It's pretty hard to write a review for a game like God of War 3. With so much hype surrounding it's release and the reputation of two stellar games to live up to, everybody expects it to be good and get great reviews. So, to mix things up a little, I'll concentrate on GOW3's faults.
The box art is a bit odd. It looks like a box of Special K. Seriously. What's that? Not enough? Well that's all I've got!
Okay, I'm only kidding, this isn't a perfect game. This sort of hyper-violent hack'n'slash gameplay isn't for everyone, and if you haven't played the first two GOW games, I'd suggest going through those first (check out my GOW2 review for more details!).
Fans of the series will know what to expect: Intense combat, gory finishing moves, inventive and varied enemy design and sublimely beautiful environments. GOW3 delivers on almost all of these fronts, and in many cases, exceeded my expectations. The combat, while following the same template as it's predecessors, amps up the intensity by throwing considerably more enemies at you at once, and giving those enemies different behaviours and attacks. The AI can quite literally swamp you as they surround and overwhelm you. Frantically struggling to throw off a crowd of dog-piling zombie warriors while a giant slavering Cyclops lumbers towards him is an everyday occurrence for Kratos.
The enemies themselves were a little disappointing. Not too much mind you, but while the models were superbly detailed and even had subtle differences amongst themselves, I felt that many enemy types were reused from the previous games, and not enough new monsters were introduced. There's still enough to keep things fresh throughout the game, but it would have been nice to see the God of War versions of the Teumessian fox or some other mythological creature.
The environments this time round are even huger than before, and often are dynamic, with the lay of the land shifting and changing as Kratos moves across it. I was blown away at the scale of some of these moving battlefields, Kratos seeming ant-sized in comparison.
However, the level design feels a little incoherent, as you move from place to place with no real sense of order or continuity. The game is set entirely around Mount Olympus, and I felt that you spend too much time going back and forth between areas that it's easy to become confused what path leads where.
Like I said before, it's hard to write a review about God of War 3. I could go on for pages about the fun combat, the incredible graphics and epic adventure gameplay. Sure, there are minor annoyances (such as the guitar hero mini-game and the repeated flying sections. Come on! 3 times?!), but in spite of these trifling matters, God of War 3 is an amazing title, and lives up to the hype as the must-have Playstation 3 title of the year(move over Heavy Rain!). So pour yourself a bowl of Special K, bust open a can of Red Stripe, because this season red and white are the new black!
(Note: Parents beware as this title is EXTREMELY violent and contains scenes of a sexual nature, not for kiddies!)
Lukao
CeX Rathbone Place, London
