Guest Review – God Of War 3 (PS3)

I have to admit Freddie has been on fire lately with the reviews. If I were a more cynical man I would start to suspect something but I’m not. I’ve loved his reviews so far and this one is pretty good too! Hopefully it is inspiring people to start doing their own reviews as well. He warns you twice in his review and I’m going to warn you once here – SPOILER ALERT!! If you don’t want to be spoiled stay away until you beat the game. Of course when you do do that, come back here and discuss.

---

***SPOILER ALERT: Some points of discussion in this review do reveal parts of the story and plot. Consider yourself warned. ***

Three years of development and the day arrives… Kratos gets his revenge and chaos reigns. After two days of playing, I’ve reached the end, completed the trilogy, and in some respects feel complete myself as a gamer.

After just reviewing and playing Dante’s Inferno to fill the gap until God of War 3’s arrival, this game only proves one thing… “Fuck with best, die like the rest.”

Making its jump from the Playstation 2 to the Playstation 3 shows in so many aspects and aesthetics of the game.

Graphically, I believe this game has set the mark. The fact that most of this game looks like an ongoing cinematic is fantastic, and makes it ever more enjoyable and beautiful to play. Even the QuickTime moments of battle make for some of the most memorable moments for me being a gamer. When it comes to the ultimate kills, I believe my favorite kills in this game are killing the Cyclops, and killing the Centaur. Hit the button combinations right, and you are in for a treat that makes most Brian DePalma death scenes look like a Disney film.

Also, the amount of things occurring on screen with no lag, as well as the constant adventuring through the bodies of the titans, crawling around on them, and the fact that your world is continually moving while you’re playing is almost mind numbing to imagine what the programmers went through to get this game to feel so epic. This game truly stands as a testament to the quality of Santa Monica Studios products, and I look forward to the other games they begin to develop outside of the world of God of War.

In terms of Gameplay, the controls have been refined to a point that there are moments of battle where I was thinking, “Wow, almost every movement I want to make can be done in order to evade and combat as if I was in the game.” It’s a great feat, and Santa Monica should feel comfort in the fact that there controls, are some of the finest in gaming, and developers creating games, like God of War, should learn not to reinvent the wheel… especially when this wheel continually runs over the competition.

Now some may take it that I am a true lover of this game from the beginning and you’d be right. But the idea that I’m bias in this equation would be wrong to assume. There are things I found in this game to be quite off putting at times, and in no way do I believe this product to be flawless. So, rather than continue on the path of covering everything that’s amazing about this game, let me talk about its faults.

My first problem with the game can be found at the beginning of the game in concerns to jumping. For some reason most jumps in this game need to be made with the double jump followed by using the wings of Daedelus to get across them. Well there lies a problem, because unless you played the last game, you don’t really remember that you have that ability. In fact, this game opens with you having most of your abilities from the last game (minus some weapons and magic) and sends you head first into battle. If you’re new to the series, you’re completely lost. If you’re a veteran, but haven’t played recently, you’re rusty, and this can be a problem especially when it comes to the triple jumps I was describing above, because YOU WILL NOT KNOW THAT YOU HAVE THAT ABILITY for a while, and it’ll cause a lot of complications for you at first, and result in you dying and retrying parts a lot.

My other problem lies in what programmers refer to as HOT SPOTS. These spots are related to standing next to objects and the user being notified that they should press a certain button for action. Well, sometimes I’d be standing on a save spot, or next to a chest, and nothing would come up so I’d be moving Kratos a little, and then a little more before I’d be given the option to save or open a chest. Again, this isn’t huge problem because it only happened on a couple of occasions, but still, these things do become annoying and tend to tarnish something that for the most part is such a fine product.

My final problem with the game lies within the last 20 minutes of gameplay. In fact, to call this anti-climatic would make most peoples Monday night sex with their partner seem like an exotic porn flick.

***SPOILER ALERT: You’ve been warned now for a second time, so don’t complain. ***

First, when you have beaten Zeus twice, you jump into a mode where you continually hit the circle button as Kratos continually bashes, kicks, and beats Zeus to a pulp. The screen continually fills with blood until finally the screen becomes a static image of splashed blood… and you’re still asked to hit the button?!!! I finally stopped hitting the button and just let the game sit and finally the game progressed. Weird? YES! And for the poor bastard, who never stops hitting the circle button, let me know if your system eventually crashes.

After this, Zeus rises up all of a sudden and sends you to the “darkness,” and you begin roaming through the dark following a blood trail… sound like a game you’ve played before… you know… MAX PAYNE?!!! Besides clearly ripping the idea off from Max Payne, unlike Max Payne, which made it hard to follow the path without falling, you can’t fall in this part and it’s really not hard at all to finish. It’s actually a very, very, VERY, simple part to complete. It’s really there just to get some more plot details out.

Then once you emerge from this part, you battle Zeus one last time (3 times in total) from a first person perspective, and again, this is really easy, and then you finally complete the game.

These last twenty minutes were ridiculous and boring, and soiled an otherwise awesome gaming experience. WHY?!!!

My only other qualm with the game was that some of the parts where it’s telling the story, and the opening credits of the game, completely use the Frank Miller-esque closing credits style of 300 as their own treatment for story details. Yea it was disappointing that they didn’t do actual cinematics like they did in the other two God of War games, but it’s pretty forgivable.

So in summary:

GRAPHICS 5/5 – Again, I can’t begin to describe how breathtaking this game is to watch at times while you’re playing. The fact that the entire game runs and plays in a quality matching most other games cinematic moments makes it all the more a treat for the eyes.

GAMEPLAY 3.5/5 – Outstanding battle system, and some amazing level design. The hiccups at times with hot spots, and the last 20 minutes of the game tarnish what other wise is one of the finest games I’ve played in a long time.

SOUND 4/5 – Excellent soundtrack, decent voice acting, and outstanding sound effects. Every time I gutted someone or cut someone to pieces, I could hear the tendons ripping. Brutal, but beautiful for the most part.

LASTING APPEAL 3/5 – The game takes about 8 ½ hours to beat, first time through. I’m now going back through on Titan mode, for more of a challenge, and to see what else I can unlock, and it’s due to the experience of the game as a whole, that this is one game I want to play two or three times before I put it down for a while. But like the first two God of War’s, I’m sure this is a game I will come back to after a good break.

And just to remind everyone on how my personal scale rates -
5: A new level of gaming that instills the feelings of playing video games for the first time, all over again.
1: E.T. On Atari would kick this games ass.

Again, this game is a beautiful thing to play. Had the team just spent a little more time rethinking their decisions for the last 20 minutes of this game, the game would have been a solid 4.5/5 for gameplay, and even the lasting appeal would have been given an extra point. In fact, the only reason I don’t look forward to playing the game again, is knowing when I get to the last 20 minutes of the game, I’m going to be pissed all over again.

Other than the last 20 minutes, this game has WIN written all over it. Pick it up today.

Fred is from The Black Hat Creative