By Joshua Fountain
Upon hearing that God of War 3 Remastered was coming out, I was stoked and oh-so-ready to decapitate, disembowel, dismember and downright disrespect all that stood in my way as Kratos, the Ghost of Sparta and the God of War.
GOW 3 starts right where GOW 2 left off, with Kratos scaling Mount Olympus atop of the Titan Gaia, cursing the Gods to bring about their demise all in the name of revenge.
Originally released on the PS3 in 2009, it's now back giving us a taste of Kratos in next-gen glory, and by Zeus it looks fantastic. Remastered to run at 1080p at 60fps, GOW 3 is worthy of the remaster treatment. The original took everything good from the first two games and made for a tighter, more responsive experience while still retaining the challenging nature of its predecessors.
All facets of gameplay work very well, from combat to evasion, easy switching of primary weapon to using secondary weapon, summoning super magic abilities to then entering into typically brutal finishing quick-time events. Throw in the seamless transitions from gameplay to cut-scenes that run super smoothly and you're kept firmly locked into the game for every moment of it.
Camera angles fly, pan, zoom and switch perspective with excellent effect, leaving you with a very good feel for the scale of the world and the chance to admire the improved graphics.
Character models look amazing and when the camera is in the right place, it forces you to pause and take in the sights. At the end of the first boss battle when the camera switches to the victim's perspective, it was done so well I'd have loved to have seen it done again and again.
All in all this remaster looks great, but it doesn't push any boundaries as far as visual fidelity is concerned. It looks merely like a par PS4 offering, a great game on the PS3 that now is a great game on the PS4.
I didn't get a chance to play it when it was first released - for the life of me I don't know why. GOW 1 & 2 I thoroughly enjoyed, but just didn't get to play GOW 3. It's a big positive that they have made the third and final chapter of Kratos' trilogy available on the PS4 because I'm probably not the only one that missed out.
It's an extremely solid hack & slash/platformer that was very well-written, well-developed and well-crafted as an AAA release. The puzzles are challenging and when horde mode and boss battles get cracking it will test temperaments.
There are a couple of new bells and whistles added with a photo mode to take snap shots to edit and share with friends and the controller light bar changes colour depending on what weapon you wield. Other than that, you are playing the exact same game from the PS3, only prettier.
So prepare to conclude the epic and bloody tale of Kratos as Gods, Titans, Man, Beast and whatever else foolish enough to stand in your way is reduced to a puddle of blood and guts.
If you didn't play it when it first came out - well, here's your chance.
Four stars.
3 News
God of War III Remastered :: Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment:: Developer: Santa Monica Studio:: Format: PlayStation 4:: Rating: R16
