God of War III

After slicing a rampaging Minotaur repeatedly with your trusty Blades of Exile, you finally knock the exhausted beast down, leaving it dazed and disoriented from your virtuosic display of hatred-fueled combat. As the Minotaur writhes on the ground, badly wounded but still not ready to succumb to death’s waiting embrace, you sprint over and take hold of its piercing horns. With muscle-tearing effort, you grapple with the monster, twisting its neck as it desperately tries to break free of your hold. A horrific snap echoes across the room: You have won the fight. His limp body falls pitifully to the ground, forgotten as you run off to your next conquest. God of War III relishes death like few other games, glorifying the downfall of mythical beasts, rock-solid Titans, and not-quite-immortal gods in grotesque and satisfying fashion. The visceral combat and overwhelming sense of scale that have become the hallmarks of this brutal franchise have been pushed further than ever before in God of War III, creating an experience so focused and explosively fun that it's hard to put down, and even harder to forget.

Kratos has serious daddy issues. After being momentarily killed by his father, Zeus, at the beginning of God of War II, Kratos has spent every waking hour trying to return the favor. His quest for vengeance is unwavering. The majority of the cutscenes are centered on angry exchanges between Kratos and someone who dares oppose him, and end with an irreversible resolution. The motivation that pushes Kratos forward is easy to understand, but the repetition of his uncanny fury dulls the impact after a while. It's hard to relate to his actions after he gruesomely disposes of yet another mythical opponent with the same wicked scowl plastered on his face. For much of the game, the story hits just this one note. But things open up late in the quest, giving the game the heart it so desperately needs. When Kratos reveals a side beyond violent retribution, it makes his character more empathetic and gives the story much more weight. Freed from its overreliance on cold-blooded vengeance, Kratos' story becomes powerful and moving in unexpected ways, peaking in a thrilling conclusion that successfully touches on many different emotions and provides closure for this epic tale.

God of War III begins immediately after the events that conclude its predecessor. Kratos stands on the shoulder of Gaia, urging her and her fellow Titans to climb Mount Olympus and strike down the gods once and for all. This incredible scene follows the trend set by the previous games in the series, kicking off your journey with a jaw-dropping experience that will immediately suck you into this epic adventure. The defining characteristic of your plight as you climb this sacred mountain is a breathtaking sense of scale. The Titans you are traveling with are gigantic. Kratos is but a mere speck on their colossal bodies, and the camera zooms and pans so you can fully appreciate the size disparity of these reluctant allies. The ground you run across is part of a living creature, flexing and swaying as you dispatch the enemies who dare stand in your way. The game seamlessly shifts from a bird's-eye view of this epic climb to an extreme close-up of Kratos in combat, and it's simply stunning that there are no dropped frames or other graphical oddities to lessen this effect. The feeling that you're riding a towering giant is conveyed brilliantly, and the game only gets better from there.

The culmination of this fantastic sequence is one of the most violent deaths ever seen in the series. Kratos is no stranger to blood, but the stunning visuals in God of War III make his penchant for beheadings and disembowelments so much more gruesome. By initiating a quick-time event on a wounded foe, you can rip out the entrails of a centaur, de-wing a harpy, and tear the eyeball from a Cyclops, complete with optic-nerve snapping. Some of these death animations have been recycled from previous games in the series, but seeing them re-created here in meticulous detail will elicit equal doses of nausea and sadistic joy. The only downside to these horrific death sequences is that there is only one way to mutilate each type of enemy, even though you have four weapons in your arsenal. So while it is amazing to slit a gorgon's neck the first time, it loses its impact after a dozen or so identical viewings. Even with the repetition, the brutality of combat is one of the most satisfying aspects of God of War III.