God of War 2 Ruins of the Forgotten

Upon entering this area, a Cyclopes approaches and then from stage left runs a little monster who climbs up on his back like he is a five year old at a parade. If this were TV, we would be setting up for A) the classic ice cream on the dad’s head gag or B) the riskier bird craps on one/both of them gag. But, because this is a video game, both of them will die.

When they are both in fact dead, a second wave attacks so kill them too. Run over to the Peristyle. Once underneath it, head for the far right corner. Pull out the large stone and drag it to the far left corner as a counter balance. Go back to where you pulled out the stone and O tap the gate open. Head down the halls and through the door, clear out the enemies in this room with the large stone column in the center. Destroy it and then use the newly exposed grappling hook to swing like a Cirque Du Soleil performer up to the next platform.

In the next hallway, use your timing carefully to swing between the two grapple hooks. Continue across the Bog of Eternal Stench to the three columns and the guys on top of them who are shooting bombs at you. Attack the columns on the left and right side to drop the guys. Then, move the large central column by pressing R1 then R1 + L1 in quick succession. When the remaining enemies have been dispensed, jump your way up to the platform and continue around to a room with a large plant at the top and a touch plate in the center.

PUZZLE: Corpse and Water

This next room is small and circular with alcoves at each of the cardinal directions. In the alcove with the bars is a touch plate. The other side has a body that would make a perfect touch plate weight. However, the bars in the other alcove prevent Kratos from jumping over it with body in tow. If you can’t go over the gate you will have to go around it. So, go to the alcove with the body and destroy the fake wall. Pick it up and set it in the water so it can be whisked away. Quickly, run across to the half-gated alcove, destroy the fake wall and wait for the corpse to circle around. Pick it up and place it on the touch plate. Run over to the central pressure plate to unlock the main gate. Run and roll to get through it.

In the next room we find the soldier from outside still alive and still fending off a skeleton attack. Unfortunately, it is across a river of instant death fluid. Your way across is on two floating platforms with a handle attached. To work the flotillas, point the left control stick relative to the position Kratos is in on the wheel. Keep rotating for as long as you can, even when skeletons are attacking. Fight them off only when they are right over you. When the wheel is as far as it can go, jump to the next one. Repeat this same process for the other wheel.

Back on firm ground, the camera zooms over to a large rock that is shinny. It is interactable. Attack the nearby rock and I was shocked to find the rock attack me back.

Rock monster
- Destroy it by using basic attacks
- Step back when it starts swinging its arms
- While waiting for it to stop attacking, you should use magic to hurry the fight along.

When you get near the shinny rock, you will be prompted to press R1 to pull it down. When it collapses, run up to it and then over to the vine covered wall. Proceed across it to the rope. When you drop down, you are on a cliff face with a huge spinning wheel and a small black door nearby. By lifting this door, you will find a pause-time statue that seems to have been placed into storage. Use L1 and L2 to slow the wheel then run across it. On the other side, you find a series of conveyer belts.

“Conveyer belts? In Ancient Greece?” you ask. Just ignore it. In return for getting them the job, the Devil’s covenant obligates all game designers to include a conveyor belt in every game they make (regardless of its setting or genre). Satan is a tricky one alright.

Proceed through the conveyor belts and break through the wooden wall that is straight ahead. Jump to the next landing and you are surrounded by several columns that are shaped like women. The architectural term for that is Caryatid. They were actually used in Pantheon.

Destroy the central caryatid and reveal a block that must be pushed forward. With the block out of the way, you can proceed to a new area that looks just like the one we started with. In fact, it is the one we started with.

Push that block you just dropped into the Peristyle. As you push the stone to the furthest edge, the whole building will list. Push the other stone box towards the far end of the Peristyle and the camera-man indicates another shiny-interactable object. Go to that shiny stylobate (the art world’s term for the steps of a temple and tap “O” to lift the ENTIRE thing. You know it is actions like these that make archaeologists cringe. It wasn’t natural decay that prevents us from learning about the past, it was vandalistic dopes like Kratos destroying all these artifacts. After it has been submerged in that rank fluid, run across this stunning example of architecture to the climbing wall.

Use the hand grabs and work your way left. Destroy the dead tree, and jump across to reach the other side. Run past the spinning gear building (you can destroy it if you wish) and move left. Talk to the dying soldier and he tells Kratos of the golden fleece and how Jason (of Argonaut fame) had it before he was captured by the beast.

Up ahead, the doorway to this beast is blocked by a series of gears. Pick the soldier up, carry him through the hallway and towards the nearby conveyer belt. He’s all “I’m not dead yet.” I told you dude, don’t ask for Kratos’s help, the skeletons would have been much nicer to you. His corpse mangles the gears. So smashed alive eh? That’s it? When Jaffe was directing, we had to roast a guy alive. I am just saying this seems a bit tame. What were the slicing pendulums too hard to program? Wouldn’t a pot of burning oil or a skinning alive machine have been a bit closer to Kratos’s style.

The gears crumple but you still need to attack them to get through them. As Kratos enters the dog’s pen, they are chewing on a ragdoll or a corpse imbued with ragdoll. The center head rips off the corpse’s arm and lets it dangle like a cigar. I hope he has it like that through the whole battle and then when he whips his head around the arm punches Kratos. That would be worth the price of the game right there. And damn if this dog isn’t the buffest thing I have ever seen. It has biceps that are bigger than my waist. Do dogs even have biceps?

Well it turns out that arm cigar was the golden fleece. It is a good thing that Kratos got to the beast just after he ate it otherwise we would have to wait around for 24 hours to get it back. Wearing it would be a lot less cool too.

Run over and pull the nearby lever to activate a wall that spooges fireballs. I may be joking that this looks like ejaculate but the word “semen” is Greek in origin and literally means “fire-seed.” The ancient Greeks believed that a man’s “fire-seed” would enter the woman and start a “fire” in her stomach. Thus creating a child. I took classics in college and my professor took a good chunk of the class to explain the meaning of fire-seed and its appears in the Odyssey. Google “fire-seed” odyssey. I think it’s a strange coincidence that this wall’s “fire-seeds” so closely matches the trajectory of the real world fire-seed.

Urn of Gorgons

When you are standing on the top of the temple you have a chance to go get another Urn. The Urn of Gorgons. This one will allow you to hit enemies and turn them to stone. Remember, this is for the next play through. If you want it, take a left and go back through the level you already completed. Go back to the conveyer belts with the petrifying beams. Stand in front of the beams and press R1 to reflect them back at the walls. The wall will crumble and the chest for the urn will be revealed.

To get through, stand on the floor’s burn-spot and wait for the next shot. At the precise moment it hits Kratos, press L1 to reflect the ball back and destroy the wall. When you make it through the door, fight off the medusas and head down the path (this is where you first found that guy and sent him through the grinder). Go back across the rock wall and jump to that building you pushed into the lava. Yes, the camera angle for that jump is awful and yes I died several times on that. Dear GOW2 team, when you build the Game of the Year edition, swivel the camera angle around so we can see the gap better.

When you get back to the sunken temple, jump off of it and onto the bank located on the right side. Follow the path around, jump across the small gap and head back down again to the save.