Ok, I've been wanting to write about this game for a couple of weeks now, but have just gotten around to it.
It seems like I say this about so many games (and movies and albums and television shows, etc.) ... but goddamn, this is such an awesome game, words do not do it justice.
When I was a teenager, while there were consoles like the Super Nintendo and SEGA Saturn with a lot of great titles, if you wanted to play REAL video games, you had to go to an arcade. Hands down, the arcades had our measly consoles trumped in almost every respect from graphics to gameplay. One of those games was Mortal Kombat. The violence, creativity, character models, gameplay and impact of Mortal Kombat's first impression punched you right in the face as soon as your quarter dropped in the slot. It is still an achievement that is kind of awesome to behold (if you're a stupid, virgin, video game nerd, anyway). If you were my age, the game was fascinating and if you were a parent, it horrified you.
Even among titles like Grand Theft Auto and the Mortal Kombat series, God of War III takes video game violence to an entirely new level. In fact, from its outset, God of War III seems to be built around some of the most violent ideas ever put into a video game... so much so that less than an hour in, you'll be wondering if the designers have some sort of mental disorder.
Now, I hate to seem like violence is the only thing that interests me when it comes to video games. Honestly, I like games that aren't violent. I've played Mario Kart and Zelda. I enjoy Tetris. I harvest crops in Farmville. It's just that God of War III is just so jaw droppingly, nauseatingly violent... and, like Mortal Kombat before it, requires special button presses and combinations in order to pull everything off.
But to write a review of this game citing only the violence as proof of its inherent awesomeness would be ignoring all of the other elements that come together to make up God of War III. Chief among these is the sense of scale in the world Kratos inhabits on his journey to kill Zeus. Forgetting the fact that you're doing battle with the Gods themselves, which is plenty epic on its own, you'll hack and slash your way through boards that take place on a Titan climbing Mount Olympus, fly from the depths of Hades along the Chain which links the underworld to the heavens and fight enemies that are hundreds (not an exaggeration) of times larger than Kratos himself. It is a scale that, as far as I know, is completely unrivaled in video gaming.
Of course, if you've played any of the other games in the God of War series, this will be nothing new to you. Perhaps one of the critics' favorite things about the entire series is its awesome sense of scale, so in that respect God of War III isn't all that new. Still, the fact that game designers are still finding a way to use epic scale in such a way that it gives you goosebumps is excellent.
Gameplay, too, is nothing new if you are familiar with the series. At its heart, God of War III is a hack and slash platformer. It's very linear with fixed camera angles and a bloody, Double Dragon kind of feel to it. Fighting is performed in typical fare as well with a button for light attack, one for heavy attack and then a parry button to fend off attacks from enemies. This might seem kind of lame at first, but as you collect experience, you can upgrade your weaponry to introduce new combos, new attacks and even more perverse violence.
The weaponry at Kratos' disposal is pretty impressive as well. In addition to the Blades of Exile that made Kratos famous, as the game progresses he gains Hermes' boots, Hercules' gauntlets (Nemean Cestus), the Blades of Hades and, my personal favorite, the Nemesis Whip built by Hephestus... and that's just a few of them. Functionally, except for the Nemean Cestus, most of the blades are pretty similar to the Blades of Exile, but they still look cool as shit. Game designers took a huge step in making it easier to use the variety of weapons, choosing to give you the ability to switch rapidly between them without having to pause the game, go into the menu system and select something else. Again, if you're a fan of the other two games in the series, this is something you'll really love.
Graphically, this is one of the finest games I've seen in this generation. Character models are ultra-realistic and as Kratos mauls and dismembers his way through hundreds of enemies, he'll become blood-soaked and gory. Textures, buildings, faces and, yes... even Aphrodite's breasts are rendered in detail that most games reserve for the cut scenes in between game play.
And speaking of Aphrodite's breasts (spoiler alert!), in one of the more bizarre video game scenes in recent memory, she lures Kratos into bed and you'll have to hit the right button combinations on cue in order to satisfy her sexual lust. No, I'm not making that up... I'd say Youtube it, but it's probably too raunchy to make it past their porn filter.
God of War III is a stellar example of video gaming and I'd compare it to pretty much every AC/DC album ever made. It doesn't necessarily break new ground, it sticks to a tried-and-true formula and, even though its kind of the same thing over and over again, you can't help but be blown away by it. If you have a PS3 and no impressionable children or an easily offended spouse, then this is THE must have title of 2010.
It's so good that as soon as I figure out how to kill Zeus (I'm stuck and he keeps killing me), I'll probably play through the entire game again just to look at it.
