God of War III was released yesterday for the Playstation 3 and it may be the most anticipated game yet for the system. I know for me it now holds a place on my shelf next to LittleBigPlanet as the only other PS3 game that I own. It’s not that I’m anti-playstation gaming, it’s just that I really can’t stand the thumb sticks on the Playstation controllers after coming from the Xbox 360. I’m sure if I just sat around and got used to it, it would be fine, but I can’t, so I just don’t buy too many games for the PS3. But seeing as how God of War is a Sony exclusive game, I had no choice.
I have only played through God of War 2 in the past and was currently in the middle of both God of War [1] and God of War: Chains of Olympus (PSP) over the past few weeks. Needless to say I never finished either of them, but didn’t want to wait to jump into part 3… and I’m glad I didn’t. My very first impressions for the game, even before the actual game started, was pure amazement, and this was just the opening credits. The clarity of everything and the design elements were incredible, I couldn’t wait for the game to start, but prayed that I would not be disappointed by the hype that I’d built up in my mind. Once the familiar title screen came up it was time to start raping skeletons with my massive blades.
Now to be fair I am only about 2 hours into the game, but I couldn’t wait to write about it because, yes, it’s that fucking good. The graphics may be some of the best graphics I’ve seen in a game… ever, and the gameplay is incredible. Sure it’s a lot of the same hack-n-slash type style, but the amount of enemies, the variety, the mini-game kill cam things and the overall brutality of everything makes this game extremely entertaining. (From here on out there are a few spoilers regarding the beginning of the game) The game starts off with Gaia the earth goddess along with the other elemental “gods” climbing up Mt. Olympus to wage ware on Zeus, with Kratos tagging along for the ride. Eventually Gaia is attacked by Poseidon and an incredible battle is brought to Gaia’s limbs. As you run around different parts of the huge goddess, you encounter these massive horse-like crab, water things that Poseidon is ultimately controlling and you must free Gaia from their grip. This is all within the first 20 minutes of the game and is probably the most fun I’ve had with a video game in a long time. And just when I thought the game couldn’t get any cooler I got to beat the ever living shit out of Poseidon as the camera switched between the normal view and Poseidon’s first person view. Kratos literally beats the shit out of him in a set of mini-game button sequences, but I just couldn’t believe how brutal the whole scene was. This is definitely not a game for young children.
So that’s basically the opening of the game. Kratos then falls down to Hades and has to fight his way out. I don’t know much else about the story since I’m still in Hades fighting lost souls and minotaurs, but I still can’t believe how amazing this game is. I remember being blown away by games like Gears of War and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (and to a lesser extent MW2, if only because CoD4 was the true game changer), and I never thought another game could top those in terms of graphics and incredible gameplay… boy was I wrong. So my hats off to anyone and everyone that had any part in the development of God of War III, you guys have truly outdone yourself and deserve all the recognition this game will bring you.
Update 3/22/10: Since writing my first impressions I have no completed the game and instead of writing another post with a full review I will just say that the rest of the game lives up to the beginning. I never got bored and the game continued to impress me. 10/10 from me, probably one of the best (if not the best) game I’ve ever played.
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