It’s here. Finally here. I’ve been waiting for God of War 3 since they announced it back when the Playstatioin 3 was launched. From teaser art pieces all the way to the E3 demos and trailers; I knew this game was going to be epic.
I needed my fix of Kratos.
As Epic as it Gets
To sum up, God of War 3 is a video gaming masterpiece and pure adrenaline to play. It continues the tradition of the original series in its delivery of fluid game play. The visual spectacles and grand scale of it all just completely immerses you. If you have never played one of the God of War games yet, I highly suggest it.
The background story is that you control Kratos, a spartan warrior, who has made a deal with the Gods to have omnipotent power. The setting is in ancient times of Greek mythology with characters like Zeus, Poseidon, Athena, Pandora, Hercules, etc. The environment is detailed and graphically stunning as each game scene can be considered high quality desktop background.
In terms of scale and how ambitious the game is, the excitement starts right at the beginning. The pace is say full throttle the entire way I would say. Each level as the story progresses is like an entire game where you face a grand boss fight one after another. There is some platforming and puzzles involved, but I would say the focus on God of War 3 has been to replicate all the excitement you experienced in the previous two games and holding that excitement level all the way through. Good job, Team Santa Monica!
The Goods
- Intense battles with fluid game play mechanics expected from the God of War series.
- Diverse weaponry from the diverse Blades of Exile to three new weapons, Hercules Cestus, Claws of Hades and the Nemesis Whip. You are able to upgrade each weapon to unlock new combos and more damage. There is also ability to swap weapons on the fly to get some intense combos during combat.
- Boss fights are insane. Not the difficulty on Normal mode but it does take awhile to get their patter down. It is the delivery of these Boss fights that make it memorable because at times, these Boss fights are the level itself.
- Graphics and audio totally grabs you into the game especially if you play in 1080p HD. Minor slowdown during movie scene transition but its negligible.
- Unlockables keeps you wanting to repeat the game and adds to the replay value. From trophies for bragging rights to the Challenge of Olympus. There are also video documentaries on the game creation. Good bonus content.
The Bads
Can’t really pick on too many wrongs with the game except for a few items.
- There will be several instances when you use the Wings of Icarus to fly and the level becomes like a mini game where you control Kratos through a tunnel in a superman viewpoint. You have to dodge falling rocks or fly through small holes. I found these levels frustrating because you are not able to attack or defend but rely only on dodging. This is fine but when you get hit, you set yourself to take multiple hit damages. You die rather quickly if you aren’t able to navigate through.
- Camera angles cannot be controlled so there are instances where you are extremely far from the action or at angle where you do not know there is a gaping hole awaiting for you to fall and die.
- Game setting is mostly darker than what I’d like; so you might need to turn up the brightness a bit because it makes navigating through the platform levels more easier. Combine that with the camera angles mentioned above; its an issue for me.
- The game should have ran 1080p natively without toggling settings in the PS3. Sony needs to fix the upscale issue because it is a hassle to de-select 720p and 1080i to force upscale for games and then reselect them when I pop in a game that does not support 1080p. Its both game developers and Sony’s job to fix this.
Overall, this game is bad ass! Yes, some may say it is too gruesome and the treatment of women in the game is a bit over extreme. But its a fun game to play and great experience. The story wraps up at the end but I just get the feeling we might see Kratos again, perhaps, a prequel?
Kratos as a spartan without the power of the gods but still kicking ass on mortals. What a concept.