Box Art

So I’ve put some time into God of War III and I now fully understand why I didn’t finish the previous 2. The opening sequence is as advertised, unique, and awesome, crawling and battling around the body of a titan is certainly not something I’ve seen done in a video game up until now. That said, since then, the game moved into more familiar grounds moving from platform to platform by bridge, chain, or very shady (at best) jump platforming… Not nearly as awe inspiring as the opening sequence. The animation is clean, and everything no problems there. Kratos’ voice actor is annoying me though… he sounds more like a guy putting on his tough guy voice than an actual tough guy… it really takes me out of the experience. Apart from that however, the sound design is incredible, and probably the highlight for me so far.

The combat feels the same as it always has, the combo system isn’t as elegant as it should be since it’s widely considered best in the genre. Seeing Kratos dismember bad guys… err.. everyone… is rewarding, and the quick time events are fun to watch the first couple times. After that however it begins to get monotonous. I especially hate the positioning on the QTE indicators. While I can appreciate that the indicators correspond with the positioning of the face buttons, I would have much rather had them closer to the action so I was spending the time watching Kratos be Kratos instead of scanning the borders of my screen. I think I actually would have appreciated it more if it were more like Darksiders, where you spend your time weakening the opponent, then your special kill is a 1 button type endeavor where you can watch the fruits of your labor. Maybe this comes later but for a game with this much of a following, and so much given to it for it’s greatness, I’d expect that finesse in combat  would play more of a role. As it stands its not much of a challenge to knock out a 100 hit combo mashing 1 button.

The final complaint I have is the same one I had with Uncharted 2, mashing on a button to open doors is stupid, it doesn’t make the experience more immersive… I don’t feel like I’m putting through this extra effort because Kratos needs my strength to lift this door. The mashing thing worked for me in Heavy Rain, since it was seldom used, and since it was it really did feel like I was getting in on the action. In the case of God of War, it seems like every time you go to a new room you’re mashing the button… it’s tedious. And on top of that, they felt the need to work that into the combat to stab some faces…

I’m going to keep plugging away at it though, the boss battles were neat, and I’m hopeful that there are more set pieces like the one in the opening act are to follow… if that is not the case, I’m going to be very disappointed in this title.