Applejack
03-23-2010, 10:56 AM
http://media.industrygamers.com/editorial/2010/01/god%20of%20war%203%20box%20art .jpg
When it was released in 2005, God of War was a very well received game, partly due to its setting and partly due to its sheer brutality when it came to killing fools, all while having a very easy combat system. Even though Devil May Cry 3 came out two weeks before, God of War was praised by many as the pinnacle of the action genre. It was a good game, but it wasn't without its faults. God of War 2 improved on many things regarding the combat and puzzles, yet still there were annoyances that kept the game from being truly great, one among them being the narrative.
It is five years later and God of War 3 has recently been released. Sporting a bright and shiny new look thanks to the Playstation 3, God of War 3 is the [supposed] final entry into the franchise. But the question is, is it a fitting send off for the self-proclaimed 'God of Action Games'?
We last left Kratos on the back of the Titan Gaia as she and the other Titans climbed Mount Olympus to kill the gods; mainly Zeus. The game picks up immediately where the second left off, with the massive Titans scaling the even more massive Mount Olympus while Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, Hermes, Hercules (even though it should be HERACLES) and Helios watch on and eventually attack. I just gave away every boss fight in the game, by the way.
As soon as you start the game you notice just how fantastic the game looks. I know I've said that about three or four other games recently, but it's true. The PS3 has now proven itself to be the king when it comes to console graphics. The game starts with a literal jaw dropping tutorial segment, culminating in one of the most brutal and awesome boss fight endings I've ever played. But in true God of War fashion, Kratos finds himself betrayed (Oh come on, you saw it coming too) and sent to Hades. Because that clearly has stopped him before. Shortly after you're stripped of all your health, magic, and weapons. You get Metroided. Like every other God of War game, Kratos finds himself searching for some plot device that can challenge the gods themselves. But if these things have always existed, why not simply go for that from the start and save time.
Not long after that you start to gain weapons and magic and the combat system opens up. Maybe I've been spoiled by Bayonetta, or maybe I'm finally able to see clearly, but the combat system in God of War is far too button mashy for its own good. Sure there's a method to it, but there's no fluidity to the combo system. Hammering on different patterns of square and triangle will get you through the game just fine. Sure you can attempt to master all the moves for each weapon (of which there are four), but enemies die with the same attack combos before that ever really becomes a necessity and magic is still retardedly broken. You get three weapons in addition to your standard blades, but with the exception of the Nemesis Whip I never really found myself NEEDING or WANTING to use any other weapon, other than the Cestus in cases where I HAD to use it to advance.
There have been improvements to the combat system, sure, with things like the ability to launch yourself towards an enemy or to string together a combo with every weapon (Hey, that sounds like something you could do in Bayonetta!), but the improvements don't change the fact that it's still the same button mashey God of War game. With the same quick time event death moments. That you see the same of. Over and over again. I know it's probably too much to ask for unique death animations, but is it so hard to get NEW ones? Since the first one, the Cyclops killing animation has been the same. Same with the Cerberus. And the Gorgons. And the Skeletons. And the Sirens. You get the idea. The only new ones are the Minotaur and the Centaur, the latter of which is only new because it includes organs and guts spilling out. As much as I like seeing shit ripped apart, after my fifth time snapping a Minotaur's neck, I got bored with it. Seeing the same thing over and over again makes that sight dull.
And that's the word of the day for God of War 3. Dull. Right around the middle of the game, every god that isn't Zeus has been taken care of. Spoiler alert. And by every god, I mean Hades, Helios, Poseidon, and Hermes. It is right around this time that the game suddenly becomes extremely dull and boring as you are tasked, yet again, with going to some place filled with puzzles and traps to find the thing that will allow you to kill a god. When the game goes from large scale set pieces and exciting action moments to fighting skeletons and scorpions in identical looking caves, you know you've blown your load far too quickly.
The plot also takes a backseat. Though the franchise has never really been known for its narrative, it's even worse here. It starts off promising and then right around the middle it's like they just gave up and decided not to even bother, only to come to a conclusion that tried to make Kratos out to be some sort of character with depth and tried to make the audience sympathize with him. I'm sorry, game, but if I've spent the past seven hours watching someone mercilessly killing everything he sees, I'm not suddenly going to feel any sort of warm emotion towards him. It's like watching a movie about a psychopathic maniac who kicks puppies and murders children after raping and killing their parents and then having the same character turn into Mr. Misunderstood and Happy. It just doesn't work. Kratos has never been a well developed character and it's far too late to change that.
Perhaps the best thing about the game is its length. I finished in about seven hours. Two and a half sittings. If I had to go on for much longer I'd probably simply want to quit. Because in those seven hours, I encountered several glitches and bugs that made me want to stop playing altogether. More than once I found myself falling through the floor in a boss fight. There were no edges or holes on the floor. I quite literally fell through the geometry of the arena and had to start the fight all over again; frequently this happened when I had almost killed the multi-staged boss in question. Framerate slowdowns occurred far too often. But when you try to have a shitload of graphic intensive enemies all doing their own thing, that's going to happen. It felt like Santa Monica Studios bit off more than they could chew with that. The game froze on me five times, one in particular during a gauntlet of enemies near the end of the game. A gauntlet I then had to start all over again. But the biggest offender of all? They turned the entire last leg of the game into an escort mission.
Because escort missions in action games are always a god damn good idea.
Sure the game looks really good and the animations of Kratos are particularly nice as well, but still the game is just...dull. Once you get over the awesome intro and the sporadic moments of sheer brutality and visceral action, the game is just a boring hack and slash with the same areas repeated numerous times, each more boring than the previous visit. If you're a fan of the series, you're probably going to love it no matter what. If you're not, I'd say it's totally fine to skip it. You're not missing much. I'd also suggest you play Bayonetta since it is a far better action game and its annoyances come in two levels and not the entire half of the game.
But then again, Bayonetta doesn't have Rip Torn in it, so God of War 3 gets some points for that.
2/5
When it was released in 2005, God of War was a very well received game, partly due to its setting and partly due to its sheer brutality when it came to killing fools, all while having a very easy combat system. Even though Devil May Cry 3 came out two weeks before, God of War was praised by many as the pinnacle of the action genre. It was a good game, but it wasn't without its faults. God of War 2 improved on many things regarding the combat and puzzles, yet still there were annoyances that kept the game from being truly great, one among them being the narrative.
It is five years later and God of War 3 has recently been released. Sporting a bright and shiny new look thanks to the Playstation 3, God of War 3 is the [supposed] final entry into the franchise. But the question is, is it a fitting send off for the self-proclaimed 'God of Action Games'?
We last left Kratos on the back of the Titan Gaia as she and the other Titans climbed Mount Olympus to kill the gods; mainly Zeus. The game picks up immediately where the second left off, with the massive Titans scaling the even more massive Mount Olympus while Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, Hermes, Hercules (even though it should be HERACLES) and Helios watch on and eventually attack. I just gave away every boss fight in the game, by the way.
As soon as you start the game you notice just how fantastic the game looks. I know I've said that about three or four other games recently, but it's true. The PS3 has now proven itself to be the king when it comes to console graphics. The game starts with a literal jaw dropping tutorial segment, culminating in one of the most brutal and awesome boss fight endings I've ever played. But in true God of War fashion, Kratos finds himself betrayed (Oh come on, you saw it coming too) and sent to Hades. Because that clearly has stopped him before. Shortly after you're stripped of all your health, magic, and weapons. You get Metroided. Like every other God of War game, Kratos finds himself searching for some plot device that can challenge the gods themselves. But if these things have always existed, why not simply go for that from the start and save time.
Not long after that you start to gain weapons and magic and the combat system opens up. Maybe I've been spoiled by Bayonetta, or maybe I'm finally able to see clearly, but the combat system in God of War is far too button mashy for its own good. Sure there's a method to it, but there's no fluidity to the combo system. Hammering on different patterns of square and triangle will get you through the game just fine. Sure you can attempt to master all the moves for each weapon (of which there are four), but enemies die with the same attack combos before that ever really becomes a necessity and magic is still retardedly broken. You get three weapons in addition to your standard blades, but with the exception of the Nemesis Whip I never really found myself NEEDING or WANTING to use any other weapon, other than the Cestus in cases where I HAD to use it to advance.
There have been improvements to the combat system, sure, with things like the ability to launch yourself towards an enemy or to string together a combo with every weapon (Hey, that sounds like something you could do in Bayonetta!), but the improvements don't change the fact that it's still the same button mashey God of War game. With the same quick time event death moments. That you see the same of. Over and over again. I know it's probably too much to ask for unique death animations, but is it so hard to get NEW ones? Since the first one, the Cyclops killing animation has been the same. Same with the Cerberus. And the Gorgons. And the Skeletons. And the Sirens. You get the idea. The only new ones are the Minotaur and the Centaur, the latter of which is only new because it includes organs and guts spilling out. As much as I like seeing shit ripped apart, after my fifth time snapping a Minotaur's neck, I got bored with it. Seeing the same thing over and over again makes that sight dull.
And that's the word of the day for God of War 3. Dull. Right around the middle of the game, every god that isn't Zeus has been taken care of. Spoiler alert. And by every god, I mean Hades, Helios, Poseidon, and Hermes. It is right around this time that the game suddenly becomes extremely dull and boring as you are tasked, yet again, with going to some place filled with puzzles and traps to find the thing that will allow you to kill a god. When the game goes from large scale set pieces and exciting action moments to fighting skeletons and scorpions in identical looking caves, you know you've blown your load far too quickly.
The plot also takes a backseat. Though the franchise has never really been known for its narrative, it's even worse here. It starts off promising and then right around the middle it's like they just gave up and decided not to even bother, only to come to a conclusion that tried to make Kratos out to be some sort of character with depth and tried to make the audience sympathize with him. I'm sorry, game, but if I've spent the past seven hours watching someone mercilessly killing everything he sees, I'm not suddenly going to feel any sort of warm emotion towards him. It's like watching a movie about a psychopathic maniac who kicks puppies and murders children after raping and killing their parents and then having the same character turn into Mr. Misunderstood and Happy. It just doesn't work. Kratos has never been a well developed character and it's far too late to change that.
Perhaps the best thing about the game is its length. I finished in about seven hours. Two and a half sittings. If I had to go on for much longer I'd probably simply want to quit. Because in those seven hours, I encountered several glitches and bugs that made me want to stop playing altogether. More than once I found myself falling through the floor in a boss fight. There were no edges or holes on the floor. I quite literally fell through the geometry of the arena and had to start the fight all over again; frequently this happened when I had almost killed the multi-staged boss in question. Framerate slowdowns occurred far too often. But when you try to have a shitload of graphic intensive enemies all doing their own thing, that's going to happen. It felt like Santa Monica Studios bit off more than they could chew with that. The game froze on me five times, one in particular during a gauntlet of enemies near the end of the game. A gauntlet I then had to start all over again. But the biggest offender of all? They turned the entire last leg of the game into an escort mission.
Because escort missions in action games are always a god damn good idea.
Sure the game looks really good and the animations of Kratos are particularly nice as well, but still the game is just...dull. Once you get over the awesome intro and the sporadic moments of sheer brutality and visceral action, the game is just a boring hack and slash with the same areas repeated numerous times, each more boring than the previous visit. If you're a fan of the series, you're probably going to love it no matter what. If you're not, I'd say it's totally fine to skip it. You're not missing much. I'd also suggest you play Bayonetta since it is a far better action game and its annoyances come in two levels and not the entire half of the game.
But then again, Bayonetta doesn't have Rip Torn in it, so God of War 3 gets some points for that.
2/5