E3: God of War 3 (PS3) Preview
Posted by Mark Salmela on 06.09.2009
Hands-on: 411's Mark Salmela tests out the latest in the God of War franchise.
God of War 3 is Sony's next installment in the popular God of War franchise. It will be the first PlayStation 3 God of War title and it was easily one of the most popular games at E3. The line to play God of War 3 was ridiculous and was wrapped around the entire Sony booth. I would estimate the wait time at an hour easily. Thankfully I was able to gain access to the Sony private V.I.P. booth where it was easy to gain access to God of War 3.
The demo playable on the show floor is the same demo that was played during Sony's E3 press conference. The demo starts off with a pissed off Kratos as he marches toward Mount Olympus. Once again you are in control of the Chains of Olympus although there are other weapons including two giant fists that kick major ass.
Light attacks are performed with the square button, heavy attacks are performed with the triangle button, and grabs are performed with the circle button. The grabs are awesome as smaller enemies such as the skeleton guards can be picked up and used as shields to ram into other enemies. The X button jumps and in the demo Kratos could perform a double jump and grab onto ledges. There was also an R1 button that swung the blades around in a ranged attack as well as the L1 button which blocked. The right analog stick could also be used to evade enemies by rolling out of the way.
God of War 3 is not holding back on the gore at all. Each enemy is a bucket of blood just waiting to be splashed onto the screen. Decapitations are frequent and enemies will even continue crawling towards you after losing parts of their body. There were winged harpies which could be used to fly for short distances across short areas. In true God of War fashion the harpies were women and were naked exposing their chest area. Oh, and after flying for a few seconds you would start impaling them with your swords and eventually rip them in half.
The first major enemy encounter is with a centaur that isn't too happy to see you. He does frequent blocks and will try to whack you into the ground with his giant axe. After wearing him down you begin a quick time mini-game where you have to push the buttons prompted on screen to finish him off. You finally kill him by tearing open his chest and ripping out his insides in a truly brutal fashion.
Eventually you make your way outside where you encounter a giant lava monster climbing buildings in the background. If I remember right he's a Titan and your friend. But before you can advance you have to fight another whacky creature in a mixed animal that has the head of an antelope, the body and a second head of a lion, and the tail of a snake. This creature likes to charge as you as well as spit fire at you. Once again you must evade the creature and slowly wear him down until you are prompted with another quick time event. You will have to do this three times to kill the creature and you finally finish him off by ripping off one of his antlers and impaling it threw his skull. I must also make note that after cutting off the snake tail in the first quick time event the creature stands on two legs instead of 4.
Overall the God of War 3 demo was very good and it is easy to understand why so many people are pumped for this game. God of War 3 had one of the largest lines of the show and it did not disappoint. Unfortunately God of War 3 will not be released until March 2010 although a demo is planned for the end of the year.
