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God of War III: An in-depth look at the Hades boss battle

• By Patrick Shaw
• September 03, 2009 10:51 AM PST
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BEHIND THE SCREENS: Patrick scrutinizes the latest batch of God of War III screens to uncover new details about the game.

No one here at GamePro is more excited about the next game in Sony's blood-drenched God of War series, God of War III, than me. For me, Kratos is bigger than Mario, Master Chief, and Solid Snake put together and every time a new trailer or batch of screens is released for the game my belly grumbles for the savagery that's coming March 2010.

That's why I've dissected the latest batch of high-res God of War III screens to see what secrets we can uncover about the game.

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Exhibit A: Kratos Stares Down Hades

1. Kratos vs. Hades. He's been shown kicking Titan ass in God of War II and been featured as a statue in God of War: Chains of Olympus, but now it's official: in God of War III, Kratos will finally exchange blows with Hades, who looks like a hulking gladiator from Hell.

Hades' mammoth cranium, which looks like a blazing antique iron furnace, is so goddamn big you could probably fit ten of Kratos' heads inside of it. Seriously, just look at his Mount Rushmore-sized dome compared to Kratos' in the closeup above and tell us he couldn't bite his head off with ease.

2. A wall of charred corpses surrounds Hades, which is fittingly morbid decor for the god of the underworld's home... which is essentially the Greek version of Hell. You can tell by looking at the blackened carcasses piled on top of each other that these soldiers died in extreme agony as they appear frozen in the position they died in. But who knows, maybe they'll writhe in pain as you fight Hades like smashed road kill that can't quite stop twitching.

3. Like the tusks of an elephant, hooks are Hades' weapon of choice, which he brandishes in God of War II's cinematics. During one cutscene in GoWII, he sinks his dual-pronged oversized fishhooks into a Titan and pulls his enemy towards him, just like Scorpion's trademark "Get Over Here" spear move from Mortal Kombat. You can be sure he'll use a similar tactic in GoWIII.

While Hade's hooks themselves appear to be relatively unchanged since his brief appearances in the God of War series, the purplish energy glowing around them are entirely new. What is this mysterious energy?

4. The Blades of Athena have been pimped out since the last time we saw them. Similar designs were engraved on Kratos' jagged-edged swords in the previous games, but due to the lower graphical detail featured in the PS2 and PSP God of War titles, you couldn't really see it.

Exhibit B: Arrows vs. Hooks

1. Is that Olympus in the background? It's hard to say for sure, but the damaged stone pillars pointed out in the image above look a lot like the ruins of Olympus Kratos stands on top of in the debut God of War III teaser trailer. This also supports the argument that Hades will be fought at the beginning of the game.

2. Kratos' new bow and arrow weapon functions similarly to his Typhon's Bane from God of War II, but with some key changes. For one, it now spews flaming arrows that can set lower level enemies on fire. The thing looks friggin huge too, measuring out at least as long as Kratos' wingspan.

Hades is one huge mother, but we've all seen Kratos topple much larger adversaries. I just can't wait to actually get the chance to face this fearsome aggressor, who's one of the coolest looking enemies in the God of War series.

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