From the Vault — originally published March 30, 2010. Some links, videos or prices may be out of date.
Don’t get me wrong. The God of War III game itself is highly entertaining. The visuals are some of the best you will see in a high definition video game to date. The game has great graphics. Other than slight frame rate slowdowns the game is outstanding from a tech standpoint. There are spectacular lighting effects and detailed visuals. At times though Kratos does move a bit jerky. A good example of this is when Kratos is climbing or when he is traversing a rope. The animations to speed up are jerky and end abruptly. They could be smoother like those in Uncharted 2 for example.
The combat is spot on and exactly what you expect from a God of War game. The buttons and attack controls are the same as previous titles maintaining the God of War standard heavy attack, light attack, magic and rage meter. The enemies are varied and the boss battles are great. The quick time event prompts have been moved to corresponding sides of the screen which is a a great improvement of past games. The quick time prompts no longer distract from the action because they are off to the side of the screen. The new weapons you acquire as you progress through the game are varied and allow for satisfying combat scenarios. My favorite to use was the Cestus which are is a pair of gauntlets with lion heads attached to chains. The developers totally nailed the feeling of pounding your enemies with them through rumble and sound effects. A very fun weapon to use. The weapons you obtain also have uses other than combat as many are required to solve the games various puzzles. I did feel as though previous God of War games had more elaborate puzzles than this iteration in the series. That will be a plus to some and despite this the ones included are good enough to keep this as a minor observation and not a complaint.
As with previous God of War games this game has that trademark sense of scale. You play through fights on top and inside of enormous titans the size of skyscrapers. Titans are giant walking creatures. The set pieces in the game are gorgeous and do indeed add to that epic feel God of War games are known to have. You will traverse huge caverns, temples and enormous monuments.
The graphics are outstanding, the sound design is great though where God of War III lacks is in the fact that it does not really innovate much on the core that we had in God of War and God of War II. Its pretty much the same game and that’s not a slight on the game because those were classic games though they were made many years ago so at times the overall style of the game feels a bit dated at times. They really did not take many risks with this game. One thing that they did add that I love though are the sections where you fly up the tunnels. An example of this is in the demo and I do think its a fun sequence.
The story itself I think is one of the short points of the game. While by the end it does neatly wrap up everything that happens in the series it does not do a good job of explaining and reiterating why Kratos is so enraged. Someone who only played the first game may not get it as they should despite the fact that the intro to the game provides a synopsis of the first two games. Perhaps more or improved cut scene flashbacks or other narrative elements could have reinforced kratos motivation for going though all of that which is required to exact his revenge on the Gods of Olympus in God of War III. I think that this is the single weakest point. Not too shabby as a low point for an action game though because to most it will not matter much.
The verdict is that its a visually stunning and fun game with a decent story. I totally recommend the game even at full price.
