God of War 3 Review

Sony Santa Monica has been hard at work ever since the completion of God of War 2 to make this game end with a bang to an epic trilogy. They once again redefine scale for a console and put you in playable situations you won’t even realize you’re actually able to keep moving. Of course a God of War staple is the gore and the last two games seem like little babies compared to this game.

God of War 3
Developer: Sony Santa Monica
Price: $59.99
Platform: PS3 (reviewed)

God of War 3 pushes gore to the next level with Kratos getting drenched in the blood of enemies you fight, seeing the intestines when you gut an enemy, or ripping the head off a god. Sony Santa Monica have been working tirelessly to bring you this game and their hard work is obvious in everything you see from the incredible scale, graphics, and the combat. This is the end of Kratos’ revenge story and it’s an epic thrill-ride from the moment you start.

The gameplay remains largely uncharged since ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’, but they’ve added a few new things to help make the combat feel much more fluid this time around. This time when a stronger enemy is around all others will act more aggressive and try to pile on top of you or get behind you for some quick hits. This was introduced in God of War 2 but it never really felt like the enemies were obeying a leader. Now you can quickly block,roll, or change weapons with the press of a button during a combo. This a tremendous improvement from the previous games since now you can start a combo and not have to worry about stopping it because you had to roll or go into the menu to change weapons. Probably one of my favorite additions is the ability to press L1+O to quickly latch onto an enemy and pull yourself to them like a battering ram and follow up with a combo. One of the biggest complaints in the last God of War games was that the extra weapons you acquired throughout the adventure were fun the first time you used them but were ultimately useless and people usually went back to the Blades of Chaos/Athena. This time around Santa Monica have fixed this issue and have added 3 new weapons that actually feel as useful, if not more useless, than the Blades of Exile. As you no doubt have seen them already the Nemean Cestus are basically giant boxing gloves that favor close range combat with brutal combos. The Cestus are definitely going to be favorites for a lot of people when they play the game because of it’s high risk/high reward combos. The other 2 weapons are similar to the Blades of Exile but have enough flavor to feel different. The first is the Claws of Hades which deliver quick and sadistic combos that actually feel like you’re hooking your enemies and tossing them around, hell even when you roll you hook the ground the the blades and pull yourself around. The other is the Nemesis Whip which can activate certain machinery, is more suited to aerial combat and you can even juggle enemies by it’s ability to constantly spin in the air and quickly launch more enemies upwards. Sony Santa Monica have also incorporated a new set of support items that have their own self-replenishing stamina meter. These items include the Bow of Apollo that can be used to set enemies of fire that quickly spreads when in groups, the head of Helios that can be used to light dark areas/stun enemies or even discover hidden locations, and the boots of Helios that is a useless dash move and is also used in certain platforming segments.

A new change to the gameplay is the way magic is worked in. This time instead of using the directional buttons to select your magic each magic power is incorporated to a specific weapon. This actually works quite well and is part of the way they streamline the combat by allowing you to instantly know which power you have by knowing what weapon you are currently using. In a way it hasn’t changed since you still have to use the directional buttons to select a specific weapon if you want to use that magic power. Of course you can also hit L1+X during a combo to instantly change to the next weapon without breaking your combo which is a much faster way of doing things. It also looks badass. On a note one thing seems to be hit or miss with certain people and that’s the way they changed the QTE. Instead of having the button you need to press in the middle of the screen they’ve been pulled of to the side to allow you to view the beat down you’re about to give to some poor helpless creature. Personally I consider this an improvement since the game is constantly trying to give a cinematic performance and this is one way they’re doing it.

Speaking of cinematics you still can’t change the camera. This gets rid of problematic cameras that have plagued many games but does it actually help God of War 3? The answer to that is most definitely. The cinematographers have been working their asses off and it shows. The camera is always in the perfect position to allow you to see everything close enough to get the details but far enough to marvel at the environment. Their work truly shines during the titan segments when the camera pans out and Kratos is so tiny the only way you could tell where you are is to slash your blades around. This time around there are no CG cutscenes in the game in favor of having all the scenes done with the in-game engine. This would be a drag if it were any game but God of War 3 since the graphics are so gorgeous I continuously kept wondering how I could be playing something that looked this good. This is definitely going to be labeled as one of the best looking around games right there with Uncharted 2 and Mass Effect 2.

The challenges from the previous two games returns once again as the Challenge of Olympus. Although I found these to be a tad easier than the last two games there’s still a bit of strategy required to complete each of them. Once you complete each challenge you unlock the arena that throws you in a hanging platform and allows you to customize your health, magic, stamina, and difficulty level. You can make this mode as interesting as you want by adding whichever monsters from the game into the arena with up to 5 slots for a monster or even civilians. There are limits to how many creatures you can have per slot(each cyclops only allows 2) and whether they respawn or will even attack. I never get tired of adding 6 cyclops(3 different types using 3 slots with 2 per slot) and putting civilians in the remaining slots. Change the settings so they don’t attack Kratos then sit back and watch as the cyclops massacre everyone else.

The Final Word
God of War 3 is an epic ending to the series with a fluid combat system, incredible scale, some of the most memorable boss fights ever, and graphics to rival Uncharted 2. There’s really nothing more to say about this game other than if you own a Playstation 3 you need to find a way to play this, and if you don’t have a PS3 then find a friend with one and put your best puppy dog eyes to get them to buy God of War 3.

– MonsterVine Rating: 5 out of 5 – Excellent