Apparently, God of War III finishes right where god of War II ended. I don’t know because the second game was far too long and hard and I lost interest before I could finish it. Anyway, Kratos is climbing up mount Olympus on Gaia’s shoulder as he goes after Zeus for a final time to get his revenge.
Of course, things don’t go quite according to plan and once again Kratos falls into Hades, has to find a way out and kick the living crap out of lots of enemies he didn’t quite kill properly last time around. If you’re going to do a job at least do it properly!
If you’ve played the previous games you’ll be able to pick it up and play it straight away as the controls are identical. Basically it’s the same game with a graphical facelift and some new weapons to play with. Amongst other things you now you have Hurcules’s big liony gloves to play with once you beat him and also the head of Helios which you can use to stun enemies, light up dark areas and reveal secrets by holding it out in front of you.
To begin with the game’s actually a bit of a disappointment and, unlike Dante’s Inferno, didn’t hold my interest enough for me to want to keep playing it. Only once I’d got a bit further into the game did some of the level design and set-pieces start to intrigue me and make me want to keep playing without putting it down. There are some particularly fun boss battles to fight through and some fun quick time events where you even see the action from the point of view of your poor victim as his eyes are gouged out!
Thankfully, the game’s also shorter than the last game on the PS2 and doesn’t outstay its welcome, although there is a rather strange and confusing ending sequence you have to play through once you’ve beaten the final boss proper.
And if you want to play through the game again you unlock new difficulty modes and a new costume for Kratos which deals quadruple damage but also means you also receive the same amount. It should mean you can race through it quicker. There are also some great bonus videos to unlock which show you how the game was made.
God of War III is great fun to play but it just doesn’t do anything quite new enough to get almost top marks, so it gets an excellent 8 out of 10.
Related: God of War Chains of Olympus review, God of War 3 bonus games, God of War 3 review on Youtube
I found the second game to be the shortest and easiest of all.
8/10? 11/10!