[HEADING=2]God of War 3[/HEADING]
(Be warned, this review is spoiler heavy so if you don't want the story ruined I wouldn't read it)
So, after reviewing my favourite album of all time, (Brand New Eyes) I have decided to do a review, on my new favourite game of all time. Yes, I said it; of all time.
(Old favourite game of all time was Jak 3, another very strong game that I heartily recommend.)
Anyway, God Of War 3 follows on from the story of God of War 1 and 2 (unsurprisingly) and so charts the quest of Kratos to kill various gods in the Greek Pantheon for various reasons, first he killed Ares for tricking him into killing his family, and now he is attempting to kill Zeus for stealing his Godhood and killing him.
So, as with my other review, I'm going to take this stage by stage and I'm going to begin with ...
Story
This is probably my favourite aspect of this game, as the characterisation and development really work well here. You start with the main character Kratos climbing up Mount Olympus on the backs of Titans in an epic opening, on your way to kill Zeus. When you finally get up to the top, (having killed Poseidon on the way), Kratos, with all the vengeance fuelled anger in the world tells Zeus that "You will not see the end of this day!" At which point Zeus pulls a massive dickmove and lightning bolts you into hell, (this of course being a little cheap, but a great device in terms of setting the path in front of you).
The story mainly revolves around Kratos killing each God in turn on his path to Zeus, and usually in very gory ways, but what strikes me as really excellent in this game is how Kratos develops after meeting Pandora, a character that reminds him of his own daughter, and it brings out his father side that we never saw before in Gow1 or 2. At one point near the end of the game he needs to decide whether to kill Pandora to get his vengeance on Zeus or to save who he loves, and you can literally see the pain rack through him as he makes that decision; and it shows how much he needs revenge. It's not exactly a literary epic, but the way it is told and the excellent cast make it very, very epic.
Setting and Atmosphere
The amazing art direction of God of War is based around Greek mythology, made extremely graphic, and as you traverse through the various areas there are nice touches put in just to give it more atmosphere, such as the camera panning out really far out just to show the scope, or the bodies falling in Hades, it's things like this that really give the game an epic feel. All of this wouldn't be possible without some of the best graphics I've ever seen in a game, with Kratos looking as good during gameplay as he does during the cutscenes, mainly because they use the same engine for both!
The other thing I wanted to comment on in this section is the music, done with a large, real orchestra, God of War sounds about as epic as it plays and the music conveys a sense of scale that would be lost without it in my opinion.
Characters
The characterisation in God of War 3 is excellent, with Kratos being the revenge driven sociopath who's troubled past haunts his even more troubled present, through to the drunken, gaunt wife of Zeus; Hera. The characters I particularly enjoyed were: (as if you couldn't have guessed this one already) Kratos, Pandora, Athena, Hephestaus, Hera, and Hermes.
Pandora is just a perfectly created character who's very nature is a creation, a purpose, and this gives her an extra depth and more backstory into why she is like she is. Athena is an excellent character in this game as she guides Kratos, but with the ultimate aim of making herself ruler on Mount Olympus. I really liked the last sequence in which she berates Kratos for releasing Hope into the world rather than giving her that power, as it shows the player her true power hungry nature rather than what you have assumed of her. Hephestaus strikes me as a character who has fallen from his great life with a beautiful wife and daughter, to being trapped by Zeus in torment, attempting to recreate his daughter forever. Hera is a great character as she provides this different idea of what a God(dess in this case) can be like, she is a drunkard and a horrible character who spites Kratos in any way she can just out of her hate for what he has done. Finally I think Hermes had great characterisation as the arrogant douche who thought himself above Kratos as a God, (with great animation that implied this).
The only characters I didn't think were as awesome were Helios and Zeus, for a complete lack of characterisation with the former, and a sort of stereotypical Big Bad with the latter. (But one could argue Zeus needed to be a strong villain figure just to register as the Big Bad)
The voice acting in this game is just amazing with T.C. Carson (now offically my favourite human being) spitting out Kratos' lines with his frankly evil voice, to Daedalus' crippled old man voice, perfectly displaying his torment in regards to his son.
Puzzles
The puzzles in this game are excellently constructed, in that you can go along the whole puzzle putting pieces into place, not really understanding, and then having the eureka moment when everything is there that allows you to move forward. I think my perfect example is the rather excellent puzzle in place of a boss battle for Hera: you see the whole area through a filter which allows something similar to the improbable staircase to take place, and you must arrange these staircases to escape her garden, but it's just a genius moment when you finally realise how to do it and it's very satisfying.
Combat
Arguably the most important aspect of the game the combat is absolutely awesome. You are given four weapons over the course of the game that are all two handed weapons, so while never straying too far from the original formula, these weapons all deviate enough to be interesting in their own right. They take the form of: The Blades of Exile, The Claws of Hades, The Nemean Cestus and The Nemesis Whip.
The great thing about having these four weapons is that they're all useful for different situations, like the Blades of Exile were very all round for most situations, The Claws of Hades (my personal favourites) were excellent for taking out large groups of enemies with their large sweeping blades and area of effect special attacks, and also for dealing huge damage when fully upgraded by summoning all manner of soul creatures, the Nemesis Whip I found was great for taking out the stronger enemies that weren't grunts but weren't quite bosses either due to it's ability to rack up huge combos while your enemy was totally helpless, and the Nemean Cestus was great for bosses as it dealt huge damage when you were up close and personal which was especially useful in the final boss fight. But apart from all of this what I really like about the weapons is that regardless of what I have said, you could use any of them in any situation, as you kick enough arse regardless of how you use them!
The boss fights themselves were suitably epic with three standing out for me, the first battle with Poseidon, the fight with Cronos, and the last boss which was Zeus. Poseidon was an amazing fight simply for the spectacle and the awesome set pieces/graphics throughout and it really gave you a sense of the epic scale the game would be on. Cronos continues this with being the largest character I've ever seen in a game and one of the most epic bosses I've ever fought. (How many other giant men have you sliced your way out of?) And finally Zeus, for being an actual fight where he has his attacks, you have yours, and you have a really intimate battle where you must utilise all of your skill that you've built up over the game to beat him. (This battle, by the way, takes place inside of Gaia, and you finish it by stabbing your blade through him, into Gaia's heart for Zeus' ridiculously epic end. Kind of)
Criticisms
Yes, there are a few of these, namely that I didn't understand the higher plane of existence that Athena entered after you killed her, and I didn't really like her voice acting. Some of the character models (most notably Zeus) were quite sub par compared with the rest of the game. The extra skins aren't unlockable (bar one) which seems a bit cheap to me. But all of this matters very little in comparison to how awesome the game truly is.
Conclusion
If you haven't already, which you probably should have if you're reading this particular review, BUY THIS GAME I absolutely love it and plan on playing through it multiple times (there's a lot of extra content to add replayability).
Any criticism (constructive or otherwise) is welcome.
