I finished God of War III a couple of days ago and I have been trying to come to grips with the game. In many ways, it is the best in the series and in others it is the tiniest bit of a letdown.

If you were expecting a revolution in terms of gameplay you’ll be disappointed. You still don’t have control of the camera, you’ll still be doing quick time events, and you’ll still be abusing the Square, Square, Triangle combo.

Even with all that God of War III stands tall as an amazing game and a climactic conclusion to Kratos’ tale of revenge.

If there is one thing that distinguishes the GOW games, it is the sense of scale. Enemies that would be the final boss in most games are mini-bosses in GOW. Take the opening level of God of War II for example. You are doing battle with the Colossus of Rhodes. Think you versus an animated (and pissed off) Statue of Liberty to appreciate the scale of this battle.

God of War III takes these fights to almost ludicrous proportions. You are often fighting 30+ enemies on the back of a Titan that is scaling a mountain. You are fully in control, battling away during the kind of moments that other games relegate to cut-scenes. These awesome battle dwarf everything else on the market. The game is worth playing if only to witness the first unbelievable boss fight.

If you are an HDTV Guy, you need this game. This is the kind of game you throw in to show off your crazy awesome home theater. There is nothing else out there that can come close to the spectacle GOW III unleashes on your eyes. The game is just unbelievably gorgeous. The Kratos character model is particularly impressive. You can see the scars from his battles. GOW III and Uncharted 2 are neck-in-neck when it comes to the best looking games on the PS3.

However, the game is not without its flaws. The double jump-glide move is almost completely broken. I cannot tell you the number of times that I plummeted to my death when the controls failed me on a jump. I found ways around it, but it was a major annoyance. I did not have this problem at all in the other games. It might seem like a small gripe, but you do a lot of jumping and when it is broken it is annoying. It seems strange that the jumping is so broken, because the rest of the game is so polished.

I was also let down by the story. Without giving anything away. The story wasn’t bad, just more convoluted than it needed to be. Your ultimate objective is completely clear, but your methods of accomplishing it are confusing. Part of the problem is the backtracking. You’ll see a few of the same areas several times. Also, there is a point in the story where Kratos goes from “I don’t care about anything but revenge” to out of nowhere, “I care.” It felt out of place with everything that had come before and didn’t feel natural at all.

Getting back to the good stuff; The combat is even more brutal than ever. You’ll be ripping people in half and snapping necks right out of the gate. If you thought Kratos was a bad man before, just wait until you see the way he finishes off some of his enemies. These cringe inducing moments are on the verge of being too much. Remember that scene in GOW II where he repeatedly slammed the door on the guys head? There are at least five of those kind of moments in GOW III, where the violence is taken to the next level.

The controls are just as fluid as ever. A rookie can pick up the controller and just by mashing on the buttons will pull off amazing moves. A savvy veteran will string these amazing moves together with strategic dodging and parrying to create a flowing dance of death. You can get through the game on easy, tearing through your enemies and feeling like the baddest dude around, or you can study up and take on the harder difficulties where you have to dodge and use your blocks.

The maximum number of onscreen enemies has been increased from 15 to 50, which is even more impressive when you look up from the 50 guys you’re busy eviscerating and realize that your are riding on the back of a titan.

For me though, the best addition to the combat is the weapons. In previous entries in the series, every weapon besides the chains sucked. In GOW3 the other weapons that you acquire are not only useful, they are actually fun and you can switch between them on the fly. For the first time I found myself relying on weapons other than the one you start out with.

Unlike other games in the series, magic is now tied to which weapon you are using. So the Claws of Hades give you a different attack than the Nemesis Whip. Figuring out how to best take advantage of each weapons strengths and corresponding magic is vital to success.

You can also use items for the first time in the series. Their use is governed by a bar that automatically refills. For the most part the items are really only useful in predetermined sections, but I did end up using the bow a lot. Having a ranged attack that could keep a combo multiplier going came in handy on more than one occasion.

All in all it was a grand finale to one of the best series in gaming. God of War III flirts with perfection, but falls just short with a failed double-jump. However, if you own a PS3 I highly recommend giving this one a whirl.

Tags: 3D, 3D action game, God of War, God of War III, gow, greek mythology, ps3, sony, titans

This entry was posted on Friday, April 9th, 2010 at 1:00 pm and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.