Everything you need: unbiased reviews, product specs and great deals.
|
God of War III for PlayStation 3Marketing Information God of War III is the final installment of the multi-million unit-selling trilogy. Developed by Sony Computer...
Read More
Marketing Information God of War III is the final installment of the multi-million unit-selling trilogy. Developed by Sony Computer Entertainment's Santa Monica Studios, God of War III will bring epic battles to life with stunning graphics and an elaborate plot that puts Kratos at the center of carnage and destruction as he seeks revenge against the Gods who have betrayed him. Set in the realm of brutal Greek mythology, God of War III is a single-player game that allows players to take on the climatic role of the ex-Spartan warrior, Kratos, as he scales through the intimidating heights of Mt. Olympus and the dark depths of Hell to seek revenge on those who have betrayed him. Armed with double-chained blades, and an array of new weapons and magic for this iteration of the trilogy, Kratos must take on mythology's darkest creatures while solving intricate puzzles throughout his merciless quest to destroy Olympus.
Minimize
|
|
18 Reviews from Epinions.com
|
God of War 3 Computer Game
For those of you who’ve never played a game in the God of War series, the games star antihero, Kratos, an ultra violent, blood thirsty undead Spartan warrior who is seeking revenge against the God’s for the death of his family – which is actually his own fault.
In the first game’s, Kratos was a rising star in the Spartan army due to his beyond-violent tacticts. He caught the eye of the Greek God Ares, who saved him from death at the hands of a Barbarian king so long as he offered his soul as collateral. Ares made Kratos ultra-powerful, which only intensified his psychotic belligerence, but, ultimately tricks Kratos by placing him in a position where his rage leads him to murder his own family. Kratos then decides to serve Athena, who wants him to kill Ares, as Ares is currently destroying Athena’s worshippers. In exchange she'd erase the nightmares of his family’s slaying. By the end of that game, Kratos gains control of Pandora’s box and kills Ares. Unfortunately, he learns that he cannot have his nightmares erased, so he attempts suicide instead, throwing himself off a cliff. Athena, saves him and offers him Ares position as the God of War.
In the second game, Kratos, has angered the God’s by using his powers to aid the Spartans. The God’s do not allow direct intervention in wars. Zeus kills Kratos for his betrayal. The spirit of the Earth “Gaia” decides to help Kratos out of Hades and instructs him to find “The Fates” where he can unwind the thread of time and change his destiny. Kratos learns that he is Zeus’ son and that it is his own destiny to kill his father and ascend Olympus just as Zeus killed his father Cronos. After a long battle, and a half million dead bodies later, Kratos decides to enlist the help of Gaia and the Titans to scale Olympus and destroy it.
This is where God of War III begins.
GAMEPLAY in God of War III is roughly the same as it was in the previous two games. The control scheme is “hack & slash” which has the player pressing buttons to unlock combos. The game also makes use of “quicktime events” where the player must push key buttons in order to “direct” action that would otherwise be uncontrollable. I.E. jumping on a monsters back and stabbing it in the brain with your 3 foot long swords. But, that doesn’t really say much… this game is BRUTAL.
In the first two games, limited by Playstation 2’s technology, the actual blood and gore, was not as sharp and crisp as it now is using the Playstation 3’s upscale hardware. This time around, blood and guts are in High Definition and the level of violence here is legendary and immoderate.
And this is probably my only problem with the game. Parents who don’t like to expose their kids to violence will definitely want to avoid this title. Besides the fact that most of the women’s breasts are exposed (ala: Greek art), there are actually sex minigames where you have to key in button sequences to make Kratos have sex with nude women straddling each other in ecstasy – just like he could in the previous games! An elongated topless scene with Aphrodite and her lesbian lovers will definitely raise eyebrows.
And that’s when he’s not eviscerating, decapitating, butchering and otherwise inconveniencing monsters, demigods and various other characters from Greek Mythology.
For example, you carry around items such as the head of Helios, which you actually have to rip off of Helios’ neck in a gory quicktime scene. But, this isn’t like “tame” games like Mortal Kombat with screen blackouts, or simple, quick decapitations. You actually have to beat Helios unmercifully, until he’s weak enough to allow you to rend his head off. Helios' head allows you to stun enemies, or light up dark areas via the light from within his mouth. Other objects include Icarus' wings and Hermes winged boots of speed which you capture after an epic chase scene through a scaffold area where a statue is being built.
There is even an awesome battle against Hades, who wields a pair of chains like Kratos' that can rip the souls out of bodies. Once beaten, you acquire his soul so you can swim across Styx unharmed.
Kratos sports new moves such as the ability to grab an enemy and use him as a battering ram to knock other enemies around; the ability to grab an enemy with his chains and pull himself towards them and the ability to dig his claws into an enemy and control them.
And then there are the misogynistic elements such as the actual murder of Hera, where Kratos snaps her neck like a twig in order to use her body as a weight for a counterbalance to escape the Labyrinth. I could go on for hours describing the epic levels of Brutality in this game but, you probably get the point.
There are numerous puzzles in fact. Fortunately, the game's camera pans to key items, or things of interest to help you solve them. This leveling ensures that no gamer who reaches a puzzle won't be able to figure them out.
What I can say is that God of War 3 is the type of game that I’d rather watch than actually play. In fact, if someone were to cut out the running/fighting segments in between epic boss murders, this could actually be a DVD movie worth buying. However, the actual running, fighting sequences are so massively epic, that watching them play out is actually just as exciting as watching Kratos battling the mini-bosses.
The boss battles are so gargantuan, that in many segments, you find yourself fighting in situations where the boss itself is the background, foreground and battlefield. One such segment is the battle against Poseidon on the back of Gaia as she is scaling Olympus. Or in an epic battle where flea-sized Kratos is scaling the body of the Titan Cronos trying to kill him. Cronos' scale is so huge that his arms must be miles long. Words alone can’t describe this game…its simply astounding.
Unfortunately, I can find some things wrong with it to gripe about.
The camera angles are designed to make battles tremendous, but sometimes they can block action, or they can block views you want to see but aren’t allowed to. The sex minigame is just one example of this. The sounds of the action are there, but, the visuals of the action are tastefully blocked as if this is some Austin Power’s movie.
Camera angles can also become an issue in some cases where moving objects come between you and the camera blocking and slowing your reaction to obstacles. No, its not a deal breaker, but its annoying nonetheless.
I’m also not very fond of hack & slash games. I prefer my action in First Person – which wouldn’t work with this style of game. After all, what is the logic in having to tap buttons to gouge Poseidon’s eyes out with my thumbs?
Of course, if you can get beyond the untenable gore, the superfluous butchery and the gratuitous sexuality, this game just might allow your kid to remember more about Greek mythology than he ever might just reading about it. In fact, this game drove me to actually look up the characters it represented to find out who they were and what role they played in the myths. After all, how many of you know who Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos were? (Sadly, Call of Duty games are doing a better job teaching kids about WW2 than schools are now)
I found the quieter moments of the game where Kratos has conversations with other characters of myth to be the most intriguing. This game is art in motion and the violence - while endemic of the time sometimes seems ridiculously over the top - like watching the movie 300. One character - whom I won't spoil for you - get's his head bashed into the ground over and over, at least 500 times which consequently paints the entire screen red with blood. Is this absolutely necessary?
Once you've beaten the game, you unlock "Chaos Mode" which makes gameplay much harder than the highest difficulty level. You also unlock a mode that allows you to choose a different character costume. Some items such as "Hera's Chalace" cannot be used until you play through the game at least once.
In the disk is a "making of God of War" DVD extra, hosted by Kevin Sorbo from the Hercules TV Show.Kevin even gets to reprise his iconic role as the voice of Hercules in the game! The memorable fight between Kratos and the predescessor of all Spartans dropped my jaw when Hercules actually picks up the ground and attempts to dump Kratos to the ground thousands of feet below.
OVERALL
God of War III’s strength, just as the previous games, are in its presentation. The sound is beyond superb, the graphics are spectacular and the level of violence is incogitable.
You don’t need this review to know that you are already going to buy this game.
(Reviewing this game forced me to use a Thesaurus and now I feel like Keith Olbermann. Just how many ways can you say "kill", "violence" and "gratuitous" anyway?)
THE VIOLENCE OF KRATOS WAS LEGENDARY...
| Author's Rating: |
|
Pros: There will be blood...
Cons: Ultra-violent Video games teach kids history and mythology better than schools can.
The Bottom Line:
God of War III is Greek Mythology in motion with supererogatory, levels of violence.
The presentation is unremittingly intense.
For those of you who’ve never played a game in the God of War series, the games star antihero, Kratos, an ultra violent, blood thirsty undead Spartan warrior who is seeking revenge against the God’s for the death of his family – which is actually his own fault.
In the first game’s, Kratos was a rising star in the Spartan army due to his beyond-violent tacticts. He caught the eye of the Greek God Ares, who saved him from death at the hands of a Barbarian king so long as he offered his soul as collateral. Ares made Kratos ultra-powerful, which only intensified his psychotic belligerence, but, ultimately tricks Kratos by placing him in a position where his rage leads him to murder his own family. Kratos then decides to serve Athena, who wants him to kill Ares, as Ares is currently destroying Athena’s worshippers. In exchange she'd erase the nightmares of his family’s slaying. By the end of that game, Kratos gains control of Pandora’s box and kills Ares. Unfortunately, he learns that he cannot have his nightmares erased, so he attempts suicide instead, throwing himself off a cliff. Athena, saves him and offers him Ares position as the God of War.
In the second game, Kratos, has angered the God’s by using his powers to aid the Spartans. The God’s do not allow direct intervention in wars. Zeus kills Kratos for his betrayal. The spirit of the Earth “Gaia” decides to help Kratos out of Hades and instructs him to find “The Fates” where he can unwind the thread of time and change his destiny. Kratos learns that he is Zeus’ son and that it is his own destiny to kill his father and ascend Olympus just as Zeus killed his father Cronos. After a long battle, and a half million dead bodies later, Kratos decides to enlist the help of Gaia and the Titans to scale Olympus and destroy it.
This is where God of War III begins.
GAMEPLAY in God of War III is roughly the same as it was in the previous two games. The control scheme is “hack & slash” which has the player pressing buttons to unlock combos. The game also makes use of “quicktime events” where the player must push key buttons in order to “direct” action that would otherwise be uncontrollable. I.E. jumping on a monsters back and stabbing it in the brain with your 3 foot long swords. But, that doesn’t really say much… this game is BRUTAL.
In the first two games, limited by Playstation 2’s technology, the actual blood and gore, was not as sharp and crisp as it now is using the Playstation 3’s upscale hardware. This time around, blood and guts are in High Definition and the level of violence here is legendary and immoderate.
And this is probably my only problem with the game. Parents who don’t like to expose their kids to violence will definitely want to avoid this title. Besides the fact that most of the women’s breasts are exposed (ala: Greek art), there are actually sex minigames where you have to key in button sequences to make Kratos have sex with nude women straddling each other in ecstasy – just like he could in the previous games! An elongated topless scene with Aphrodite and her lesbian lovers will definitely raise eyebrows.
And that’s when he’s not eviscerating, decapitating, butchering and otherwise inconveniencing monsters, demigods and various other characters from Greek Mythology.
For example, you carry around items such as the head of Helios, which you actually have to rip off of Helios’ neck in a gory quicktime scene. But, this isn’t like “tame” games like Mortal Kombat with screen blackouts, or simple, quick decapitations. You actually have to beat Helios unmercifully, until he’s weak enough to allow you to rend his head off. Helios' head allows you to stun enemies, or light up dark areas via the light from within his mouth. Other objects include Icarus' wings and Hermes winged boots of speed which you capture after an epic chase scene through a scaffold area where a statue is being built.
There is even an awesome battle against Hades, who wields a pair of chains like Kratos' that can rip the souls out of bodies. Once beaten, you acquire his soul so you can swim across Styx unharmed.
Kratos sports new moves such as the ability to grab an enemy and use him as a battering ram to knock other enemies around; the ability to grab an enemy with his chains and pull himself towards them and the ability to dig his claws into an enemy and control them.
And then there are the misogynistic elements such as the actual murder of Hera, where Kratos snaps her neck like a twig in order to use her body as a weight for a counterbalance to escape the Labyrinth. I could go on for hours describing the epic levels of Brutality in this game but, you probably get the point.
There are numerous puzzles in fact. Fortunately, the game's camera pans to key items, or things of interest to help you solve them. This leveling ensures that no gamer who reaches a puzzle won't be able to figure them out.
What I can say is that God of War 3 is the type of game that I’d rather watch than actually play. In fact, if someone were to cut out the running/fighting segments in between epic boss murders, this could actually be a DVD movie worth buying. However, the actual running, fighting sequences are so massively epic, that watching them play out is actually just as exciting as watching Kratos battling the mini-bosses.
The boss battles are so gargantuan, that in many segments, you find yourself fighting in situations where the boss itself is the background, foreground and battlefield. One such segment is the battle against Poseidon on the back of Gaia as she is scaling Olympus. Or in an epic battle where flea-sized Kratos is scaling the body of the Titan Cronos trying to kill him. Cronos' scale is so huge that his arms must be miles long. Words alone can’t describe this game…its simply astounding.
Unfortunately, I can find some things wrong with it to gripe about.
The camera angles are designed to make battles tremendous, but sometimes they can block action, or they can block views you want to see but aren’t allowed to. The sex minigame is just one example of this. The sounds of the action are there, but, the visuals of the action are tastefully blocked as if this is some Austin Power’s movie.
Camera angles can also become an issue in some cases where moving objects come between you and the camera blocking and slowing your reaction to obstacles. No, its not a deal breaker, but its annoying nonetheless.
I’m also not very fond of hack & slash games. I prefer my action in First Person – which wouldn’t work with this style of game. After all, what is the logic in having to tap buttons to gouge Poseidon’s eyes out with my thumbs?
Of course, if you can get beyond the untenable gore, the superfluous butchery and the gratuitous sexuality, this game just might allow your kid to remember more about Greek mythology than he ever might just reading about it. In fact, this game drove me to actually look up the characters it represented to find out who they were and what role they played in the myths. After all, how many of you know who Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos were? (Sadly, Call of Duty games are doing a better job teaching kids about WW2 than schools are now)
I found the quieter moments of the game where Kratos has conversations with other characters of myth to be the most intriguing. This game is art in motion and the violence - while endemic of the time sometimes seems ridiculously over the top - like watching the movie 300. One character - whom I won't spoil for you - get's his head bashed into the ground over and over, at least 500 times which consequently paints the entire screen red with blood. Is this absolutely necessary?
Once you've beaten the game, you unlock "Chaos Mode" which makes gameplay much harder than the highest difficulty level. You also unlock a mode that allows you to choose a different character costume. Some items such as "Hera's Chalace" cannot be used until you play through the game at least once.
In the disk is a "making of God of War" DVD extra, hosted by Kevin Sorbo from the Hercules TV Show.Kevin even gets to reprise his iconic role as the voice of Hercules in the game! The memorable fight between Kratos and the predescessor of all Spartans dropped my jaw when Hercules actually picks up the ground and attempts to dump Kratos to the ground thousands of feet below.
OVERALL
God of War III’s strength, just as the previous games, are in its presentation. The sound is beyond superb, the graphics are spectacular and the level of violence is incogitable.
You don’t need this review to know that you are already going to buy this game.
(Reviewing this game forced me to use a Thesaurus and now I feel like Keith Olbermann. Just how many ways can you say "kill", "violence" and "gratuitous" anyway?)
Back to all reviews
