God of War 2 Preview

We're more or less into the next-gen era now, with all three new systems available in all major territories bar Europe - and the PS3 is due here on March 23. The majority of big releases are for these new consoles and playing games on old-gen hardware often reveals the strides made in the jump to HD visuals. The fact that I couldn't care less about HD visuals, Achievement points or a wavy controller while playing the demo for God of War 2 is testament to how incredible the experience is shaping up to be.

If you're new to the God of War series, be warned that a few spoilers from the original game follow. At the end of the first game Kratos became the God of War that the game's title suggested he would be and took his place amongst the gods. All isn't well though, and the gods conspire against Kratos to - we assume temporarily - cut short his reign of terror. Athena casts an electric bolt into Kratos and his godly stature is no more. To say Kratos is unhappy is an understatement.

Players of the original game will feel right at home with the controls, which offer plenty for button bashers and skilled players alike. Part of what makes God of War so enjoyable is the flashy, often over elaborate moves that you can pull off without needing to learn complex combos. Based on the demo, the same is true in the sequel, with Kratos able leap around with his Blades of Chaos to cause all manner of destruction.

The demo is short but hopefully it represents the kind of game the development team are going to deliver. Once Kratos lands in Rome Athena returns him to his human state, so he's no longer the giant that you took control of during the final battle in the first game. She also decides to bring a giant statue to life, and this acts as the major threat throughout the demo. Soldiers come and go as you'd expect, with Kratos' abilities simply too strong for simple warriors, but the statue puts up a much stronger fight.

After fighting through a corridor of foes, the statue's fist smashes a wall to reveal an exit to the outside, where the epic scale of the fight really hits home. This fight is right up there with those from Shadow of the Colossus and it'll take numerous encounters before you finally get the upper hand. To begin with it's a simple case of weakening the statue and then using the nearby catapult to launch Kratos onto the gigantic enemy. From here it's classic button pressing action as seen in many encounters from the original game, where knowing your Triangle button from your 'X' button is key to success.

Kratos manages to stab one of the statue's eyes but is then thrown across the town. From here it's another trek through enemies before another boss encounter that's much more up close and personal. As expected, the chests that were scattered around the environments in the first game make an appearance and offer a fresh supply of health or magic, occasionally letting you choose. Defeated enemies also release lovely red orbs that give Kratos some often much needed health, so things certainly haven't changed that much.

But change isn't something God of War fans wanted. More of the same is fine and when it looks this good there should be few complaints. It'd be foolish to claim God of War 2 isn't made slightly less stunning due to the introduction of next-gen software, but it's pretty clear that it's doing things with the PlayStation 2 that few people would have believed six years ago. Some tearing (something of an annoyance in the original game too) mars presentation slightly but they've got time to sort this prior to release.

Series naysayers might well bemoan the lack of originality seen in this sequel but fans think very differently. As soon as the first game finished we were desperate for more of the intense action, more amazing boss battles and much, much more of the over the top violence. While this brief demo isn't a guarantee that we'll be getting all of that, I'd bet money that we will. You only have to watch the short pre-E3 documentary included on the disc to see how dedicated the team is to making God of War 2 the sequel everyone wants it to be.