Anyone already given it a run through? Just finished it a few minutes ago and it's the gameplay segment from that 30 minute video from IGN. It's err, more God of War I guess -- to a tee. QTEs, square-square-triangle, a giant boss battle, a cyclops which you'll then get to ride and smash all of the lesser enemies with, and so on. They do at least let you equip a side-weapon, in this case a regular sword, which you can use in tandem with your blades with the circle button. But as of what I've played it's just there for you to mash around; hopefully such weapons like haven't been introduced to replace any actual, full-fledged alternate weapons.

It still retains one of the problems I've had with the combat from the beginning, being the disruptive animations for when Kratos gets hit which can completely break the flow of the combat. Plus it was sometimes difficult to see where the Hell I was, like when I'm inside what remains of the prison as it's being palmed by that giant monster thing.

This is also perhaps more down to the fact that it's a demo, but it all sounded a little muted. There is sound, but at times the game didn't strike the same level of impact and gravitas as God of War is known for. In fact for as impressive as it looked, it was all a little underwhelming. If this is the opening gameplay segment of the game, then it's a significant step down from the opening segments for both GoW2 and 3.

The gross and utterly ridiculous gore is still fun, though, like watching that giant hand contort and stretch out as the beetle monster bursts out of it. And again this is a fantastic looking game that mostly runs at a nice framerate, though those occasional framerate drops also can't be seen as completely indicative of the full game itself. I haven't been swayed much in any case; I'm still going to hold off for now and at least see what the reviews will be saying.

Oh, and they also released a launch trailer alongside the demo... Erm, well it currently appears that video embedding is broken so LINKY LINK!

Of course the side weapons won't replace the other weapons you collect. If you pause the game, there's the weapon upgrade slots and about 4-5 empty one's. They wouldn't remove the other weapons. It was more GoW though, which I'm okay with I guess. I have the collectors edition pre-ordered because it's cheap and I want more statues! Although it doesn't start as crazy as GoW 3 does, I still think it was pretty good. It showed Kratos being down & out which is unusual but the direction they're going with the game makes sense. The monster coming out of the hand and the fingers cracking was gross but so awesome. I'm not very excited and the game doesn't look super amazing, but I'm still a bit excited for it.

Pretty sure you could weapon swap on the fly in God of War 3, also unless you're playing the first game on the hardest difficulty you can use any combination of attacks you want; it's your own damn fault if all you do is plume of prometheus.

I wonder how will do in terms of sales and critical reception. I've no interest in the game itself however.

@awesomeusername: They could all just be magic spells. But even still, the more pressing concern would be if they'll finally start introducing more alt weapons that are actually worth a damn. GoW3 at least gave you those lion gauntlets, which were pretty great, but besides that all you got were a couple of different blade weapons... And just like every other GoW game, I mostly just relied on Kratos' default blades for all of the game. I'd like to hope that Ascension will finally offer up a few more diverse alternatives. Given how completely derivative everything about it is, though, I won't hold my breath.

I still have Ghost of Sparta to play if i need a GoW fix. I would have been interested in a prequel with Kratos pre-family massacre. How many prequels can they cram in between that and the first game?

I'm a big fan of 1-3, but not so interested in this. I'll check out the demo, but I'm really just eager to see how it reviews. I'm gonna guess pretty average.

I wasn't that excited for this at all until I played the demo. Yeah it's more GoW but they've made some clear improvements to the combat and the gore is cranked up to a whole new level. I really like the dynamic stage of the demo and hope it that trend continues through out the game. I'm probably gonna wait for reviews because I don't want to get burned if it ends up having a short single player because I don't really care about the multiplayer.

How so? Besides the addition of lesser weapons like those swords you can pick up, it's pretty much the exact same as it's always been. The grabs aren't very different than the grabs you could do in GoW3 and Ghost of Sparta if that's what you're referring to.

i love how you can grab a dude while you pummel his friend and then smack them together

Surprisingly more meh than I expected. Also apparently it's brought to us by the History Channel.

I've had my fill of gow. The three main games were more than enough for me so i really have no interest and probably won't bother to download it but i did try the beta and that was surprisingly fun but not enough to get me to buy it.

I still have yet to download this. Personally, I have sorta grew out of the GoW games after 3 but I still might give this a shot. Can't say the same about the Multiplayer though. I had more fun playing Anarchy Reigns online than the beta.

I'll give it a shot, really loved all the games but figured I'd be a little burned out on them but the previews I've seen recently has me kinda hooked.

The auto targeting airborne enemies, the mobile grappling of enemies allowing you to attack others while still keeping them in control, more than one basic finisher move for enemies, and as you mentioned the lesser weapons. It's not a massive leap but I found it much smoother and dynamic than previous games in the series(mind you it has been a long time since the last time I played a GoW game).

It sure is god of war alright.

(Copy and pasted from previous post)

Just finished the demo and overall agree with you. Now to their credit, I distinctly remember the god of war 3 demo looking worse than the full game. With that said, the game is still pretty gorgeous, despite the somewhat lacking frame rate. Combat is still solid as every god of war game is, the addition of the blade grapple is pretty great though. Also I gotta say the sound effects are really satisfying, especially with The chain blades. Last but certainly not least was the scale and set pieces. Boy was that shit INCREDIBLE! Say what your will about the gameplay, but Santa Monica knows how to making a fucking cinematic experience.Overall it's on my radar but Ill wait for a price drop most liked before I buy it.

I've been interested in the game more than most it seems but I didn't even make it through the entire demo. Maybe I am just burnt out on GoW like many others. It just didn't feel as impressive as God of War 3... something about it. Might just be as simple as been there done that. And it's hard to go from fighting all of the Gods to fighting some weird arm creature. I'll wait and see how the reviews turn out and see from there.

God of War 3 came out 3 years ago, how can you be burnt out on something that old? This isn't a yearly release we're talking about here and the game does change it up and improve upon the old mechanics; it just leaves the core mechanics there to keep it familiar (but there's no reason you can't use a variety of different weapons outside of the first game, in God of War 2 the upgraded hammer hits 5-10 times as hard as the blades do, it even hits harder than the Blade of Olympus); they even left in bow swapping to speed up recovery animations.

Say what you will about it being just another God of War game but damn it sure is pretty! I played through 3 again relatively recently (within the last year I think) and the Ascension demo looked way better than that to me in terms of the graphics. I didn't notice the frame rate issues my first time through, need to give it another shot and pay more attention.

I'm a fan of the series, played them all, but by the time God of War 3 came around I think I'd burnt out on it a bit. Something about that game just didn't do it for me. I figured I'd be passing on this one but now having played the demo I think it might have been long enough that I'm back in. I just hope they've done the campaign justice because I'm not really interested in the multiplayer.

I pressed square, square, triangle so many times. Then the framerate happened... It looks very pretty though.

Bugboobs...AGHHHHHH!!!

Coming off of Metal Gear Rising and DmC the entire thing feels like such a muted and boring experience. I guess if you're in the market for another God of War-ass God of War game then this has you covered in spades but the series is looking a bit long in the tooth. Little to no innovations have been made since GoW 2. If you ask me I don't think this game has any reason to exist but whatever I'm sure some people will enjoy it. If you're one of those people good on ya. I'll stick to Demons and Cyborgs myself.

I felt like this is going to be what god of war III should have been. This demo really impressed me.

i loved the first 3, but i played this demo and it didnt do anything for me.... was bleh. idk. anybody else think so? maybe the game will be better. i hope....

Pretty much where you stand. As far as review then the guys here were never really fans of this series so don't expect praises.