Video Game Review: God of War 3, for Playstation 3

Back in the fall I had seen some really exciting sneak peeks of video games that would soon be hitting consoles. None of these games however stood out quite like God of War 3.
I had never played a God of War video game before, but after seeing the stunning graphics that God of War 3 had to offer, I was intrigued. I knew I'd have to get this game the moment it came out.

When I finally did get my hands on the game, I immediately headed home, and waited to see what this title had to offer. With no prior knowledge of the storyline, I was left slightly confused at what my entire mission was all about. I knew my main character Kratos was angry and wanted to kill Zeus for betraying him, however, I am not entirely sure what Zeus did to him, or why he was so pissed.

I imagine if you played the first 2 titles, you'll immediately jump right back into the plot, because it starts off right where God of War 2 left off.

You start of attempting to climb Mount Olympus, in order to reach Zeus, and take him out. At first everything seemed to simple, and I knew I was not going to scale this mountain and immediately kill the almighty Zeus. I was correct, and when I did make it to the top of the mountain after battling my way through hordes of enemies and Poseidon, Zeus takes off like a lightning bolt...literately.

So there you have it, your plot. The mission in the game is to fight your way back to Zeus...only your goal will not come so quickly; naturally.

Graphics:
 
As far as the graphics go I was pretty stunned by how lovely everything looked not only in the cut scenes, but also in actual game play. The graphics are sharp and polished, with a realistic edge around every corner. The one thing about the graphics however that I found bothersome was that during certain portions of the game, I was forced to move through certain areas so quickly, that I missed out on a lot of fine details, especially during epic battles between other Gods. I was too focused on studying the games command controls to see what I was actually doing as far as fighting goes.

Controls:
 
As mentioned above, my main issue with the controls were the forced button smashing commands that occurred during larger battled between Kratos and his enemy. You would have to study the screen and hit a button command at the precise time in order to complete your kill, or kill sequence. While there is awesome head pulling and body twisting going on, you as the player miss it all because if you blink, and miss a command, you will have to start your sequence all over again while fighting.

Another issue I had with the controls occurred during mini jumps in between gaps. I'd press the jump button, and it seemed as if the gap would just pull Kratos down to his death. Long jumps worked without an issue, shorter ones though are deeply flawed.

The final flaw with the controls was the lack of camera control. You pretty much move forward in a forced direction. You have no ability to move your camera angles around in a 360 manner. The controls are all pre-set; while I like the simplicity of this, I would much rather of had control over my camera angles.

Sounds:
 
The sounds you hear in God of War 3 are nothing special. You have the usual type of light background sounds and music that you would find in any other game. Nothing special sticks out for me, and nothing bothered me; so all is well in the realm of sounds and music.

Game play:
 
Even with the rickety controls God of War 3 is still an awesome game. The adventure is awesome, the plot is pretty cool, and the violent kills are sweet. Plus add in a few mythological creatures, and what you have is one hell of a great game. Although I don't find it to be my top favorite video game, it definitely makes the list of my top 10 favorites.

Rent or Buy?
 
God of War 3 is for sale right now for $59.99, which is ridiculously high, but this seems to be the welcoming trend for newly released games, and likely you won't see a drastic dip in the price for quite some time. Many of you are probably wondering if this is a title worth spending the money on; I have to say that the game is definitely worthy of purchasing, as it's going to take you some time to get from point A to point B, and there are a bunch of little extras for you to indulge in. For me, the game is worth my $60.00, and I would have to recommend this one as a purchase and not a rental.

It's a sweet game, with stunning graphics and really fun game play. The controls may be a little quirky at times, but it's not severe, and to the point where you'd no longer look to play it. God of War 3 gets 2 thumbs up from me, and 8 out of 10 stars.