
	Platform Playstation 3 Genre Action Publisher SCEA Developer SCEA Santa Monica Studio ESRB M (Mature) Released March 16, 2010

- Gorgeous - A wow-inducing sense of scale - Nails the God of War formula that fans are familiar with: feeling powerful with a few buttons presses

- Anyone weak of stomach might want to look away, which is a tough thing during a quick-time event - Game-stopping bugs - I haven't dropped into this many bottomless pits since Mega Man 9

Review: God of War Collection (PS3) Review: Heavy Rain (PS3) Review: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3)
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God of War III

Score: 8.5 / 10

God of War has always done action really well. It's ability to make the player feel powerful with a few well-timed button presses, along with a grunting protagonist tearing mythological creatures apart and a great orchestral score, sets the bar for action games.

And it's no different here.

In God of War III, Kratos still grunts his way through the game hacking up creatures and gods the same way pneumonia patients cough up phlegm, and it's equally

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messy. Legs are severed, gorgons beheaded, centaurs disembowelled, titans felled, and Aphrodite pleased because what would God of War's violence be without sex? It's all very graphic, well, except when it comes to sex, which happens off-screen. A close-up of a Kratos tearing off a dude's head is fine, but sex... I suppose you have to draw the line somewhere.

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The lack of on-screen sex is shared with Mega Man 9, the one game that I kept thinking of while slashing through God of War III.

I haven't dropped into this many bottomless pits since Mega Man 9. Platforming was never God of War's strong suit but it just feels sloppy here. Performing a simple double-jump -- an action game standard -- has about a 75% success rate. (Most of the time.) Many areas feature invisible walls to keep Kratos penned in and from inadvertently jumping off a balcony. These invisible walls feature "doors" where Kratos can jump to the next platform or area. Clip that door frame and Kratos drops. So, it wasn't the epic boss fights that I scraped through with a sliver of health that got my adrenaline going, it was every single time I had to jump over a chasm.

I didn't see mention of this elsewhere but I encountered several game-stopping bugs. In these instances I could still control Kratos and the music kept playing but whatever arena I was wouldn't unlock or the platform wouldn't start moving again. "Restart from last checkpoint" solved most of these problems but there was one spot in particular -- riding on a series of boxes inside a giant mechanical device -- it happened a few times. The game's not riddled with bugs but having to replay some tough fights because something didn't "click" is deeply annoying.

God of War III is at its best when it focuses on spectacle and the game almost has more spectacle than it knows what to do with. The camera will often pull way back to show just how big everything is; the sense of scale is awesome. It's a fitting end to the series (well, at least Kratos) but it remains extremely close to the lines laid down by the previous two games in both form and content so as not to upset long-time fans.

- Aaron Simmer

(March 16, 2010)