God Of War III Hands-On: Half-Goat, Half-Lion, Half-Snake

Whether Kratos is being coated with Cyclops blood spurting forth from an empty socket or disemboweling a Centaur, players will be regularly reminded that this is an M-rated game. It’s over the top, designed to shock, but still occasionally pretty—yes, those multi-layered blood spatters that splash across Kratos look good.

In other words, it’s still very much the God of War you may remember from the first two PlayStation 2 entries, full of giant set pieces, marathon combos, and Greek deicide. The sometimes complex controls feel well-known, with light attacks, heavy attacks and grabs; Kratos’ arm blades feel just as wispy as ever.

The new Cestus gauntlets, however, feel meaty. They’re effective, but slow, at short and long range. When using L1 for the special attack modifier, Kratos will whip them around in a circle with his light attack, just like the Chaos Blades. His modded heavy attack is more satisfying, firing them out to his left and right, then quickly whipping them forward for a nasty crushing blow.

More satisfying it the battering ram attacks one can pull off, picking up an enemy and barreling through a crowd of rotting Centurions.

The hand-to-hand stuff feels great, if a little disconnected from the feeling that you’re killing dozens of undead soldiers. Some stuff that doesn’t feel so great are the harpy to harpy rides. Asmussen said the God of War III team is still tweaking the harpy-jacking, hopefully for something that’s a little simpler than the L1-plus-circle grab that’s currently in place.