Category: Gaming

God of War III 22/03/2010 – It’s easily the most stunning, brutal, bloody and epically huge entry in the series, but, it pains me to say, its not the best.

If you type in “greatest game ever” into Google you are more than likely to come across Kratos and “Santa Monica Studios” God of War series (that’s how I found it many years ago). The tale of a bald, pale, burly killing machine has got to be one of the greatest in gaming history. It had outstanding, smooth, flowing combat that was easy to get into and rewarding to master, the graphics also pushed what the PS2 was capable of and you were guaranteed vast monsters, titans and gods to battle, the size of which no one had ever encountered before. Now wielding the power of the PS3, this is the third and final chapter in the tale and fans, to which there are millions, will be expecting, nay, demanding the ultimate in the franchise. We don’t have to consider whether this game will be bad or not, as it of course amazing, but given the weight of expectation, does it pay true homage to one of the best series of games ever, does it become the ultimate finally and the ultimate God of War game, as it should be? In this third game you play Kratos once more, the cursed Spartan general who inadvertently murdered his own wife and daughter, as he joins the mighty titans in their assault on Mount Olympus to eradicate the Olympians once and for all, in particular Zeus, the king of the Gods who betrayed Kratos and will stop at nothing to see him tortured in the pits of the underworld for an eternity (if you want to know how Kratos got into this situation I highly recommend you play the first two PS2 games). After Kratos and Gaiya (the leader of the titans) fight Poseidon, whilst climbing mount Olympus, they get within firing range of Zeus, who then shows them why he is the most powerful of immortals, blasts them with a particularly potent lightning bolt, and Kratos gets tossed from Mount Olympus and into Hades’ realm of the underworld. Having had his powers and weapons stripped off him by his quick swim in the river Styx, he meets Athena once again, who is still a god but without physical form, who tells him that Pandora’s box still exists and still holds the power to kill a god, but it is now protected by the Flame of Olympus, a power source from which Zeus draws his mightiness and something that neither a mortal or god can touch. Athena gives Kratos the Blades of Exile, to earn his trust, and he now has to escape Hades and the underworld, find out how to eradicate the flame of Olympus, open Pandora’s box once more and use its powers to kill Zeus, the whole time slaughtering any Olympians or titans that stand in his way. It’s business as usual with the God of War franchise as it’s another epic Kratos quest, where you will have to traverse a world nestled in Greek Mythology, kill a hell of a lot of enemies in ludicrous hand to hand combat, solve puzzles, meet other characters along the way and have some seriously huge boss battles.

What’s good?

It’s hard to pick one thing that is the best in God of War III, but probably the most impressive, at least the most jaw dropping, aspect is the sheer epic scale of it. It’s ridiculous in places. God of War games have always pushed the boundaries of having vast settings and battles and fighting monsters the size of sky scrapers. Now with the power of the PS3, Santa Monica Studios have gone mental. Fighting titans such as Kronos and Olympians such as Poseidon put the piffling tiny little Colossus of Rhodes, from the second game, to shame. One of Kronos’ finger nails is the size of a mansion for example, and don’t think for a second he is just in the back ground, as he is actually a fully interactive boss fight, where you will have to dodge his massive attacks (understatement of the century) and climb all over his city sized frame, that constantly moves, to defeat him. From the word “go” you are straight into a boss fight riding on the back of the titan Gaiya, who is an entire level on her own and you will traverse her arms fighting enemies whilst the titan is moving all over the place forcing Kratos to fight hanging from a ceiling one second to climbing a wall the next, the whole time Olympians are fighting titans in the background. The labyrinth is also a particularly impressive and difficult level, as you have to go through room after room that’s laden with horrific booby traps, as well as zooming up the path of Eos, a giant windy tunnel that goes up through Mount Olympus, along side the stupidly huge “Chain of Balance” that links mount Olympus to the underworld. The views of the pits of Tartarus are jaw dropping, as is the whole underworld/Hades realm, and Mount Olympus itself, which you have to scale, is ludicrously vast. The camera will zoom in and out regularly at particularly vast action set pieces to really give you the epically biblically huge scale this game is based on and it does not once stop to load, pause, or stop for a cut scene or have any interruptions whatsoever. It is honestly beyond any boundary you will have seen before in terms of enormity and it will blow you away.

It has the best visuals ever seen in gaming. They are stunning. Think how good looking several PS3 titles have been, such as Uncharted 2, Resident Evil 5, Dead Space, all hugely impressive visually and they have nothing on God of War III. They have all these incredibly vast beasts and bosses, a lot of them made of fire, water and various textures that are hard to simulate digitally, and not one has the tiniest detail missed. You can even see the finger prints on the titans hands whenever you get picked up by one, or grabbed. That’s the level of detail this game has. Kratos himself is possibly the best looking character in gaming with every muscle, hair, vain and tooth digitally sculpted to perfection. As he is slaughtering enemies their blood will splatter over him, which is done in drip by drip detail, I kid you not. The particularly gory “brutal” kills/finishing moves are unbelievable as you will literally spill intestines, bladders, lungs, you name the organ, in a splatter on the floor and they are all flawless visually. The fire effects are perfect, the water effects are perfect even when a water beast the shape of a horse with crab legs is attacking you it never once loses its visual perfection. The level design as well is eye watering with fine detail and brilliance. Just take a look around every temple you set foot in, it is brimming with detail, to the shadows cast, the light effects a torch has on surrounding objects, even the reflection in shiny floor surfaces. It is unbelievably good and is without doubt the new graphical benchmark for all PS3 games.

The action, combat and fighting is just as full of combos and has a few neat additions. Those of you familiar with Kratos’ moves will be instantly right at home from the start. Even after his dip in the river Styx, and has to build up his skills and moves once more, its still pretty familiar stuff. The light (square) and heavy (triangle) attacks remain the same as does the ability to combo with them, and combo you will. You can toss enemies into the air as before, perform a “cyclone of chaos”, grab enemies mid-air and smash them into the ground and generally splatter ghouls and demons all over the place. You can also upgrade everything with souls as in all other games which unlocks new moves and skills and does more damage etc. There’s a few pretty decent additions now though, such as using “L1 + triangle” to grapple enemies from a distance and shoulder charge them. This is really good for knocking bigger enemies back or stunning them and it’s absolutely vital when trying to get at foes that fly. It also allows Kratos to stay in the air longer whilst slicing enemies up, a very vital part of Kratos’ skills when trying harder difficulties. When you grab enemies you now have two choices, punching them in the face several times then ripping their heads off (by repeatedly pressing circle) as before, or picking them up, running round and using them as a battering ram to damage many enemies at once (pressing square). This is a particularly useful new skill when swarmed by many enemies at once, which happens frequently. Another addition is Kratos, with a select few beasts such as a three headed fire breathing dog or massive club wielding Cyclops, can now jump on such monsters and use them to attack other enemies. Again it’s very vital and quite satisfying to use a giant Cyclops to batter a shit load of smaller enemies all over the place, before ripping its eye ball from its head. There are some new weapons as well (more in them in a bit) but a particularly useful and satisfying one is the Nemean Cestus, two huge gauntlets that are basically used to pummel all enemies to death. Some of the moves associated with the gauntlets are such good fun and regularly smash and batter enemies all over the place when used at the right time. Ploughing into a huge swarm of enemies with a few powerful strikes with the Nemean Cestus really sends them all flying and splattering against walls, floors and ceilings, particularly enjoyable when in the Labyrinth as most surfaces are laden with spikes. Kratos has new magic attacks as well that are assigned to weapons, making them much easier to use, such as an attack that surrounds you with shields and spears and rains arrows from the sky. Not only does it make you temporarily invincible but does huge damage to many enemies at once and is often a life saver. You will also blind enemies with the head of Helios, and summon souls to attack enemies for you. You can also use the sword of Olympus but it is now a special move that you have to build up over time, and, when ready, you press L3 and R3 and you get a short stint of Kratos going ballistic with it slicing the living crap out of everything (its identical to the “rage of the gods” from the first game and “rage of the titans” ability from the second game). It’s good for when the chips are down. If you have not played God of War before then you are in for a treat as it is easily still one of the most satisfying combat systems available in gaming, as all God of War games have been.

There are treasures to find and a battle arena to keep you playing. This time round you don’t get to keep your weapons you pick up throughout the game (more on that in a bit) but you do get treasures as an alternative. You find these as you play through the game, such as Poseidon’s Conch and Hercules’ armour, and you can activate them when playing through the same difficulty a second time round (you have to complete the game on a specific difficulty before you can use them). They will make Kratos more powerful by making enemy attacks do less damage or giving you unlimited magic for example. You can also play through as Kratos in a different costume (called “Fear Kratos”) which makes you deal quadruple damage, but also receive quad damage yourself. None of these things are particularly necessary (and I would rather have the gear I collect to be honest) but they will give a bit of incentive to play through a few times on different difficulties. You also have the challenges and battle arena which basically give Kratos some objectives in a small arena, such as killing a load of enemies with just your bare hands or making sure the number of constantly spawning enemies doesn’t go over 50, a particularly fun and mental challenge. They are all particularly tough, but pretty good fun and will add to the length of playing time and value for money.

It is easily the most brutal, bloody and gory instalment so far. With Kratos you expect a vast amount of blood but he really does himself proud in this title. You will frequently rip heads from bodies with your bare hands, tear beasts in two with your blades, pull eye balls from heads, slice open beasts spilling their organs on the floor, amputate limbs, snap necks, pull wings off harpies and generally perform any and all brutal kills you can think of. Of course he has done similar things before, however with the new visual detail it really does seem more horrific. This is nothing compared to the wrath he saves for the Olympians. Obviously he is out to get these guys mainly, Poseiden, Hades, Helios, Hermes and Zeus (with a few other mythological figures thrown in), and the manner in which he slaughters these guys is truly horrific. He rips heads from bodies, gouges out eyes with his thumbs, severs legs, chokes to death, pummels their faces so hard you can see their skull, stamps on heads, knees in faces and gives Zeus one of the most almighty pummelling’s I have seen an enemy take in a game for a while. At a few occasions you will get a first person view of what its like to be an Olympian that Kratos is pounding into the ground, and it is very haunting being on the receiving end of his wrath for a change. Every time you defeat a boss hold on to your stomach as you are in for a truly blood soaked finally.

What’s bad?

The extra enemies on screen at one time are not a good idea. Of all the additions to this game, most of them good, one that really does not work is the vast amount of enemies on screen at one time. You can get up to 50 enemies vs Kratos now, which sounds cool and Santa Monica boasted at length about this, but it just doesn’t work. The previous titles were forgiving with their attacks, to an extent, as the combat system can’t cope with such intensity, and rightly so as it worked perfectly. This time round they totally swarm you. Literally you will be bombarded from every conceivable angle, constantly, without pause or allowing for a single error. You simply can’t deal with it. Whilst you’re attacking 4 or 5 enemies in one direction, another 10 will stab you in the back, the whole time a massive centaur is running round trying to skewer you with his lance, whilst archers shower you with arrows, flying harpies dive bomb you from above and fire breathing beasts attack you from afar with flame moves that cover most of the ground you are fighting on. It’s ridiculously over the top and maddening in places, I don’t know what they were thinking! What makes such a thing even worse is that if Kratos was well equipped to deal with such ludicrous amounts of attacks it would not be so bad, but he isn’t. There are some moves to allow you to deal with this sort of thing but not enough to fully counteract the total number of enemies on screen and you certainly won’t have the necessary weapons or upgrades until about a third of the way through for such skills to be of any use. You only have a few attacks that hit many enemies at once and I only reckon two of these are actually useful: the grapple where you use them as a battering ram, which you can only do to a select few enemies, and the gauntlets’ spinning attack. The blades of exile’ cyclone of chaos combo is just too weak to be useful and the various heavy attacks with the blades take too long to charge up and are too slow. By the time Kratos has got round to swinging a heavy attack he could have been stabbed at least ten times. I’m sure having Kratos battle 50 enemies at once seemed like a good idea on paper, but it really doesn’t work, and they should have left the combat alone.

Sticking pins in your eyes is preferable to some of the fights in this game. They are utterly interminable! Remember the huge rotating spiked pillars in the underworld from the first game, where if you get touched you fall and have to start again, and it takes around 3 years of your life to do and you would rather live in hell for that time? Remember that infuriating circular room that Kratos has to lower by hand from the second game, whilst a spiked ceiling comes down on you, the whole time skeletons are attacking you and grinding the lowering mechanism to a halt? Remember that room in Persephone’s castle, from the PSP title, that’s very small with two massive armour plated Cyclops’ smashing pretty much every inch of the limited floor space, the whole time harpies are dive bombing you and you can’t hit them as they are constantly in flight? Remember how much you screamed in fury? Remember wanting to attack your console with a meat clever, or saw your own legs off rather than persevering with these horrible, shitty, bloody awful, rage inducing, agonising set pieces? Well the sadists at Santa Monica Studios have kept that theme going here, with a few extra servings of fury added on top. Some of the fights in this third one are going to make you vomit blood. Such as towards the end when you have to fight a massive fiery three headed dog, that spits hundreds of smaller fiery dogs at you, at the rate of a fiery dog producing mini gun, that run after you and explode dealing massive damage, the whole time it either claws you or fires enormous fire balls that have huge range and both do loads of damage, meanwhile two goat things with massive scythe weapons (the hardest non-boss enemy in the game) are trying to turn you into luncheon meat. Also taking into account the fact that the massive sodding dog has to be killed three times as you have to hack off each head individually, each severing of which makes the dam thing a whole new boss battle again. Trying to deal damage to anything is unbelievably difficult, let alone stringing combos together, let alone constantly doing your counter, let alone evading the enemies’ attacks, and your space to manoeuvre is pretty limited. There is another on top of the labyrinth where two Minotaur’s are trying to cut a chain that’s suspending the platform your standing on, and you have to stop them otherwise its instant death, the whole time a million enemies are attacking or literally holding you back, including medusa’s, that love turning you to stone (to which you die instantly if you are in the air or get hit once), further Minotaur’s, archers shooting from a distance, the lot. You are going to want to tear every hair on your body out. Don’t even get me started on the end of game fight where you have to fight about 20 Zeus’s all with the same “thunder clap” move that can kill you in two hits, if you’re lucky, or the final fight in the labyrinth where literally every enemy in the game will be hurled at you at once, 10 times over. It’s almost as though the developers sat down after making a fight sequence and thought “well, we have made this one practically impossible, so what can we do to make it even harder?” It is more than likely a trade mark thing as all God of War games have some fight scenes in them that are horrible, but it doesn’t make them fun regardless. I know I should just do it on an easier difficulty, or simply switch it off and not bother, but that is admitting defeat, defeat is a weakness, and I am a man dammit! We can’t show weakness. Dam you Santa Monica Studio’s for preying on my pride, ignorance, stubbornness and lack of skill once more. Dam you to hell!

There are too many enemies that are so hard to kill it is ridiculous. Not only do they do things like become invisible so that they can still hit you but you can’t hit them (for fucks sake!), disappear into the floor and only popping up to do Kratos heavy damage and then disappearing again, the whole time you cant touch them (for fucks sake!), but they can take so much punishment it seems like they are indestructible. You will honestly be battering away at these guys for a ludicrous amount of time and often you will get a lot of them at once, along with other weaker enemies all looking to get a hit in when your back is turned, as well as a few minotaur’s charging around. Obviously there are things you can do to counteract their overwhelming strength and numbers but opportunities to do so are slim and if you make a mistake they will kill you very quickly, especially on your first play through and on a harder difficulty than “easy”. The first time I encountered the hooded things with dual curved blades, I spent so long hacking the crap out of them and yet they kept coming, that I thought they were indestructible and had to be fled from or trapped or something. There are moves you can do to counteract these infuriating enemies, such as pulling the hooded dudes out of the ground, but, as always with God of War games, it is not clear at all what moves will work on specific enemies and what ones wont, as some moves don’t have any effect on certain enemies at all. You can’t throw a lot of enemies, for example, and a lot of enemies block all your heavy attacks, so it’s a bit of a lottery. Why could they have not ironed such things out? I can’t see how someone at Santa Monica Studios played through this and thought “yeah that’s fine”. They don’t need to be that tough; there is too much going on elsewhere for it to be necessary.

As in all previous games, there are far too many situations where enemies can hit you and there is nothing you can do about it for my liking. This generally happens when you’re grappling an enemy and attempting to finish them off, performing a counter or cinematic move in general or when the enemy “dog-pile” you and you have to wiggle the analog frantically, which will take at least a few seconds. They can still hack away at you in many different scenarios and there is nothing you can do about it until Kratos has finished his movement and you regain control. It’s infuriating! Whenever you try and throw or do anything that isn’t constantly battering all 50 enemies on screen at the same time, which of course is impossible, they are going to slice you up at some point. This isn’t so bad on easier difficulties of course, but on the harder ones it pushes your sanity to the limits as the only way to get through such difficulties is to not take damage. To be fair, those familiar with God of War will be unsurprised as it is a problem in all games (except “chains of Olympus”), but why has it not been fixed? This should be the ultimate in the franchise, surely?

The story is more questionable than any other title and the characters are all less admirable. Despite the grander apocalyptic story this time round it is easily my least favourite in the franchise. They have re-introduced Pandora’s box from the first game which again Kratos is trying to open, then there’s the seemingly totally unnecessary flame of Olympus, which Zeus draws his power from, which isn’t touched on very much at all and then just gets kind of forgotten (why could Pandora not just be the key to the box on its own, the flame really is not necessary? Kratos kills Zeus in a way that has bog all to do with it). Kratos also starts off with powers yet again, that he then loses by falling into the river Styx and going into the underworld yet again, and he has to build up his powers yet again. Don’t argue that this is necessary as the underworld is a vital part of the God of War gaming experience, which it is, as there are reasons for him to go into the underworld later on in the game, such as to confront Kronos, so why bother killing him again? It’s literally jumbled together from bits of the previous games and I was wondering why Santa Monica Studios didn’t come up with something better, or at least more original. Kratos himself is different this time, as despite the fact he is a total butcher, slaughtering all he comes across, you always felt sorry for him, as he was a tortured pawn in more powerful hands and always the underdog. He isn’t this time, he’s too mighty and powerful, he dispatches Gods too easily and just comes across as an arsehole who wants to screw everyone over in order to get his own way. You don’t really feel sorry for him much at all (until right at the very end) and he is definitely just a bad guy rather than a good guy with a tragic history (Darth Vader style). Some people may like this, but it’s certainly not the same character I enjoyed playing as in all the other games. Zeus comes across as a school bully as well, rather than a mighty Olympian, as he does in the second game, and he just laughs at Kratos all the time and constantly says how much of a failure he is (why is he failure? Zeus wants him dead as he sees him as a threat. What’s that got to do with failing?) It’s more pathetic than intimidating. Hercules is a bad guy in this as well, which just seems wrong in this Greek mythology based world, and Atlas, the largest and possibly the most interesting titan that’s been in all but the first of the previous titles, isn’t in it at all. It does end rather well, and its definitely not a happy ending (how could such a story end happily?) however, they still leave a bit of controversy after the credits and it so isn’t worth it and if this is supposed to be the end why did they just not end it without question? The story is just an example of how bigger isn’t always better, and I really thought it was the weakest in the franchise so far, as though they were running out of ideas.

You don’t get to keep anything after completion. This one really puzzled me as that had always been a feature of God of War (except the first one), that all health upgrades, magic, weapons, skills, you name it, could be kept and played through again from the beginning, thus adding to your reasons to play again. You cant this time though. You lose everything if you have another go and you have to build it all up again. Why have they decided to get rid of this feature this time? Well I know why, as you have to back track some levels this time round and there are various areas that you can’t access in context with the story and if you had all the weapons/tools, you could, and cut out a huge chunk of story or a boss battle which obviously doesn’t work. But why not just don’t allow the weapons or magic to be used, or not be used, in the context of advancing the story, but allow you to still beat the crap out of the enemies you encounter? Why not just have a tab stating “you can’t access here right now” or something? We will understand, considering we have just played through the bloody thing. It really is baffling. Plus, unless you are incredibly anal and willing to shag Aphrodite a hundred times (long story) you wont have enough time to buy all skills and max everything out anyway, leaving you to only upgrade the blades and gauntlets (as they are the most useful in battle) every time making it repetitive, dull and ultimately pointless. Even if you do get every conceivable soul you won’t have the best skills until right at the very end. Another tinkered with feature that simply didn’t need tinkering with.

The other weapons are not great again. This will come as no surprise to any Kratos fan as, other than the gauntlet of Zeus in the PSP’s “Chains of Olympus”, nearly all his alternative weapons in all the games are pretty crap. This game is still no different as you get some cool new weapons, that look as though they would be excellent, but they are pretty much the same as your blades of chaos/exile. The Nemean Cestus are brilliant and quite vital, as are the blades of exile but Hades hooks (huge purple hooks that Hades uses to take souls) and the Nemesis Whip (triple bladed whips that blast everything with electricity) are nothing special whatsoever. They are just far too similar to the blades of exile but with a few flaws that make them not worth using. Hades hooks are too slow and almost identical to the blades of exile, but with less moves, and the nemesis whip, although deals lots of damage, cant hit many enemies at once and often leaves you open for attack mid-combo. They are not bad, but not that great either and certainly don’t add anything to the game.

Conclusion

When you first switch this game on you will be blown away. It is on a scale more huge and epic than anything you will have seen before, the visuals are mind blowing, and you will be right at home with Kratos, instantly performing all his awesome combos, throws, air attacks and some really good additions to the combat and magic attacks. The battle with Kronos is truly jaw dropping, as is the first fight in the game with Poseiden, and the flight up and down the path of Eos is adrenaline pumping stuff. Plus you really will have a serious duke out with Zeus, that up’s intensity to mental levels. However, and it pains me to say, after you get used to the epic-ness, the stunning graphics, the brutality and the blood you start to notice that all the flaws, problems and infuriating fight sequences that are affiliated with all God of War games, are still there. Most added features are quite good, but not at any point do you think “how did I ever cope without this skill?” The sheer quantity of enemies is a new problem, which may have seemed like a good idea, but Kratos hasn’t really been upgraded to deal with this and it leads to several battles that will make you want to insert your Playstation into someone at Santa Monica Studios. In addition to such new problems is the fact you don’t get to keep anything you earn or upgrade throughout the game, quite why they decided to get rid of this after the last two titles is beyond me, and the story feels a bit collaborated. Then there is all the stuff that has always been there, and has yet to be rectified, such as having too many enemies that can take a ridiculous, and I mean ridiculous, amount of punishment, the opportunities to harm them are rare and it’s a total lottery of what moves will and won’t work. Plus the stupid amount of enemies on screen at one time can hit you at every conceivable opportunity, whether you can help it or not, and there are still several battles in this that make you want to simply not bother and turn it off. It is not worth the anguish and it often becomes an infuriating, overwhelming, total button mashing chaotic nightmare. Yes, I am being harsh as it probably sounds to you like I really didn’t like it, which of course couldn’t be further from the truth, however, I feel it is harsh but fair. Saying “you will be disappointed” is not true, as it’s very similar to all previous, hugely popular, games, but being a fan means I was a bit let down, personally. If this was the first in the franchise I would have been hugely impressed, but Santa Monica Studios have had three titles to get this perfected, which, considering how spot on it was to start with, I reckon they should have done by now with this third instalment, and they just haven’t. If you’re a fan of God of War this will be essential gaming, but don’t expect it to be 20 times better, or better at all, than any previous title: It isn’t (I still think the first game is the best one). If you have never heard of Kratos, this will probably blow you away, as in many ways it’s unbelievable, but may I recommend you wait a little longer as Sony will be releasing the trilogy for the PS3 (HD versions of the PS2 games for the PS3) soon and this is a trilogy that has to be played in its entirety to be fully appreciated. CA.

Summary:

Is it user-friendly/easy to get into? – 8.0

Should feel right at home for God of War fans, and all new moves will become familiar quickly. It doesn’t do much to nurture you if you have never played it though and you are straight into a fairly tough boss fight. No mercy for the weak basically.

Is the story any good? – 7.5

It does what it needs to do, sets up a quest for Kratos and a final battle with Zeus, but it’s a bit unoriginal, a bit woolly, and Kratos has become a self centred bastard rather than a tragic hero.

How does it look? – 10.0

They are the benchmark for all PS3 games from now on. Stunning and flawless in every conceivable way.

How does it sound? – 10.0

All the usual full orchestral background music and choir and it’s generally an assault your ears. All voice acting is excellent.

Is it good to play? – 8.5

It is mostly excellent free flowing multi-combo combat and most additional moves are really enjoyable. Plus it’s horrifically gory and quick time events are little more forgiving than before. But none of the new stuff adds anything that makes it better and the huge number of enemies and enemies that are way too tough make it more of a frustrating button masher than it has been before. Maybe it should have stayed on the PS2.

When will I get bored? – 7.0

It takes a decent amount of time to do initially, but it’s the shortest in the franchise, and you don’t get to keep any weapons or upgrades. There are treasures you can find and use that give certain powers during a second play through, and an additional costume that makes Kratos do quad damage, but it’s not the same. The combat arena and challenges are quite good fun but short lived as your not going to spend hours of your life doing them.

OVERALL – 8.5

Review created by C. Armstrong.