God of War 3: Guitar Hero Is Not the Way of Kratos

Hades is out of the way, with the questions his death generated still hanging over Kratos. Poseidon was also taken care of earlier, and Hermes, as quick as he might be, did not manage to escape the Ghost of Sparta and his nice boots decorated with feathers have a new owner. And now, Kratos is standing in the core of Mount Olympus playing Guitar Hero on a giant mechanical contraption.

Symbols were scrolling down some sort of parchment with Kratos needing to hit them in order to complete a song to the Muses. Yeah, it makes sense in the context of the game but I was stunned enough by the sight to actually get to the playing Guitar Hero part without taking a look at the puzzle before.

I rectified my error and then it took me about 15 minutes and probably 20 tries to get past the puzzle and continue my game. It was frustrating. My colleagues kept taunting me for my inability to pass the sequence quicker and I contemplated putting God of War 3 away for a few hours before finally managing to get past it.

And then I realized that not the puzzle itself was annoying me. Previously, I had also suffered some setbacks while chasing the quick flame haired Hermes and the frustration was significantly smaller. It could have been just that climbing falling wooden bridges while fire consumed them was more natural to the God of War universe than a rhythm-based routine. Maybe it was the fact that I am so bad at rhythm gaming. But then, I felt the impact of the lack of choice in God of War 3.

This kind of experience is linear by nature and Sony tried to give the impression of a bigger world by making Kratos look out windows and see the impact of his actions on the world. And there's quite a bit of flying and moving around large areas. The same approach could have been used when it comes to some of the more frustrating puzzle elements. After seeing me fall, let's say ten times, at a puzzle God of War 3 could have thrown a really tough fight my way in order to allow me to progress. It certainly has been a relief in the rhythm section.