WARNING: MINOR SPOILERS
About twenty minutes into God of War III, I found myself dangling from a Titan’s wrist, furiously swinging my blades at a horse with the legs of a crab that was made of rock and water. It was at this moment that I realized, God of War III is the most METAL game in history.
It certainly doesn’t waste any time getting started. After a brief, and very interesting title sequence, the player quickly finds themselves controlling Kratos while he runs around atop a titan’s back, mere moments after the ending of the last entry in the series. What follows is some of the most intense and visually stunning action to ever grace the opening of a videogame. The sense of scale is almost dizzying and the frantic pacing immediately puts you on the edge of your seat.
Even in all it’s gut spilling glory, I couldn’t help but feel that I’d done this all before. The button mashing, the QTE executions, the tremendous leaps of faith, none of it felt very new or exhilarating. The plot doesn’t help much either (Kratos demands revenge!!) And for the first hour or so I couldn’t shake the feeling that this was just God of War in HD.
Then something wonderful happened. Somewhere between disemboweling a centaur and using a harpy as a helicopter I realized all I really wanted from God of War III was more of the same. This series has always been about one thing: bloodlust. And the third installment of Sony’s blockbuster franchise delivers in spades. If the original God of War redefined the action genre, and the sequel perfected it, then part three takes that perfection and ups the ante considerably.
