A disappointing finish to the God of War trilogy, not bad by any stretch, just not as good as first two games
I'm not entirely sure why, but in the months prior to GoW3's release, my anticipation for the game dwindled considerably. When I got to play the E3 demo, I was not impressed at all. In fact, I was kind of turned off by the brutality, which is weird. I didn't really mind the brutality in the first two games, but maybe its because we are now in the high def era. But it was not just that. The combat didn't thrill me like it used to, and the QTE sequences that God of War 1 made popular just felt antiquated to me. Like I said, I just wasn't impressed. I still was looking forward to it, just nowhere near as much as all the other titles I waited for earlier this year (such as Heavy Rain, FFXIII, Mass Effect 2). Now that I've had the chance and played through God of War 3, what's my impression now: about the same.
There were points during the game where I was reminded of my prior love of the series. However there were just enough that nullified that love. Perhaps it was design decisions, like adding 3 extra weapons, each with its own magic, two of said weapons were basically different versions of the standard Blades of x. In God of War 1 & 2, the side weapons weren't great, but I enjoyed using the Barbarian Hammer in 2, it gave a beating. The Nemean Cestus acquired in 3 were great, but the other two weapons just felt like different skins for the standard Blades. Plus I didn't care for each weapon having its own magic attack, although that did make leveling up your weapons much easier. Instead of picking between all your magic and weapons, you just leveled up your weapons, which in turn powered up the magic attack. I also liked the changing of the bow to an item with its own gauge, even though it was useless most of the time. Same can be said for the other two items. Nice ideas in theory, they just weren't given an opportunity to shine.
Combat in general this time around still felt about the same, but then it kind of did not. I don't recall if this was an issue in 1 or 2, but here it felt like damage was artificial. You swing the blades a few times, and after x hits, maybe the O pops up so you can finish off an enemy. And for tougher enemies, it just felt like you were damaging them a ton, but never getting anywhere. Perhaps they got beefed up, or your weapons weren't as strong? Either way, it felt like you weren't really damaging them much, even if the blades were pumped up. That and it seemed like there were more challenging random fights this time around. There were a bunch of endurance fights towards the end which got very irritating (looking straight at you Cerberus + Satyr fight). I will say I felt relieved when I got past those fights. When it comes to the boss fights on the other hand, that's another story.
God of War 1's boss fights were good and challenging. God of War 2's boss fights for the most part were as well. God of War 3's boss fights felt way too scripted. The two fights highly regarded are the opening Poseidon battle, and a later fight with Titan, Cronos. Both fights didn't really pose any challenge at all. Poseidon's at least you had to do damage and avoid attacks. Cronos' one just felt like one giant QTE. And, frankly, it was. Largest boss in the entire series reduced to button timing. Not what we're hoping for. There were some good ones here, but the amount of deicide in GoW3 is a little much. Pretty much every god that has appeared in the series gets killed. Other reviews have mentioned this, and I totally agree that its too much. You spend an entire game looking for a way to kill one god, Ares, in 1, now in 3, you kill everyone you bump into.
I think I've been too negative here, so let's turn that around. The opening sequence of the game looks spectacular. Battling foes on a titan that's climbing Mt Olympus looks incredible. Fighting Poseidon on said titan does as well. After that, the environments and scenery do fall off, not much you can do to pretty up Hades or Tartarus. Sadly there is no exotic locale like the Sisters of Fate's island, or desert where Cronos was walking around with Pandora's temple on its back. But that's okay. You do get to meet some other important Greek figures for the first time, including the mighty Hercules in a good boss fight, as well as Hera, in an interesting role. Plus there is a cool sequence in the Olympic Gardens shortly after that. I guess I found more faults than good points.
Throughout, the combat is pretty much the same, which as I said, is good and bad. Obviously they couldn't make too many changes or else they would've angered fans. Still, more variety to the game could have helped. Or at least better side weapons instead of two that were basically mock-blades. The Cestus weapon was terrific however. The QTE sequences, needed since its part of the franchise, felt severely lacking this time around. Maybe there weren't enough enemies, or just not enough ideas, but they felt old. Or its entirely possible that other games used them too much, so now the mechanic really feels outdated.
The story at times seems to lose itself as far as its agenda goes. Yes, the end all is going after Zeus, again, but the path to him seems to go back and forth until later on it begins to make sense. The friendship Kratos makes with Pandora is almost too much to bear. How he could care that much for her in such a short time, with so little interaction is tough, although we do see that in other media a lot. Still, the story wasn't bad, although the ending left much to be desired.
Two strong parts throughout the series has been the voice acting and the music, and those do not disappoint in GoW3. The voice acting has been superb since the first game, and again, is rightfully so here. The music is also good, although it is missing during some parts. Towards the end of the game though, it really picks up again.
After all this text and typing, what it comes down to is I didn't like God of War 3 as much as the first two. It feels like a missed opportunity they didn't capture fully. It hits some good notes, but to me, there are too many bad ones. This is not to say the game is bad, because it is not. The combat can still be fun, the graphics are good, even if you lose the epic-ness of them after the opening, and the music and voice acting is terrific. A few good boss fights, others too scripted, but a fairly good close to the God of War trilogy. It is slightly longer than the original, shorter than 2, but doesn't quite have that majestic quality that the first two games had.