The third and final chapter of the God of War series is here and has surpassed all of its past games and some, Kratos is going all out! The game starts off right where the second game left Kratos at, climbing up Mount Olympus on the back of a the massive Titan Gaia. With the famous words "Zeus, your son has returned! And I bring the destruction of Olympus with it!" The second game ends on that, Zeus is gathering the Gods of Olympus to help stop Kratos in his path of destruction and revenge. Kratos has gone to hell and back if you are not familiar with his journey so far. Here is a summary. God of War is loosely based on Greek mythology set in Athens and all about the main protagonist, a Spartan warrior named Kratos. After almost losing his life in battle as a spartan. Kratos asks for help from the God of War, Ares. Ares saved his life and enslaved him to the "blades of chaos." Kratos is a servant to Ares. One night Ares tricks Kratos into murdering his wife and child to see the true potential of this warrior. Kratos seeks revenge on Ares and has to find "Pandora's Box." The Box has the power to kill a God, The Blade of the Gods. With the help of Athena the goddess of Athens, she guides him to Pandora's Box to retrieve the sword. After the defeating Ares, Kratos is appointed the God of War. As the God of War Kratos commands his Spartan army to seek the destruction of the Gods.
Cursed as the "Ghost of Sparta" Kratos is haunted in nightmares of his past, killing his family by his own hands. Zues strips him of his godly powers and offers Kratos the Blade of Olympus, in which he kills Kratos with. Before Kratos is sent to his death in the underworld he is saved by by the Titan Gaia, Mother of Earth. He is informed he must find the Sisters of Fate, who can change his fate and prevent his death at the hands of Zeus. Thus the plot of God of War 2. After Kratos has proven himself worthy to The Sisters of Fate by defeating them, he is returned to point at which Zeus killed him. Kratos has the Blade of Olympus and set to kill Zeus when Athena intervenes, to tell him not to kill Zeus. Athena kills herself to stop Kratos from killing the God, and informs him that he is in fact Zeus' son. Kratos saved the Titans, now needs there help to climb Mount Olympus and the journey to the top finally begins. God of War 3.
God of War 3 is something else, and anyone who is a fan or played the past games, you must play this. The open cinematic alone will sum up what my first couple paragraphs were about, it is done in such a great artistic style of representing what happened in the games so far. The game plays just like any other God of War game, for the most part I don't think that is a bad think. I'm not going to ruin the story of the game because I believe it is something that you have to experience as a fan. You basically know what you are in for when it comes to this game. The combat looks way more fluent and stylish, with all the hyper lighting effects on the weapons as they slash and whip around. The amounts of enemies on screen are impressive at times, especially with the scale of the whole backdrops and environments set in the game. The opening level alone, being on the giant Titan Gaia. Massive scale doesn't explain it, it something you have to experience. The game does not let down for what it needed to do to finish off the series. They needed to come out with something that pushed the Playstation to the max, and that had to up the previous games like they all did before. For that, Santa Monica Studios did a great job.
The graphics in this game are some of the best in the business and on the system. The level designs are huge and have such a scope to them. There always something moving going on in the background as you move through this experience. The character models are also fantastic, Kratos has never looked so good. He gets covered in blood in the battles, and his facial expressions in the cut scenes show is true emotion! Which is anger by the way, this man has been angry since he started all this. The character you encounter are well modeled and have such a high polished to them, that said everything in this game has that high polished look. The detail in this game is phenomenal, you can see they must have crammed that Blu Ray disc to the max. The voice acting is done very well, with tons of appearances from famous actors to come and do parts. They actually got Kevin Sorbo who plays Hercules on the old tv show, to come in and voice Hercules on the game. Rip Torn as Hephaestus the Smith God, was such a good performance. You can feel the emotion and work that all these actors did to bring this game to life one more time.
The intense gore and violence still remains the wow factor in God of War. Always thought to myself "could they make it more bloodier then the last one?" Santa Monica did not hold anything back when it comes to the violence in this game at all. They pushed it once again, from pulling Helios' head off straight from his neck to slicing the guts right out of a Centaur General. The game is very graphic and detailed on showing you everything. The music in the game is amazing. Soon as you fire the game up and the main menu screen come up, you can hear that orchestral score bumping and pounding out. Wow! I always thought that the music in the God of War games are some of the most powerful gaming music, and fit the game to a "T". This game does not disappoint at all when it comes to this, it over shines the previous ones. The music fits that dark and gritty battle music that is God of War, and also the music is memorable. I constantly found myself humming the theme songs when I wasn't playing the games, and thats how you can tell that the music made it to the player. The battle effects all sound good, your classic Kratos grunting and sword swinging noises are all here and sound great cranked up.
Kratos is armed with four main weapons once again. The Blades of Exile, Claws of Hades, Nemean Cestus and the Nemesis' Whip. All four weapons have sets of combos/moves to unlock, just like in previous game you have to kill enemies to earn the red orbs to purchase the upgrades. They majority of them seem all like the same, except for the Cestus which are like very powerful guantlets. The weapons all have there own special magic attack to them. Example the Blades of Exile, when you press the R2 trigger to activate the magic Kratos is surrounded and protected by a spartan shield barrier. The shields blocks you but also delivers a big blow, with spears being pierced out the side. Kratos must defeat the Gods to posses all the weapons in the game. Kratos also has three secondary weapons. The Head of Helios, Bow of Apollo, and the Boots of Hermes. All offer something new to the table. The Head of Helios acts a light in dark areas, it also shows you things that a mortal could not see such as hidden chests. The Bow of Apollo is used the same in other games, sets enemies on fire and can be useful when trying to shooting Harpes, to use them as a way across a section. The Boots of Hermes allows you to run up and across marked walls and lets you dash in combat, which makes it almost slow motion effect with knocking the enemy in the air. Nice touch.
Gameplay hasn't changed that much at all really, it is still God of War with some new touches to it. The quick action sequences are all done the same except now the action button doesn't come up in the middle, it is located at the side of the screen that the button would be laid out on. Example would be X would be at the bottom and O would be on the right. Makes it easier really, but I think it lets you see and focus more on the action and what is going on in that sequence. Jumping in this game is my only compliant. Well double jumping in this game is I mean. I find it hard that you just can't hold down your first jump and tap and hold for the next one, you cannot do this. Kratos will fall to his death. Double jumping only works if you tap the first and hold the second. Doesn't seem like much but it is, because i'm used to holding my jumps until the next, and learning that from other games. There is still the sex mini game, and the chest finding and all the orb collecting madness that is God of War present here.
The games main story will take you anywhere from 10-12 hours to complete based on the difficulty settings and your skill to be honest. When you beat the game it will unlock a harder difficulty, the Challenge Mode, and Videos of the game and behind the scenes stuff. The video documentary on the making of the game is awesome, a must check out if you are a fan. You get to see the man behind Kratos voice, all the celebrity voice actors, see all the art desgins, and just the process and work it takes to make this great game possible. If you never have played the first two games on the Playstation 2, you must play them. They are some of the must play games for the last generation consoles, and Playstation owners. If you own a Playstation 3 you can play them on the God of War Collection, which has both games on a single blu-ray remastered in high definition. If you have played them and haven't played this game, I high encourage you to get this game and experience Kratos' last stand. A truly epic game for the Playstation 3. 9.5/10
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