God of War 3 may be the best action game of 2010 a mere three months in, if not of all time.
Go read my release launch story and you’ll see I went through hell and high water to score my Ultimate Edition copy of the game. Well, not hell and high water, technically, more like embarrassment and rejection over my reservation mistake. You can also revel in the video unveiling of the Ultimate Edition in that same article, so be sure to check that out. I should’ve published it in a separate thread, but I’m still learning the ins and outs of writing and updating my own articles. Link backs FTW!
My First Impressions reviews aren’t going to be as robust as they used to be because they’re too similar to my full-blown reviews. As such, I’m simply going to wax eloquent about the game, some parts that stand out thus far, and whatever else strikes my fancy. Oh, and then there’s this:
*****SPOILER and MATURE CONTENT ALERT*****
Forget categories, let’s just dive right in. This game looks freakin’ AMAZING! When Sony announced that this game would run this smoothly from a 35GB Blu-Ray disc and NO installation, I honestly had huge doubts. I believed them, but wasn’t sold on the idea that there was a way this could happen. Not only did they fulfill that promise, but the game is seriously the best-looking game I’ve ever played. Umm, I have been saying that Final Fantasy XIII is the best-looking game I’ve ever played, but God of War III looks better. Yes, better, and not just the textures and graphics; the fluidity of the frame-rate is better and the camera is MILES above FFXIII’s wonky and shifty camera work.
The levels on the titans are breathtaking. I’m sure this will prompt some excited responses in the comments because I know you’re all thinking it. Gaia’s opening “level”, if you can call this game a level-based game at all, runs the gamut of a fantasy motion picture. Gaia screams in protest as Poseidon’s sea-crab-horse-things skewer her torso and wrist, and clamps down on her head. The multiple times you fight the sea-crab-horse-things find Kratos in a totally different situation. Sometimes you are forced to fight while hanging upside-down from Gaia’s arm, the next minute you’re climbing the arm and fighting vertically, only to be thrust and tossed about up to her head to fight on her shoulder. It’s epic, purely epic, and something I’m having a difficult time describing without emotion.
Later in the game, the Cronos titan fight blew me away again, only this time the fight was far more violent and one-on-one. In other words, Kratos was fighting Poseidon as the god tried to crush Gaia – Kratos was defending Gaia. When Kratos fights Cronos, it’s mono e mono, and the violence is off the hook.
“Zipper Tech” – a term coined by Sony Santa Monica’s God of War team to describe the gut-spilling graphical tactic employed in the game – struck me as a technological wonder. It’s not enough that Kratos pulls horns off heads and stabs foes in the eyeball with it or that he brutally stabs the Minotaur up through the jaw into the head with blood-spraying efficiency. No, that’s not enough for the next generation Kratos. Zipper tech allows Kratos to literally take his Blade of Exile and “zipper” the belly of certain foes, like the Centaur, which in turn permits the guts to spill out onto the ground with shocking realism. Transfer that same tactic to the Cronos fight and you can only imagine how brutal and graphic the game becomes. I’ll put it this way: the guts of a titan are far larger than a Centaur’s. 
No Guts, No Glory
Sound – off the hook. Again, it’s not Dead Space or even Battlefield: Bad Company 2, but it does a great job of pulling you in. I think some of the voice-acting is a bit heavy-handed. Kratos always sounds so dramatic when he spits out his lines, but eh, it’s OK in context. Fortunately, the other voice-acting jobs are handled to perfection. Actor Rip Torn – I’m sure pun intended when Sony hired him – does a great job of voicing Hephaestus, and since you see this character a lot in Hades, it’s a fine thing to listen to.
Gameplay-wise, the game doesn’t depart from the trusty formula that’s worked for every God of War game thus far. Some cite this is as a bad thing, but why? How many games in the FPS genre rely on their trusty formulas to the critics’ praise, while action games get the chagrin treatment? I applaud Stig Asmusson and team for sticking to what works, while adding new things to make it easier on the player. And the changes are significantly more sexy.
For example, take the item bar, a new addition to the series. It used to be that all items consumed the magic bar, which was always frustrating because magic orbs were difficult to come by.
The Sex Scene
Ummm…hmmm…how to go about this…it’s wrong to discuss because it’s a video game, right? Is it wrong of me to say that the HD graphical representation of sexy women is a great thing? *coughs* Guys, listen, Aphrodite is hot, but it’s a mini-game. All I did was chuckle the whole time, especially at the two girls watching and getting all hot and bothered. That’s all I’m going to say about that…
Courtesy of Kotaku - fish added in all the hot spots
The new weapons in the game are really good. They still lack some fundamental differences to make them unique, but overall the appeal to use the new weapons is far greater than in previous installments. The Claws of Hades are particularly cool because you can summon different souls to fight along side you at the cost of some of your magic bar. There are different souls you unlock as you upgrade, giving you a real reason to do so. In addition to new souls to summon, the power of the weapons increases and some other moves are unlocked, so I feel that by the time I upgrade them fully, they’ll be dishing out some generous helpings of whoop-ass.
The best weapon comes at the cost of Kratos’ brother, Hercules. What a fantastic “boss fight” this turned out to be, and one that wasn’t spoiled by the industry reviewers, thank the gods…though it’s now spoiled by me. Anyway, the Nemean Cestus fist gauntlets are uber and extremely powerful, sans upgrades. With upgrades, they’re nigh unstoppable. The fact that they’re shaped like lion heads and look far too large when Kratos wields them is a bonus.
Overall, I’m loving the game. I’ve spent about 5 hours so far with it and I’m enjoying it far more than I expected, if that’s possible. I’m a skeptic by nature, and even though I knew I’d buy and enjoy it, I never thought I’d love it this much. It’s a testament to the team over at Santa Monica studios and to Sony for backing them.
God of War III is available now only for the PlayStation 3.
you better be playing on hard
Actually, I thought about winging Titan mode out of the gate, but I knew that if I did that, the frustration would come into the factoring of my review, and I didn’t want that. I will beat it on Hard, and most of the time I play a game out of the gate on Hard, but in this case I didn’t want that to hurt the review of the rest of the beauty this game presents. God of War games are known for their brutal difficulty, but I have to tell you that in this instance, the Normal mode is surprisingly easy. At least for me. So far, I should’ve chosen to do Titan mode, but hindsight is 20/20. I’ll be playing through this game again anyway, which will be in Titan Mode.
Mostly, I’m dying because of something stupid programmed into the double-jump controls. It seems that if you don’t double-tap X very quickly, Kratos falls to his death before the wings open up or he jumps the second time. It’s rather silly and it’s a bug that doesn’t appear in the first two games.
My full review is coming, but it will be based mostly on the Normal mode, since the Hard difficulty comprises a single Gold Trophy and I want to savor God of War 3 for all it has to offer besides the difficulty. I know some may scoff at my decision to do this, but I felt it was for the best given the pending review.