God of war lll

This year's strikingly regular supply of PlayStation 3 exclusives continues with perhaps the most hotly anticipated one yet: God Of War III – and, given that it looked a bit dodgy when previewed, it massively exceeds expectations.




Buy it from PS3 God of War 3 BBFC Rating: 18+ Sony It is emphatically the last game of a trilogy. Spartan warrior Kratos, having been made God Of War then demoted, is mad as hell and swears to kill Zeus. Along the way, he bloodily despatches pretty much everybody he meets (apart from Aphrodite, who has sex with him). The game has barely started by the time he consigns Poseidon to a watery grave, and the list of mighty Olympians he viciously obliterates includes Hades, Helios, Hercules, Hermes, Hera, Cronos the Titan and, even though they helped him, Gaia and Hephaestus. Safe to say, then, that there won't be a God Of War IV.



Which is an almighty shame, since the first next-generation version of the franchise is utterly brilliant. As before, its main gameplay dynamic is (very sophisticated) hacking and slashing – Kratos makes full use of weapons he rips from his defeated foes, such as Hercules' giant Nemean Cestus gauntlets, and all his weapons can be upgraded by collecting red orbs from chests and by killing enemies with more violence than is strictly necessary. There are also plenty of puzzles to solve, which are commendably varied – getting to the Flame of Olympus, for example, involves playing a rhythm-action game, reaching the climactic Labyrinth requires him to use Hera's broken body as a counterweight, and Helios's decapitated head operates as a handy torch which can also temporarily blind opponents and reveal hidden paths.



Astonishingly epic boss-battles abound – always concluded by God Of War's signature timed button-pressing. Indeed, the sense of scale the game communicates is one of its most impressive aspects – the bravura opening sees Kratos attempting to scale Olympus in cahoots with the skyscraper-sized Gaia, while simultaneously fighting off Poseidon. This time around, there's more platform-style climbing, jumping and swinging to negotiate, too.



A churl would point out that it's not the longest of games, that the voice-acting can occasionally lurch into territory which is uncomfortably Charlton Heston, and that there are a couple of moments when the camera doesn't exactly help your endeavours. And it isn't afraid to play fast and loose with Greek mythology – one wonders what Robert Graves would make of Hermes' incredibly annoying portrayal (his demise, with legs hacked off and bone-stumps left protruding, is particularly satisfying), Aphrodite's ridiculous lasciviousness or Hera's manifestation as a wine-addled crone. But at least it's never less than hugely entertaining and, as we've finally come to expect on the PS3, visually glorious.



If this really is the last we'll see of Kratos, it's a sad day indeed. But at least he's leaving PS3 owners with enormous grins.