Preview: God Of War III (PS3)

Last week I had the pleasure of attending a preview event for Sony’s upcoming God of War III (developed by Santa Monica Studio) in Los Angeles. The evening began with the game’s director, Stig Asmussen, showing us the opening gameplay sequence on a large, wall-sized screen. Asmussen told us that he had been quite ill, but that he was so excited about the game’s release, he didn’t want to miss the event. Many of the game’s other developers were on-hand to answer questions about the game, and there were several PS3 systems set up around the room, all running never-before-seen sections of the game (never-before-seen by the general public at least). I got some good hands-on time with the game’s opening sequence, which is much different than the content included on the previously released E3 demo.

WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW

If you don’t want any plots points from GOW3 or its previous versions revealed, you might want to skip this section.

For those unfamiliar with previous versions of the game, the God of War series is the story of Kratos, a Spartan warrior who sets out to kill Ares, the Greek god of war. In the first game, Kratos seeks out Pandora’s Box to use as a weapon to bring down Ares. He is ultimately killed by Ares, but Kratos escapes from the Underworld to challenge Ares again. The Spartan succeeds in destroying the god, and Kratos becomes the new god of war.

In God of War II, Kratos uses his new powers as a god to lead the Spartan army to victory over other Greek city-states. This angers Zeus and the other gods. Zeus kills Kratos… again. But Kratos is rescued by the Titan, Gaia, who eventually enlists him to aid the Titans in an assault on Mt. Olympus to bring down Zeus. The game ends as Kratos and the Titans are scaling the cliffs of Mt. Olympus.

And this is exactly where God of War III picks up. Kratos is riding the back of Gaia as she and the other Titans climb toward the peak. Kratos yells, “Zeus, your son has returned! I bring the destruction of Olympus!” Zeus, rallying the other gods to fight back the assault, sends Poseidon into the sea below Olympus. Poseidon conjures water creatures that look like a cross between a crab and a horse (sounds odd, I know… looks odd too) to impede the ascent of the various Titans. One of these creatures sinks its claws into Gaia, stopping her from going further. Kratos, riding Gaia’s back, must fight his way along her forest-like body, through brigades of undead warriors, to where the water creature has latched itself onto Gaia. This battle presents an interesting element of gameplay wherein, as Gaia’s body shifts, Kratos is continually reorienting himself, sometimes hanging upside down to fight the creature. Finally, using a pair of magic blades as well as a magic attack that looks like a cyclone, Kratos is able to defeat the water creature, ripping off its jaw, causing it to release its grip on Gaia.

The game continues and eventually Kratos faces off with Poseidon himself. While I wasn’t able to get to this point myself in the time I had to play the game, I did observe some of the other attendees were able to bring the boss down. And let me tell you, it’s a pretty epic battle, and that was merely the beginning.

After I got home that night, I was still excited about God of War III and wishing I could play the game some more. So, I loaded up the E3 demo (which is available for download over the Playstation) and was able to play through a completely different section of the game. In the demo, Kratos is battling his way through the city of Olympia, where he encounters harpies (which you can grab onto and ride over chasms as you dispatch them with your blades), a centaur, a vicious-looking chimera, and a cyclops. Ultimately, Kratos encounters and defeats the god, Helios, whose disembodied head can be used to reveal secrets within the game.

END CONTENT SPOILERS

Before this, I wasn’t overly excited about God of War III. It’s your typical hack and slash game, not too different than a lot of similar games out there (i.e. Prince of Persia, Dante’s Inferno, not to mention previous versions of God of War). But this is the first time in the franchise that the game has been developed for the Playstation 3 (though both GOW I & II, originally released on PS2, were later remastered for PS3). While playing the game at the preview event, though, I wasn’t all that impressed with how the graphics looked. When I played the E3 demo later, however, the game seemed to look much better on my LCD screen connected to my PS3 with an HDMI cable. I’m not sure why this was the case. It’s possible that the version of the game I played at the preview event was a tooled-down version. It’s also possible that I’m completely crazy.

Whatever the case, rest assured, I’ve been swayed from my initial assessment. The graphics are amazing and definitely worthy of the next gen system. Unfortunately, I don’t feel that graphics are really the issue with a lot of new games coming out these days. What video games need is much more innovative gameplay. God of War III has some of that, with interesting battle mechanics and maneuvers as well as interesting ways of progressing through the game and defeating opponents. But the hack and slash game is something we’ve seen a million times before. That’s not to say that God of War III won’t be a lot of fun to play, but I guess I’m still waiting for that “game changer”.

Having said all that, I’m actually really looking forward to the release of God of War III on March 16th (U.S.). I’m sure that Kratos’ latest adventure will be wildly popular and hailed as the best installment of the series. What God of War III has going for it besides its entertaining gameplay is its compelling story. What can I say? I’m a sucker for Greek mythology and have been since I was a kid. The God of War III release is timed nicely in a year when mythology has become the “in” thing. With new movies like Percy Jackson and the Olympians and the upcoming remake of Clash of the Titans, it’s likely that this recent infusion of Greek myth “mania” will only help to increase sales of this particular title.

by Stuart Benedict

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God of War: Blood & Metal – Roadrunner Records (a note from the EIC)

I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention that the Ultimate Edition of God of War III comes with a voucher code to download a bone crushing soundtrack, featuring unreleased tracks from Killswitch Engage, Trivium, Dream Theater and more. It’s perfect music with which to slay gods. Also, you will receive a special code to download a director’s cut of God of War: Unearthing the Legend, a full-length documentary depicting the history of the God of War franchise, access to an exclusive God of War Challenge Arena environment with up to seven unique challenges, an exclusive Kratos skin, and a limited edition art book.

The Blood & Metal EP is also available on iTunes.

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