Second Look - God of War III Remastered

Note: This review contains spoilers for the God of War series.

Following the release of God of War: Chains of Olympus on PSP in 2008 came the long-awaited God of War III in 2010, the first to be released on the PS3. This installment happens to be my personal favorite in the series and one I have a fond memory of playing, in part since I attended a midnight launch of the game in my senior year of high school and, due to the timing of its release, was able to play through the entirety of the game across two days since I was able to skip most of those two days (I was also admittedly a little obsessive of its development during the pre-release hype). While God of War III also got the remaster treatment like most of the other Greek games, in the form of God of War III Remastered, this is also notably the only one of those games to be released on PS4, likely as a way of hyping the then-upcoming 2018 game. Naturally, I also played the remaster when it came out, and found it only fitting to revisit this game through said remaster. While I liked the original version well enough as a teenager, I got a lot more out of the game’s story on this playthrough, allowing me to appreciate it even further.

The plot picks up immediately after the ending of God of War II, in which Kratos is joined by the Titans in his revenge against Zeus. In an attempt to stop Kratos’ rampage, Zeus calls upon aid from Hades, Hermes, Helios and Poseidon, the last of whom attacks Kratos first. Following his defeat of Poseidon, which causes the water level to rise, Kratos learns from Gaia that the Titans saw him as merely a means to an end so they could get their own revenge against Zeus. When he is left to die, Kratos begins to seek additional revenge against Gaia for the Titans’ betrayal.

 

Kratos' road to vengeance ends here.

From a storytelling perspective, God of War III neatly wraps up Kratos’ character arc in a satisfying way, as well as the exploration of the series’ themes. The primary theme of vengeance is explored even further here, with several characters seeking revenge against Kratos due to the (sometimes unintended) consequences of his actions in previous games, including Chains of Olympus, while others, including the otherwise grateful Helios, are killed by Kratos due to being an obstacle in the way of his pursuit of vengeance against Zeus. It is only after he finally gets his revenge that Kratos realizes the consequences of his actions in this game, having been so blinded by rage that he failed to notice how killing the gods had a negative impact on the world around him. In addition, this game also explores the theme of hope in a way that circles back to the beginning of the original game, with Kratos finally finding it where he originally believed he had none, as well as attempting to redeem himself by releasing it back into the world.

Despite this, Kratos’ journey is not quite done yet, as a small bit of dialogue from Zeus in the final act alludes to the events of the second PSP game, Ghost of Sparta, which would be released after this game and finally explore Kratos’ brother Deimos, previously established in a hidden video in the original game. Having recently played both of the Norse games, it’s also interesting seeing how the events of this game tie into Kratos’ further development, and how the battle between Kratos and Hermes here seems to have been revisited in Ragnarök with the fight against Heimdall (in that both Heimdall and Hermes are extremely fast characters who actively taunt Kratos). I will also mention that I noticed an inconsistency between this game and the 2018 entry, in that the Blades of Exile here suddenly revert back to the Blades of Chaos in the latter with no in-game explanation.

The core gameplay remains similar with that of God of War II, including Kratos retaining his arsenal from that game, albeit with Athena’s Blades quickly replaced with the Blades of Exile and the Rage Meter becoming the Rage of Sparta, but with a number of updates to the experience. To start, you can now grapple enemies or grab them to use as a battering ram, while grabbed objects can now also be rotated to make puzzle solving much easier. Although you no longer have access to a Gorgon head to freeze enemies, decapitating one now freezes all nearby enemies in addition to a boost of magic, which can come in really handy since the game often takes full advantage of the original PS3 version’s improved specs at the time to throw whole armies of enemies at you at once. In addition to the Health and Magic Meters, this game also introduces a new Item Meter that requires Minotaur Horns to upgrade, with all three meters only requiring three each of their respective items (Gorgon Eyes, Phoenix Feathers, Minotaur Horns) each time. Although the camera is still static, there are specific areas, often while reading a pedestal, that allow you to freely move the camera to get a better look your immediate surroundings.

 

Thanks to better hardware, the number of enemies on screen at once has
increased significantly.

There are also a number of Godly Possessions hidden throughout the game at specific points, as well as a number of costumes, that have an effect on gameplay while equipped, with the remaster having all costumes (including the DLC costumes) available from the start. However, having any of them active disables Trophies for some reason, so I did not use any of them on my last playthrough, though I did go out of my way to collect all of the Godly Possessions in case I wanted to turn them on in a future playthrough. Since I don’t know where else to mention this, it’s particularly noteworthy that, while this game does have the sex minigame seen in most of the Greek games, this time it, rather appropriately, involves Aphrodite, the goddess of love, beauty and sex.

In most God of War games from the Greek era, it’s not unfair to say that you can pretty much get by just by using the Blades outside of very specific situations. The devs took this into account and designed this game around making you actually use your entire arsenal, and it shows, up to making each weapon (swappable with the d-pad) play similarly to the Blades with their own twists. The Claws of Hades, for instance, have the ability to summon souls chosen in the upgrade menu, as well as drag out enemies hiding underground. The Nemian Cestus can create shockwaves and break onyx, and while it does more resemble gauntlets, some combo moves still produce a chain weapon similar to the Blades. Lastly, the Nemesis Whip can create electric shocks, as well as activate electric mechanisms. No matter which one you have active, each one is very satisfying to use in its own way, and the ability to more easily swap between them on the fly makes it far easier to deal with a swarm of enemies that require each of the different weapon types to survive.

At least one fight in the third act emphasizes this.

This even extends to the items Kratos has at his disposal, which can be easily swapped by holding L1 and pressing one of the face buttons. The Bow of Apollo is not only good for long-range attacks, it can also burn bramble to unlock new areas as well as burn enemies in a wide area. The Head of Helios is useful for lighting up dark areas, but can also stun enemies with blinding light and reveal hidden secrets. Finally, the Boots of Hermes enable wall running in designated areas, however they can also provide a burst of speed that can be used to plow through enemies. With such a vast array of weapons and items that all feel important in their own way, this effectively encourages a wider range of gameplay styles previously unseen in the preceding entries.

Of the Greek games, this one is easily the best-looking, especially thanks to the remaster providing a visual upgrade over the PS3 original. While water effects can be dodgy in earlier console generations, this game has some amazing and realistic-looking water effects that still hold up really well. That said, with the increased graphical fidelity, the fight against Cronos can still get a little gross at times, especially since he was designed more like a level to some extent, yet somehow it doesn’t feel as gross as when it was applied to Atlas in God of War II. This approach is also applied to Gaia, yet somehow it comes off the least weird, likely because of her plant-based design.

One thing that this game does that no other game in the series does is heavily experiment with the camera, leading to a lot of visually interesting scenarios, such as the end of the Poseidon battle being depicted from his perspective rather than Kratos’, leading to a more cinematic experience that takes full advantage of the medium without being overbearing. Button prompts are also placed more around the screen, in their approximate location on the controller rather than most of them being centered, making the player look around the screen more and arguably making the QTEs a bit easier. One other nice touch is that the current weapon that is equipped also changes Kratos’ dodge animation, making them stand out even more from each other and fitting in with the type of weapon they are.

 

One phase of the final battle with Zeus resembles Mortal Kombat.

Notably, there is one music puzzle in the game that appears to incorporate the PlayStation icons, which would normally be immersion-breaking, but this is not actually the case. When designing this puzzle, they initially used Greek symbols that represented the meaning of the icons, but it didn’t work well in playtesting, so they tried by making the icons into Greek symbols that more visually resembled the icons, but it still didn’t work until the symbols were given the appropriate colors. Upon closer inspection, one can see that the symbols are actually Greek letters (Delta, Omicron, Pi, Chi) that are colored similarly to their respective PlayStation icons (Triangle, Circle, Square, Cross), which makes more sense in the context of the series.

Upon closer inspection, these are not the actual PlayStation icons, but rather
Greek letters colored to look like them.

While the game has a really good voice cast, T. C. Carson stands out with one of his best performances as Kratos in the entire Greek series. Some casting choices stand out as well, with screen actor Rip Torn playing Hephaestus in one of his scant video game roles, but it’s clear that he took the role very seriously and makes him stand out as a memorable character. Notably, Kevin Sorbo sort of reprises his role as Hercules, having played a version of the character before in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, and while I will admit to not having watched any amount of that series, it is interesting to hear him play a more villainous take on the mythological figure. The soundtrack is also very memorable, with “Rage of Sparta” standing out the most as a sort of leitmotif throughout the game.

Rather notably, there was originally a different version of the game’s story conceived by creator David Jaffe. In this version, Kratos would have killed Zeus at the very beginning, which would then cause the Norse and Egyptian pantheons to arrive and fill in the gap left by the Greek pantheon. Kratos would then end up killing those pantheons as well, with his counterparts from those mythologies joining him and becoming the Three Wise Men from the Christian story of the birth of Jesus. While this obviously did not come to pass, with the only remaining hint of this being a painting of the future seen in God of War II, the series moving into Norse mythology and hinting heavily at Egyptian mythology seems to indicate that the franchise will follow a version of this original vision over a longer period of time, but only time will tell if the aforementioned future will ever be seen through (otherwise the Sisters of Fate will have been wrong). For what it’s worth though, there is a known fan game called Bit of War, originally conceived as an account of what happened to Morpheus in Chains of Olympus, with the final game being a loose depiction of what David Jaffe had in mind for God of War III.

After all this time, God of War III is still a satisfying conclusion to the running storyline of the Greek series, with Remastered offering a more visually polished experience, and still remains my personal favorite entry in the franchise. Looking back on it, it also effectively sets the stage for Kratos’ continuing development in the Norse games, even if that was not the intention at the time. While this is still a generally fun game to play, new players are strongly encouraged to play through the preceding games in the series first for the sake of the story, otherwise I would recommend playing the remaster.