Carlos

I played God of War 3 at E32009, but I held back on writing about it because I had several things going on that I had to pay attention to. The other reason is that if I posted it back then, and I rushed, people will start talking about it in a negative way. So, I waited until I could get my hands on it some more. That time had come. I was able to play it a bit more than I did at E32009. The build I played at E32009 was an early build of the game, and according to the developers of the game, the level has been re-created in the final version of the game. Its not the first time this has happened, some people have said that there was a demo for GOW2, yet, the level in the final game didn't look the same as the level found in the demo.

There was a really long line at E32009 just for this demo alone. Santa Monica Studio went as far as releasing it to the public through myriads of sources. GOW3's E32009 demo was included in the District 9 Blu-Ray disc (sorry DVD owners, no dice for you), it was also included in the God of War Collection, and most recently, Sony released it onto the EU and US PSN stores. So, by now, you would know why this game is highly anticipated.


What's so special about God of War 3?
God of War 3 is obviously the sequel to the smash hit series of games. The game takes place right at the end of God of War 2, where Kratos asks the Titans to help destroy Zeus. At the start of GOW3, you're climbing Mount Olympus. You're on the back of a Titan. Santa Monica went an extra mile to deliver a non-CG cinematic experience throughout the entire game, eliminating the need for them CG's that the predecessors normally uses. Santa Monica Studio wanted the entire game to be completely in-game. The power of PS3 allows them to create large scale characters, enemies, bosses, and the like. Recent trailers show more than one type of large-scale enemy to show off the power of PS3, previously GOW was restrained through geometry - therefore limiting the camera pans, each and every one of the game's areas had these pre-set camera angles that follow you...Which limits the view of your surroundings. And most of the "happenings" are pre-scripted, and not programmed to work with what YOU want to do. For example, each time that a large-scale enemy or ally move on-screen in previous GOW games - they're restrained only by camera angle, or by pre-scripted scenes. From GOW3 on, this is no longer the case, you can move and roam around on the back of a moving Titan.

Obviously, this adds a dimension to the gameplay because no other game give you a dynamic camera that allows for many directions where the camera pans only at kratos' side, or pans at a direction that allows for epic and dramatic kills while all at the same time, the titan is shaking in real time, and moving in real time. And when the Titan is pulling heavy weight on its body, whatever or whoever is on the back of a moving Titan is prone to falling off the titan.

That's just one thing. There are more, because GOW3 is boasting double the level size that of GOW1 or 2 did. In fact, in the E32009 demo, this large-scale monster had lava in his entire make up. He can move anywhere he wants, including walking straight up to a building with his leg...Other recent trailers have shown that the game is capable of having two different large-scale enemies onscreen at once. One is a moving Titan, and the other is a leviathan, on top of the Titan's arm.


How did it play?
It played exactly as I expected it to...Its a God of War game, so I expected it to play like the previous two games, except there's something new to the game; integrated combos. Previously, after you finished a combo by button combination "design," you had to wait a few seconds before doing it again or linking it with another combo to push the "hits" counter up. Every move is now dynamic in the way that after you finish a move, you can easily "chain" it with another combo. The other thing that's changed, is that you can actually move your attacks to another location without any "breaks" in gameplay. Previously, you COULD do this, but there was a delay between attacks, so its like you're doing a completely new attack, rather than a combo.

I played the GOW3 demo on both a 40 inch HDTV, and a 62 inch first-gen HDTV - one of the most bothersome changes that I didn't like, is the button commands. They don't stand out anymore. They're now located on the edges of a TV screen - I'm usually the guy who pays attention to the action in the game, but with GOW3, I'm going to have to move my head around in order to find the button commands.


Carlos' Verdict: Santa Monica Studio did a great job trying to bring their visions to life. Capturing the epitome of a concept art come to life. While keeping everything streamlined, and playable. Far reaching the heights of an engaging experience then some more by delivering an epic scale that no other next generation game have done so far in this generation of consoles, or any generation to date. I'm amazed that Sony, or any of their development studio is able to pull off an epic scale without compromising or sacrificing any technical spec in order to eliminate the need for an experience that brings us one inch closer to Computer Generated scenes or gameplay for that matter. It is an achievement to be able to reach the point of eliminating the need for computer generated cutscenes!

Hats off, Santa Monica Studios, you pulled it off. While delivering an epic ending to one of the best action games of our time.

This article is a copyright of CarlosX360 Co. Ltd., any use of this article without the author's permission is liable for a lawsuit.

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