So some of the UKVGB writers were lucky enough to attend the mighty Eurogamer Expo in London over the last few days; one of us even had a press pass! I thought I'd do an initial writeup of what we managed to do on the day; Danilo attended the developer sessions and is better placed to write about them but I had some more extended playtime with the games on the show-floor. I'll write up on what I played and then I'll go through what I did on the Saturday, when the rest of the guys weren't there (basically, I'll do a writeup of the developer session by Valve's Chet Faliszek).
First on my list of things to try was the God Of War 3 demo. Now this is apparently the same demo and build that was previously shown at E3, but you wouldn't know it considering the lovely, lovely graphics and consistently solid framerates. It was one of those occasions like the first time I booted up WipeOut HD that made me wonder why multiplatform games always seem to turn out worse on the PS3 when it's capable of what I saw.
Regardless, playing it I immediately eased into the same combos, strategies and patterns that ultimately availed me in the first two games; they certainly haven't removed anything from the game but what they have shown isn't really dissimilar from what we've already seen before; other than the single new weapon they've revealed so far (the Cestus Gauntlets, also available in the demo) nothing really seems to have changed; one way or the other this is only going to reinforce any perceptions of the series you already had. The gameplay addition I saw was a short flying section that remined me a lot of the old Death-Star trench runs in Rogue Squadron, only without the instant death from hitting an obstacle. Your speed remains static at "Fast" and you have to maneuver Kratos to avoid the beams, fireballs, whatever in his way. I don't think that's something they'll be able to use frequently though as I have a feeling it would get boring very fast if they did. The demo also didn't really have any puzzle-solving; given that they tried to get something of a balance in the first two games (especially given David Jaffe's recent comments that in retrospect he'd have shifted the balance in favour of the puzzles) it makes me wonder if they've changed the emphasis even further to the action. At that point I'd then have to worry about the pacing of the game.
What has changed, then? The number of enemies onscreen, for one. I frequently saw what looked like about 20-30 enemies onscreen (again with no slowdown) and it really adds to the spectacle. They've also upped the gore. Considerably. It's funny, as I've had to re-evaluate my tolerance for gore twice in the last week; first with L4D2 and now this. I'm personally ok with this (it's going to be an 18 though, regardless) but I can see that even some gamers might get a little squeamish. At the point you tear Helios's head off and you see the skin stretch and snap around his neck, you start to go "OK, we've officially reached the point of silliness now." This is after you disembowel a Centaur, after you smash a civilian's head into a wall before throwing him off a cliff, and after you snap a Chimera's horn off and ram it into his brain (after first slicing off the snake-head tail and repeatedly stabbing the second head before ripping it apart). Yummy strawberry sauce for everyone. These things really empower the player, but I'm not sure the game will have much staying power after completion; the "Ohshitthatwasawesome" moments will come thick and fast but I somehow doubt that those will have the same impact on subsequent playthroughs. Couple that with the comparitive lack of depth to the combat that some of its contemporaries bring to the table and we're potentially looking at a very short lifespan.
Ultimately I'm positive about God of War 3; realistically the first two games were successful enough that they've seen fit not to mess with the formula too much, and I had a great time with the demo. The changes they've made are about adding to the spectacle; arguably that's what the series has always done best, (rather than the technical depth that you see in Ninja Gaiden and Devil May Cry, for instance) so fair props to them for that.
With EA pushing Dante's Inferno round the corner it will be interesting to see who can outdo the other though; if EA manage to best Sony in terms of controversial content and the "oh wow" moments, then Kratos may find himself upstaged and obsolete.
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