Welcome to Try B4 U Buy where I’ll take a look at significant demos that hit Xbox Live or PSN. This week, I’m looking at God of War 3 for the Playstation 3.

Let me start off by admitting that I’ve never played God of War 2. In fact, I only recently finished God of War 1. Embarrassing I know, but it’s not my fault. By the time the original GoW was released, my PS2 was chilling with my sister in college and I was left with only an Xbox. It was only the PS3’s backwards compatibility that allowed me to go back and catch up on a few of the later generation PS2 games that I missed. (GoW – Yeah!, Shadow of the Colossus – Yeah!, Final Fantasy 12 – Boo!!!)

Alright, so let’s talk GoW3 demo. If you’ve read or watched anything about GoW3 since the initial E3 reveal, then you’ve seen at least some part of this demo. It’s actually the entire E3 demo which is available for some as a 2.6gig download and includes roughly 20–30 minutes of gameplay.

First impressions - Holy crap this game is pretty…and bloody. That would make it pretty bloody, with pretty blood.

I remember watching the live demo at the Sony press conference and thinking to myself “damn that looks sharp and holy crap he just ripped that dude’s head off”. The God of War series has always pushed the envelope if not technically, then at least artistically and GoW3 looks to continue that tradition. The world itself looks almost as if you’ve stepped into the concept art the levels were inspired by. Between the fantastic texture work and the awesome lighting, the artists have finally been able to realize what I’m sure their original vision has been all along. This is a gorgeous game, and it still has 6 months left before it’s released. (Not to mention this demo is already 5 months old.)

As far as gameplay is concerned, it’s God of War. Anyone one who’s played any game in the series before will feel instantly at home. The controls are mapped the same, and the new additions feel like they’ve always been there. What’s new? Well, for one thing, the demo gives you the opportunity to try out a new weapon. If you’ve seen the trailers, you have probably noticed the giant gauntlets Kratos can wield and they are every bit as awesome as you would hope. They feel weighty without being slow, and you feel like a complete badass while you’re knocking dudes around with them. They can even detach at the wrist allow Kratos to swing them around and clear the immediate area around him. Good times were had by all.

The game also let’s you try out a few of Kratos’ new moves. One move gives the ability to pick up an enemy and use him as a shield while you run through groups bowling guys over. It’s as entertaining as it is handy since it allows you a new way of clearing space while inflicting a reasonable amount of damage. Plus, it’s just fun.

Another new move on display is the ability to grab a flying Harpy and use her to gain elevation by jumping from one Harpy to the next. And because this is God of War, you not only grab the Harpy at the ankles, but you’ll be able to stab them while you hang on to “persuade” them to fly a little higher until you can leap to the next. This was fun the first time, but itseemed a bit gimmicky to me. Even in my short time with the demo, it already seemed to wear out its welcome by 2nd appearance. Hopefully, the full game will use the technique sparingly.

Finally, just in case it wasn’t clear...the game is violent. The end finishers in this game (fancy moves to kill a harder than normal enemy) are so incredibly visceral that the level of gore on display will probably surprise some. When the game allows you to gut a Centaur and spill his entrails all over the ground as a warm up, you know you’re in for a wild ride. Not to spoil one of the more memorable moments from the demo, but when you are required to rip the head off of a certain character, the moment the head separates with the skin stretching and then finally tearing, is shown with a disturbing clarity that you’ve probably never seem before. Now whether or not that’s a good thing is up to you.

Overall, the demo does what a demo should; leave you wanting more. The graphics are fantastic, the gameplay is satisfying, and the wait until March now looks just a little longer than it did yesterday. Sign me up.

-Steve

To help out someone, here’s a code to download the demo and give it a go. Once you’ve finished, come back here and let us know what you thought in the comments. I’ll be looking forward to it.

AEGP-N7B9-27Q6

Enjoy.