Review: God of War III

Game: God of War III (2010)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Hack-and-Slash
Developer(s): Santa Monica Studio
Publisher(s): Sony Computer Entertainment
Platform(s): PS3
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Rating: 7.5 out of 10
Pros: Great series, awesome graphics, steeped in greek mythology, intuitive button mashing, large selection of weapons and attack combos
Cons: Short story-mode gameplay, numerous plot events jammed into short story
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   God of War 3 picks up after the events of GoW 2, as Kratos climbs on the back of the titans to overtake Mount Olympus and destroy his father, Zeus, and essentially wraps up the GoW trilogy. As with the last GoW game, you are thrown straight into the action, fully upgraded with most of the powers and combos from the last game. After a few series of events, Kratos is cast once again into Hades and into the River Styx, where he is stripped of his powers.

   To upgrade your weapons and to obtain new attack combos, you have to collect red orbs. These orbs are obtained through slaughtering everything that comes before you, or by opening red chests (ooo a box!). Then from the menu, you can allocate any number of red orbs you have obtained into a desired weapon. After reaching a certain number, the weapon levels up, increasing its damage and unlocking new combo attacks for that weapon.

   To upgrade your health, magic, or item-usage, you had to find hidden chests (ooo a box!) that contained gorgon eyes, phoenix feathers, or minotaur horns, respectively. Also, after killing certain bosses, you could collect unique items that give you special abilities once you beat the game. I assume that these were put in place to encourage you to replay the game, but this time with extra damage or fully upgraded, etc. However, enabling these "cheat code" items disabled trophies, so that kind of sucked if you still had trophies to collect.

   I really liked this upgrade system throughout the GoW series, as it let you upgrade the weapons you liked most, giving the player a little customization of their gameplay experience. By the end, however, you should have enough red orbs (and even some left over) to max out all your weapons.

   The kills and combos in GoW 3 were just as brutal and gory as the first two games. There was still a lot of button mashing throughout the game, so they kept with the original GoW feel. One of the new mechanics introduced in GoW 3 was the Rage meter. As you killed enemies or opened white chests (ooo a box!), you would collect white orbs that filled the Rage meter. Once the Rage meter was full, you could bust out your massive Sword of Olympus and start whaling on enemies without taking damage.

   Now, the story is what disappointed me the most. Like the first two games, GoW 3 packed several plot events into a very short time span. It took me only about 10-11 hours of gameplay to complete the game, but so much happened in that short amount of time that there were some minor plot holes and loose ends. As you know from my previous blogs, I try not to give the story away, so I won't, but to say the least I was disappointed how it played out. Unlike the first two games, I as a player didn't care as much how the story unfolded. I was too caught up in fast-paced action and flashy graphics to stop and take notice of how the game's plot progressed.

   Design-wise, the mechanics were well-developed and polished. There were no bugs or glitches from my experience. Finally, the game had awesome graphics and audio that really immersed me as a player and effectively delivered a brutal, fast-paced action gameplay experience. However, I would have liked to see longer gameplay, perhaps by spacing the levels and plot events out further, and maybe adding more puzzles or obstacles. In the developer's defense, this task can be very difficult when you have three games that essentially follow the same plot, lore, and setting. In that respect, they did a pretty good job, but the game still seemed rushed.

   If you love the God of War series, I suggest you buy this game to complete your collection. Otherwise, it is completely possible to beat this game within a day or two, including all of the extra challenges. Other than replaying the game on a different difficulty with special "cheat code" items or costumes, the game has no real replay-ability factor or multiplayer functionality.