God of War III continues the story of Kratos as he scales Mount Olympus to finish his revenge on those who have betrayed him.

Genre: Hack ‘n Slash
Publisher: Sony
Rating: M
Release Date: March 16, 2009 (NA)

I’ve been a fan of the God of War series since I first got my hands on the first game on the PS2. Since then I’ve played just about all of the games, so when I was offered the chance to review God of War III for the PS3 I was quite excited! I had heard a lot about the game and the trailers, screenshots and the demo I got to play furthered my interest in the game. Thankfully I was not disappointed!

God of War III is the last in the trilogy and it starts off with a bang. You begin riding on the back of Gaia as she and the other Titans slowly make their way up Mount Olympus towards Zeus and the other gods and goddesses at the top. You begin at full power, but after a confrontation and some pretty crazy battles you wind up falling into the kingdom of Hades into the river Styx and go back to square one. You then have to fight your way through the gods and goddesses of Olympus, as well as a Titan here and there, in order to regain your power and make your way back to Zeus to complete your revenge.

As you defeat various gods, you are awarded new weapons which give you new attacks and powers. Leveling up these weapons by infusing them with souls increases these new powers as well as unlocks new combos. My favorite of the new weapons is probably the Cestus: lion head gauntlets that cause some hefty melee damage. The controls are the same as previous God of War games and are easy to pick up. Once you get the hang of them they may get a tad repetitive as with certain weapons you can plow through enemies with ease using only one or two attacks. However, during boss battles you do need to strategize how you want to use your attacks.

In general the boss battles were pretty interesting, and in some cases a bit frustrating. For the most part they are a challenge, with some being more than others, and each fight gives the game some variety. I enjoyed some of the larger scale bosses you had to fight due to the various stages of the fight you work through. Using the Blades of Athena to swing around and climb upon titans as you have to bring them down was quite fun, and the improvement in graphics really brings them to life. As Kratos kills off the gods and goddesses you can see the effects on the world and the people. I felt that this added a bit more to the story and it really shows how focused Kratos is that the destruction of the world means nothing to him.

Graphically the game is beautiful. Sony developed a new game engine in order to increase the graphics and gameplay for the final installment, and it shows how much work they put into it. The character models have been enhanced and the environments are breathtaking. And when you’re in the presence of someone like the Titan Chronos it’s quite amazing that you can feel how massive he must be. And you can tell that they spent the time to make sure that every small detail looked great down to the mosaics on the floor. I also really enjoyed the lighting of the game and the fact that they even got the reflection of torch light against the marble of the floors and columns realistic. I definitely feel that this is a game that needs to be played on an HDTV to get the full effect.

Of course there also was the standard scene/mini-game where as Kratos you get to have some one on one time with a lady, in this case the goddess of love Aphrodite. The scene drifts away from her and Kratos and you do the mini-game button pushing while looking at two ladies who had been in the room. They make some funny comments, the best exchange being “Wow, this is definitely for mature audiences. Children should not be watching this!” The scene got a good chuckle out of me and it was funny to repeat a couple of times to see some of the different dialogue options between the two girls.

All in all I had a blast playing the game, and it was nice to earn some trophies since my poor PSN account is pretty much neglected. But God of War 3 is definitely one of the reasons I bought a PS3. I was glad that in the end it impressed me and I had a blast playing through the game. I plan on going back and working through on a harder mode to also try out some of the items I picked up during my first run through. I think that fans of the series are going to enjoy the game as it stays true to it’s predecessors while still being fun and new.

Review copy provided by Sony and does not affect the outcome of this review.