There is literally only one word to describe this (supposedly) final installment in the God of War series: EPIC! God of War III (developed by Sony Santa Monica and published by Sony Computer Entertainment) is another solid title in the franchise and certainly lives up to the hype surrounding it. I had a brutally good time hacking and slashing my way through the content and, in the end, I think I was more impressed by this game than I have been by any other action title in my long years of gaming.
God of War III (GoW3) picks up right where GoW2 left off; on Gaia’s back as she, and the other titans, climb Mount Olympus in a full-on assault. At this point in the trilogy, Kratos is hell-bent (if I can mix my religions) on destroying Olympus and killing the gods – especially Zeus. It doesn’t take long, however, for events to turn in such a way as to leave Kratos in the mood to just kill everything in his path, god and titan alike. But before he can fully realize his bloody desire for vengeance, Zeus casts him down from Mount Olympus, where he finally lands in the River Styx in Hades – again. The souls in the river strip Kratos of his power and ruin his Blades of Athena, leaving him near powerless as he begins his quest back to Mount Olympus and his vengeance against the gods.
The gameplay and mechanics are exactly what we have come to expect from the GoW franchise, plus a couple of innovations to keep things fresh. One new twist is that each new weapon Kratos acquires has its own magic attack. I probably didn’t take as much advantage of this feature as I could have or should have, but it was both nifty and fun whenever I did. Another new feature was that the auxiliary weapons that Kratos got during the game didn’t usse mana. This time around, Kratos’ secondary weapons used a self-replenishing energy meter. One innovation that was more annoying than anything else was that the button indicators for the quicktime events were moved to the far outside edge of the screen. This placement kept pulling my eyes away from the action in the middle (and we all know that a lot of time and effort go into coding those sequences) to chase down which button I was supposed to mash next. Honestly, I would have preferred them to be closer the center of the screen.
The sound and video were absolutely awe inspiring. I’ve never been bothered that I have an older TV set until I played GoW3. It was then that my paltry 47 inches of 1080i brought me shame. I wanted to see Kratos on a 52 inch Sony Bravia so badly I think a small part of me wilted inside. The visuals are just amazing. The set pieces are enormous. The voice acting is top-notch. One magical day, after I get that new TV (or steal Brett’s), I want to replay GoW3 and drool at how good it looks and sounds.
So, in the end, I would have to give God of War III a stellar 10 out of 10 (or, if I’m being really picky, a 97 out of 100). There were two weak points in the narrative that I noticed (the Hermes fight and the way Kratos tosses Hera aside) that really bothered me, but neither of those events took very long to play through, nor to shunt them off to the back of the mind. The rest of the game was truly amazing. If you haven’t played God of War III, go get it. Now. Buy it, rent it, borrow it from a friend for an undisclosed future favor, but, by all means, play it! And let’s hope Sony finds a way to continue the franchise that maintains the extreme coolness that Kratos has embodied since God of War I.
