Pre-E3 06: God of War II gameplay impressions

So, it's around the left side of the temple we go, and gory battle comes with us. There's a cyclops which is quickly mounted by a smaller enemy, who uses twin axes to climb onto the cyclops' back. This is evidence of enemies' new awareness not only of Kratos, but of other enemies who can help them fight him. It doesn't help this guy, though. Kratos quickly hooks the cyclops with his chain swords, slams it to the ground, tears the little guy from its back, spearing him and spinning him 'round, then used his chain swords to climb up the cyclops and rip its eye out with his bare hands in a quick time event, another scene from the trailer.

The path then winds around and Kratos finds himself on the raised platform he saw before. It tilts slightly when he runs from one side to another. Hmmm. Could it be tipped into the lake? There's a heavy weight blocking a doorway that leads off the platform. Kratos drags it out and discovers the tilting is increased. Good sign.

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Moving through the doorway, Kratos mows down some harpies with a new form of magic - energy arrows - and uses his chain swords to swing from one stalactite to the next, like Tarzan with a vine. After pushing over some stone columns and breaking up some skeletal archers, he reaches a river and sees a man on the other side beset by monsters. He crosses the river by means of several floating, circular platforms, each with a crank in the center. As long as Kratos turns the crank, the platforms move upstream into place, but when he stops - which happens often thanks to the enemies that keep jumping onto them - the platforms float downstream. A new magic spell, which seems to be a shotgun blast of ice, helps knock the baddies back. It doesn't help you against a huge, lava minotaur, but Kratos carves it open in a quick time event anyway.

Finally sliding down a sheer wall to your destination, the man, now near death, explains that the golden fleece is what Kratos needs to get through the medusa door. You see a second doorway blocked by a heavy weight and push through it. The weight falls onto a platform on the other side and you see - you guessed it - that it has landed on the same rickety platform you were on before. Now, Kratos kicks both weights to the far edge of the platform, grabs its edge, and heaves with the might of the most pissed-off man in the universe. The platform finally topples, landing in the lake and giving you a clear path to the item in the other side - the golden fleece.