God of War III

Let me take you back to 2010. It was a Wednesday morning and I had the day off so I did what I often did and went to BlockBuster to rent my next PlayStation 3 game for the week, back then I had the luxury of a lot more free time which allowed me to complete most new releases within the one week rental period and return with no late fines. The latest release that week was God of War III. I had never played a God of War title before, although I was vaguely aware of it, I did have a vague interest in Greek mythology though and I dived in. I was absolutely blown away by what I played. Looking at my trophy stats I returned home and started playing and finished the main story a mere 2 days later. I became a life long God of War fan, picking up every title I could get my hands on and it is the series where I have the most platinum trophies, although sadly I still don't have the platinum for God of War III.

The first God of War game released in 2005 on the PlayStation 2 by developer Santa Monica Studios and directed by David Jaffe. It was extremely well received and naturally a sequel followed in 2007 which was directed by David Jaffe and Cory Barlog, who would later go on to direct the 2018 God of War reboot and its sequel which both had incredible success on the PlayStation 4 and 5.

But God of War 3 was a bit of a departure from the names that have bookended the series. Its director was Stig Asmussen, who had worked on the previous God of War titles and took over after the previous two directors left.

Quite often in this magazine we have seen games struggle to make the jump from the PlayStation 2 to the PlayStation 3, but God of War 3 capitalized on the graphical and cinematic potential of the upgraded hardware and smashed it out of the park. The game became a PlayStation 3 icon, a must have for the platform.

Playing it again today it is clear why it was so important for the system, if this game does anything well it is scale. The game manages to create a dynamic environment where your small Kratos character interacts directly with the huge features of the world. The game starts with the Titans (A race of gigantic proto-gods) climbing the sheer face of Mount Olympus. These Titans are hundreds of times bigger than Kratos and you really feel it. The first tutorial section takes place on the arms and hands of one of these Titans - Gaia, the Earth Mother, covered in plants and vegetation. As you fight the minions in the small arena on her body, the whole background is moving with Gaia fighting in the background and then as she moves her body your fighting arena rotates causing Kratos to have to hang on and fight whilst climbing.

This then escalated as you then find yourself platforming - swapping between titan, mountain and back to titan, fighting the minions along the way with interwoven sections of Poseideons manifested water horses acting as a pre-boss battle. It is epic in every sense of the word. When you finally dispatch Posideon and make it to the top of Mount Olympus you are quickly knocked off and sent into the underworld splashing into the River Styx - I think technically means Kratos died - but as we know, Kratos doesn’t stay dead for long.

We go from a spectacular scene on Mount Olympus straight into another fantastically detailed underworld complete with Cerebrous dogs to fight, the vast expanse of the planes of Tarterous and Hephestatus, another massive titan who is eternally trapped in Tarterous as per the mythology.

I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed Kratos singlehandedly dismantling the entirety of Greek Mythology. There is no God he won’t have a go at taking down, perhaps gauging their eyes out or ripping their heads off. The brutality is hilarious and just brilliant. Even characters who try to assist Kratos find that they meet an untimely demise. Whilst the game takes a lot of extreme liberties with Greek Mythology, it also finds a way to build upon it, inventing new ideas which feel totally totally integrated into the mythology. I particularly enjoy a later scene taking place over a giant physical chain that links the heavens to the underworld and Kratos is falling and fighting for about 5 minutes like Gandalf and the Balrog.

Speaking of fighting, let’s talk about combat. This game is so much fun to play. Some detractors will have you believe it is just button mashing nonsense, and to be fair on easier difficulties, button mashing will probably see you through, but harder difficulties will get you to engage with the combo system and really learn a few.

The bigger enemies typically have a QTE takedown when they are on the verge of death. A circle button appears above their head allowing you to take them down in cinematic fashion with a QTE sequence. Personally, after my 3rd playthrough of the game, I am a bit bored of these animations. I prefer just smashing them until they are dead. The animations are just a bit too long and too repetitive.

On top of the combat, my recent playthrough reminded me just how great the little puzzles are. To mix up the combat there are environmental puzzles and platforming elements which are pretty decent and they give you a great excuse to explore and engage with the rich mythological world and lore that the game has created. There are even little “Sight-seeing” points, where you can press a button to get a description of what you are seeing and learn a little bit.

I really want to get the Platinum Trophy for this game. You need to beat the game on Titan, the game’s hard mode, whilst getting all the upgrades and then finishing the challenge levels you unlock by beating the game. It’s a tall order but I will get around to it one day.

The legacy of God of War is clear, the series has reached even higher heights with the PlayStation 4 and 5 games but the direction the series has gone in has steered away from the absolute brutality of this era. Whilst there was a remaster for the PlayStation 4, the PlayStation 3 remains an excellent place to play this fantastic game, which can be picked up pretty cheaply, and it performs and looks great keeping its reputation as an absolute PlayStation 3 icon.