Go for it, it kicks ass. It actually still amazes me that God of War 1 and 2 can look so good compared to a lot of other PS2 games. It's like a factor of three above almost everything else on the system.
I think I heard you say something about owning a PS3? Play it on there, it ups the resolution and shortens what little load times there are. I have a memory card transfer block, so all my PS2 and PS1 memory cards are on my PS3 now, I can play any of them without the cards now. But even if you don't, just make a new card on your hard drive and play through. If you have an HDTV there's a trick I heard about where you can get God of War 2 to play in HD mode.
Unlockable: High Definition Mode
You must enter L1, L2, L3, CIRCLE and SQUARE all at once.