The release of God of War III has brought yet another pillar of the Playstation franchise to the current flagship console of the PS3. The God of War series on the Playstation 2 was one the most popular series on the console and ever since the Playstation 3 was announced it quickly became one of the anticipate franchises that people were waiting to make the transition to the high definition universe. Now over three years after the final entry on the Playstation 2 was released very late in it’s console cycle, it’s successor has arrived. Now the question begs was the three year wait worth it or does the final entry into the God of War trilogy fall short?

The game throws you right into the middle from the very get go. You start off where the last game left off, you’ve joined forces with the Titans and you’re climbing the rock face of Mount Olympus on the back of Gaia, the Goddess of the Earth as you wage war with Zeus and the Gods of Olympus. From there the game throws you into a very impressive boss battle against the God of Water, Poseidon. This is where the game starts teaches you basic mechanics while setting you off on a wild ride where you face off on the first of many epic boss battles. From there you wage your war of revenge against the God of Olympus who had forsaken you in the first God of War game. The story can be described very easily in about six words, kill whatever is in your way, that’s what the game’s plot comes down to in the end. The story cohesive and flows well enough but it’s not exactly deep. When you’re jumping into the God of War series this should be part of your expectation, so any complaints of the story would be like expecting a masterpiece of storytelling from Rambo, it just isn’t going to happen.

Going back to that original boss battle against Poseidon, what I didn’t make clear before was how gorgeous it is and how much work was put into it. As you’re doing your thing fighting the random minions that are standing in your way, you’re treated to an epic battle happening in the background that you’re playing a crucial part of. The game gives you a sense that you’re part of an organic world instead of this manufactured feeling world where nothing is going on around you. The background is as much apart of whats happening as what you’re doing in this opening segment as the foreground. While this doesn’t hold true for the entirety of the game there is definitely a lot of effort made to pull you into this world. Kratos has never looked any better than he does in this game and the enemies look great as well. The death animations are satisfying and one of the treats of the game. If you’ve played a God of War game before I shouldn’t have to tell you this definitely isn’t for kids, from the disgusting gore as you slash open your enemies to the plain in sight breasts that show up all too often in the game. Suffice to say, God of War is definitely a gorgeous game. As for the sound, it complements the game well, the musical score is extremely well done and I wouldn’t mind having the soundtrack to listen amazing orchestral put into this game on my computer. The voice acting can be corny at times but it gets the job done and it’s hard to really take too seriously Kratos’s desire for revenge on the Gods of Olympus which he enacts by killing anything that moves give the voice actors a lot work for finding character’s motivations.

Now time to get into the real meat of potatoes of the game, it’s all well and good talking about the story and how fairly simple it is, and of course the fact the game looks really nice that’s definitely a plus but all this is nothing if the gameplay doesn’t deliver. Now when looking at the gameplay department I’d have to say it’s a mixed bag it’s got it’s pluses and minus and definitely has some problems. I’ll start this off with the good news and that’s the combat works great, the game is filled with interesting and fun to use weapons. The weapons aren’t as out there like you’d find in say a Ratchet and Clank game but you get a sense a satisfaction from using each one though some are more of the same I’d like. Each weapon does have some sort of unique ability and at least something distinguish themselves.

The combat itself controls well and seems similar to what you’d find in the older games. You’ve got your light and heavy strikes, your grappling, magic attacks and special attacks, none of that has changed from the first two games. I can definitely tell they’ve made some effort to balance the combat since God of War 2 and made grapples less powerful as you’re not completely invincible when you’re doing one as you were before. The game features the same quick time events you found in early games to finish off enemies which personally I could do without. Now where the game falls a bit short is the platforming controls, they feel clumsy and a lot of the time unintuitive. When you’re just first getting used to the game it feels like you’re fighting against the game to perform certain jumps when they should have made the system more forgiving instead of having to get used to the rigid system. There’s one specific jump on the second level that I had to redo for about half hour before I finally got it, then I had a friend try out the game who’s a veteran of the PS2 games and he had the exact same problem as me making that jump. It’s moments this that I wish that as much time was spent on the platforming portions of the game as they did with the graphics. There’s some parts of the game where it isn’t obvious where you’re supposed to jump and these portions can be a fairly annoying trial and error.

Since Kratos has wings in this game they stuck in a few flying portions to the game where you’re dodging obstacles that really shouldn’t have been put in and feel even more clumsy than the platforming. You’re trying to avoid obstacles and if you hit just one the game punishes you painfully by blocking your vision for a short but crucial amount of time while at the same time reducing the maneuverability of Kratos making it that much harder to avoid the next one. Add to the fact the game doesn’t give you any checkpoints during this section and makes you restart from the beginning if you die it makes me think they didn’t spend that much time play testing this before the game was released.

All in all what you find with God of War is a mixed bag. The game definitely delivers when it comes to visuals which help really immersing you in the game’s universe. The music sounds awesome while the voice acting itself can be corny at times with the deliveries. The gameplay delivers where the series really needed it which is the core combat, but you have to take away some points from the game when it provides instances of total frustration because a crucial part of the game feeling underdeveloped and not given the same attention as other parts of the game received. God of War fans should be satisfied with the conclusion of the trilogy but it left me wishing they had gone to the extra mile to make it a game you’d remember six months from now.

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