This is a pretty mediocre remaster that adds little besides a new photo mode. Everything that looked good in the PS3 original still looks great, while some of the character models could've used an overhaul. I also encountered two minor graphical errors during my playthrough, although those might be due to the PS5 backwards compatibility mode.

Luckily, God of War 3 is still as much fun as it was on the PS3. Combat has a wonderful flow, the game is lengthy but without any filler content, and there's just so much variety here. The previous games left a surprising amount of gods and titans alive for Kratos to battle, which he does in a series of incredible set pieces, wielding a ton of different weapons.

However, what keeps me from fully recommending this game is the way it treats its female characters. The God of War games were always edgy, but to a point where it's so stupid you can't help but laugh. Ripping off a god's head to use as a flashlight is metal as fuck, and Kratos interrupting his quest for vengeance to sleep with Aphrodite has to be one of the dumbest QTEs ever.

Unfortunately, God of War 3 doesn't seem to know the word restraint. Roughly in the middle of the game, Kratos encounters a half naked and chained up woman. The game heavily implies that the woman has been abused and most likely raped by her former lover Poseidon. Kratos grabs the woman, shoves and throws her through half the level all while she screams for mercy, and ultimately ends up throwing her into a mechanism, crushing her to death - all of this to open a door btw. I don't mind Kratos being an edgelord, but the scene is never reflected upon and seems insanely cruel. I don't even want to imagine how female devs working at the studio felt when their superiors came up with this scene.

All in all God of War 3 is still fantastic game - just be aware what you're getting in terms of some of its more problematic content...

Let's get the obvious out of the way first: the game looks incredible, especially for a Vita game. This wouldn't look out of place on a PS3, perhaps not even on the Nintendo Switch. Mercenary does exhibit heavy frame rate drops in some levels, but it running on 2011 mobile hardware is a miracle in itself, so I won't complain too much.

Despite its short length it's also a contender for best Killzone campaign. The game takes place during the events of the first two Killzone games, taking the player to the locations of both games and offering lots of level variety in the process. Players are also free to choose how they approach most situations and can buy guns and equipment supporting their respective styles. Stealthily taking out commanders even yields additional lore bits and currency rewards. There's tons of different weapons and shooting them feels great. I didn't even mind the touchscreen minigames and QTEs since they work so well, way better than rotating the controller did in the console games.

The story's great too. In my other reviews, I criticized the earlier Killzone games for not building onto the tone and stories their predecessors established. Mercenary manages to nicely tie the stories of Killzone 1 and 2 together, even offering a unique perspective since you play as, well, a mercenary. The protagonist and his allies generally aren't constrained by annoying things such as loyalty or basic ethics - they're in it for the money.

Not only does the game make both sides of the ongoing war seem morally gray, it also ties this into the gameplay. Ammo costs money, so you better loot it off the people you killed instead of buying it. Got shot and died? Now you get a (very very slight) punishment in the form of a "life insurance" payment taken from your account. Accidentally blew yourself up like an idiot? Suicide costs twice as much. But don't worry, both sides of the conflict will happily pay you for all the people you killed and things you destroyed. It's perhaps the most cynical the series ever got and I appreciate what the game is trying here, even though it sometimes suffers from the short length of its story - it's hard to flesh out characters when they're only around for less than 4 hour.

If there are, by some miracle, still Vita owners out there that haven't played Mercenary, they should at least try it. It's not only a masterclass in pushing the system to its limits, it's also a great game on its own that I would happily play on a bigger screen, provided Sony ever again allows Guerilla to work on something not called Horizon.

This must've been quite the experience on the PSP, but playing it on a PS3 makes it look like a somewhat generic game. It released after God of War 2, even though it partially sets up the events of that game, but looks worse and lacks both set pieces and impressive boss fights.

There's also a lack of interesting additions to the combat or gameplay in general, and the whole game is not very well balanced: slightly past the midway point I had fully upgraded every weapon, as well as my health and mana bar. That's not to say the combat is bad, it's fun, but it has a very "been there, done that" feel to it.

On a more positive note, I appreciate the absence of the insanely difficult QTEs that were common in God of War 1 and 2. Some of the environment art is great too, although repetitive. The story is somewhat predictable, but still manages to flesh out Kratos as a character.

Nevertheless, I could never shake the feeling that the reason this game exists was purely to get a God of War game on the PSP. There's just not enough there in the graphics, story, or gameplay department to make it feel like an important entry in the series. If you're interested in playing it, at least try to do so before playing God of War 2.