I recently played through the first taste of Sony’s forthcoming, highly-anticipated Olympian brawler.  Like anyone else who’s sucked up the joy of dismembering mythological creatures in the previous God of War installments, I’ve been jacked for this third, next-gen tale of Kratos and his seemingly unquenchable desire to impale bystanders. 

So what would the demo hold?  Is this merely a high-def enhanced version of the formula or has Sony cooked up something totally new for the big PS3 debut?

The short of it: God of War 3, at least judging by the demo, feels like God of War and God of War II.  The visceral combat is familiar, so familiar in fact, if you’ve played the other games, you’ll have no problem pulling off those same combos you’ve been unloading from the get-go. 

The demo starts with Kratos tearing through bad guys in a city under siege, while Helios flies around on his flame chariot blasting out fireballs and one of the Titans–an awesome sight–continues his uphill climb that was teased from the end of the second game.  Along the way you’ll fight three mid-level bosses including a Centaur, a Chimera and a Cyclops.  These are nice, epic fights culminating in the goriest finishing moves I’ve ever seen in the series.

You then take down Helios with a well-placed arrow, proceed to rip his head off, thus unlocking the Helios head skill, which shines a light on secrets in the game world.  Apparently your controller will vibrate when you’re close to a secret, but what about the schmucks like me who just have a sixaxis?

The final leg of the demo is a nifty, cinematic flying sequence, which ends as Kratos is about to throw down with the Titan and then–we’re done.

Overall, this demo was fun and brutal and epic, all the characteristics we’ve come to expect from God of War games.  And as sharp as the graphics were and as pounding as the sound was, I still came away thinking this was essentially more of the same, just a lot prettier.  A few gameplay tweaks likes the Harpy and Cyclops riding  were interesting and Kratos has these huge stone boxer gloves as an alternate weapon that unleash some rightous pain, but it remains to be seen if Sony Santa Monica can really advance the series.

Still, let’s be hoenst,  this formula has been flawless since the first game and Sony will have my money on Day 1.  Judging from the demo, I wouldn’t anticipate any major breakthroughs, though.