Preview – God of War III

Kratos. Possibly the most bad ass protagonist to ever grace a console, he came with his blades-a-swingin’ at Fan Expo 2009 in Toronto, and he looked gorgeous. In a manly way. Perhaps the scene that most accurately sums up his bad self is the one where he beats an ogre into submission, jumps on its back in order to control it to smash through a phalanx guarding a helpless Helios, only so that he could rip his head off and add it to his inventory. If you’ve been keeping track, that’s yet another head in ol’ Kratos’s saddlebags.

I’m getting ahead of myself though. What veterans of the God of War series need to know is that they won’t be disappointed. There’s more ridiculous and over-the-top action. They didn’t change the formula much, and you still get to rip the eye out of a cyclops. The Action-Time Event indicators are off to the sides and corners instead of right in the middle of the screen, which I am not sure I like. Maybe I’m just getting old, but it really delayed my reaction time. You can now cross chasms by shooting a harpy with your bow and then making it your bird slave when it flies over to say, “why did you DO that? That hurts!” The concept is actually kind of funny, as you hook into the harpy with your blades, and the proceed to stab it repeatedly to get it to fly in the direction you want. When it can take no more stabbings in the torso, you have to get rid of it and jump onto another harpy while breaking its neck in the process. It’s like some kind of M-rated Frogger where you can break the log in half after you’re done with it, and I laughed out loud more than once while stabbing. Kratos also has new moves in this iteration. After grabbing an opponent, you can now press square to use your opponent as a battering ram and charge through enemies with ease and satisfaction. What really puts the feather in the cap though is the violence you perpetrate on the victim after you slam them into the wall. It’s bloody brilliant.

For gamers new to the series, God of War is a series of games much like the Devil May Cry games and the upcoming Bayonetta. You kill stuff in brutal fashion in order to collect red orbs and upgrade your weapons and magic, and advance the story as a side effect. The game is set in a rich Greek mythological backdrop, where a Spartan soldier brought back from the dead to fight all manner of beasts, gods, and titans. In this third game, you’re on the side of the Titans, and I’ll leave it to the God of War Collection, which includes the first two games, to fill you in on why that is when it releases in March 2010. The series uses Action-Time Events such as those found in Shenmue and Heavenly Sword in order to deliver cinematic and dramatic finishes to fights. To sum up the God of War experience: it’s crazy, fast-paced, ludicrous, and fun.

To sum up the God of War III demo: it’s crazy, fast-paced, ludicrous, fun, and gorgeous.