God of Wane
God of War has always managed to convey an epic sense of scale. From the gargantuan bosses, to the seemingly endless vistas that Kratos slaughters his way across, God of War accomplishes, if nothing else, an impressive sense of scale. The series has constantly pushed the boundaries of the platforms it’s inhabited to create the very highest levels of visceral excess – both visually and emotionally. Few games have managed to make me chortle with guilty glee as loudly as when Giants are cruelly, and crudely, robbed of their sight as an impossibly angry man rips their eyeballs from their sockets.
The second game in the series was seen as the pinnacle of what could be achieved on the Playstation 2 hardware; producing visuals that were so far beyond the quality of anything previously seen on the console. So too, will God of War 3 be considered a crowning achievement in squeezing the most out of the Playstation platform. Kratos, stunningly realised in the fanciest of current generation technology, wades through oceans of blood and gore in pursuit of his always just-out-of-reach revenge. From ripping the wings off swarms of Harpies, to literally tearing the head off of a god, God of War 3 is pure spectacle - an immensely vivid and detailed fireworks display.
Like many a fireworks display however, starring too long at the light and colours will eventually start to produce a feeling of tedium. God of War is so often set to max volume, that after a while, the endless cavalcade of violence and vengeance starts to wear a bit thin. This is further exacerbated by the fact that the game never really manages to recreate the truly awe-filled moments of its opening chapter.
Where as God of War 2 flowed seamlessly from grand encounter to grand encounter, punctuated only briefly by tight and often gruelling sets of smaller melees, God of War 3 seems to stretch out these connecting stages of battle a little too thinly. By the end of the game, the mountain of tension that the series has been climbing to this point, rather disappointingly peters out into a brisk, and rather flat, stroll. The game begins to suffer from poor pacing that starts to take hold in the latter part of the game. The far more interesting and exciting encounters - depicting Kratos brutalising enemies that could fairly be described as mountains - only serves to highlight the eventual mundanity of the skirmishes that surround these awesome battles.
To think that God of War 3 is a disappointing failure however, would be to ignore all the improvements that have managed to genuinely enhance the series during its conclusion. The secondary weapons that Kratos acquires during the course of the game now add definite variety to the combat system. In previous games the collectable weapons were always relegated to second place when being compared to the terrifying Blades of Chaos that Kratos has always had chained to his forearms. Thankfully, now these weapons are easily as fun and rewarding to use as the Chaos Blades have always been in the past. Switching between these weapons mid-combo (another welcome addition) feels natural and satisfying. No longer will you begrudgingly pour upgrade points into the alternative weapons just because you’ve already maxed out the upgrade potential of the main equipment. So whether you’re slingling Kratos’ own Chaos Blades through the air or pounding enemies to a gruesome pulp with the immensely solid feeling new Cestus, the weaponry always manages to make you feel good.
God of War 3 ultimately comes in slightly under par when compared to the giddy heights of tension and excitement that the series has previously reached, but the overall experience still manages to be very enjoyable despite the lacklustre pacing in the second half. Santa Monica Studios has delivered another gloriously over-the-top slice of faux Greek mythology; it’s just a pity that it never quite manages to reach the lofty heights that the previous games were so consistently able to achieve.
