God of War III   IGN  AU Review

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Australia, March 8, 2010 - From the highest point on Mount Olympus, face-to-face with Zeus, all the way down into the belly of Hades, swirling through the river Styx. That's how God of War III opens; Kratos on the warpath, taking no prisoners in his relentless, anger-fuelled journey of revenge. This spectacular prologue – and it truly is downright spectacular – sets the dire tone. It's all-or-nothing times for Kratos, and fans who have ardently stuck by the pasty, bald behemoth are about to experience an end chapter utterly befitting one of gaming's grandest adventures.

It's no spoiler to say that Kratos' journey in God of War III feels like his most far-flung and epic yet. Even just the first handful of hours crams more Titans and boss-types into the mix than you might expect. The reappearance of classic characters will delight (and confound) fans, too – it really does feel like a grand finale, with Santa Monica Studio holding nothing and no one back for the last curtain call.

On first appearances, Santa Monica studio hasn't taken any kind of grand departure from the now industry-adopted action-platformer creed. Kratos enters the scene swinging his trademark blades, still mapped to the same keys, still roughly the same combos, grapples and fireworks displays. Your health and special abilities are still dominated by the same three glowing orb types – and these are still earned through combat and plundering conveniently scattered chests.

However, God of War III doesn't take its fans for granted, rarely pandering to newbie players; it opens with a bang and assumes a certain degree of gameplay knowledge. In fact, the pre-prologue titles sequence is about the only time the game actively provides a 'refresher'; for all other players wanting to get the most out of this story – and believe us, it's knotted, incestuous and rife with, erm, sexual deviancy, like any good daytime melodrama – then you'll want to pick up the recently released and remastered God of War and God of War II double-pack.

So what's new? Plenty, thankfully.

Let's start with the most striking element – the fresh engine that powers ancient Greece. For sceptics, allow your fears to be allayed: God of War III is every bit the lavish production you (and we) were hoping for. This is a game of outstanding design ethic – from wonderful and often staggeringly large scale environments and set pieces, to lush colour and rich, sharp textures – though, the game does have a minor issue with consistency, which we'll delve into shortly.

Some of our favourite moments (SPOILERS!) see Kratos working his way up the Chain of Balance – miles and miles of chain-links dangling from the inner workings of the earth. Kratos' wings (returning from the second game) allow you, at the game's discretion, to break away from the platforming and take to the air – and so you shall, at break-neck speeds. Kratos hurtles vertically along the chain, and you weave and roll around the screen, flying past obstacles and hurtling through barriers until, suddenly, you burst into the antechamber – an expanse so staggeringly large that it will bitch-slap your jaw to the pavement.


The Chain of Balance, you see, is connected to massive dangling crates, each weighted and connected to other chains at the centre. These crates shift and drift around, forming a very clever platforming sequence that has Kratos whipping around and slingshotting from surface to surface. Then, with swift game design in tow, you're suddenly immersed in frantic combat – hordes of enemies pouring onto your platform, trying to disembowel you on one hand and also trying frantically to uncouple the chain from the enormous cube that you're on. (END OF SPOILERS! WHEW!)

Talk about a juggling act; God of War III's structure is such that, just as soon as you think you have the gameplay pegged, something shifts and you're suddenly doing something radically different. Such gameplay diversity is refreshing; there are some genuinely surprising moments where traditional combat and platforming go out the window completely, instead prompting you to use Kratos' hand to block out blinding light. It might not sound like much, but it's moments like these that strike us as truly innovative.

It's also a game that delights in unbridled mayhem and violence. Whether you're popping eyeballs with the left and right thumbsticks or wrenching the head off a man-god, Kratos' blood-spilling does not let up. We love it; he's a total jerk with a single-minded dedication to his path that gives him serious attitude and makes the story a delight to stomp through.

In-game cinematics have finally hit full stride for the series. Shifting the QTE (Quick Time Events) button icons to the edge of the screen has at once improved the immersion-factor during cinematics. The use of clever perspectives, swooping cameras and tight editing combine to create a compelling storytelling scenario as much as an exciting gameplay experience. The quality of the facial animations and model work also propel God of War III into one of the best looking games on the PlayStation 3 – all of these glitzy elements running at a buttery framerate that even Uncharted 2 would be envious of. This is a technical and artistic achievement on most fronts and we think you won't be disappointed.

If there are shortcomings to the presentation, the animation cycles for Kratos and other enemies don't match the gorgeous visuals; there's something slightly disjointed about some of Kratos' movements; a little too exaggerated perhaps. When he transitions between moves, the change results in a sudden animation 'pop' which seems uncharacteristically old-world for such a tight engine.

It's also not the most consistently excellent looking game, either. While the show-stopping areas slide into frame routinely, there are also some notably flat and bland textures that, in the face of all the wonderful design work, stick out badly. Still, even with the occasional dud room, bland hallway or flat texture, the supreme scale and overall design ethic is top-crust.

With pace and personality on its side, God of War is a heck of a lot of fun to play. That's probably the most important element of any game worth your time – and this one certainly is. Excising all the presentational improvements for a moment and examining the raw mechanics, there are a few minor gripes that we can't ignore.


Occasional disorientation is an interesting by-product of the largely decent auto-camera system. Rather than allowing for any kind of manual control (outside of panoramic 'pedestal' viewpoint opportunities scattered around the world), the camera is constantly panning, tilting, tracking and zooming around you in an effort to provide you with the best possible angle – even though it tends to side with 'cinematic' over 'practical'. As such, we found ourselves at times looking down a corridor we'd just come from and needing to run at the camera to progress – even though logic would dictate the reverse. It happened a lot, frankly – and it became genuinely confusing to progress, since nobody in ancient Greece saw fit to map the goddamned place out. You're on your own out there.

Platforming – the classic double-jump, glide and land combo – continues to make up a fair percentage of your traversing through the realms. That's neither here nor there –nor is it the extent of the platforming challenges on offer which is largely a blend of wire-shimmying, cliff-climbing and the standard fare. However, there are a few perspective issues that make judging your distance and height a real pain in the ass. It's occasionally infuriating. Compounding the issue is the the delay between the end of your double-jump and the unfurling of your wings. You have to factor in the delay when crossing gaps, which slows down the pace. Like or not, it's a problem in our eyes for a game that generally big-notes itself for fluidity and pace.

Really, though, a few small-fry issues like this can't dampen what is a tremendous experience through to the very end. Inclusions like harnessing Cerberuses and Ogres like living wheat-threshers and tanks is endlessly fun and the combat continues to feel compelling and tight – even if it's now getting to become something of a routine three games in (or four, if you count the PSP outing).

 

Closing Comments
God of War III was always going to be one for the fans; like any franchise with a following, the weight of expectation always threatens to topple the realities of game design limitations. However, even if God of War III isn't going to cause a massive rethink on the way you play action-heavy platformers, Kratos has earned an enviable position at the head of his genre's ladder - and we don't think there's going to be another hero quite like him, in a series as consistently outstanding as this, for a very long time.