PAX impressions: God of War 3

I’ve been accused on multiple occasions of “hating fun” because I don’t usually enjoy big summer blockbuster movies like “Transformers” and “Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li.” The reason I don’t typically like these movies doesn’t have anything to do with me being smarter than you (although I probably am), it’s because I prefer to get my cinematic action fix from video games instead. Why just watch a giant robot punch a dinosaur, when you can commit android on thunder lizard-hate-crimes yourself? This is why I will never (ever) see the G.I. Joe movie, but I’ll still be able to get excited over big-budget, crowd-pleasing, murder-fests like the God of War games.

If you’ve somehow avoided playing any of the previous God of War games, they’re essentially rage simulators. The basic concept is that you play as a very angry dude named Kratos who explores mythical Greece and its associated underworlds and what have you. The locales are filled to the brim with monsters and ghouls who are all extraordinarily murderable. In terms of pure adrenaline fueled, sugar-high style action games, they don’t really get much better, and God of War 3 seems to carry on the tradition nicely.

The demo on display at PAX was primarily a demonstration of how technology can still impress even in this jaded age. The previous God of War games already looked better than the majority of PS2 games, and GoW3 is a great showpiece for the PS3 hardware as well. In fact, Sony’s booth in general seemed to support the PS3 as a profoundly powerful machine. The big demo’s they were showing at PAX included GoW3, Heavy Rain, and Uncharted 2, and they were all some of the most beautiful looking games I’ve ever seen. At least Sony’s first-party developers have figured out the hardware anyway.

To call GoW beautiful is a bit misleading, since its beauty is of the violent and bloody variety. During my brief demo (about 15 minutes) I had the pleasure of gutting a giant Antelope/Lion/Snake beast, manually removing a Cyclops’s eye, and decapitating some guy and using his severed head as a mystical flashlight. The violence is absurd and way over the top, but it fits the God of War vibe pretty well. If you’re playing these games for subtlety, you’re doing it wrong. Speaking of the creatures, I was really impressed by the monster designs. The whole game has kind of a late 80’s metal album cover aesthetic to it. The Antelope/Lion/Snake beast is a perfect example of how a stupid idea can be visually translated into something ridiculously kickass. In this case, the monster’s neck roared at me. So I tore off one of its own horns and plunged it into one of its faces. So cool.

Generally speaking though, God of War 3 hasn’t advanced the actual gameplay much at all. The game has a very familiar feel to it, though I felt like things just moved and controlled a little bit more smoothly. The old games were already pretty slick in this regard so it’s probably for the best they didn’t change much. The real innovation in these games comes from level designs, and the big set piece boss battles. The demo on display seemed to definitely follow the God of War tradition of never letting you be bored, which if carried through the rest of the game, will be more than enough.

Overall, I was really impressed with this demo. I’ve never really considered myself a huge God of War fan (in fact I’ve barely touched GoW2) but this demo has excited me enough that I kind of want to pick up the PS3 God of War collection that comes out in November, despite it’s dopey cover art which features no fewer than FOUR (4) uses of the God of War logo. In other news, I’m a consumer whore.

(wait...what game was this again?)

video courtesy of Gamevideos.com