Publisher: SCEA
Developer: SCEA
Genre: Action Adventure
Release date: March 2010

As Athena dies in his arms, Kratos shouts a damning promise towards the gods of Olympus. Knowing he cannot defeat all the remaining gods alone, he uses the Loom of Fate to go back in time to recruit the Titans. God of War II ends as Kratos and the Titans scale Mount Olympus, leaving a burning and destroyed world in their wake. It is in this burning wake that God of War III begins.

The demo starts off with Kratos on a cliff-side path of Mount Olympus. After dealing with a handful of guards, he enters a cave and eventually emerges outside, surrounded by more guards. With the help of a giant centaur, they attack, but Kratos makes short work of them. This continues on for a while. They attack – you annihilate. Eventually Kratos uses a giant crossbow to shoot Helios out of the sky, clubs a Cyclops down, and then grabs hold of Helios’ head and tears it from his body. Using Helios’ head, Kratos finds a secret door into Mount Olympus. Behind the door is a dark cave, lit only by the light coming from the sun god’s eyes and mouth. At the end of the tunnel a huge gust of air pushes upwards. Kratos, using Icarus’ wings, leaps into the gust and flies through a collapsing mine shaft. When he reaches the top, he sees a Titan he helped earlier. Blades drawn, he swoops in towards the Titan, and…Guess I’ll have to wait for my review copy to arrive to find out.

The gameplay in God of War III is similar to that of its predecessors. You start off with the Blades of Chaos and a handful of moves and combos already unlocked for you. As you make your slow climb up the mountain, you can use a combination of light and heavy attacks, as well as grabs, to take down anything in your path. Kratos is also armed with a bow and a set of lion-headed Cesti, which are devastating at close range. The demo featured quick time events (a God of War staple), as well as some newer features, including the ability to control a Harpy’s flight as you stab into it. You can even jump from Harpy to Harpy, which allows you to reach areas that you normally wouldn’t be able to on foot.

The first thing I noticed about the game was the visuals. God of War II looked great when it came out, and God of War III has continued the tradition by raising the graphics bar even higher. The level of detail on everything is incredible. When you gut a centaur, you can see his intestine spill out in vivid detail. When you tear a fleeing townsperson in half, the spray of blood is like confetti at a party that you hope never ends. As you ascend Mount Olympus and get high enough to see what is going on around you, the background animation is stunning. Even in the heat of battle, as the screen fills with fire and broken bodies, it looks good.

So, GoW III looks good, but can it fight? Yes! The action has been improved just as much as the graphics. The Blades of Chaos combos are all the old favorites: stabbing a guy, knocking a guy up in the air and then stabbing him, and spinning around in a circle, hoping to stab as many guys as possible. The lion-headed Cestus offers you a chance to get up close and personal, allowing you to get more acquainted with someone before you completely and utterly destroy them. The fist-based weapons feature combos similar to the Blades of Chaos, because the Cestus can also be fired forward and brought back to you on chains attached to your arms. The weapons in the game can be switched on the fly, and you can start combos with the Blades and finish strong with the Cestus, or vice-versa. The bow fires arrows incredibly fast, and can even be charged up to fire a flaming blast.

The demo was brief, but satisfying. The game looks and handles great, and I can’t wait to see how Kratos’ story ends. The full game will have more weapons and upgrades than the previous games, as well as larger boss battles and more enemies on screen. God of War III comes out in March 2010 for the PS3. Demo access is by pre-order only.