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I bought God of War (2018) while it was on sale but decided to take a detour into God of War III Remastered first.

Musubi

Musubi

Unshakable Resolve - Prophet of Truth
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
23,611
Its been 8 years since God of War 3 released and I decided on Sunday to fire up God of War III and make a detour into the remastered version on PS4. Mostly because 1. I wanted the easy trophies and secondly because I really wanted to set the table for God of War. And yes I know there is no direct continuation but regardless I just wanted to remember what that game was and see how it held up in 2018:

  • Remastered Version Still looks Fantastic some weird facial animations aside.
  • Remembering that this was a PS3 game is pretty nuts considering the scale of some of the set pieces they are dealing with here.
  • Poseidon getting his ass kicked in First Person is still a pretty neat cinematic choice to end that fight.
  • Still really like Hades design in this. The boss fight against him is up there among my favorite parts in the game.
  • The Mini-Game with Aphrodite is way worse than I remember. Her handmaidens literally say "This is for mature audiences only parents should not let their children watch this." I...just ugh.
  • Speaking of Kratos and women....the Poseidon Princess thing is just.... fucking horrible it was then and its just aged even worse.
  • Chronos fight again really good use of scale in the game. Great set piece.
  • The stuff with Pandora is some of the most unearned character moments I've seen in a game. Considering all the innocent women Kratos has slaughtered.
  • The 2D "boss fight" with Zeus is a pretty unique moment. Got a kick out of that.
  • Kratos manifesting "hope" as a literal weapon to use against Zeus is howl out loud levels of corny ass writing.

All in all I think the game is still pretty good even if Kratos is the biggest fucking asshole in this game. The weapons all feel pretty neat even if 3/4 of them are just variations on the chain blade weapons Kratos Already has. Finished the Platinum trophy in 2 days. Now its time to move on to God of War 2018 and see how that stacks up against the context of what God of War III is. I'm really curious if they ever address the fact that Kratos left the world a literal barren wasteland by the end of God of War III.

Update: Finished The game! See new post for final impressions!
 
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Kotto

Kotto

CEO of Traphouse Networks
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Nov 3, 2017
4,466
You will NOT be disappointed with GoW '18.

I think they do answer the question to Kratos killing everything IIRC.
 
MegaSackman

MegaSackman

Member
Oct 27, 2017
17,702
Argentina
I'd say God of War 2018 is a direct distant continuation of the story, so I think you did good.

Edit: The writing is miles better than any previous GOW so it should be a relief in that sense (and I love the previous God of War games).
 
Inuhanyou

Inuhanyou

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
14,214
New Jersey
GOW3 is still one of my favorite PS3 games ever, just insane how much they were able to push out of the PS3 and the combat almost gets to japan quality. Hurling those hades claws around is just amazing. And yea, GOW3 reinforced literally everything that had been wrong with Kratos, so GOW 2018 making up for that is so much nicer
 
Crumpo

Crumpo

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,131
Bournemouth, UK
Hope you're ready for some more corny sex scenes, OP....just kidding, GoW is a fantastic evolution of the series and I think you will like it. lots of the issues you had with 3 are addressed or greatly improved upon. let us know how you get on with it!
 
RestEerie

RestEerie

Banned
Aug 20, 2018
13,618
the writing is definitely much better in GOW2018 and the character of Kratos much less grating.

I say this as a big GoW fan that completed all the GoW but kratos does get really annoying with his constant RAGING after like 6 games on the PS2/3/P......

GoW2018 definitely shines a new light on him..
 
Bishop89

Bishop89

What Are Ya' Selling?
Member
Oct 25, 2017
34,551
Melbourne, Australia
Staf said:
GoW3 > GoW4
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i love gow 2018, but yeh 3 is just too fucking awesome and epic
 
Galkinator

Galkinator

Chicken Chaser
Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,948
That's exactly what I've been doing, although I'm not even halfway through GoW '18.

Honestly? Not sure if it's because I never played it when it originally released, but GoW 3 felt pretty lame.
The story is downright terrible, the cutscenes are mostly low effort with awful animations, dialogue and voice acting.

The game can sometimes look pretty good, but to get to a nice looking place you go through a lot of boring corridors and rooms, filled with annoying puzzles that aren't even stimulating your brain and just waste your time. Out of all the boss fights, I probably liked just the first one because the sense of scale on Gaia was great, likewise with Cronus.

All in all, seems kind of mind boggling how this was such a critically acclaimed game when it gives you a completely average 8-10 hour experience with almost nothing going for it. I'd probably rank it 6/10 at best, but again, not sure how I'd think of it had I actually played it in 2009. I just know that if I compare it to other big titles at the time, like Gears of War 2 / Resident Evil 5 / RDR it's way worse in every way and I don't think it's because of rose tinted glasses.
Oh well, luckily GoW '18 is correcting that and I'm enjoying it a lot more.
 
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BrickArts295

BrickArts295

GOTY Tracking Thread Master
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Oct 26, 2017
13,746
In hindsight, bringing only 3 onto the PS4 was a smart move by Sony. Sure it would have been great to have all 3 (or 6) but I think Sony probably wanted newer audiences to jump into GOW (2018) with just the bare minimum of GOW lore to get you through the new game.
 
Jimnymebob

Jimnymebob

Member
Oct 26, 2017
19,599
GoW 3 is great until Pandora is introduced, and then it just falls apart. I love classic Kratos, and him being a comically angry asshole is great, so the whole Pandora stuff just feels totally off tone, and he doesn't really earn that.

Also, the 2D fight is infuriating on the hardest difficulty. Easily the hardest thing in the original trilogy.
 
skeezx

skeezx

Member
Oct 27, 2017
20,131
after beating GoW 2018 this weekend i've been interested to give GoW3 a try... but then i remember why i never played the games in the first place, combo masher gameplay was never particularly my jam. so i dunno

maybe on a rainy day
 
Ogawa-san

Ogawa-san

Member
Nov 1, 2017
1,686
I did that too. I bought GoW and since I had GoW3 from PS+, decided to go through it first as a warm-up since it's been over a decade since I went through GoW1 and 2. In the end it was less relevant to my GoW playthrough than I thought it'd be, all you need to know is that Kratos was a terrible person.

If anything, GoW3 reminded me of those dark ages of QTEs and time-wasting "move-this-block" puzzles. I kinda felt like going back to 1&2 to get a refresher on how I killed almost every single greek god, but by the time I was done with the game I didn't want any of it anymore. Absolutely not a bad game, but I'm glad we moved on from certain gameplay elements.
 
Kerotan

Kerotan

Banned
Oct 31, 2018
3,951
I did the same. The best thing about playing gow3 first is that it is so different to the new one, there's literally no chance of burnout. Gameplay, cutscenes, story, tone, graphics and setting are so different it's like playing a different genre.

So I'd advise anyone to play gow3 first. Even if it's not your cup of tea, it's only like 8 hours long so it's not a drag. I personally loved gow3. 10/10 back in the day and 9/10 now.
 
horkrux

horkrux

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,719
I think it was already weaker than the games before it Lol

And the visuals were nice, but I had really come to hate their art direction for the characters at that point.

Like... why does Poseidon fight with fucking crab horses? What is thisssss. That's the ugliest and laziest design idea you could have come up with.
I remember seeing a blurry leaked screenshot of him and his creatures before release and was expecting to fight some majestic water horses, not this crab.

The new GoW treats its source material with much more respect and isn't as juvenile.
 
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Blade Wolf

Blade Wolf

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
9,512
Taiwan
God of War III is a great game and playing it first will greatly enhance your experience with God of War 4 (see what I did there😏)

You will appreciate just how far Kratos has come as a character, in some ways, GOW4 is a story about redemption.

(One small warning though, do not expect GOW4 to have the same amount of boss fights as GOW3, it's not the focus of the game)
 

spidye

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,018
Atreus is the worst god of war character (talking about the mainline games)

So many times I just wanted to scream shut the hell up at my screen
 
MegaSackman

MegaSackman

Member
Oct 27, 2017
17,702
Argentina
Ogawa-san said:
I did that too. I bought GoW and since I had GoW3 from PS+, decided to go through it first as a warm-up since it's been over a decade since I went through GoW1 and 2. In the end it was less relevant to my GoW playthrough than I thought it'd be, all you need to know is that Kratos was a terrible person.

If anything, GoW3 reminded me of those dark ages of QTEs and time-wasting "move-this-block" puzzles. I kinda felt like going back to 1&2 to get a refresher on how I killed almost every single greek god, but by the time I was done with the game I didn't want any of it anymore. Absolutely not a bad game, but I'm glad we moved on from certain gameplay elements.
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And GOW3 is much more gentle with those puzzles, in 1 and 2 you had a lot of "move this pillar while fighting all these monsters, every time you're not moving the pillar it goes backwards". I hated those...
 
ThisThingIsUseful

ThisThingIsUseful

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Oct 31, 2017
12,071
Chaos2Frozen said:
Who the fuck thought the Poseidon Princess scene was a good idea at SM?!
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That scene honestly never bothered me more than the others? I mean, I felt bad for her, but I felt bad for the guy I threw into the hydra's throat for no reason and the guy I burned to death in God of War 2 and that poor soldier in that cage in the first game.

OP, the new GOW is a much different game overall. The other ones would be hard to play back to back, but I experienced no burnout with the new one.
 
OP
OP
Musubi

Musubi

Unshakable Resolve - Prophet of Truth
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
23,611
So, thoughts after having just got to the lake.

I'm.... okay with the game? Just kind of "okay". I've been playing it and its been neat there is some fun stuff in the game and its absolutely a well crafted experience but also I find myself playing for an hour and then taking a break and doing other things and then coming back several hours later.

I don't hate it but....I'm not seeing the cause for all the GOTY awards it got either. I think one of the main things I dislike is that they chose for the camera to be so close in on Kratos. Like Kratos has partial tank controls. Its uh... a baffling decision.

I think the game would be better with a more pulled out camera akin to Devil May Cry or Bayonetta. Alas the game is what it is and I'll most likely finish it because I have nothing to do for the next oh... 22 days until RE2 drops.
 
Pein

Pein

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Oct 25, 2017
8,223
NYC
I hated god of war 3, which really sucks because 2 is on my top 10 list. Kratos just got worse and worse and I didn't care if his dumbass lost.

Goddamn did GOW 2018 redeem the series.
 
mas8705

mas8705

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,497
Honestly... I think you made the right call. Mind you that God of War '18 is the much better game, but I think you have to first playthrough God of War 3 first in order to fully enjoy 2018's GOTY. Enjoy GoW3 and when you finish it, immediately go into GoW '18.
 
DaniThePinguim

DaniThePinguim

Member
Oct 29, 2017
4,263
The best thing about the game was the new grappling attack. I bought the game earlier this year and it was not really that good.
 

Deleted member 8257

Oct 26, 2017
24,586
Pein said:
I hated god of war 3, which really sucks because 2 is on my top 10 list. Kratos just got worse and worse and I didn't care if his dumbass lost.

Goddamn did GOW 2018 redeem the series.
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Series didn't need redemption. Every single entry (except Ascension) was glorious.
 
More_Badass

More_Badass

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,622
Replayed this before 2018's GoW and it was simultaneously great and disappointing to revisit
If 2 was "1 but bigger, better, faster, and more varied", 3 is "2 but more epic and angrier"

It starts with the opening; the beginning of 3 recalls the multi-part/multi-area fight with the Colossus but on a much more massive scale, as well as starting fully powered until you're depowered and given new powers.

Everything seems more brutal and more powerful. Your attacks and kills shed more blood and guts, your attacks feel like they hit with more power. And the epicness isn't just in the scale or feel of the combat; the camera movements and blending of gameplay with scripted movements is more epic and ambitious than anything attempted in 1 or 2.

God of War 2 moved fast, but God of War 3 is paced like a freight train, which works and doesn't. It's like every forty minutes, you're fighting a new god or getting a new weapon or going to a new location. A conga line of god slaughtering, to the point that it's almost kind of ridiculous. I had forgotten how poorly justified the whole Tartarus/Cronos section was; it works as incredible spectacle but compared to how God of War 2 lets its locations breathe and its Forrest Gump-esque encounters with who's who of Greek Mythology feels justified by the desire of journeying to change one's fate, God of War 3 just throws things at you without rhyme or reason.

Story-wise, the biggest shift is in Kratos himself. In 1, he was a jerk but more humanized and the plotline of being a servant of the gods due to his guilt and wanting to end his suffering (to the point of committing suicide), is pretty effective in the first game. In 2, his quest for revenge at least seems justified, considering how Zeus murders him and how you can see why he'd side with the Titans given that they were both defeated and punished by the gods. The driving force of wanting to change his fate is a strong one for the narrative

But from the start, God of War 3 Kratos is already a yelling everyone-must-die psycho. After killing Posideon and meeting with Ghost Athena, he says how if humanity must suffer, then so be it. That is the moment when Kratos' characterization gets thrown out the window. In the past games, his actions were isolated, but in 3, his complete callousness is pretty off-putting. He become a petty child, like how he expected Gaia to wait for him to continue fighting and takes it as a slight that she didn't. 3 is where Kratos goes from character to caricature, and no more is this evident than in the Poseidon's "Princess" section.

Now, Kratos has certainly killed his fair share of innocents throughout the games. The devs even rewarded that behavior with health orbs. In 1, Kratos kicking the boat captain into the hydra felt like an established character moment. Sacrificing the prisoner for the puzzle felt like it fit the insane madman design of Pandora's temple. Even in 2, killing the scribes was somewhat justified given that their written purpose was to be sacrificed to the Fates

Kratos and the woman in 3 is just gratuitous. Considering you had just done a puzzle not too long again where you used rocks to hold a lever (and you're surrounded by statues), it just feels completely unneeded and the way the game presents to the player just felt gross. 3's sex scene is practically just as bad; shaking vases and fountains aren't good enough, lets have two naked women fondling each-other as your QTE prompts while they exclaim how amazing Kratos is this time.

Also, after all the set-up of a new Gods vs Titans War - the cutscenes in 2, the ending of 2, the opening of 3 - there...isn't much God vs Titan war in 3. The whole plot practically gets dropped immediately for Kratos' vague flame of Olympus/get Pandora quest, aside from the rare moment like Helios.

But the biggest narrative mistake in 3 is how it retcons Zeus' fight against Kratos, and the events of 2. It's not enough that Kratos was drunk with power in 2 (which I mean, the gods were pretty understandable in wanting to stop Kratos), or the cycle of son killing father or the desire to prevent a God vs Titan War. All set up by God of War 2 by the way. No, the reason Zeus wanted to kill Kratos is because of fear. As in he was literally infected by fear when Kratos opened the box in 1, and that's what led to his paranoid actions against Kratos. Not only was that cheap, 3's story just beats you over the head with this. Characters say "Zeus was consumed by fear" or some variation of that all throughout 3. It removes any actual interesting elements of God of War's Greek Mythology foundations (ie the Greek gods are as petty and vain and squabbling as us mortals).
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OP
OP
Musubi

Musubi

Unshakable Resolve - Prophet of Truth
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
23,611
shinobi602 said:
Huh? This line is nowhere in there lol.
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It most assuredly is. The quotes they say are randomly pulled from a pool of lines that they can say. That one is in there although I think it has a rarer chance of being used over some of the other lines.
 
hey it's that dog

hey it's that dog

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,091
Musubi said:
So, thoughts after having just got to the lake.

I'm.... okay with the game? Just kind of "okay". I've been playing it and its been neat there is some fun stuff in the game and its absolutely a well crafted experience but also I find myself playing for an hour and then taking a break and doing other things and then coming back several hours later.

I don't hate it but....I'm not seeing the cause for all the GOTY awards it got either. I think one of the main things I dislike is that they chose for the camera to be so close in on Kratos. Like Kratos has partial tank controls. Its uh... a baffling decision.

I think the game would be better with a more pulled out camera akin to Devil May Cry or Bayonetta. Alas the game is what it is and I'll most likely finish it because I have nothing to do for the next oh... 22 days until RE2 drops.
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Congrats on finishing the tutorial. It takes a long time (because it's a long game) for the combat to open up, but once it does (and you actually get accustomed to it) there's no comparison to GOW3 or any previous GOW.
 
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