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God of War 3 Review

Posted on 15. Mar, 2010 by Freak_c in Games, News, Reviews

The game that myself along with the whole PS3 community have been waiting for. The conclusion to the epic and brilliant trilogy that is God of War. God of War 1 was ahead of it’s time, God of War 2 blew us away and left us hanging on the huge cliff hanger of Mount Olympus. Now enter God of War 3 can it blast our minds and live up to, and out perform it’s predecessors?

Oh hell YES!!! This game is what all future hack and slash console games are going to be compared to. Yes I am a fan of the franchise, and the two previous games are some of my favourite games of all time. But this one really surpassed my expectations. There were so many times where I shouted out loud phrases of excitement, awe, shock and amazement. In this review I am going to do my best to not give away too many spoilers, which may be hard as this game has some huge spoilers, but if you don’t want spoilers then just jump down to the conclusion before for the final results.

Story
Without giving away too much, the story continues directly from where God of War 2 finished, with you on the back of the Titan Gaia climbing up Mount Olympus with some other titans to destroy Zeus and end his rein. As most of you know Kratos is a pretty pissed off guy and some may even say that he has some serious anger issues, but none the less he is out for revenge and nothing (literally) will stop him. What I can say about the story is that it ties in all the games, even the PSP version, and it references them a bit but brings the story to a great conclusion. Oh and one more thing about the story, it is epic, but you will have to play it yourself to find out.

Gameplay
If you have played a God of War game before then you will feel right at home as the controls have not changed. There are some new additions to the game but you will pick them up very quickly. For first timers, well they will get a feel for the controls very quickly which makes it playable to anyone and their grannies.

Because this is the third game in a trilogy it has to out do the two previous games on almost every aspect, and it does. There have been some welcomed new introductions to the gameplay but not so that it will cause it to be over the top or complicated or feel gimmicky, in fact it still feels so familiar and perfectly responsive. The combat is so responsive allowing you to perform big, massive combos that you’ll always feel completely in control of and that you can break out of at anytime with blocking or dodging. These new introductions come in the form of new weapons, which bring in new combos. But the really great thing that you can swap between the weapons at anytime during battle. This may help and makes that thousand hit combo trophy seem do-able. Your first and main weapons are still your blades of chaos which we all love and will help you through most of the game, but it is not like the previous games where you end up using only the blades constantly to get you through the game. In God of War 3you will find yourself (well I did) only being able to get past certain parts with different weapons, which is a real welcome and give that extra challenge to the game.

Magic is still part of the game, yet it is used in a slightly different way than the previous two. This time there is one type of magic set to a specific weapon, so the blades have one type and the other weapons have their own magic ability. These then get upgraded at the same time as when you upgrade the associated weapon. The other new added game mechanic is the use of Helios Head and Bow that you got a taste of in the E3 2009 Demo. This uses a new yellow stamina bar that regenerates automatically and keep the magic bar separate. Its great and it can be used during combat mid-combo on the fly. Attack, attack, launch an enemy into the air, jump switch to another weapon, smack them a few times and while you fall bring out your bow and cause some damage on another enemy, this is the kind of stuff that you can perform, it’s great.

Yes the quick time, mini games are back and the only difference with them is the prompts that come up during kill moves are now situated at the edges of the screen, allowing you to watch what’s happening and use your peripheral vision to see which button to press rather than have the prompts appear over top of the action. Much better than the previous games, because trust me, you want to see the action.

Graphics and Sound
Let me first talk about the sound of the game as it is the only gripe I have with it. The problem was that it was fairly soft at my usual gaming volume level and yes the in game sound options were set to max. Simple problem that I fixed by lifting the volume which you want will want to do as well. The sound effects for the weapons, the atmosphere, the fights are mind blowing. If you have a decent sound system with some bass make sure to level the volume when Hades speaks, the windows at your neighbors will rattle with awesomeness!

Speaking of mind blowing, sorry I mean mind blasting, the graphics are simply out of the world. People say that graphics don’t make a game, well they sure do help a lot, and when you get to see the God of War 3 you will have to cover your eyes to prevent your eye balls from jumping out of their sockets. God of War 3 has some of the most amazing graphics and in my opinion the best right now on any platform. Santa Monica have put their souls into the making of this game and they sure do know how to show them off. And they have every right to because the graphics are simply breath taking. The environments are mesmerizing and the scale of them is truly insane. When you see the Kratos running next to what you think is a mountain and then the camera pans out and you see that it’s a titans finger your jaw drops.

God of War 3 presents the most impressive visuals that I’ve ever seen in a game. Kratos in particular looks phenomenal, and is the most impressive-looking character ever in videogames, hands down. You will get to see a lot from the impressive camera work. The camera is used in such excellent ways that I think some massive Hollywood directors had there hand in some of the scenes. The really seriously impressive bit about the presentation and the technical brilliance, is that there are no CG cut-scenes in the game. Everything was rendered in the game engine with zero post-production effects added, all of this with zero install on the hard drive and zero load times, is one really impressive feat.

Conclusion
Well the game can be summed up in two words, epic brilliance. From an excellent story, to solid gameplay to the impressive graphics, this is hands down the God of War game that everyone has been waiting for. A perfect way to end the trilogy. Kratos and the God of War universe were meant to be on the PS3 and in glorious HD. You have to play and own this game, this is God of War!

Story – 9 A perfect way to tie up the Kratos universe.
Gameplay – 10 Some welcomed changes but still solid and epic awesomeness.
Graphics – 10 Best looking game on any platform!
Sound – 10 Excellent sound accompanied with brilliant voice acting to carry you through the epic journey.

Overall – 9.9 / 10

Written by Claudio Cecchi (Freak_c)

A HUGE thank you to Ster-Kinekor for supplying the game for review.

For a second take on this epic game check out GameStates review below:

Tags: God of war 3, GOW3, Review