God of War III reviewed

It had to happen.  It had to happen eventually.  All Kratos killed in the first God of War game was one God and a couple mythical beasts.  The second game had Kratos killing off the rest of the beasts...and Icarus.  So the only logical conclusion that one can surmise, if you never played the PSP games which I haven't, is that you start killing Gods...all of them.  I guess in that regard God of War III doesn't disappoint but after the first two games, the series is getting a bit long in the tooth if they wish to continue the main series.

It picks where the second game left off where Kratos is commanding an army of Titans up Mount Olympus to kill Zeus and all who stand in his way.  But shortly afterwards, the Titans pretty much tell Kratos that this is their war and Kratos has no part in it.  Of course, being denied vengeance against Zeus pisses Kratos off and he's now making his way up Mount Olympus killing everyone and everything that gets in his way. 

The gameplay and controls are very similar to the other games.  The controls are still the same, the attacks are still the same and you kill people just the same.  Granted that the controls have been perfect, there is no reason to change them.  However, what has been improved are the weapons themselves.  Sure, the other games had a secondary weapon but they were useless and I'm sure many of us just used the default blades but in III, your secondary weapons have a purpose.  You won't use them very often, mind you, but you just can't ignore them either.  Also, one weapon is much more powerful than the default blades.

Kratos, himself, no longer seems to VENGEANCE seeking person he was in II.  Granted, he still wants to kill Zeus but instead of being all-vengeance all the time he gets back that little sparkle of humanity he had in the first game.  He starts to care about the child Pandora, that Pandora from that box, and doesn't want her to die a horrible death, maybe in a bid to replace his daughter he killed.  The problem is, it doesn't quite work.  Not for the fact that it's half-assed but in the fact that is just doesn't seem natural.  The game tries to explain it by having Hermes giving Kratos a Reason That You Suck speech before Kratos kills him but it doesn't seem to work in my eyes.  Kratos is still at his best when he's yelling at people and then killing them though.

But the game does make one big mistake and that's at the beginning of the game where you're about to deliver an epic beat down on Poseidon.  The game then switches to Poseidon's view so you watch Kratos's beat down of Poseidon through Poseidon's eyes.  And what seemed so manly and badass now looks horrifically cruel.  And I guess that's the point since Kratos usually does a lot of unnecessary cruel things to innocent people but since you're playing as him, I just found it awesome.  But it did really suck the wind out of the games sails since I want have fun killing things in an unfeeling manner.  Does that make me a monster?  Probably.

This game is still good, the graphics are great and the voice-acting is entertaining.  This game still does a lot of things right but at this point at time, it's really close to just going through the motions of yelling and killing.  The ending does suggest a sense of finality or at least, if there's more games, a sense of a reboot coming up.  The biggest problem of God of War III is that it has to follow up a masterful first game and a great second game.

8/10