Cleril
03-31-2010, 12:02 PM
God of War 3 is the last in it's series, being released solely on the PS3. The three games were each directed by a different person but does this change the formula for a God of War game? If you've ever enjoyed any God of War then you'll find something a little different with God of War 3, the scale. However the gameplay largely remains the same with just upgrades to it at the cost of a few tweaks that some may not like.
http://www.codydelzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/gow_3_box_art-260x300.jpg
Those who followed the story from the first game should already know what lies in store for them in God of War III (War from now on). Kratos, the protagonist, wishes to take vengeance on the greek gods for all they have done to make his life a living hell. He becomes an ally of the titans and they climb up mount Olympus to end the war between the gods and the titans. The story is told well for the most part but there are times when every character seems a little too dramatic for their own good. However that can be excused with the few twists that the story has in store for you. This is no Heavy Rain though so don't expect an opera here. It's all about one thing in War, the ability to kill things in extremely gory ways.
How does one kill things in extremely gory ways? By using a variety of weapons of course! This time every weapon feels useful, unlike in God of War II (I never played I) where your Chaos Blades were the only thing worth it. The variety of weapons comes down to: The Bow of Apollo, The Cestus, The Blades of Exile, and many others. There are a total of 7 weapons or 8 if you include the Rage of The Titans. You have your standard health, magic, and now item power, which gives more usefulness to your items which in the last games were limited because they took from your magic bar instead.
Santa Monica really refined the combat in War. Combos are even easier to string together as you can switch between weapons mid-combo, use enemies as battering rams, swing into enemies, and have more enemies at once to kill. As many as 50 enemies can be on-screen at any given time and there is enough of a variety of them to really never get old. If you wish to perform a quick-time event kill (decapitate and mutilate enemies) then when you whittle the enemies health down enough a circle button will appear over their heads.
You are free to not perform these quick-time events at all but they aren't bad and are integrated throughout the game anyway so they are unavoidable regardless. The only real problem with combat is that each enemy only has one quick-time death animation with The Blades of Exile. Meaning that if you use the Cestus to hurt your foe and wish to do the quick-time event kill then Kratos will automatically switch to The Blades of Exile for the event and then back to The Cestus after. This may lead to a bit of boredom when killing enemies this way and it may make you think the developers were too lazy to make more death animations, which would have been nice but I didn't find it that bad, just a tad annoying.
http://www.gossipgamers.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/god-of-war-3.jpg
The level design is superb. You'll re-visit most areas but everything is interconnected seamlessly. There are also little to no load times. I actually only ever had one 5 second load time the entire game...amazing huh? There are a few times when the game may have a stretch of boredom for you but for the most part the game has great pacing and will keep you on your toes throughout.
On a last note regarding gameplay are the bosses. Every boss is amazingly done and a nice break from the usual button-mashing combat. Most bosses are also huge, as I mentioned the scale of the game earlier. As you start the game you'll fight on Gaia's shoulder, one of the titans. You'll also see another titan climbing up the mountain as you fight, showing how small you are alongside them. Most bosses are huge and even a few levels take place on huge things. Every boss moves fluidly despite it's size and in fact throughout the game every animation is top-notch quality.
The only gripe one might have with the gameplay is that there is no new game+ option like in the previous titles. It's not that big of a deal and the only reason it's not included is that you'll re-visit many areas and unlock new paths with your new gear. That's an understandable game design choice, no?
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/kotaku/2009/02/god_of_war_3.jpg
As you can tell the graphics in this game is amazing. In both scale and beauty this game has really no equal, well....Shadow of The Colossus maybe. Still you'll see Kratos have subtle movements in his face like a real person would and even see his muscles contract and relax like a real human being. You might not even notice these subtleties because you see them everyday. There are possibly a few low-resolution textures here and there but for the most part this game looks amazing.
The music is your standard God Of War stuff. Vocals and strings going hand in hand with the drums until the player's adrenaline levels increase. It's good and sets the mood for the game, which is violent with a dose of gore.
Okay, so do I get it?
Well for the price of 55 dollars or so you get a roughly 10 hour single player experience with five (I think) difficulty levels, 7 (I think) challenge rooms, new items to use after beating the game once, unlockable movies, and a combat arena where you can set up fights to try out new strategies. Overall I'd say the single player game alone is worth a good 30-35 bucks so I'd say it's a good deal. If you can wait I'd say do so until a price drop but who knows when that will be, right?
Cleril thought that one part at the end of the game dragged on a bit too long...but he also thought that the blood on his screen looked awesome.
http://www.codydelzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/gow_3_box_art-260x300.jpg
Those who followed the story from the first game should already know what lies in store for them in God of War III (War from now on). Kratos, the protagonist, wishes to take vengeance on the greek gods for all they have done to make his life a living hell. He becomes an ally of the titans and they climb up mount Olympus to end the war between the gods and the titans. The story is told well for the most part but there are times when every character seems a little too dramatic for their own good. However that can be excused with the few twists that the story has in store for you. This is no Heavy Rain though so don't expect an opera here. It's all about one thing in War, the ability to kill things in extremely gory ways.
How does one kill things in extremely gory ways? By using a variety of weapons of course! This time every weapon feels useful, unlike in God of War II (I never played I) where your Chaos Blades were the only thing worth it. The variety of weapons comes down to: The Bow of Apollo, The Cestus, The Blades of Exile, and many others. There are a total of 7 weapons or 8 if you include the Rage of The Titans. You have your standard health, magic, and now item power, which gives more usefulness to your items which in the last games were limited because they took from your magic bar instead.
Santa Monica really refined the combat in War. Combos are even easier to string together as you can switch between weapons mid-combo, use enemies as battering rams, swing into enemies, and have more enemies at once to kill. As many as 50 enemies can be on-screen at any given time and there is enough of a variety of them to really never get old. If you wish to perform a quick-time event kill (decapitate and mutilate enemies) then when you whittle the enemies health down enough a circle button will appear over their heads.
You are free to not perform these quick-time events at all but they aren't bad and are integrated throughout the game anyway so they are unavoidable regardless. The only real problem with combat is that each enemy only has one quick-time death animation with The Blades of Exile. Meaning that if you use the Cestus to hurt your foe and wish to do the quick-time event kill then Kratos will automatically switch to The Blades of Exile for the event and then back to The Cestus after. This may lead to a bit of boredom when killing enemies this way and it may make you think the developers were too lazy to make more death animations, which would have been nice but I didn't find it that bad, just a tad annoying.
http://www.gossipgamers.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/god-of-war-3.jpg
The level design is superb. You'll re-visit most areas but everything is interconnected seamlessly. There are also little to no load times. I actually only ever had one 5 second load time the entire game...amazing huh? There are a few times when the game may have a stretch of boredom for you but for the most part the game has great pacing and will keep you on your toes throughout.
On a last note regarding gameplay are the bosses. Every boss is amazingly done and a nice break from the usual button-mashing combat. Most bosses are also huge, as I mentioned the scale of the game earlier. As you start the game you'll fight on Gaia's shoulder, one of the titans. You'll also see another titan climbing up the mountain as you fight, showing how small you are alongside them. Most bosses are huge and even a few levels take place on huge things. Every boss moves fluidly despite it's size and in fact throughout the game every animation is top-notch quality.
The only gripe one might have with the gameplay is that there is no new game+ option like in the previous titles. It's not that big of a deal and the only reason it's not included is that you'll re-visit many areas and unlock new paths with your new gear. That's an understandable game design choice, no?
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/kotaku/2009/02/god_of_war_3.jpg
As you can tell the graphics in this game is amazing. In both scale and beauty this game has really no equal, well....Shadow of The Colossus maybe. Still you'll see Kratos have subtle movements in his face like a real person would and even see his muscles contract and relax like a real human being. You might not even notice these subtleties because you see them everyday. There are possibly a few low-resolution textures here and there but for the most part this game looks amazing.
The music is your standard God Of War stuff. Vocals and strings going hand in hand with the drums until the player's adrenaline levels increase. It's good and sets the mood for the game, which is violent with a dose of gore.
Okay, so do I get it?
Well for the price of 55 dollars or so you get a roughly 10 hour single player experience with five (I think) difficulty levels, 7 (I think) challenge rooms, new items to use after beating the game once, unlockable movies, and a combat arena where you can set up fights to try out new strategies. Overall I'd say the single player game alone is worth a good 30-35 bucks so I'd say it's a good deal. If you can wait I'd say do so until a price drop but who knows when that will be, right?
Cleril thought that one part at the end of the game dragged on a bit too long...but he also thought that the blood on his screen looked awesome.