If you haven’t heard of God of War, you’ve either been living on that weird island in Lost since the inception of the franchise, or you don’t have ears. If the latter, I’m sorry; it was a stupid joke.

Regardless, God of War III demands your immediate attention. I recently landed a pre-order code for the E3 2009 demo and played through it a few times. I’m delighted to report that from the looks of it, the game will likely live up to its fantastic predecessors.

If you’ve seen a video of the E3 demo in action, you’ll know it opens with half of Kratos’ scowling face glaring into your home, waiting impatiently for you to press X. Upon your submission, he wastes little time in shredding zombie-skeleton soldiers into meaty bits. Anyone familiar with God of War’s combat system will be at home here. Attacks are nearly 1:1 from God of War II and I was instantly able to pull off massive combos and fling enemies around in the air.

I was pleased to note that player-environment interactions no longer rely on jamming the R1 button repeatedly to simply open a door or chest; just a single button press will suffice. The game seems insistent on focusing on the combat and setpieces rather than waste time making the player perform menial tasks.

While passing through a dimly-lit cave, I happened to notice a cool new lighting effect on Kratos’ model. Adorning his deadly Blades of Athena is a glowing red aura that is only visible while the character moves through dark areas, à la Splinter Cell’s Sam Fisher and his iconic night-vision goggles. Your preferred method of travel in these caves is the use of flying harpies. By ‘use’, I mean ‘complete and utter exploitation and mutilation.’ An arrow from Kratos’ trusty bow will get their attention, but to ride the harpies to another platform one should repeatedly stab them into moving in the right direction, finally ripping them to shreds when the deed is done.

After a brief cutscene in which Helios, God of the Sun, harasses the colossal titan Perses, Kratos enters a large balcony christened with the series’ iconic omega logo. A large fight involving a centaur and several dozen zombie soldiers ensues, reaching its finale with the introduction of God of War’s signature quick-time-events. When all is said and done, Kratos is drenched in blood and the centaur is missing some vital digestive organs.

Not ten seconds after defeating the centaur, Kratos is ambushed by a frightening chimera. I’m not going to lie, this sucker looks vile. Your typical three-phase boss battle follows and Kratos is again victorious, having driven the chimera’s own detached horn into its skull.

Having eliminating the demo’s second boss, a ballista becomes available and is conveniently placed within Helios’ flight pattern. One thing leads to another and Perses takes his revenge, flinging Helios into a mountainside. A few harpy jumps later and you happen upon Helios, cringing behind a phalanx of undead warriors. Utilization of a pair of huge gauntlets called the Cestus will bring an abrupt end to that defense. A cyclops comes to Helios’ aid and proves to be a push-over as well, with his death coming in the form of losing his only eye in a geyser of blood.

Now for Helios: a few more QTE sections and he’s one dead Greek god. Kratos still has use for his decapitated head, however, so he puts it in his fanny pack. The game will apparently use it as a glorified flashlight, helping to identify hidden passages and illuminate dark areas.

The demo wraps up with an intense flight sequence that ends with a nicely transitioned cutscene of the lead character flying forcefully into Perses’ face.

I was quite impressed by the demo, although it didn’t look visually spectacular on say, an Uncharted 2 level. From the rather janky appearance of the animations and the overt familiarity of the combat, I have a feeling  that God of War III is being built on an updated version of the God of War II engine. That’s fine by me, but those looking for innovation over iteration might be disappointed.  God of War III launches March 2010.