God of War 3 Remastered

Some time back I played through God of War 3 Remastered. As would be inferred from the game’s title, it is a remastered version of God War 3, a game that came out on the PlayStation 3 back in 2010. God of War 3 is a game that I had been meaning to replay for the past few years, and the release of the remastered edition on PlayStation 4 was the perfect opportunity to do so. Seeing as how I played the original God of War 3 back when it came out, this game doesn’t fall under my Late to the Party series of posts, and it didn’t feel appropriate to do a full-blown commentary on it, but I did want to at least write a shorter piece with some thoughts on the game.

It's the end of the Greek world

For those that don’t know, the story of the God of War games centers around Kratos, an extremely angry man who accidentally murdered his family, and the series follows his blood-soaked journey of revenge against the figures of Greek mythology that make the mistake of crossing him. God of War 3 is the climax of this story arc, with Kratos squaring off against the likes of Poseidon, Hades, Hercules, Kronos, Hermes, Hera, and Zeus. The story of the God of War games is very basic and if you’re looking for something deep you’re going to walk away disappointed, but story is not the God of War games’ selling point. What have always been the series’ strengths are its outstanding gameplay and its jaw-dropping visual spectacle. This is immediately apparent from the very start of the game, which has Kratos fighting on top of the titan Gaia as she is climbing Mount Olympus and soon thereafter you begin the multi-stage boss fight against Poseidon. Having played the game back when it first came out, I remembered the strategies for most of the boss fights and the solutions for most of the puzzles, so my second playthrough didn’t last as long as my first, but that didn’t take away from the enjoyment of replaying the game. I even discovered a new combat move that I didn’t know Kratos could do. This wasn’t a game changer but it was a pleasant surprise to find out that I hadn’t yet mined all of the gameplay moves God of War 3 had in store for me. For a six-year-old game, God of War 3 still looks pretty good. This remastered edition gave the game a very slight graphics upgrade, but otherwise it looks the same as it appeared on PlayStation 3, and while it wouldn’t win any awards today for its visuals, God of War 3 still looks as good, if not better, than many of the console games coming out in our current time. In my personal opinion, God of War 3 is the overall best of the God of War games. Other God of War games may do certain things better, but as a whole package I think God of War 3 is the current high point for the series. Though Kratos’ journey through the Greek world is over, the reveal of a new God of War game in development confirms that the series is not yet finished. This new game looks like it picks up many years after the events of God of War 3, and takes Kratos to a Norse setting. Odin should be terrified.