The One and Done
Member
Some general impressions:
Image quality is exemplary, as it was in GOW3.
The animation really does feel new in a way that GOW3's didn't.
Combat is faster, which was already apparent from watching videos.
Kratos is a little too powerful in the demo; sometimes it's hard to experiment with the combat because everything you do completely demolishes the enemies.
Framerate is a little low for a GOW game, but I'm only worried it will mar their excellent animation, not that it will hurt playability.
Experience orb chests are now smashed instantly, health and magic still take time to open, which makes sense given the original reasoning behind making chests difficult to open in a pinch.
The sound design is notably different; tons of bass when those chains slam on the ground and some new chain swinging SFX, too. A welcome change from GOW3 which for some reason didn't sound that good to me.
New combat features:
An SSX-style real-time combo upgrade system. As you play, you build the rage meter, and it unlocks more powerful combos at the halfway mark. It also imbues your attacks with fire, using the same fire mechanics as Ghost of Sparta, where you can plant time-delayed bombs on enemies. I believe they have said that Kratos will get several elemental magics and we're seeing the fire magic in the demo.
At the full mark it allows for what appears to be an insta-kill blade-grab move. As Meta4 said earlier in the thread, I hope they add something better than that because it's a little anti-climactic.
Grab an enemy with R1 and hit X to disarm them. It looks like they're serious about the World Weapons system and you can acquire weapons almost at-will rather than having to wait to find them in the environment.
Whoa really? I need to try this.