HELLS BELLS!!!!!!!!!!
The premise of the game, i admit, is ambitious, especially in that Hell has such personal visions to each individual in the world.... Luckilly, being a firm atheist of 12 years i don't mind if it doesn'e suit everybody else's visions.
The opening scenes, although beutifully crafted feel a bit hurried and you can kind of tell that the developers had spent some months/years constructing the later levels, only to have the producers turn round and say, 'nice one, but how the **** do the players get into lust?' To which the dev's would have **** pants and decided to rattle out an opening fight scene which, in fairness... is pointless.
Once you enter Hades, the game picks up and the jumps between gameplay, CGI and animation at key locations are inspired. The emphasis in this game has definately swayed toward atmosphere and there's plenty of it to go about. Gamplay: EXACTLY the same as GOW, the button bashing causes wrist ache within an hour or so, though it pulls off the intensity fantastically keeping those wanking muscles workin overtime.... The boss fights i have encountered are fairly easy, even on the hard difficulty, though a couple of them i have had to replay a couple of times.
Major gameplay drawback in the hard difficulty is having spent 15 minutes getting to the verge of defeating 20 opponents you have to fight them all again if you die, no respawn... Though yes i agree this adds to the challenge.
Jumping, climbing, absailing/absending, button prompts in big fights, oh and double jumping all present and correct.
Graphics: No denying they're pretty **** hot. Though in some areas it does feel a bit rushed with a plain black background and the target object being the only visible, and worth looking at, object, but it's great where it matters most. Stunning in HD and a glimpse of some Killzone 2 style lighting which is a blessing.
Longevity: I'd have to say, that although it would be a replayable game, it feels very much like a once over hero..... The initial impact is the beuty first time round, some truly awesome feats of perspetive; a la GOW.... Though this is, i feel, the whole beuty of this genre, it's all about impact and experiences you wouldn't get in other genres.
Overall: Perhaps, and i mean this, this could in the future be a contender to GOW crown, though you feel it needs to do something just slightly, not much, but something, sightly different from GOW. They NAILED the basic principle of the genre, but it's sadly 3 games (ok 4 including psp) behind GOW and seemed to be doing whats already been done, more than once.... That said, there are really very few faults with this game as it stands, it is very very good and very very harmfull to your wrist. And the setting, wow, who would have thought that so many people would be not wanting to sleep, eat, drink, make love, feed the cammels, due to wanting to spend as much time as possible in Hell. Come on I Know i'm not the only one!!!!!!!!