Guybrush Review 89
FINAL VOTE: 10… you are wondering why? Why I chose to put the vote at the beginning of the review, well ... God of War 3 reaches a technical level never seen in a console video game, with graphics and animations that will leave you breathless, GOW 3 is not a video game , is THE videogame, a videogame that goes beyond any scheme seen up to now, impressive from any front you look at it from start to finish!
THIRST FOR REVENGE:
It looks like an artwork… instead it's the game graphics!
Hades, a place that Kratos knows very well, escaped twice from this place of eternal damnation, this time our hero will have to contend with Hades himself , God of the dead, who is dying to make Kratos understand that there are one-way tickets to Hell.
A soul approaches Kratos, a familiar soul ...Athena, who died to save Zeus at the end of God of war 2, he decides to help our hero by forging him the Blades of Exile (the latest incarnation of the Swords of Chaos) and giving him some of the strength he had before.
Back in shape again, begins the third escape from this place of perdition, which will lead our hero to clash with Hades himself and to meet famous people of Greek mythology such as Hephaestus and the three judges of souls: Minos, Aeacus and Radamante.
Having come out of Hades, Kratos arrives in the city of Olympia, where Helium, God of the Sun, awaits him aboard his fiery chariot. Aided by a Titan, ghost of Sparta he gets… "lending" his head from Elio so that he can see the path towards the Flame of Olympus which, once extinguished, should steal much of Zeus' power and lead him to defeat.
Meanwhile, the tragic death of Elio drag the world into total darkness, a world where night and darkness reign supreme and the sky is full of black clouds.
Hey! Who said my gloves aren't regular?
Continuing on its path, Kratos takes hold of Hermes' winged boots and boxing gloves of Hercules (an excellent and destructive alternative to the Blades of Exile) slowly discovering that the projects and the plot that the gods had woven for him had already begun from the distant first chapter in which Kratos had opened Pandora's Box, a box that mysteriously now burns protected by the Flame of Olympus and that only a woman, or rather a child, can open: Pandora, daughter of Hephaestus and the only one able to extinguish the Flame of Olympus.
Deceived by the gods, and burning with vengeance, the Phantom of Sparta must fight his way through thousands of enemies, rewriting the fate that the gods have shaped for him.
The developers knew how to create a fascinating plot full of deceptions that has fascinated players since the first chapter and finally, with this last fragment of the saga, the narrative choices made by the developers and all the most mysterious aspects of the series will have a reason, going to generate one of the most beautiful and epic stories a video game has ever had!
A TECHNICAL DEPARTMENT FROM GOD:
Maybe you think this one above is screenshoot of a movie or a cut-scene? You are wrong! The detail, the reflections, the shadows, the pores of the protagonist's skin, everything is part of the game graphics: the graphic level reached in this one title is crazy and gives the player's eye an unparalleled visual delight where even the smallest of details has been cared for and modeled to perfection!
Thanks to engine offered by PS3 and state-of-the-art graphics technologies, the development team has set new gaming standards by offering gamers gaming experiences with an extreme level of realism, in which every recreated sensation is identical to that experienced on a battlefield. With a texture resolution, equal to 4 times that used in GOW 2, this new chapter will boast highly realistic and expressive characters, as well as dynamic lighting effects, an excellent weapon management system and immense scenarios that will immerse you directly in ancient Greece.
The scenarios, in fact, they will not only be composed of the game world but also of Titans, real living levels in motion, the developers told us about them as "the greatest characters ever created in a video game".
The battles that will be seen in GOW 3 will be 4 times higher than in the previous title and will take the action to a new level, where every combo is infused with art and extraordinary light effects. In this regard, the dynamic lighting system employed in the title, HDRL
( High Dynamic Range Lighting ) will emulate the functioning of the human retina, dazzling players whenever Kratos exits a dark area and arrives in a sunlit area, just like a human eye does when it has to get used to variations in brightness.
This extraordinary lighting system, is made possible only by the computing power offered by the SPU of PS3 Cell processor, there are not many occasions in which PS3 surpasses the graphic detail of the Microsoft flagship ... but here we are not talking about surpassing it, with this title PS3 has outclassed the graphics of the Xbox 360, and if the games that arrive will be able to exploit the potential of PS3 just like the guys from Santa Monica did, we can say that the PS3 has finally begun to unsheathe claws!
The developers have indeed confirmed, that the PS3 engine was only used to 50% of its potential and after these premises, we are already looking forward to discovering what awaits us in the future!
The brutality and violence of the clashes will be punctuated by the excruciating screams of the enemies and by the noise of their flesh that tears everything topped off with epic music that will accompany our hero in the fury of battles. A final note of credit also goes to the voice actors, who have been able to identify deeply with the characters, creating a unique interpretation of its kind.
The technical department of GOW 3, both sound and graphic, it is splendid from every point of view!
SPARTAN TRAINING:
Le fighting techniques of Kratos, they will lead him to use his enemies as real displacement people, in fact, once you have grabbed the enemy with the circle button you can, by pressing the square button, throw yourself at the other enemies using the poor unfortunate as a ram, or you can simply run against a wall to smash his head on a wall; but Kratos is not the only one to have reorganized his fighting techniques:
The enemies can in fact join forces to assault the player in a group who, with a quick shake of the left analog, will have to get rid of his attackers quickly. Also, on some occasions, your opponents will face you with shields or practically unassailable tortoise formations ... fortunately, the Cestus, will be great to break through all their formation and destroy even the most powerful of shields. Another important characteristic of the Cestus will be that of being able to destroy otherwise impenetrable crystal barriers.
Cursed! But really the Limbo auction you have to come and fool you?
Other innovative elements among the opponents of our hero we find them in the Cyclops and in the small cerberi that can be tamed and used to take out other enemies, and in the harpies that we can now use as a means of transport to cross chasms or rough areas.
As per tradition, after carrying Medusa's head behind him (God of War 1) and of his sister Euryale ( God of War 2 ), Kratos sceglie to take Elio's head with him, which can be used as "Lantern" in dark places, can temporarily blind enemies and can reveal several hidden areas:
By illuminating some play areas marked with a luminous air, Elio's head will help us find hidden passages or will directly make treasure chests not visible before appear.
In addition to Elio's head, Kratos will have several other accessories that the gods of Olympus will "kindly provide" how the arch of Apollo (which will be used to set fire to particular brambles that block the passage, set enemies on fire or destroy explosive barrels.), the shoes of Hermes (which will make the Spartan take some shots able to make his opponents fly in the air or, where possible, to walk on the walls.) and other accessories that theI wish you the pleasure of discovering.
The title will not miss the sexy minigame, the sequence in QTE to which the saga has accustomed us and where we will have to take some beautiful young ladies to bed, in this last chapter our hero will even dare to seduce Aphrodite, obtaining in exchange a few thousand red spheres.
The red spheres are precisely the currency with which it will be possible to buy the upgrades in the Start menu and which will be obtained by defeating the enemies.
The range of collectibles with this chapter is also expanding:
Eyes of Gorgon: Already seen in the old chapters, by collecting 3 you can increase your maximum health.
Phoenix Feathers: Even these already known previously, by collecting 3 you can increase your maximum magic.
Horn of Minotaro: Among the new entries of this title, by collecting 3 of these horns it is possible to increase the effectiveness of the accessories, for example the duration of the sprint with Hermes shoes, the quantity of arrows to be thrown with the Apollo bow, etc ...
Statuettes of the gods: These particular artifacts will be sown throughout the game, in particular in the vicinity of the various Gods that we will meet in the title and will give each of them a different power, which we can however use once the current mode is finished.
The situations of gameplay they will often vary from platforming areas to fighting, from exploration areas to QTEs, one in particular in which we will have to play some sort of organ by pushing the right keys when they pass on the score. THE QTEs have been optimized to better enjoy the action to the player who will no longer have to pay attention to the buttons that will appear above the enemies because they will now appear at the 4 edges of the screen just as you find them on your Joystick, for example X bottom edge, O right edge etc., this method is more intuitive and able to make the player fully enjoy the action.
I living levels in which we will have to fight on the body of the Titans they are real works of art because the perspective changes constantly: in fact we will quickly pass from fighting on a flat surface, to a surface on which we will be hooked to the ceiling and then pass on a plane to which we should climb vertically. It can be said with certainty that the action itself is taken to new levels thanks also to this element of constant change of perspective.
God of War 3 finds himself perfecting a already complete and perfect gameplay, renewing the combat system with new moves and weapons and bringing the action, with which the title is impregnated, to evolve into new and interesting forms.
