God of War 3

God of War 3
Platform – PS3
Distributor – Sony Computer Ent
Classification – MA 15+

Since its inception there have been many who have tried to replicate the style, story and game play of both GOW 1 and 2, some have come close but none have quite matched it. But as they say imitation is the highest form of flattery. Now to lay waste to all that have come before, it is time once again to step into the blood soaked boots of the video game world’s favourite antihero. Ladies and gentlemen can we have a warm welcome for, the Ghost of Sparta, Kratos. There is plenty of gore and tearing of limbs to safely say that Kratos is not the kind of guy you would take home to meet your Mum and that I would not recommend this game to kids, but as an adult game it delivers blood aplenty and succeeds in pushing the limits in the brutal department, but this is what fans of the previous instalments have come to expect.
This final installment in the series offers some of the best graphics seen to date on this generation of consoles, incredible attention to detail has been applied to every intricacy of the graphics including lighting, shadows, landscapes, water, lava and facial expressions. But it is not all about aesthetics, unbelievably smooth movement and weapon execution complement its rugged good looks. Some of the set pieces completely dwarf Kratos and really give you the sense of a David vs. Goliath battle with epic fights between giant gods taking place in the background as you are fighting it out and moving on the ground, adding a layer of depth I have not seen before.
Most of the time you are fighting mythological creatures and tortured souls of your own size being able to mount the three headed Cerberus and use its tri head fire breathing against other enemies, or jumping on the back of a Cyclops, staring lovingly into his eye and then ripping it out or grabbing a hold of winged versions of a saggy grandmother (you will see) called Harpy's using them to fly across gaps before ripping them apart.
But don’t worry the big God battles are not just left as backdrop eye candy. You get your hands bloody against the great god bosses such as Poseidon god of the sea, Hermes and your brother Hercules just to name a few. One particularly fun boss fight requires you to tear pieces from the god of the underworld Hades flesh before he succeeds in ripping your soul away (here I was thinking he just wanted me for my body) finishing him off by taking possession of his soul stealing claws and finishing him off. These bosses also come with rewards giving you a new weapon or implement to use in your quest. After ripping off the head of Helios its emanating light can be used as a lantern to light your way and guide you to secrets or sending out a blinding light to inflict damage on enemies. The boots of Hermes are used for a burst of speed and to run on walls, with others including Hercules gauntlets, blades of Athena and the bow of Apollo.
Each of these weapons has their own set of combos and can be levelled up using XP collected in the form of red orbs from slaying and opening chests throughout the game. There are other special powers like summonsing a soul to do your dirty work and of course I cannot forget to mention the Blade of Olympus. This mighty weapon can be used to unleash hell once the rage meter is charged, but with so many other cool weapons to use I almost forgot that it was there. The control system, weapon swapping and execution are so extremely intuitive and easy to use make for an extremely pleasant overall game experience. Bundle this with beautiful graphics, good story, excellent boss fights, challenging puzzles and overall fluency it is safe to say that this is pretty much the perfect game. From start to finish this game had me gasping, oh my God........of war.
– Maceman