At a recent Sony media event, we took Kratos out for his fourth spin, if you include Chains of Olympus. We know that the game picks up right off from the end of God of War II, where Kratos, Gaia and the other Titans are mounting an all-out assault on the Gods of Olympus. The demo that we played however, threw a few more questions than answers. But in a good way that makes you want to see more. With the God of the Sun, Helios and the titan Perses going ape on Athens and each other, there were bound to be fireworks.
Those expecting something different to the first three iterations will be disappointed. Sure, God of War doesn’t have the refinement of Ninja Gaiden, or the subtlety of Devil May Cry, but sometimes beating things senseless is all you need. And God of War has always managed to capture the feeling that you’re this crazy bald dude who will let NOTHING get in this way better than any imitator after it. God of War III is no different. It may not be deep, but damn, it is brutal and fun.
Get over here!
Kratos will have new and old toys to play with. As well as the staple Blades of Chaos, we also got to take the fist-mounted iron Cestus for a spin. You had them in Chains of Olympus as well, but they aren't as overpowered this time. The Wings of Icarus made a return as well. You had a new mechanic, where you’d get across chasms by hopping from Harpy to Harpy. In typical God of War fashion, it was quite brutal, yet eerily satisfying.
One of the major changes to combat is the number of enemies possible on screen at once. While we didn’t quite get to see this in action, the game ran with no problems with up to twenty or so enemies at once. While we’ve been promised a new set of combos to add on the existing ones, we didn’t really notice too many differences during our play-through. Still, the satisfaction associated with running through hordes of enemies remained, with the Kratos ‘steamroller’ move being our favourite.
Many consider God of War to be the pioneer of modern quicktime events (QTEs). Well, while these people are wrong (that honour belongs to Shenmue), the QTEs have been mixed up a little bit this time around. Now, the button prompt will appear on edge of the screen, so you no longer have a big button blocking the view. We had three major enemies to take on, each that required a QTE to take down. In an interesting twist, succeeding in the QTE against the Cyclops allowed us to mount and ride it. This allowed up to get past a number of shielded soldiers protecting a fallen Helios.
You dare defy the God of War!
Having destroyed Helios’ chariot and cleared his protectors, you proceed to rip off his head. As you do. Just like Medusa in a previous iteration, Helios’ head can be used to light new areas and discover secrets. The last bit of the demo had Kratos riding out a steam stream with the Wings of Icarus, which led to Perses. The demo closed off with Kratos preparing an attack on Perses… Nice.
Graphically, God of War III retains the same art style of the previous games, but unlike a title such as Halo 3, shows a significant technological improvement as well. We didn’t think it was quite possible, but the game is even more brutal and gory than its predecessors. There was some nice use of a dynamic camera as well, particularly the Kratos close-up in closed quarters. Since we had three games going on at once in the room, it was difficult to distinguish where the thuds and squeals were coming from, but suffice to say, God of War III is unlikely to look or sound anything other than incredible.
As stipulated at the beginning, God of War III isn’t going to radically change a formula that has worked three times already, whether you like it or not. Still, the additions and the amount of variety within the set pieces were most welcome and entertaining throughout our brief play. Not to mention, just whose side is Kratos on now? Chalk this one up as another gem for the burgeoning first quarter of 2010.
Though the demo didn't actually tell us who it was... or maybe we just didn't hear it in the room...
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