Must be some kind of contract that says Kratos has to stare menacingly into your face on every title screen, just to remind you how ANGRY he is.

I hit the start button and was IMMEDIATELY plunged headfirst into the action with nary a loading screen.

Awesome.

Don't ask me the plot, I have no idea. Kratos is angry. A hoard of Persians on a religious campaign are plotting to "cleanse" the city, the gods don't like it, Kratos is sent to deliver this message in the only way he can. However, there is a rather large monster roaming around the city. Hmm.

On a technical level, it's incredible, running at a fairly smooth 60 frames (it's really hard to tell since the PSP's refresh rate is so rubbish) with all sorts of effects and madness going on in the background. Case in point: As soon as the demo begins, you're fighting about 6 people at once while a massive sea battle (heh) rages on in the background. All of this is done with nary a hitch in the framerate. It really LOOKS like God of War, which is the best compliment I can give it because the PS2 game looked so superb.



Being too lazy to either reach over and grab my headphones OR plug it into my reciever, I cannot however, comment on the game's score in detail. If it's any consolation, it sounds quite epic even through the tinny, bassless speakers on the PSP.

Control is buttery smooth, and being used to the PS2 controls, I adjusted rather quickly. Anyone wondering about the scheme since there are quite a few buttons missing, it's really no different, most of the actions like opening doors has been mapped to the circle button, using magic is as simple as holding R and pressing one of the face buttons, and as for the largest concern, due to the lack of a right analog, rolling is now done by holding L+R and moving the nub. It's something that sounds awkward on paper, but becomes entirely second nature within minutes.

The demo is fairly lengthy (it took me about 25 minutes to finish), throwing you straight into the madness and hardly letting up. You traverse rooftops, the insides of buildings, fight several bosses, solve a puzzle here and there, and it ends with you wanting so much more. For some reason though, even though all this is great, and it's even all the more impressive that it's running on the PSP, I have a small concern.

It's very GoW esque, of that there is no question, but that in itself may be a problem. The game has a formula that works-- massive environments, impeccable art design, organic puzzling, exciting setpiece after setpiece, but as the third game in the series, it seems like starting off on such a high note with the first has trapped the designers into a very strict formula to follow. As much as I enjoy it all, don't get me wrong, it's starting to feel very by the numbers. It also doesn't help that Kratos' movelist has barely changed these past 3 years. Whether it's the small screen or just me being used to it all, even Kratos' barbaric nature during the fights and QTEs doesn't really surprise me anymore. While I was thoroughly entertained, it just doesn't really "wow" me any more. It makes me wonder if they've run out of steam.

Don't take this as me bashing the game though, I did enjoy it, the above was just a small concern of mine, and this is just the demo, so the actual game still has the potential to blow everyone (including me) out of their seats.

In fact, I'm going to play through it again right now.

While continuing to stare at and admire my personalized demo casing.

Here's hoping..