God of War 3 is God of War and there's no doubt about it.
 
But it's probably my least favourite GoW up to date. 
 
The combat and graphics are a major step up, but there's something that boggles this titan down.
Yes, it all comes from the last one third of the game. 
When everyone was saying how quickly Dante's Inferno went down hill (probably that "everyone" is a very limited audience), I can't but say the same for GoW3. I will say, i enjoyed the "Kratos in the Dark" sequence, but other than that.. no.

A Lazy Adventure --I still remember how everything went in GoW1. You got from a ship to Athens to a desert to a temple on a titan to the top of the temple where there are cliffs and waterfalls, and then fall to Hades and climb back to Athens and beat the boss. Basically the progression was very interesting and diverse, and the same could be said for the second one. Now GoW3, if i recall correctly, only ever goes through the same 3 places -- Hades, the Caverns, and Mount Olympus. You see Aphrodite and have sex 2-3 times (not that i'm complaining), and Hephaestus like 20 million times. You go through Olympus and Hades at least 4 times, and you fight on moving crates i don't fucking remember how many times. Yes, fucking crates. That brings me to the next point.
 
A Full Lazy/Filler Level (the labyrinth)  -- Going through Pandora's Temple was long yet intriguing. You got Hades and Poseidon challenge rooms and they were vastly different. In GoW2 running through the island was a thrilling experience as well, nothing dull at all. Now look at GoW3. I'm not saying the city Olympia and Mount Olympus are any less awesome, but look at the caverns. Just look at them. At first when passing Olympia and reaching this thing i was like, "what? did the developers misplace something? is this GoW i'm playing?" it turns out this empty blue hue cave with  9 wooden crates is a labyrinth, something very high-tec and supposed to be stunning. I don't feel anything for it though. Cause when they say labrynth, i was expecting something mind-blowing and creative. Now i get a cube. A cube from the movie Cube. You at least spend an hour assembling this cube, and you just kill things while you ride the huge cube around. When it's done, you get in, It rotates, it has different rooms with puzzles and just hack n' slash... well ya. Dante's Inferno anyone? I really shouldn't compare because DI's Fraud level was just flat out awful and lazy, but i didn't expect a "boring" level in GoW, from a gameplay, narrative OR artistic standpoint. It almost felt like a filler but this is supposed to be the most mind-f***ing invention in all of the GoW universe. 
 
A Lazy End Game Enemy -- The game officially ended for me after killing Cronus. I killed a fat bitch and then a skinny titty woman and everything still seemed increasingly interesting in GoW2 even near the end ( and leaves you with a cliff hanger of course). Not only is it because i had to go through a gawd awful cavern and labryinth level close to end, it's also because of the lame enemies and boss i fought before the final showdown. Scorpions. Woops. they pulled a mortal kombat. It's Skorpions. It's like pulling giant spiders out of your ass in any generic fantasy game. Here you go, fight some bugs. They're not even challenging the least because you can just one hit stomp kill them AND get health orbs. You even get to fight a giant skorpion. Great, guys, great, i applaud you.
 
Lazy Weapons -- Not that this is an end game thing, but the weapons can't compare to the ones we had in GoW2. To be honest, i didn't pull my spear of destiny out that much in my first playthrough, but i appreciate the choice to use a weaon that is totally different (you get a lot more specific and precise attacks instead of large radius splash damage from blades). The Claws of Hades and the Nemesis Whip in GoW3 however, are my blades of chaos in a skin. Mashing the buttons and whooping ass for sometime and i didn't even remember what weapon i was actually using. 
 
A Lazy Conclusion -- GoW1 was self-contained and it was when Kratos still felt human. The GoW2 story arc amplifies his anger and what the fuck is he even doing trying to kill his dad AND essentially the god of everything. Err.. it's fine as long as you wrap it up well, that Kratos actually justified his purpose. When Kratos ran through the dark close to the end, i'd admit again that's a great sequence, but i was given an impression "forgive those you you hate." I'm not saying that GoW should not have a moral, but i do think it's cliched and lazy. The developers never said that in your face, and took it back really quickly, because in the very end, i almost hoped that was what the developers meant to say. I hoped Kratos would do something to make up to the chaos and pain he caused. or at least, tell athena why he thinks he justified his revenge. KILLING HIMSELF DOES NOT. No. no. you don't fucking screw up with everything and everyone and pull a "i didn't mean it, man, i was just depressed!" and kill yourself. no. That's fucking lazy.  
 
If you got here you must be awesome. I'll give you a round of applause right here. 
SCE Santa Monica promised a game that would be longer than any of the predecesors, but it seemed even shorter (i used 7 hours) The thing is, they even went lazy on the end. I'm disappointed /.\
thanks for reading my fucking long rant, dear giantbomber. 
 

btw, feel free to think i have no life, cause i'm on long holiday right now~ 

Now I'm worried! I seen in another thread that pretty much everyone who posted there was disappointed with the game. I was going to rent but after scouring the forums so many people aren't saying many good things about it...
 
 ahhhh

Cronus was definitely the best part of the game...man, that was awesome. I'm sorry to say the next few hours of God of War III were boring, I couldn't wait for the game to end, and when it finally did I was even more disappointed. Don't even get me started on Pandora's terrible voice acting, which was possibly the worst performance I've heard since Two Worlds.

" Cronus was definitely the best part of the game...man, that was awesome. I'm sorry to say the next few hours of God of War III were boring, I couldn't wait for the game to end, and when it finally did I was even more disappointed. Don't even get me started on Pandora's terrible voice acting, which was possibly the worst performance I've heard since Two Worlds. "

I guess I was the only one who liked the ending. :(

I thought Kratos dying was a fitting way for God Of War to end.

Someone expected that God of War would end with Kratos ALIVE? Wow.

I never cared if Kratos ended up living or dying at the end of God of War III, but this ending was lame. It really took the wind out of what little energy the story had.

I fully expect add-on content where you rebuild the world as someone besides Kratos.  In fact, I think it would be awesome.  If this is the true end to the game though, that sucks..

" I guess I was the only one who liked the ending. :( "

Whats up with the after credits scene? Does that mean hes still alive or something? (The trail of blood leading off the cliff)

" God of War 3 is God of War and there's no doubt about it.
 
But it's probably my least favourite GoW up to date. 
 
The combat and graphics are a major step up, but there's something that boggles this titan down.
Yes, it all comes from the last one third of the game. 
When everyone was saying how quickly Dante's Inferno went down hill (probably that "everyone" is a very limited audience), I can't but say the same for GoW3. I will say, i enjoyed the "Kratos in the Dark" sequence, but other than that.. no.

A Lazy Adventure --I still remember how everything went in GoW1. You got from a ship to Athens to a desert to a temple on a titan to the top of the temple where there are cliffs and waterfalls, and then fall to Hades and climb back to Athens and beat the boss. Basically the progression was very interesting and diverse, and the same could be said for the second one. Now GoW3, if i recall correctly, only ever goes through the same 3 places -- Hades, the Caverns, and Mount Olympus. You see Aphrodite and have sex 2-3 times (not that i'm complaining), and Hephaestus like 20 million times. You go through Olympus and Hades at least 4 times, and you fight on moving crates i don't fucking remember how many times. Yes, fucking crates. That brings me to the next point.
 
A Full Lazy/Filler Level (the labyrinth)  -- Going through Pandora's Temple was long yet intriguing. You got Hades and Poseidon challenge rooms and they were vastly different. In GoW2 running through the island was a thrilling experience as well, nothing dull at all. Now look at GoW3. I'm not saying the city Olympia and Mount Olympus are any less awesome, but look at the caverns. Just look at them. At first when passing Olympia and reaching this thing i was like, "what? did the developers misplace something? is this GoW i'm playing?" it turns out this empty blue hue cave with  9 wooden crates is a labyrinth, something very high-tec and supposed to be stunning. I don't feel anything for it though. Cause when they say labrynth, i was expecting something mind-blowing and creative. Now i get a cube. A cube from the movie Cube. You at least spend an hour assembling this cube, and you just kill things while you ride the huge cube around. When it's done, you get in, It rotates, it has different rooms with puzzles and just hack n' slash... well ya. Dante's Inferno anyone? I really shouldn't compare because DI's Fraud level was just flat out awful and lazy, but i didn't expect a "boring" level in GoW, from a gameplay, narrative OR artistic standpoint. It almost felt like a filler but this is supposed to be the most mind-f***ing invention in all of the GoW universe. 
 
A Lazy End Game Enemy -- The game officially ended for me after killing Cronus. I killed a fat bitch and then a skinny titty woman and everything still seemed increasingly interesting in GoW2 even near the end ( and leaves you with a cliff hanger of course). Not only is it because i had to go through a gawd awful cavern and labryinth level close to end, it's also because of the lame enemies and boss i fought before the final showdown. Scorpions. Woops. they pulled a mortal kombat. It's Skorpions. It's like pulling giant spiders out of your ass in any generic fantasy game. Here you go, fight some bugs. They're not even challenging the least because you can just one hit stomp kill them AND get health orbs. You even get to fight a giant skorpion. Great, guys, great, i applaud you.
 
Lazy Weapons -- Not that this is an end game thing, but the weapons can't compare to the ones we had in GoW2. To be honest, i didn't pull my spear of destiny out that much in my first playthrough, but i appreciate the choice to use a weaon that is totally different (you get a lot more specific and precise attacks instead of large radius splash damage from blades). The Claws of Hades and the Nemesis Whip in GoW3 however, are my blades of chaos in a skin. Mashing the buttons and whooping ass for sometime and i didn't even remember what weapon i was actually using. 
 
A Lazy Conclusion -- GoW1 was self-contained and it was when Kratos still felt human. The GoW2 story arc amplifies his anger and what the fuck is he even doing trying to kill his dad AND essentially the god of everything. Err.. it's fine as long as you wrap it up well, that Kratos actually justified his purpose. When Kratos ran through the dark close to the end, i'd admit again that's a great sequence, but i was given an impression "forgive those you you hate." I'm not saying that GoW should not have a moral, but i do think it's cliched and lazy. The developers never said that in your face, and took it back really quickly, because in the very end, i almost hoped that was what the developers meant to say. I hoped Kratos would do something to make up to the chaos and pain he caused. or at least, tell athena why he thinks he justified his revenge. KILLING HIMSELF DOES NOT. No. no. you don't fucking screw up with everything and everyone and pull a "i didn't mean it, man, i was just depressed!" and kill yourself. no. That's fucking lazy.    If you got here you must be awesome. I'll give you a round of applause right here.  SCE Santa Monica promised a game that would be longer than any of the predecesors, but it seemed even shorter (i used 7 hours) The thing is, they even went lazy on the end. I'm disappointed /.\ thanks for reading my fucking long rant, dear giantbomber.   btw, feel free to think i have no life, cause i'm on long holiday right now~  "

It felt to me like they were giving Kratos some likable traits near the end. I did get really angry that there was nothing in the box, it conveyed I did all that for this, really well. But truthfully this game does not even come close to GoW2, although i did like the free falling back down to hades' ream part, that was pretty awesome. The end fight was not worth all the platforming issues i went through. Sad, only thing keeping me going was killing Zeus and that was a big letdown.

why change something that works? Im glad they didn't break down the first two games and started all over! This is what GoW is! Hard as hell if u play on the tougher difficulties! 
Ends the trilogy well! it will be hard for other game makers to top this trilogy! if it can be done?
I found it good that the various weapons actually made difference to the gameplay this time and that some of the weapons worked better than others on different enemies! Good job there santa moncia!

" Someone expected that God of War would end with Kratos ALIVE? Wow. "

" @Ghostiet said:

" Someone expected that God of War would end with Kratos ALIVE? Wow. "

Exactly. How could you go into the game without realizing that Kratos would kill everyone and then come to terms with his sins and kill himself. It's not the most original concept for a story (albeit this one takes place in ancient Greece) and should have been fairly easy to figure out. The nuances to the story come in the form of Athenas revelations about Pandoras box. It made perfect sense to me.  "

Personally I'm glad they didn't try some bullshit arc of redeeming Kratos. I am glad they had the balls to have a major franchise character kill himself.

" Don't even get me started on Pandora's terrible voice acting, which was possibly the worst performance I've heard since Two Worlds. "

I didn't think Pandora was that bad lol, I'm kinda surprised to hear that everyone hated her so much!

Well, Kratos stabbing himself released hope onto the world, wich was probably better than giving it to Athena.

My thoughts 
 
-Pandora was a horrible voice actor 
-The fight with Cronos was the most epic thing since the fight with Liquid at the end of MGS4 
-The first person Zeus killing was awesome. 
-The ending was a little clichéd but made since, Kratos is not a nice man redeeming him would be a major slap in the face, though they did leave room open for a sequel with Athena being alive and all.  
-Not enough Titans,  I would have preferrd they stayed on Kratos side for more then half an hour, they all get knocked out of the race pretty early on and I was a little mad that Gaia's voice actor was different from GOW I and II.
 
Where GOW goes on from here, I'm not sure part of me wants a total reboot with a diffrent Mythology and style of gameplay, though part of me wants to see Kratos come back and fuck up some other mythology.

I see God of War kind of like the Hostel movies, but more mainstream. Why spend 20 so hours slaughtering and torturing if there is no resolution or pay off in the end? DId they make the game just to entertain their sadistic fantasies?

Just rented it and beat it in a little over 6 hours. 
 
I can't believe how short this game is, and how unsatisfied I feel. There were a few cool parts, but a game so short and only having a "few good parts" does not warrant a full experience. Jeez, I feel bad for people who got home and beat this in one or two sittings.  @ptys said:

" I see God of War kind of like the Hostel movies, but more mainstream. Why spend 20 so hours slaughtering and torturing if there is no resolution or pay off in the end? DId they make the game just to entertain their sadistic fantasies? "

Did anyone tried to think maybe Pandora's VA was, like, 13 or something?  I don't know about you, but it seems good teenage VAs are pretty scarce.

I really enjoyed the last act. The caverns/labyrinthe were only an hour or two long, but it still had my attention during. Everything before and after was incredible. 
 
 
 
 
 
You only really fight on the crates once.

" Someone expected that God of War would end with Kratos ALIVE? Wow. "

lol cool story bro. 

Agreed with everything you mentioned - the last 3 hours had more in common with the last hour or two of Chains of Olympus that the previous 2 console games i.e. all repetitive combat, samey rooms and a lack of visual splendour. 
 
I was really surprised at just how inconsistent the game was - the Chronos fight especially and most of the other boss fights were astounding but then the parts in between really suffered. Filled with invisible walls, poor checkpointing (especially in the multi-staged boss fights), inconsistent visuals (maybe it was just because Kratos looked so astounding but some of the other characters looked down right bad and extremely low poly), a dodgy lock on system that had me grabbing un-grabable enemies instead of the small grunts I clearly intended to take out (a major issue in the challenge mode) and some dodgy platforming sections made worse by a lightly off centre camera and the issues with perspective it created. 
 
As much as I loved some parts of the game, I generally came away feeling quite disappointed. A lot of it felt like filler, which for an 8 hour game is not a good sign.  

" Personally I'm glad they didn't try some bullshit arc of redeeming Kratos. I am glad they had the balls to have a major franchise character kill himself. "

Im pretty sure Kratos is alive. After the credits hes gone and there's a blood trail over the edge of the cliff, I took that to mean hes alive.

I thought it was really really awesome, but nothing will ever be as good as the moment in the first game in the desert! That whole section, especially the way it starts, is one of the best locations in a game ever!

" @Ghostiet said:

" Someone expected that God of War would end with Kratos ALIVE? Wow. "

My thoughts exactly, when does a quest for vengeance end well ?  "

" @Toxic said:

" @Ghostiet said:

" Someone expected that God of War would end with Kratos ALIVE? Wow. "

My thoughts exactly, when does a quest for vengeance end well ?  "

Kill Bill =D "