As someone who only played the new God of War series before, I had a hard time getting into the older series; I tried streaming the first 2 games on the PS4 but they didn't run well and the only thing I could do is to directly jump into the third game... and so I did.
I got to say, even though the story in this game is very simple and not engaging at all, having played the newer series first made the story more meaningful than it seems to be.
The story isn't an important part of the older series though, the gameplay is, and surprisingly enough, God of War III's gameplay holds up extremely well; it almost plays like a modern hack 'n' slash game. The amount of QTEs in the game is overwhelming, sure, but still, the gameplay is very enjoyable, with many different weapons and abilities.
Another important thing in the game is the bosses; they're a major part of the game and they're quite impressive. The music, the spectacle, the scale, all of these elements combined make some of the bosses stand out.
Also, the soundtrack is amazing; no other game has made me feel this way with its music before.
Lastly, the graphics and the audio design are slightly outdated for sure but they hold up well for the most part.

Pros:
+ Great gameplay
+ Spectacular bosses
+ Fantastic music

Cons:
- Many QTEs

Narrative: ?/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Characters: ?/10
Music: 9/10
Graphics/Audio: ?/10

Final Rating: 8/10
- Great -
God of War III is an epic, fun and special hack 'n' slash game even to this day, despite coming out more than a decade ago.

Do I recommend it?:
Yes, for sure, especially for fans of the newer series.

Mercy killing. Not as good as Chains of Olympus, better than the first one, about on par with the second one. I still think these games are some of the most fun to 100%, but as an actual game by itself I gotta say I respect it more than I like it. I never thought the story in these early GoWs were that great or anything, but this has one of the relative best despite still being too frantically paced to fully settle into its fittingly epic scale - the stuff with Pandora and Kratos (the best parts imo) feel far too rushed-through to work as much as intended, and the Gods just sort of pop in at random rather than having the looming presence they really needed in this narrative. That having been said, I like the way this game portrays the interconnectedness of the best and worst aspects of human existence - hate has just as much of an effect on your life as hope does whether you deny it or not. Also, this has absolutely earned its reputation as a violent, blood-gushing, cold-hearted motherfucker all these years later. Like WOW. Even I'm in awe of some of the brutal shit they make you do in this, gotta love it. Graphical powerhouse for the PS3 which still has some stunning images even today (Kratos looks incredible) but I'm just not as smitten with the environments here as I was with past entries - lotta of-the-era greys taking up about 90% of the color palette (even before there's a plot reason for it!) which dulls the whole thing down imo. Also kind of stinks that we're fighting the same old enemies with so many repeated tit-for-tat animations. Stacked voice cast though (in particular the always reliable Rip Torn's gravely, emotionally broken turn as Hephaestus). Zeus boss fight is God-tier (no pun intended) and the fight with Cronos is an all-timer - but the ending twist or whatever that was is really, really stupid. Some of the best QTEs in all of gaming. Good shit, but something just isn't clicking here on a deeper level for me.