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

God of War reviewed

The Gods of Olympus have abandoned me, now there is no hope!

And Kratos cast himself from the highest mountain in all of Greece. After ten years of suffering, ten years of endless nightmares, it would finally come to an end, death, would be his escape from madness.

And so began one of the greatest games ever made for the PS2, God of War. It was a game that reveled in brutality and blood so much that it became a Refugee of Audacity. It was a game that spawned a successful franchise. But back when this game was first released, we didn't know those things. All we had was decent box-art and then word-of-mouth as we popped this in our PS2's. So how awesome was this game? Well, then let's see.

Like the quote above suggests, the game begins with Kratos jumping off the highest mountain into The Aegean Sea. Then we flashback to how we got there as Kratos is off killing the Hydra as part of his 10-year servitude to the Hydra, which he does, awesomely I might add. After that, Athena has one final task for Kratos for him to seek his redemption. Kill the God of War, Ares, who has declared war on Athena's city Athens out of petty jealousy. So begins Kratos's quest to kill Ares, find Pandora's box so he can kill Ares and then harbor his revenge against Ares, I'm not going to tell you why so play the game if you haven't. If you have, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

I would like to talk about Kratos for a few minutes. In almost any other game he would be the villain. His deeds before he became the servant of the Gods were deplorable and his present self is not that much better. The only thing that's keeping him from being a Complete Monster is his plight and the few times he is introspective & feels regret for what he has done. Now contrast this to the God of War II Kratos where he's been Flanderized into a guy who screams and stabs at everything...and yes, there's a very good reason for that. It also helps that Kratos is a badass who rips up low-level mooks with his bare hands.

And while I don't want to be one of those people who points out how the sequel to things is inferior to the original, I do want to talk about the geography of the game. In here, you know exactly where you are, how you got there and how each area related to one another. It is a truly, living world filled with a few people you can talk to(not many but there are some) and impressive architecture, complete with awesome yet impractically-made statues. The second game pretty much degenerated this idea into set-pieces, granted they were very impressive set-pieces it just didn't have that feel of the first one.

Anyways, like I said the game is impressive in every areas. The game looks great and it's extremely seamless with extremely low loading times. The voice-over work is fantastic, especially Kratos and the Narrator(yes, the one played by Linda Hunt who narrates this like the second coming of The Illiad). The game has a great and easy-to-use combat system filled with lots and lots of dead bodies. If you're not playing this game you should go out and get it. If you don't have a PS2, get that too!

10/10