This game can be summed up in one single word: Brutal. As easy as it would be to just “phone it in” and leave the review at that, the full scope of why this game is brutal demands an explanation. One that I am more than happy to provide.
God Of War III picks up the story right where GoWII left off. You are Kratos, and you’re riding on the Titan known as Gaia. Gaia and the other Titans are climbing the cliffs of Olympus to mount an attack on the city of the gods and home to Zeus himself. Kratos is out for vengeance, and will let nothing stop him from achieving his goal. Even if that means the destruction of all the Gods and those that serve them. Zeus is, needless to say, pretty pissed at the presumption that Kratos can not only attack his home and his fellow gods, but that he can kill them without consequence. This game is still pretty fresh on everyone’s play list, so I won’t spoil anything. Let’s just say that Kratos and Zeus meet by the end of the game, and there is A LOT of blood.
Speaking of blood, let’s move on to the graphics and overall look and feel of God Of War 3. As I said from the start, this game is brutal. Since we last saw Kratos in GoW2, he has learned a few new moves. For starters. he can now grapple someone from a distance and pull them towards him with the various weapons he acquires. This makes for some fun kills as well as opening up a new mode of transport. Those of you that played the demo know that now, you can grab a Harpy and use it to make your way across pits that would normally be impassable. Along your journey you will also pick up several new weapons. So as not to spoil any of the story, I will leave those out. However, I will say this; they each have their own strengths and weaknesses and will aid you well in your quest to topple Mount Olympus and all that reside therein.
Graphically this game looks absolutely amazing. Facial animations, muscle movements, even body language all comes across with more clarity than ever before. Kratos is pissed-off most of the time, that’s a given, but now you can actually see his mood change as he gets more and more agro. One thing that I was particularly impressed with was the sync between the way the characters talked and how their mouths moved. This is not an easy thing to accomplish and I think Sony Santa Monica has done really quite well. Deaths are also (as morbid as it sounds) fun to watch. Most every enemy that you slay will die in a different way, some of which depend on the manner that you kill them. Most all of which can be described as brutal.
Besides the in-game motion of the characters themselves, one thing that the GoW franchise has always done a fantastic job with is level design. Set pieces from the previous games were memorable just for their scope and attention to detail. God of War 3 is no exception. Most of the locales that you visit in the latest game are simply awe-inspiring. Several times I found myself being pummeled by some enemy because I was to busy watching the animation of a background. In every way that Uncharted 2 was beautiful for its lush environments and levels, God of War 3 is for the gritty disgusting-ness of its settings. Bodies writhe in pain, blood freely flows from everywhere possible, and some of the vistas are truly amazing.
A game of this type, is really only as good as it’s controls. So how does GoW3 control? Very well, indeed. Kratos reacts much faster and smoother than in previous games. Pulling off huge combos is much easier. It is also much easier to dodge or block attacks since you aren’t locked into an animation of attack. See an attack coming in, just smack that right analog stick and get out of the way. Sure it’s still a button masher, but it’s a much more fluid one. GoW3 has its moments of total frustration like any other game of this type, but you never feel like there is no hope. With every failure to defeat an enemy you get a glimpse of what you did wrong, and how to fix it.
Sound design is another great feather in the GoW cap. Every evil being, every location, and every drawn out death scene has its own unique sound to it. The music is just icing on the cake, really. Making your way through all the various tasks Kratos must accomplish, the music seems almost to give you power. As the choir of voices builds to a crescendo you feel like you can actually take on the Gods. The soundtrack never felt out of place, and it never tried to out-do the graphics or the story being told. Everything worked together in (no pun intended) harmony with everything else.
Speaking of pushing you along…another thing that is well-paced in this game is the Trophy system. Sure there are the obligatory “Finished Stage X” style trophies, but that’s not all. You get a great sense of accomplishment by being able to unlock several trophies every hour or so. Some of them, casual players won’t have an issue getting, like the ones for killing certain enemies. There are some that will give completionists a hard time, like getting a 1000 hit combo, (which sadly has eluded me) as well as collecting all the treasures of the gods. Point being, this game rewards you just enough to keep you going through the really tough parts. You never feel like there is a lag in the action, or the story for that matter. You are constantly tasked with either getting someplace or killing something, and are rewarded consistently enough that you will want to keep going to get the next trophy.
Though the game and the story itself does end rather definitively, there is some replay value to be found in God Of War 3. For instance, you can play through the different “Challenges” that the game has for you once the story is completed, though I only got through one or two before I realized that I didn’t have the skills to do any more. You can play through the game on the different difficulty settings, including Titan Mode. Also, they added a section called “Combat Arena” where apparently you can set up your own fights as a sort of “test your strength” kind of thing.
When the dust settled on this roughly 10-hour game, I could honestly say that I was very impressed. I knew the history of the game, so I knew to look for good things in the conclusion of the trilogy, but it far exceeded what I expected. Now, I have freely admitted that I played the games out of order. I didn’t have a PS2 anymore by the time this series started, however I do have the God Of War Collection and have almost completed the first game. Yeah, I guess you could say that I spoiled the story for myself, but it’s worth going back and seeing where it all began to get a better grasp of why it ended up the way it did. I will say this though, should they release the GoW Trilogy here like they did in Europe, I will be all over that one. It is totally worth having GoWIII, and the entire collection for that matter, as part of my ever-growing library.
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