Blood, guts and boobs... lots of boobs, some not so hot, like nasty medusa boobs.
| Platform | OVERALL |
|---|---|
| PlayStation 3 | 9.50 |
| Overall | 9.50 |
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God of War 2 was one of those sequels that is better than the original in every conceivable way. It was a leap forward on all aspects specifically the puzzles and general adventure portion of the GoW experience. Would God of War 3 be able to live up to the masterpiece that was GoW2 and more importantly can it surpass it's predecessor like the previous game did. The good news is that God of War 3 is another masterpiece, in some ways the best in the series but it is not a large leap forward which in the end makes it feel a bit safe. Technically this game is a marvel. Once I started playing a had to stop, take a breath and move Kratos around slowly to let it all soak in that what I am playing is actually possible. If there was any game that proves this generation is far from finished this is it. David Jaffe said long ago that GoW3 looks like a painting in motion, some laughed at this notion, well he was right. It actually is the best description of this game, it looks like a beautiful painting that has some how come to life. The way the camera moves, the way the game animates, the perfect lighting, and all the little visual effects combine to make something that I have never seen before. It is the most visually striking game I have played to this point. The graphics are there to enhance the experience, this is a game that is all about scale. Everything in the game is rendered using the in game graphics and why not when it looks better than most CG. The music and voice acting are all top notch as well. If you want to show off a home theater using a game, this is the game to use it is a benchmark game. After your eyes adjust to the beauty on the screen it all becomes about the gameplay. God of War 3 does not try to reinvent itself in any major way, it uses the blueprint of GoW2 and adds a few tweaks to the combat to make things play better. The game starts off with a battle on an immense scale, I guarantee many will call it the greatest opening setpiece in gaming history and it would be hard to argue. Within moments you are in an epic boss battle that has you climbing walls, swinging across chasms, and pulling off the button prompt moves this series is known for. The rest of the game is perfectly paced for a good 10-12 hours that takes you from the depths of hell to the top of Mount Olympus. The excellent mix of puzzles and action return. As always these are spaced out so they happen just when you need a break from one or the other. Like GoW2 there are a load of boss battles, these are the very best in the series. All feel original, no battle feels like it was copied from the previous game. In terms of an overall adventure it does not disappoint at all, in fact I can't think of a bad moment, there is no excess at all. The action is still the main gameplay element, for some reason people like to call this series a button masher when it clearly isn't. Maybe you can get away with a few simple moves on easy or normal. I don't play modes for babies so I wouldn't know. God of War 3 has a very good combat system, one that makes you learn enemy patterns, it makes you know when to counter or evade and gives you enough leeway to come up with your own strategy. Many tweaks have been made that make the combat feel more responsive and deeper than ever before. Santa Monica Studios removed all moves that were useless like the Medusa Gaze spell. The bow and other items do not use up magic, now these items are given their own separate rechargeable bar. For the first time ever ranged combat is possible as arrows can be a normal attack. New items like the head of Helios and Hermes boots are useful both in battle and while moving around the game world. Spells are now tied to weapons, upgrade the weapon and you upgrade the spell as well, works way better this way. Now that you don't have to switch between spells, the d-pad is now free to switch between weapons easily. Yes three of the weapons are sort of the same but there are subtle differences that make use of each of these weapons in different situations. If using the d-pad was too much of a hassle to change weapons you can now switch them mid combo by pressing block and X. One of the best changes is this new grapple move which allows you to latch onto an enemy and hurl Kratos into the enemy. This can close gaps in distance quickly and is invaluable against some of the larger foes. Most of the enemies are the same as previous games. There are maybe three new enemy types and they are hardly used sadly. The main difference in enemy loadout is the amount of grunts that can be on screen at once, literally 50 enemies can be attacking you at once. Kratos now has a throw move where he can grab an enemy and use them as a battering ram which is extremely useful for crowd control. These tweaks make the combat feel so much better but I almost feel that the game doesn't take advantage of it. For the first two thirds of the game almost all the battles you have are between one to three large enemies and a group of smaller ones. Enemy types rarely mixed, it was all very basic action setpieces. GoW2 had brutal combination of enemies and you saw all types many times. Some enemies in GoW3 you maybe fight three times in the entire game. The last third of the game does throw insane combination of enemies at you, many will notice a large difficulty spike. I wish it was more like that for the whole game. The puzzles are the other side of the God of War coin and I feel like these are the best in series. No longer is there a heavy reliance on pulling levers and moving blocks all over the place. I'm not saying there isn't any of that but it is a bit more controlled. There is more variety to the kind of puzzles you find. Certain puzzles reminded me of Portal, some of Ico, one of Echochrome. I see these really cool ideas for puzzles and they are only used once and in the most easy of ways. They had the basis for puzzles that would fill an entire dungeon of a Zelda game, instead they just stick with a simple tutorial like puzzle. I guess that is the curse of making a game that is so strict with it's pacing. Sadly it felt like a tease to me. God of War 3 does improve over the second game in many ways but it has a few issues. For one there doesn't seem to be many secrets hidden around like there were in GoW2. There are plenty of "hidden" items in GoW3 but half of them are in plain sight, all you need to do is use the Helios head item to make them appear. Or there is an obvious branching path that leads to hidden chests. In GoW2 there were some very clever spots that they hid the chests in, I didn't find all the upgrades or hidden items. In GoW3 I had no trouble finding nearly everything on my first go, only the godly possession items had me searching. Then there is the issue of glitches which feels so weird in a game that is so well done. Weird stuff happens in this game but not always, it's almost random. Some people will play the game and it will be perfect, while others will experience an odd glitch that forces them to start a section over. I had this strange thing happen to a column I had to move into a certain position, the column would not be at a perfect 90 degree angle like it should, it was off. I thought I sucked at this puzzle cause I couldn't figure it out, turns off I did have the right I idea, the column was glitched. So I had to restart from the last checkpoint and it fixed itself. The checkpoints are plenty so anyone with any issues should not have to replay much. One minor gripe is the inability to skip cutscenes even after you finish the game, they say it is to hide load times, well there is no way it is loading for like 4 minutes, come on. Unlike the top tier action games like DMC, GoW doesn't offer great unlockables. You get seven challenges which are rather simple and a combat arena that allows you to set which enemies you want to fight, that is about it. There is not even a new game + option so no way to play through the whole game with all your weapons and such. It's a bit disappointing cause the very best action games really give incentive to keep playing and to master the game, then again this isn't just an action game. God of War 3 does almost everything right, even the flaws I mentioned are like a mole on a supermodel, hell even that mole can be sexy. It has better combat, it has better puzzles, it even has better boss fights and an improved story from GoW2. That said I can't say I was as blown away by GoW3 as I was from GoW2 because GoW2 was a huge improvement while GoW3 feels like a beautiful, slightly improved version of GoW2. So while I wish they didn't play it so safe I can't complain much cause I feel like GoW2 is one of the best games out there and any game like it worthy of being a GOTY contender. |
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Posted by Dvader Tue, 23 Mar 2010 02:08:24
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robio (43s)
Great review. I'll be playing this game in about a week's time. Finally! I can't wait.
Bad boobs is now a series trademark. Thanks for your review. Makes me think that it will be possible for UC3 to top UC2 (I never though GoW2 would be toppable).
Now we'll have to see if this game director gets hit with the GoW curse.