As we all know this title abides on the PS3, so there was no reason in my writing that in to the title. 
So, what is God Of War III?
Along with Uncharted 2, it’s the reason you bought a PS3 in the first place.
God Of War III has wowed me in the first hour I have played it, not necessarily by simply gameplay and tuned graphics, but the overhaul to show you what Playstation is capable of.
I must start out with the graphics. Now, I have a 47in LCD at home, makes almost anything beautiful. But God Of War took full advantage of that with one of the most tremendous looking games this year. Certainly, we’ve been treated to visual marvels such as Mass Effect 2, Heavy Rain, and Final Fantasy. What makes God Of War stand out among these “titans”(Yeah, you know I had to find a way to throw a game reference in), is the fact that with the PS3 backing it, the visuals are darker and more brutal than ever. I thought the God Of War: Collection’s take was very well done, but Kratos is more brutal than before, his blades bright flashes of red as I tore through the waves of undead soldiers. Something else impressive? Now what can that be? Every so called cutscene? Completely drawn from the gameplay. Now while Final Fantasy definitely got me in the graphics department, even they had a separation to what was cutscene and what was gameplay. God Of War doesn’t and leaves you smashing buttons while a sequence folds out in front of you, tricking you to believe you might just change something.
In terms of gameplay, what stands out is presentation. I only had fought through the first wave and I was thrown about fighting Poseiden’s “horsecrabs”. This is what really stand out in the new God Of War, the creatures so much bigger than you in the first games that you would find graphically violent ways to “finish off” are now fought seemingly every 15 minutes. As far as controls go, there is nothing different, same buttons as ever, with a few polished ones and one or two additions. The button minigame has an awesome improvement, the moving of the center screen display to your top/bottom/left/right helps the presentation, keeps it away from the action, and helps you in pressing the correct button. Another great feature? Kratos Kill Cam. As I hit circle to finish Poseiden, I found myself watching all of this from his point of view. Watching Kratos kill me was nearly frightening, if I hadn’t been doing the killing all along.
The music and sound engineering in this series have always been good, and this one doesn’t change a bit, giving you the same effects and soundtrack. The voice actors of course have made a return, Kratos sounding just as brutal as ever. I really like the way they did the Poseiden water giant’s voice, making it sound like him talking underwater. It’s that attention to detail that makes this game so rock solid all the way around.
This is quite a review for only an hour of gameplay, so I’m going to jump right back into the action.
-TTR
