The End Begins in the final chapter of Kratos' journey for vengeance. It's an enjoyable, but repetitive, experience.
God of War III continues immediately where God of War II left off, with Kratos and the titans climbing Mount Olympus to kill Zeus. Believe it or not, that's as complex as the story gets. Kratos meets a few new characters, causes immense destruction, and kills countless creatures. It's a simple story for a simple game and it's predictable now. Though it's incredibly simple, it ends the series off nicely.
The gameplay hasn't changed at all. You alternate between presses of the square button and triangle button to pull of combos and slaughter everything in sight and by everything, I mean everything. The enemies are new for the most part, but are all fought in the same manner. Kratos has four different weapons which are selected with the d-pad and each weapon has a spell attached to it. You also get special items that have multiple purposes and each one is tied to a new stamina bar that recovers when not being used. You still gain red orbs when you kill enemies, open chests, or break objects that allow you to upgrade your weapons. Every time your weapon levels up, it gets stronger and gives you new combos and adds attributes to your magic.
You can still find chests that have Gorgon Eyes, Phoenix Feathers, and the new Minotaur Horns that increase your health, magic, and stamina bars as well as chests that hold items called Godly Possessions. These items give you a special costume if all are collected. After you complete the 10-15 hour quest, there are the traditional challenges for fans to complete.
Quick-time events make a return though, to my recollection, there are less than in the other games. They're still enjoyable, as are most of the bosses, but overall, the gameplay gets incredibly repetitive and not in a good way, each weapon and magic, save for one, play exactly the same.
The music and voice acting are excellent. The music is epic and fitting for the situations you play through. The voice acting holds up throughout the game though you will get tired of here the grunts and sound effects of combat.
The presentation is epic, the scale of the game is unmatched, the bosses and enemies look great and the places you kill them in look excellent. Some characters look a little weird and the enemies all look the same though and Kratos' deaths are still laughable. There's also no variety in the quick-time kills. You will still be amazed at the environments and most of the bosses. The quick-time events are also as epic as ever. All this adds up to an excellent presentation, even with it's faults.
Overall, this game is a must own for fans of the previous games, but it won't make fans out of players who didn't like the other games. God of War III is most definitely the best in the series, the graphics are fantastic and gruesome, the audio is cool, the story is simple and the gameplay, while occasionally fun, is repetitive. The game is epic enough to warrant at least one play-through.
Story: 7.0/10
Gameplay: 7.5/10
Audio: 8.5/10
Presentation: 9.0/10