God of War III: Visually Appealing

By now, you’ve either heard too much about God of War III for the PlayStation 3 or perhaps for Olympian reasons you haven’t gotten your hands on a copy of it. If you’re among the latter, then let me unaffectedly say that you are missing out. What would be sagaciously sad is if you continued denying yourself access to one of the best trilogies between two generations of consoles in the history of gaming.  You know a series is good when people make statements like, “the second God of War was The Empire Strikes back of the series”.  God of War III is by no means a perfect game but it comes so damn close that it’s a crime not to give it the time of day.

The boys and girls at Santa Monica studio wanted so strongly to make the statement that this game defines everything about the current generation of gaming that you can’t help but think, and feel, that perhaps they achieved that goal; at least on the visual front. Given all the epic moments that this game rightly bashes into your head, you wonder if it’s just fan service – a sort of “Graphic Whore’s Delight.”  If anything, God of War III is a visual masterpiece and we can go on and on about bump maps, layered lighting and other 3D graphic talk till we are black and blue.  It simply amounts to a fabulous looking game.   There isn’t a soul out there that might vindicate on its visual fidelity. 

Everything about this game screams scale. The visual pinache of the game suffers only because you don’t have the chance to revere in all of it.  The series never gave you full control of the in-game camera to begin with and throughout each game there have always been moments, or locals, that I wished I could admire. The developers say that it’s because the “game is heavily scripted” that they always left this feature out.  Character models took a liking to the PS3 hardware on all fronts.  The share size and detail of the Titans that you interplay with is astonishing, it cadges you to re-consider the concept of “thinking big” and in some cases brings back that feeling of the big boss battles that games from previous generations used so often.

Visual witchery can only last for so long though because “half of the time you’re listening to the music.”  Expect the same type of classical score to grace your speakers with varied types from the first and second game. There are times when it seems like the soundtrack is timed just right to fit your actions; especially during standard Quick Time Events. The soundtrack gives the game that epic feel even though the game itself would be rightly so in its’ privation.  Gerard Marino, a returning composer from the first two games, is helped by Jeff Rona, Ron Fish, Cris Velasco, and Mike Reagan.  Each had a major part in the previous game so it made sense to just go all out.  I love the updated piece, Rage of Sparta, because kicks your sub woofer hard.  End point – play it as loud as you can and adding the Original Soundtrack (from the series if you can afford it) is well worth it.

The music isn’t the only cozy thing in the game.  Though magic is implemented a little differently in this installment (magic is directly tied to your main and sub-weapons), the combo system, leveling up and other familiar game play mechanics which stay true to the series. Veterans will be right at home but new comers will also find the mechanics unpretentious - it was never broken, or hard to master to begin with.  What is different is the effectiveness of older fan boy combos.  In the past, you could easily spam “square-square-triangle” combo to deal with the roster – not here.  This time, you will be forced to use your most of your weapons and in some cases use specific combos, with specific weapons against specific enemies and bosses.  Though the fight/chase against Hermes (the worst boss battle ever in a God of War game ever), you will not use any weapons against him.  The combo system makes more sense this time around and you will be punished for simply mashing buttons.  This becomes more palpable on Titan and Chaos mode.  Mastering Kratos’s moves and abilities will go a long way towards clearing the senior difficulty settings and the Challenge of Olympus mode.

This brings us into the issue of replayability.  Clearing the game opens up the The Challenge of Olympus and clearing that will open up the Arena mode.  The arena mode, though interesting, seems a little curbed.  In this mode, you will get the chance to customize the challenges you face in the arena. The arena is a lot like the challenge mode but you dictate how many enemies you fight and at what difficulty.  You can also set your current level of experience, giving Kratos more, or less, strength against the roster.  You can throw three of  one enemy at a time in your direction, and a total of at least 5 different enemies.  It can get quite feverish.  You can also define if  they re-spawn perpetually or not.  Once all enemies are cleared you can restart your current settings manually via the menu system. This should have been defined to occur automatically because going back in the menu to turn off your current settings seems like a tribulation.  

Arena mode is a reasonable addition to the game and in the least you can use this mode to explore what the higher difficulties.  You will not have access to all enemies though (or bosses) but at that point that’s just a “nice to have.”  Playing through God of War III multiple times is not a requirement but doing so will give you access to additional outfits and more trophies.  During your second playthrough, the whole “this game is really scripted” issue kind of gets in the way of skipping cut scenes because you will not be able to.  You will also have to the chance to use the Godly Posessions that you may have come across in your first play through.  These give you added strength and abilities over your foes but for long time players of the series you won’t need them.  One item also gives you access to the Blades of Athena from the second game which allows you to use the God of War II combo system. 

The first game was amazing. The second one was even better. This game, the reason why so many gamers may have picked up a PS3 in the first place, was damn good. Visually appealing, the fashionable use of the camera is akin to something out of The Matrix.  The slightly remodled fighting system and other things like the enriched sound quality and character design browbeat the game into graphical acclaim.

There is no new element here that vacillate the mechanic of God of War other than making the combo system slightly deeper than it’s predecessors.  There are still vast environments to traverse, a few puzzles layed out here and there that will be easy to solve but the overall length of the game may have been over-stated.  Nevertheless the game has always been linear (like most hack and slash, or beat’em up type games) even though you get to revisit earlier areas in the game several times.  We were originally told that the game would take 14 plus hours to clear God of War III but gamers were soon reporting that it was do-able in eight hours.  I think this has a lot to do with the whole “I can’t stop playing”-Syndrome.  There are some boss battles that you may have a hard time clearing on the higher difficulties, like the undead cerebus and the scorpion boss, but long time fans will take these challenges on easily.  The puzzles barely get in your way.  To me, their main purpose was to help slow down the pace around all the overloading that the game dishes out at you.

If you hadn’t played the first two (or four games), you would be missing out on the larger view of things because the story itself, in God of War III, is very simplistic compared to the previous tales on the PS2, PSP, and mobile devices.  Here, Kratos has one end game – kill all the Gods on Olympus and anyone/anything that gets in his way. So if you’re expecting something deep and profound, you are looking in the wrong place.  Yet the journey of Kratos seemed to have been pegged for absolute end.  After completing the game  I did not believe that his desire to rid himself of the pain he felt was somewhat un-resolved.  I did not get the impression that he experienced that much needed closure on the issue of the death of his family by his own hands – tricked by Ares or not. Perhaps this has to do with the fact that you barely interact with them in the first place.  It wouldn’t have been impossible – Kratos had visited his dead wife and daughter several times before in the realm of Hades.

The loss of his family is/was the ultimate catalyst for his revenge.   Instead of following up on that and helping Kratos come to full terms with his wife and daughter, they threw in a replacement for them, Pandora.  While the story of Pandora fits in with the mythos of God of War it would have made more sense if  they had closed the arc on those that actually meant something to him in the first place.  Since this is barely touched, the whole ordeal with Pandora seems fleeting (especially for gamers who didn’t bother with the PSP or the mobile games).  

God of War III pushes the game visually to Olympian heights on the PS3.  It takes a simple battle mechanic and deepens it enough to make it more interesting. Though you can argue that perhaps it is not as enticing has the second game, you can’t deny that the level of effort put into this game is staggering.  Perhaps some of the modes could have been made even better and perhaps they could have focused a little more on the issues of Kratos’s family.  The death of Hades, the Titans, and the other Gods at the hands of Kratos were done for the two people that meant the most in the life, after-life, re-birth, and death(?).  Humanizing Pandora was cute but it did not deal with the issue at hand nor was it trully centered around the fuel for Kratos’ hatred towards his father, Zeus, and his desire for redemption and indemnity from Lysandra (wife) and Calliope (daughter).  Yet, even with all that missing, the game is entertaining and fun to play.

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God of War III was developed by SCE’s Santa Monica Studio and published by SCEA exclusively for the Playstation 3 on March 16, 2010.

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• December 21, 2009 -- God of War Collection Review: Revisiting Old Times
• September 1, 2009 -- Kratos Gets A Hi-Def Makeover
• March 15, 2010 -- God Of War III Midnight Release – Bronx, NY
• April 16, 2009 -- Only YOU Can Help Decide What Will Come With the God of War 3 CE!
• June 25, 2010 -- Blowing Stuff Up – GG Invades Jimmy’s Show