big inspiration for us just like Jason and the Argonauts and other Harryhausen films," he said. "I really wanted to have some more of the Greek heroes in this game. Early on, I did not want to cut Perseus, so I animated him personally. I wanted to drown him, so that's what I did. It was a rude awakening; since I've been away from animation as a director for so long, my first pass was pretty rough. Anyway, there was a point where we wanted to go all out and get [Hamlin's] likeness in the game, but ultimately we had to cut that. [For his part,] he was excited about returning to the role. It was a long road [to get him worked into the game] but I'm satisfied with how it turned out."

Another one of the great performances in the game came from Linda Hunt in the dual role of Gaia and the narrator. The introduction of Gaia as the same person who had been narrating Kratos' journey was very natural and worked well within God of War II's story. This twist apparently had less to do with planning and more to do with serendipity, according to Barlog.

"It was a moment where I was trying to figure out where to go with the story," he detailed. "Different people were pressuring me to go in different directions. Kratos' skin turning out to be his family's ashes was such a good reveal in the first game and I wanted to equal that. I didn't want to do some M. Night [Shyamalan] thing where there's always a twist. I've never seen someone do something where the narrator becomes an active participant, so I pushed the idea."

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