Hands On With God of War III
Last week while Pixel Poet was slaving away at the Nintendo event, I jetted down to Los Angeles to get a peek at God of War III. It definitely exceeded expectations and expectations were high.
God of War III takes place right where GOW II left off, with Kratos on Gaia's back, heading towards Mount Olympus for a showdown with Zeus and the gang. We were allowed to play the first level of the game all the way up to and including the boss battle and it was extremely impressive. I am always reticent to write too much in these hands on articles since I want to leave some surprises when you actually play, but I will do my best to get across my points without to many spoilers.
The level kicks off with a nice opening cinematic and shows off some of the characters you will run into later in the game. When the action starts, you are dropped right into it, fighting enemies on Gaia's back. As the level continues, you learn your moves (if you aren't already familiar with them) and eventually come up against your first demi-boss, a minion of the god Poseidon who you will eventually meet at the end of the level in your first big boss battle. The level concludes with a one on one battle with Poseidon that simply must be played to appreciate. The cleverness and visual cues are unlike anything I've seen in a game up to this point. It's quite well done.
In my chat with the game's lead designer, Todd Papy, he confessed to me that the game's dynamic opening was the last thing worked on in the game. In this way, the team was able to take all the design knowledge they had gained from making the rest of the game and funnel it into a dynamic and extremely impressive opening. I was able to talk with him for about fifteen minutes and you'll be able to read all his answers to my queries in an upcoming article.
For players of the previous two titles, the controls will be easy to pick up on. The same three button attack system is still in place and the right trigger is used for magic. There are some new moves however, such as grabbing an enemy and using them as a battering ram and a new magic power that brings up a tornado, providing multiple hits to foes. The gore factor has been raised, providing for some spectacular enemy deaths including the gutting of a centaur that reveals loads of entrails.
The graphics have also undergone massive improvements as would be expected when going from PS2 to PS3. Everything looks crisp and clean and very nicely detailed. The character models are quite impressive, especially the close up head of Kratos in the game's opening menu. You could practically swim in those pores! A lot of attention has been paid to camera angles and use of camera in general in this game, lending a terrific movie like quality to the entire proceedings.
God of War III is a worthy follow up to it's predecessors and take the series in some interesting new directions. My talks with other journalists revealed that they too were extremely impressed by the portion of the game we played. Impressing these folks is not an easy task, given that these are people who see a lot of games and are often not given to hyperbole. But I can assure you that words like "awesome," amazing," "incredible," and impressive were words I heard a lot when describing the experience with the game.
God of War III launches exclusively on the PS3 on March 16th. Keep an eye out for my interviews with Lead Game Designer Todd Papy and Lead Combat/Weapon Designer Adam Puhl.
Fruit Brute
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 1 March 2010
· Comments (3)
Other stuff like this: god of war III, hands on, kratos, ps3
This is going to sound awfully negative, but I hate when stories (game, TV,...) set in ancient greece or other old cultures come down to a genocide of that culture's pantheon.
It's the same thing that made me really dislike the later seasons of Xena.
On a more positive note, nothing beats fun mindless gaming action like GoW.
i hate you Fruit. for two reasons. The time you spent with Kratos, and the time you spent with Todd. Todd... Papy... is... hot...
I loved every bit of the opening sequence and the first 20 minutes of the game (which according to this article was worked on last)
The graphics are better than demo version and you will notice it as soon as you kill a centaur...
I've played it for 4 hours last night and it was amazing...tonight i'll be beating it hard :)
It's not a disappointment in any way...Some gamers complain about the plot the scenario...I dont really care! this game rockz!
Playability graphics dynamics of the game...Only difficulty will be quiting the game... :) Hard to stop playing...addictive...