(I'd firstly like to preface this blog post by saying this is not a reaction to Ryan's review of the game, I appreciate his opinion and think he gave the game an excellent score, despite disagreeing with some of his criticisms on a personal level).
 
I've seen some worrying comments on the forums. Presumably people who haven't played God Of War III yet pulling the ol' "God Of War in HD" comment. Nope, God Of War in HD was the God Of War Collection. Let's talk about why God Of War III is not as familiar as people claim, and also why the final iteration is the best in the franchise:
 

• Combat. Watch someone play God Of War III and it looks the same. Play God Of War III yourself and it feels the same. But actually analyse it next to the previous two iterations and you'll notice it's balanced close-to perfection. The way the enemies are laid out, the way the specific arenas are constructed, the way the moves and enemy AI is perfectly tuned is staggering. Despite looking the same on surface value, God Of War III's combat is so much more refined. As is an overlooked tradition for the God Of War games, each iteration has better tuned the combat, and while it's not immediately noticable (it absolutely looks the same), fans of the franchise will notice that it "feels" better. And that's because it's been refined to perfection.
• Difficulty. God Of War I & II had impossible difficulty spikes, particularly on the higher difficulties. God Of War III's difficulty is extremely tough on Titan difficulty, but it never spikes. It's been hand balanced to make it consistent - obviously challenging - but possible. I personally think that's awesome.
• Pacing. The God Of War games have always had fantastic pacing. The transition between combat, puzzle, platform and adventure has always been spot-on. With God Of War III though, I feel like it's again, that combination perfected. I honestly felt like there was a bit less fighting in God Of War III, but I assume that's because the game is so good at driving me through different objectives. I mean, let's be honest, if you hate everything about God Of War III, the level design is just outrageous. Yes it's largely scripted, but I love that almost "Metroid" feeling you get from seeing a ledge very early on and not being able to reach it, only to come full-circle with a new ability five hours later when you can finally get there. I think this game does that better than any other in the franchise.
  
• Puzzles. There are less puzzles in God Of War III. But what I felt was, when you get to a puzzle, it's a bigger, more "important" and challenging puzzle to complete. Without spoiling the game, the puzzle on perspective is outrageously satisfying. It's a decent chunk of a puzzle too - rather than just being a quick "press this switch" objective that were so obvious in previous games.
• Controls. God Of War has often had some quite complex control mechanics, simply because Kratos has so many abilities. I feel like God Of War III cuts down on the number of inputs and provides a more simplistic control scheme that makes all of Kratos' abilities more instantly-accessible.
• Weapons. For the first time in the franchise, I feel God Of War III provides weapons that I want to use. I can see where the "Blades Of Chaos" comparisons come in, the weapons handle similarly, but I feel that they are also different enough to feel both functional and refreshing.
  
• Scale. The obvious one really. Anyone who has played God Of War III will know that its scale goes above and beyond anything ever seen on a video game ever before. It's outrageous. One boss battle in particular is probably the best I've ever played in a video game. I don't want to go into details because it would be unfair on those yet to experience it, but know that it's amazing. That scale is pretty consistent right the way through, but it's juxta-posed by really up-close and personal sections which make you appreciate the scale even more when it comes. I think those contrasts are something new to God Of War III, and enhance the experience.
• Style. God Of War III is much more stylish than its predecessors. Despite being gritty and gory, I felt the ending in particular (no spoilers) was really stylish and well considered. It felt completely fitting for the end of the franchise (or Kratos) at least, and wrapped things up in a surprisingly stylish way.
• Considered QTEs. God Of War III has a lot less QTEs in it. When they come, they are lot more considerate in previous games, rarely getting in the way of the action, and not frequent enough to pull you out of the experience.

(I'd firstly like to preface this blog post by saying this is not a reaction to Ryan's review of the game, I appreciate his opinion and think he gave the game an excellent score, despite disagreeing with some of his criticisms on a personal level).
 
I've seen some worrying comments on the forums. Presumably people who haven't played God Of War III yet pulling the ol' "God Of War in HD" comment. Nope, God Of War in HD was the God Of War Collection. Let's talk about why God Of War III is not as familiar as people claim, and also why the final iteration is the best in the franchise:
 

• Combat. Watch someone play God Of War III and it looks the same. Play God Of War III yourself and it feels the same. But actually analyse it next to the previous two iterations and you'll notice it's balanced close-to perfection. The way the enemies are laid out, the way the specific arenas are constructed, the way the moves and enemy AI is perfectly tuned is staggering. Despite looking the same on surface value, God Of War III's combat is so much more refined. As is an overlooked tradition for the God Of War games, each iteration has better tuned the combat, and while it's not immediately noticable (it absolutely looks the same), fans of the franchise will notice that it "feels" better. And that's because it's been refined to perfection.
• Difficulty. God Of War I & II had impossible difficulty spikes, particularly on the higher difficulties. God Of War III's difficulty is extremely tough on Titan difficulty, but it never spikes. It's been hand balanced to make it consistent - obviously challenging - but possible. I personally think that's awesome.
• Pacing. The God Of War games have always had fantastic pacing. The transition between combat, puzzle, platform and adventure has always been spot-on. With God Of War III though, I feel like it's again, that combination perfected. I honestly felt like there was a bit less fighting in God Of War III, but I assume that's because the game is so good at driving me through different objectives. I mean, let's be honest, if you hate everything about God Of War III, the level design is just outrageous. Yes it's largely scripted, but I love that almost "Metroid" feeling you get from seeing a ledge very early on and not being able to reach it, only to come full-circle with a new ability five hours later when you can finally get there. I think this game does that better than any other in the franchise.
  
• Puzzles. There are less puzzles in God Of War III. But what I felt was, when you get to a puzzle, it's a bigger, more "important" and challenging puzzle to complete. Without spoiling the game, the puzzle on perspective is outrageously satisfying. It's a decent chunk of a puzzle too - rather than just being a quick "press this switch" objective that were so obvious in previous games.
• Controls. God Of War has often had some quite complex control mechanics, simply because Kratos has so many abilities. I feel like God Of War III cuts down on the number of inputs and provides a more simplistic control scheme that makes all of Kratos' abilities more instantly-accessible.
• Weapons. For the first time in the franchise, I feel God Of War III provides weapons that I want to use. I can see where the "Blades Of Chaos" comparisons come in, the weapons handle similarly, but I feel that they are also different enough to feel both functional and refreshing.
  
• Scale. The obvious one really. Anyone who has played God Of War III will know that its scale goes above and beyond anything ever seen on a video game ever before. It's outrageous. One boss battle in particular is probably the best I've ever played in a video game. I don't want to go into details because it would be unfair on those yet to experience it, but know that it's amazing. That scale is pretty consistent right the way through, but it's juxta-posed by really up-close and personal sections which make you appreciate the scale even more when it comes. I think those contrasts are something new to God Of War III, and enhance the experience.
• Style. God Of War III is much more stylish than its predecessors. Despite being gritty and gory, I felt the ending in particular (no spoilers) was really stylish and well considered. It felt completely fitting for the end of the franchise (or Kratos) at least, and wrapped things up in a surprisingly stylish way.
• Considered QTEs. God Of War III has a lot less QTEs in it. When they come, they are lot more considerate in previous games, rarely getting in the way of the action, and not frequent enough to pull you out of the experience.

 "cool story bro"

 Not a reaction to Ryan's review? Then this is quite a coincidence.

 God Of War III has a lot less QTEs in it

"  Not a reaction to Ryan's review? Then this is quite a coincidence. "

im about 3 and half hours in, after Helios, and except for the gaea/poseidon stuff in the first 45mins, it feels EXACTLY like the previous games, except a lot prettier. This is like saying Gears of War 2 wasnt as familiar as Gears of War 1 >_>

" im about 3 and half hours in, after Helios, and except for the gaea/poseidon stuff in the first 45mins, it feels EXACTLY like the previous games, except a lot prettier. This is like saying Gears of War 2 wasnt as familiar as Gears of War 1 >_> "

I have to disagree about the pacing and the puzzles, besides the perspective puzzle which was awesome the rest are too short, too few, too easy and too far apart. God of War 2 had it perfect. 
 
On Titan GoW3 really has ridiculous difficulty spikes I feel (people might not wanna read on if you don't want minor spoilers here on), the first fight with that horse thing is a lot harder on Titan than a large part of the game, same thing with Hades. Which is weird considering that Helios, Hermes and Hercules are pushovers and some of the easiest bosses in the God of War games. The checkpoints in the first fight are some of the worst in the series. Don't even get me started on that stupid fire dog with the satyrs.
 
Not a bad game in any way really, it's awesome but I feel that it can't stand up to God of War 2 which IMHO is the best of them with Gow3 a close second.

Awesome blog. I agree with everything except I don't like the multiple weapons. I prefer just to use the Blades, which I can just use them so that isn't a problem.

" @Icemael: Ever played on the harder difficulties? If you had you would know that the combat takes a ton of strategy if you want to do it right. Also, scorpions are often there for a distraction, not to solely fight. They may introduce them first as a sole enemy to give you an idea of what your fighting etc.  "

All I wish is that Giant Bomb gave half-stars to games. I don't like the 1-5 scoring system, it's too archaic. They need to score games like they do at GameSpy.

" All I wish is that Giant Bomb gave half-stars to games. I don't like the 1-5 scoring system, it's too archaic. They need to score games like they do at GameSpy. "

Honestly I didn't like the puzzles. They were extremely simple and not rewarding at all. But the game was solid. I preferred the open deserts of the previous games and the more massive feel to everything. This game did have a massive feel to it, but it was all enclosed. I felt the weapons pretty useless. Save the fists, everything else was redundant and the special powers were pretty useless.

Weapons: The Blades of Exile are great. The Claws of Hades are okay. The Cesti and the lightning things are terrible.

Combat:  The enemy composition was really good.  It's like they always knew just what to add to the harder fights to make me mix up my attack.  The addition of the air dash and combat grab/charge are my favorite changes.
Puzzles:  I can't remember that many but the one that is sticking for me (the box filling with water) was done really well - I didn't even need to think about my actions everything was just flowing naturally and when it was all over I thought back to my sequence of movements and I was pretty impressed.
Difficulty:  I played on Titan but - Hard.  There were a lot of moments where I just had to stop, turn it off and come back later.  I'm really interested to see how Chaos mode is tuned.
Weapons:  The gauntlets are great.  From the fight where you acquire them to way you fight with them.  The claws and whip felt too similar to the blades but by tying different magics to them I ended up using them more than I would have.
QTEs:  The most dated thing about God of War 3 and a lot of current games.  After finishing the game and thinking about it I realize that there were moments where I would have died if I failed a QTE - but I'm not sure, because this never happened.  The QTEs in this game are so forgiving.  A massive window to hit the right button combined with not even needing to look at the prompt because they are tied to the sides of the screen that reflect the controller layout.  QTEs are a flaw but these are the least frustrating I've ever seen.

Well I don't  know about anybody else, but God of War in HD would have been good enough for me.

" im about 3 and half hours in, after Helios, and except for the gaea/poseidon stuff in the first 45mins, it feels EXACTLY like the previous games, except a lot prettier. This is like saying Gears of War 2 wasnt as familiar as Gears of War 1 >_> "

Not exactly the same as the previous two? Totally Agree. However, I can't see how you can try and argue that the games aren't extremely familiar. All your arguments seem to support the familiarity argument. Yes everything is better and more refined but there's nothing really new and game changing. This isn't really a bad thing. I prefer sequels that refine instead of trying to change or fix things that aren't broken. 

You can't tell people they're wrong for feeling like something is derivative. Its an abstract, they felt it, and it is what it is. You can't disprove feelings other people had, stupid.

Regardless, God of War III is the most interesting one to watch being played. But that's mostly because it looks so goddamn good.

I feel like it's nearly identical. You're looking extremely hard and trying to find these differences when they should have been apparent after picking up the controller.

" I feel like it's nearly identical. You're looking extremely hard and trying to find these differences when they should have been apparent after picking up the controller. "

" @Icemael:   I just don't know where you're coming from at all.  Did you enjoy the previous God of War games?  It's hard to tell from these posts, because it just seems like you haven't played them, or are remembering them wrong."

"There have always been lots of fodder enemies to just grab and kill in the previous games.  The reason the small scorpions are there are on scorpion boss fight is to give you a constant source of health so you don't feel like you're just losing a war of attrition to the boss.  You can also use them strategically by getting into an invincible grab animation right as the boss is about to attack you.  That concept has always existed in the God of War games."

"And in general I just don't agree with your thoughts on the combat. On the base level, it's as good as it has ever been in a mainline God of War game (I haven't played Chains of Olympus).  The addition of the combat grapple and the ability to instantly switch weapons in the middle of attacking makes it so much more fluid.  Even though the blades are relatively unchanged as usual, the new weapons are as fun and useful as the weapons have ever been in a God of War game.  The fact that magic is locked to the weapon means they all have their purposes.  Not to mention the items.  Which are kind of a substitute for the magic from the old games on top of the magic that's in this game already and all can be used in combat in conjunction with everything else in incredibly fun and fluid ways.  "

"And it's not fluid. As long as you just use the weapon you're equipped with, it works fine, but as soon as you want to do anything more complicated than that -- like, say, using an item in conjunction with a weapon, switching weapons mid-combo, or cancelling into dodges -- it's inflexible as hell. "

Disagree with most. The combat's the same, the controls are the same, it's all the fucking same. 
 
Yeah, they give you new stuff, like the Herme's boots, the new weapons, etc. but it's all generally the same. 
 
Also, don't get me wrong, I fucking love this game. More of the same is just fine with me.

" @Bluethunder35 said:

" All I wish is that Giant Bomb gave half-stars to games. I don't like the 1-5 scoring system, it's too archaic. They need to score games like they do at GameSpy. "

Because the 1-10 scoring system totally isn't archaic, right? "

" @get2sammyb: From all that you seems to hold the game in very high regard and some aspects of it almost near perfection as you put it, so what do you think the games bad points are? what do you think was wrong with it? that you would change. "

Combat: Can't fault it. Works with great fluidity, and the combat grapple is probably the most useful move ever. The powers (and tying them to weapons) also work well. 
Puzzles: Fewer than the first two, more than Chains of Olympus. It works OK I guess, but I would have preferred to have slightly longer puzzles/platforming segments in between the setpiece battles.
Difficulty: Doesn't spike as much as the first two, which is good. For me, hard mode is just enough of a challenge to be fun and not irritating.
QTEs: They didn't bother me in the first two, but I think the devs might have gone a bit overboard on this one - almost every larger enemy has a button pressing (as opposed to a stick moving or single button mashing) finishing move. A bit samey.
Scale: Holy shit. Cronos.
 
Overall, I thought it was an extremely tightened up and focused God of War game. Could have used a few more puzzles, but the small (and useful) additions to combat more than make up for it.

" @RsistncE:   no but seriously.  just a simple 1-10 scoring system (no decimal points like gt and ign...ugh don't even get me started on ign) would be SO much more telling of a game's quality than the current 1-5 system, which, c'mon on guys you all know it's true, is vague as fuck. "

" @RsistncE:   no but seriously.  just a simple 1-10 scoring system (no decimal points like gt and ign...ugh don't even get me started on ign) would be SO much more telling of a game's quality than the current 1-5 system, which, c'mon on guys you all know it's true, is vague as fuck. "

• 
  
• Puzzles. There are less puzzles in God Of War III. But what I felt was, when you get to a puzzle, it's a bigger, more "important" and challenging puzzle to complete. Without spoiling the game, the puzzle on perspective is outrageously satisfying. It's a decent chunk of a puzzle too - rather than just being a quick "press this switch" objective that were so obvious in previous games.

" @100_Hertz said:

" @RsistncE:   no but seriously.  just a simple 1-10 scoring system (no decimal points like gt and ign...ugh don't even get me started on ign) would be SO much more telling of a game's quality than the current 1-5 system, which, c'mon on guys you all know it's true, is vague as fuck. "

You know what says more about a game's quality than a score on a 1-10 scale? The fucking review. The number isn't supposed to tell you exactly what the game's like; that's what the text is for. The score is just there to give you a very loose idea of how good the game is (e.g. "this game is a total mess", or "this game is good", or "this game is really good"), and for that, a 5 star scale is more than good enough. "

" @100_Hertz said:

" @RsistncE:   no but seriously.  just a simple 1-10 scoring system (no decimal points like gt and ign...ugh don't even get me started on ign) would be SO much more telling of a game's quality than the current 1-5 system, which, c'mon on guys you all know it's true, is vague as fuck. "

I agree. My limit is 0.5 increments. "

Why it is:
 
 

• Combat.: There are the same combat moves, literally. Once I started playing, it felt like God of War with better graphics.
  
• Pacing: Same as it always has been.
  
• Puzzles: You mean those simplistic puzzles that even a caveman could figure out?
  
• Controls: See combat. Everything feels like God of War with better graphics.
  
• Weapons: okay, new weapons. Like every other sequel ever created...
  
• Scale: hyperbolic statements to say the least. The bosses were just created as levels themselves.
  
• Style: same style as before. Kratos is mad, and wants to kill everything in his way. It really isn't mature or gritty at all, but just gratuitous. I'm not really surprised considering the audience for this game is mostly angry teenagers.
  
• Considered QTEs: Makes no sense at all. The same circle above an enemy to finish them off like the other God of War games.

" @Kombat: I'm sorry man but even with the descriptions, a 5 point point scoring system still has a 20% margin. 20 fucking percent. That's huge and sometimes the difference between a good and excellent game can be 10 or 15%. This margin is too wide and a 10 point scoring system would better serve it.   Just realized this thread is about familiarity (or lack thereof) in God of War 3.  /derail "