Kratos Gets a Beautiful, if Mechanically Unchanged, Sendoff
God of War burst onto the scene in March of 2005 and changed the face of consoles mascots. Previously occupied by friendly plumbers and fast running rodent his ultra-violent take on Greek mythology, quest for vengeance, and amazing gameplay were aww inspiring. Over the next five years Kratos has been murdering every Greek god, hero and mythological creature he can get his hands on across three games and two different consoles. The conclusion to his epic journey has been long awaited.
For those of you not keeping track of the God of War story Kratos has worked his way up the Greek god hierarchy until his arrival on the doorstep of itself. With an army of Titans at his side he will only be satisfied with the death of every god and most especially Zeus. While some pretext is provided up front to explain the story so far you really only need to know that Kratos is angry and wants to kill everything. This is both a strength and weakness as it creates an incredibly focused story largely devoid of angst and retrospection. Just about every character is portrayed in a black and white manner that works well for a hack and slash game but doesn’t provide a deep and engaging story.
In a story respect God of War III definitely feels like the final part of a trilogy. As it should since it is. The characters for the most part have been set out and the final confrontation is nigh. The problem is that while the entire game feels like one continuous final battle there are definite highlights that make other segments seem pedestrian by comparison. The first boss battle will take your breath away with its scale and presentation and everything that follows it will seem lacking. This isn't to say that the boss battles which follow are bad only that you can tell where they put a great deal of their effort in.
Graphically God of War III is a technical powerhouse. In his Playstation 3 debut Kratos delivers on all of the graphical power of the cell processor to render some truly breathtaking character models and set pieces. From the detail of the scowl on Kratos face to the scar on his stomach you can tell that an incredibly amount of work was put into making this game look as amazing as possible. Perhaps the most striking realization is that they managed to make the entire game look this good. You’ll be in the midst of a world shaking sequence which you believe to be FMV only to discover that it has seamlessly moved into a gameplay section which you need to control. Astounding.
Despite all that work on the visuals the rest of the game feels like all of the other God of War games. To the point that it seems like they had a checklist they were going down of what they needed to get into a game to call it God of War.
Chainblades: Check.
Three Other Largely Specialized Weapons: Check.
Chests full of Red, Green, and Blue Orbs: Check.
Items to Collect to Upgrade Health, Magic, and Item Power: Check
Sex Mini-Game: Check.
I could go on.
When it comes down to it this is a God of War game. They did almost nothing to change the formula which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. The uneven boss battles and unnecessary late game attempt to bring some depth to Kratos and explanation as to the Gods evil deeds just drags things down. It’s a minor gripe though as the visuals are amazing and the gameplay is as solid as ever. The conclusion to Kratos journey is fittingly brutal and wraps things up nicely.
