This review contains spoilers

Holy shit, finally! After getting pissed at the first God of War and being disappointed with the second one, I was beginning to lose hope with this franchise, but I was holding out for the third one to see how this trilogy was gonna end, and I’m so glad I did. God of War III is fucking awesome. I have no other way to put it, so much of what I disliked from the first two games is either completely gone, or vastly reduced. Enemies don’t feel like damage sponges anymore, puzzle sections aren’t anywhere near as monotonous or common, exploration is incentivized greatly through the level design, set pieces are way, way more frequent, same goes for bosses, and goddamn, the combat is fun for once! This is what I wanted from God of War.

The first thing you notice when you start up the game is just how fucking good it looks, holy shit is the jump to the next generation notable. The PS2 games didn’t look bad by any means, but this is on another fucking level. The particle effects are especially significant when trying to sell the scale of this game, and speaking of the game’s scale, holy fuck, you fight some absolutely monstrous bosses and enemies, this shit is insane.

While we’re on the topic of the bosses, these are the best the series has seen this far. Now that you finally get to go after the big gods, the ones that everyone knows, you can tell the devs got excited and really put their all into it. My favorite was probably Hades, the presentation on that was ridiculous, I loved the way he was introduced and his character design is probably my favorite overall. His weapon is also awesome, and the fact that we get to use them after killing him is amazing. The Poseidon fight was also fucking badass, especially considering that he's the first thing you fight. This was also what I meant when I said that the game looks incredible, because holy shit did they make good use of particle effects for these two fights.

I also really liked the story, and I mean sure, it's overly edgy and pretty predictable, but it was fucking cool. It was a great continuation from the second game, and it’s nice that the sense of continuity isn’t broken in the gameplay, since you keep all the items you gained in the second game, like the Icarus Wings and the Golden Fleece. I also kinda loved the ending, there are some real emotional moments, especially towards the end with Pandora. The whole ending sequence was alright, the walking around in the darkness overstayed its welcome a little too much to me, and was a bit of a pace breaker, but I can excuse it just because of how much I liked everything before and after it.

After the credits rolled, all I could think about was how glad I was that I stuck out with this series. I absolutely plan on revisiting this game. That being said, I really have to replay God of War (2018) now to see what the game looks like with context. I’m also massively anticipating God of War Ragnarök, I can’t wait to see where the story goes, and how it will end, for real this time.

Reviewed on Sep 23, 2022


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