Slightly later in the level, a Cyclopes showed up, giving Kratos an opportunity to show off his ability to ride and control the stupid beast by stabbing it repeatedly in the neck. More importantly, he finished it off in his usual way – by tugging out its eyeball – but this time, the camera panned around to a close-up side view. As Kratos dug into the creature’s eye socket and began to pull the massive orb free, it slowly bulged outward and the eyelid slid back until suddenly, the eyeball was torn free and left hanging by an angry red nerve stalk.
Immediately after that, we were treated to a scene in which Kratos works his magic on Helios, the sun god whom he rescued in Chains of Olympus. And note that when we say “works his magic,” we mean he straddled the god from behind, grabbed his head with both hands and – in a brutal, multi-stage button-mashing sequence that focused closely on Helios’ agonized face – tore Helios’ head right the hell off. It wasn’t just a clean rip, either, as the skin stretched and tore, revealing muscles and tendons underneath that snapped loose individually as the god screamed out his final breath.
And hey, look at that! It wasn’t just for show, as Helios’ head is a magical item that can reveal hidden passageways, light darkened areas and stun light-sensitive enemies.
Now that that’s out of the way, we can focus on the straight-up combat again. Gore aside, Kratos has some impressive new moves under his belt, foremost among them being an assortment of grab moves. Depending on which button he uses, he can throw enemies, tear them apart, smash them into the ground or wield them like a humanoid battering ram and charge through massed hordes of baddies. Again, he’ll also be able to ride certain enemies, and as the gameplay footage revealed, that includes harpies. Where Kratos’ interaction with them was once limited to grabbing them out of the sky and stomping their wings off, he can now hang from their legs and hop from harpy to harpy in order to gain altitude or float across chasms.
We also got a look at his new weapons in action, chief among them the Cestus, those lion-head gauntlet things first glimpsed in the first GoW III trailer. Noting that players in previous GoW games tended to ignore the secondary weapons in favor of Kratos’ chain blades, Asmussen said that this time, all the game’s weapons would have the same level of depth, complexity and familiarity as Kratos’ blades, with button combos for one weapon useable for all the others. In the Cestus’ case, Kratos uses them like giant steel boxing gloves, although they can extend on chains during combos for medium-distance clubbing.
Kratos also showed off the floaty Icarus wings, a holdover from God of War II that now enable him to ascend rapidly through vents of hot air, and his fire arrows, which now feature realistic flame effects that will spread from enemy to enemy.
The enemies have a few tricks up their undead sleeves as well. Certain shield-bearing enemies will form phalanxes to defend against Kratos, as a few undead soldiers did to protect Helios from Kratos’ head-ripping presence. And remember that centaur we mentioned earlier, the one who got gutted? He was a commander, meaning that when he’s around, other enemies get smarter and work together to attack you. Gut him, and they’ll be dumb brutes again.
Probably one of the coolest new creatures to be shown during the preview was the chimera, which is interesting not so much for what it is, but for what it does. Like the mythical chimera, this one is a creature that’s part goat and part lion, with a snake for a tail, and you’ll need to fight it in three separate stages. First, it’ll attack on four legs, using the snake-tail as its main attack. Once the tail is severed, it’ll walk erect in the “lion stage,” and when that’s defeated, it’ll charge you with the goat head, at which point you’ll be able to break off its horns and stab it to death with them.
For those curious about the story, Asmussen stressed that God of War III will be the final chapter in Kratos’ story, and that things that were significant in the first two games will be “profound” here. Beginning with a bang – the violent invasion of Olympus by the Titans – God of War III will be a violent physical and emotional struggle for Kratos, Asmussen said. It’ll also end with a bang, Asmussen said, concluding with “a major revelation”for Kratos’ fans. A firm release date for the epic won’t be announced until E3, but until then we’ve seen enough to get us salivating.
Feb 13, 2009
