It really pissed me off when I got online today and found that a fellow contributor had already posted a take on the new God of War III Demo. Well screw it, here’s mine anyway.
If you haven’t played any of the God or Wars (i.e. been lost in a cave somewhere in upper Canadia ‘eh) here’s the low-down. ONE OF THE GREATEST GAMES EVER!! Especially for us Greek mythology geeks, this is one of the best games on the PlayStation platform. I mean, the physics engine is great, the story is great (once again, I’m a mythology buff), and the character growth is more than what you’d expect from an action-adventure game of the PlayStation developers.
The story up till now (the abridged version):
- Kratos is a former leader of the Spartan army, who was getting his butt kicked by “Vikings” (they were hairy crazed axe wielders from the north, i.e. Vikings)
- He asked the former god of war Ares for help
- Ares comes down, kills the Vikings and makes Kratos his… ehem… “servant” in return
- Kratos follows Ares, killing whoever needed killing, until the point where he ends up killing his own wife and child in a smoke filled temple (sad… I know)
- Kratos vows revenge, but is fairly weaker than a god
- Ares attacks Athena’s city of Athens (if you don’t know Greek Mythology go wiki it)
- Athena then offers Kratos power to destroy Ares (cause gods can’t attack other gods idk) and Kratos gladly accepts
- Kratos fights his way to Ares, gaining power from the gods along the way, and finally kills Ares
- Kratos is granted the power of a god and becomes the new god of war
- God of War I ends
- God of War II begins
- Gods betray Kratos when they fear he’s gone mad with power
- Kratos says “Screw You” to the gods, and gods take his power away
- Kratos gets pissed and tries to kill gods
- Zeus comes down and kills Kratos
- “Dead Kratos” fights his way from the underworld and sets out on a trip to change his fate (to kill Zeus instead of being killed)
- The only way to do that is to find the Sisters of Fate
- Along the way he is befriended by the Titans (wiki!!!); gaining power from them instead of the gods this time around
- He makes his way to the Temple of the Fates
- He kills the Sisters of Fate (because when talking fails…), and he changes his own fate and returns to the past to kill Zeus
- He fails to kill Zeus but scares him off
- And using the power of the Fates, he heads back in time to the war between the Titans and the gods (a war the Titans lost of course)
- He transports the Titans from that point in time to the present and sets off with them towards Mount Olympus to kill Zeus
- God of War II ends
::Breath::
Okay so after all of that, we gamers wait for the installment, and oh did the demo show that it’s worth the wait.
As described by my fellow GR writer, Micah Haughey, everything is just so much cleaner and nicer looking compared to the previous two. I mean, the graphics were great on the first two, but they just don’t compare to the detail given to enemies, scenery, and Kratos himself.
Along with this, there are few more additions to the gaming experience. Kratos now has more challenges and advantages in traversing the vast landscape. New challenges include, pitch black caverns swarmed with enemies. And the only way to see anything is to use the head of the God Helios in order to illuminate pitch black caverns. The head also allows players find the many helpful, hidden items throughout the game. New advantages include the ability to grab Harpies in mid-air and use them to fly you (although awkwardly) from point A to point B.
A final notable change is one to the actual gaming process. The “quick time events”, in which particular buttons are pressed in order to avoid or attack enemies, have been altered for the better (or worse if, like me, you had become accustomed to looking at the middle of the screen and waiting for that ∆, X, □, or ○ to show up). These indicated buttons now appear at the top, bottom, left, and right, respectively compared to PlayStation controller layout.
Overall, the game is everything we expected of the third installation of the God of War saga. And if you ever get a chance to play the demo, you’ll be even more surprised and excited than you already were.
GO GET IT!!!
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