Finally cracked this puppy open last night and played single player for a bit. I went through the section from the demo and then got to and beat what I assume is/was the first real "boss" of the game. I wasn't impressed by the lack of clarity about what I had to do at first; died two or three times before I realized the wave of enemies weren't part of the fight. And even then, after I started to deal actual damage, it still didn't feel like I was actually fighting something.
I think the first thing that jumped out at me is the game seems harder than prior entries. When I got to an area where I had to deal with two of the elephant guys, I actually almost died. Now mind you, I wasn't blocking a lot -- mostly dodging -- but I lost sight of Kratos a few times and ended up on the business-end of a bunch of damage.
While I think that the kill moves being more interactive than they used to be is a nice touch, it was a bit jarring at first. I had beaten down one of the 'phants to the point of getting the red aura over them, and then I was completely thrown off when I initiated the kill and found myself standing there for a second. It didn't occur to me that I had to actually *do* something. After all, the smaller enemies earlier on were one press of R1 and Kratos tore 'em apart (or tore their head off).
And you know, I never thought I'd say this, but I actually cringed watching the elephant guy kill. It was funny to me in the trailers -- I think I said "Oh, lobotomized!" -- but seeing and doing it first-hand actually sorta walked the line. I blame the visual fidelity.
"Next gen" should be interesting as far as ratings go with the graphics becoming ever-more realistic.
