God of War 3
DEVELOPER: Sony
FORMAT: PS3
AGE RESTRICTION: 18
RATING: ****
Play with fire and you're going to get burnt. As the ruling deity on Mount Olympus, the mythical god Zeus chose to play with a powder keg instead. It had a short fuse too. Little wonder then that it blew up in his face. With his propensity for starting an argument in a deserted room, Kratos was always going to insist on the final word.
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In God of War 3, this enraged Spartan warrior's journey from remorse to revenge comes full circle. We meet him leading an army of titans, seemingly hewn from the very mountains cradling Olympus, into war with Greece's most powerful Gods.
The titans have a score of their own to settle - Zeus, it seems, has little time for friends. If, as the philosopher Plato mused, the measure of a man can be gleaned by what he does with power, Zeus is a narcissist hell-bent on self-destruction. But for now, even as Athens crumbles in the chaos he has unleashed, Zeus is too powerful an adversary, even for a fighting marvel like Kratos. Our fiery hero once more finds himself banished to the underworld, where his wits and his strength will be sorely tested en route to a rematch with ultimate power.
As one would expect in a battle destined to scorch Hell and rattle the very foundations of Heaven, Kratos's revenge mission is a tooth-and-nail hair-raiser on an epic scale. Armed and ridiculously deadly, Kratos's twin blades feast on legions of tortured souls and fiendish monsters, on his way to protracted set pieces with the likes of Hades, Poseidon, Hercules and the big fish in need of frying, Zeus.
The action is brutal: close-ups of Kratos's finishing moves revel in ripped sinew and squirting blood as our hero tears through all those foolish enough to confront him. War, as any Spartan would have reminded you, is seldom pretty.
And yet, there are moments of such exquisite beauty that God of War 3 simply cannot help but take your breath away. You literally want to applaud Poseidon as he roars up from the watery depths, horses frothing and straining at his reins, trident gleaming in an ancient sun. That is, until you start to pull the plug on his curatorship of the oceans. With his eyes fixed on the prize, Kratos has little time for nice.
In between satiating his bloodlust, Kratos has to navigate through various mythological theatres laced with quirks and obstacles designed to sap the will of mere mortals. Obviously this won't apply to our lone gun, but even so, a little attention to detail helps if you're to crack the odd conundrum. The process of solving the puzzles scattered across the game feels very intuitive, even with the scale as grand as it is. You manhandle columns and bombs into place, pull levers and take full advantage of Kratos's dexterity.
Then the right door opens and all hell breaks loose.
GOD OF WAR:
THE STORY SO FAR
God of War 1
Kratos has had enough of the blood-spilling and carnage. He decides to end it all. How did it come to this?
Once upon a time he was but a warrior, the living embodiment of hell were you ever to face him and his Spartan brothers on the battlefield, but a soldier with a sense of duty and a family. But when his luck in combat ran out, his units crushed under the advance of a barbarian horde, Kratos sold his soul to the gods in exchange for ultimate power.
The God of War, Ares, made Kratos invincible and sent him off on an orgy of destruction. Then tragedy struck once more. Delighting in the ransacking of yet another town, Kratos stumbles upon his family, slain during a pilgrimage to a temple. Grief-stricken, he renounces his debt to Ares, but is racked with guilt.
The goddess Athena grants him a way out, or so it seems. She tells him that if he can defeat Ares, he will be freed from his torment. Kratos discovers Pandora's Box, which houses a weapon powerful enough to defeat a God, and eventually gets his revenge on Ares, only for Athena to tell him that she cannot give him peace of mind after all. From the start, Kratos is simply a pawn in their game. He chooses suicide as his final solution, only for Athena to appear once more and grant him the title, and powers, of God of War.
God of War 2
As the new God of War, Kratos is as hell-bent on chaos and destruction as his predecessor, leading Zeus to put his foot down. While laying siege to the ancient city of Rhodes, a giant eagle, none other than Zeus himself, swoops down and strips Kratos of most of his power, in turn funnelling it into the Colossus of Rhodes. Now simply a talented mortal, Kratos is no match for the colossus and is about to perish when Zeus appears and offers him the Blade of Olympus. To defeat the colossus, Kratos has to channel the last of his powers into the blade. It's a trap, but he has little option. He slays the colossus, but Zeus now holds all his power and demands that Kratos submit to him. When our hero refuses, Zeus condemns his spirit to eternal damnation.
But Zeus himself has bad blood on his hands. The titans, having lost out to Zeus in the battle to reign supreme, are itching for revenge. Kratos will come in handy. Their leader Gaia tells Kratos of the Loom of Fate on which the past and present are woven. With this magical instrument Kratos returns to engage Zeus in battle. He defeats him, but just as he is about to apply the coup de grace, Athena intervenes and is killed instead. Kratos then learns that, as Zeus's heir, he would have ruled over Mount Olympus had he killed Zeus. Overcome with rage, he uses the loom to bring the titans back to the present for a final, all-out assault on Mount Olympus.
From Athena to Zeus
If it's all Greek, here's a summary of the super-natural beings whose paths you're likely to cross.
Hercules: Blessed with extraordinary strength and courage, as well as a way with the ladies, this son of Zeus was hailed as a passionate and sincere friend but not the type of person you'd want for an enemy. A paragon of masculinity, he was regarded as the spirit embodied in the Olympic Games.
Poseidon: God of the sea and earthquakes, and brother to Zeus and Hades, who rules the underworld. His dad, Cronus, was a titan and bit of a tyrant, with a penchant for devouring his children. Depending on which legend you subscribe to, he was either saved by his mother, who hid him in a flock of sheep, or Zeus.
Zeus: Perhaps the most famous of the Greek gods, normally pictured wielding a thunderbolt. There are many versions governing his childhood, but what is in no doubt is that Zeus certainly had ambitions to be the god of love, fathering an impressive set of children with a wide array of lovers, god and human alike. He was a bit of a rebel too, killing his father to usher in the new age of gods.
Gaia: The Greek version of Mother Nature, and the founding force behind the heavens and Earth. Harboured a serious grudge against Zeus after his victory over the titans. In ancient Greece, an oath sworn in the name of Gaia was considered the most binding of all.
Athena: Goddess of civilisation, craft, justice and skill. Also a goddess of war strategy, although she apparently abhorred fighting and preferred the use of intellect to settle arguments. Heaven knows what she must have thought of Kratos. Became the protector of Athens after a celebrated contest with Poseidon.