God of War III Preview

Hiding won't help you, praying won't do you no good...

Not all of your new moves are purely combat focused. One of Kratos' more flamboyant tricks is to use flying enemies as makeshift stepping stones for crossing large gaps and chasms. During the demo there were several occasions where I was forced to get the attention of a harpy using a long-range bow attack. Once the screeching wing-boob monstrosity had flapped its way into position, a simple quick time prompt allowed Kratos to jump aboard. Naturally, Mr K feels obliged to kill anything that comes near him, even when it's keeping him up in the air, so the ride is somewhat short-lived. At one point I killed a good four or five harpies in a row as I moved from one side of the city to another. It's the kind of mechanic that could all too easily be screwed up by a squiffy jumping mechanic, but since most of the hard work is automated, it just ends up being highly amusing.

As it turns out, this isn't the only airborne activity you'll be undertaking. Kratos still has the Wings of Icarus he picked up during his last adventure, and as a result he can glide over short distances. In God of War 3 it also seems as if the Spartan will get to stretch his wings during pre-set flying sequences. At the end of the demo our antihero stepped into an air vent, and the action immediately switched to a kind of obstacle-dodging mini-game, the camera following Kratos as he zipped through the wreckage of a collapsing tower. To be honest, this was the only bit of the demo I wasn’t sure about: the whole thing is reliant on twitch reflexes, and it seemed fairly hard to get through the section without taking damage. It reminded me of the Virtual Reality sections in Lawnmower Man on the SNES, and that’s not a good thing.

Having said that, the whole section looked amazing – but then so did the entire demo. God of War 3 looks good in still pictures, but when you see it moving it’s really something else – especially if you’re the one playing. As with the previous games, SCE Studios Santa Monica has done a damn good job of blending gameplay with cinematic sequences. The pinnacle of Sony's playable sequence found Kratos battling his way along an open-air terrace while Perses battled Helios in the background. The confrontation between Titan and sun god looked like something out of a Greek disaster movie, with Helios swooping around the giant in his fiery chariot and dodging the brute's enormous fists. Then you get involved, manning a giant siege crossbow in an effort to shoot Helios out of the sky. Even this proves to be less than straightforward since you're interrupted by a Chimera, a mythical beastie that initially appears in the foreground of the screen and then leaps into battle. It's a brilliant way to introduce an enemy, a dramatic entrance that carries the player along to the point that they're intimidated, then dumps them in control.

A Chimera, in case you don't know, is a creature that combines elements of a lion, a goat and a serpent. It looks pretty hideous, and it looks even worse when you start chopping bits off of it. The battle plays out in typical God of War fashion, with bouts of scrapping interrupted by quick time attacks in which Kratos severely wounds the creature. First he lops off the snake tail, leaving a hideous stump, then he knocks the monster down and breaks off one of its horns, driving it back through its own skull. It's epic stuff, and this is just one minor sub boss. Barely five minutes after this encounter I found myself battling a cyclops next to Helios' crashed chariot (you do eventually shoot him down with the crossbow). Under my control, Kratos gouged out the big man's eye and then proceeded to use him as a makeshift mount, scattering the nearby guards with sweeping club attacks.

And then after that, Kratos wound up ripping off Helios head in a breath-takingly painful QTE, the deity wincing in agony as his skull was jerked backwards and his neck ripped open. It was yet another jaw-dropping moment from a demo that was absolutely packed with spectacular content. You'll have to forgive me if this preview has had a slightly breathless, ramshackle quality - but that's what it's like when you try to talk about God of War 3. There's just so much going on, and it all looks so visceral. Okay, so it's largely sticking to an established formula but it's a formula that has single-handedly fuelled the rise of the third-person slasher… and man alive, is it exciting. Given the amount of stuff that Sony managed to fit in to a 20 minute demo, I can't wait for the full experience.

God of War 3 will be released exclusively on PlayStation 3 in March 2010.