14 DAY TRIAL // If the creators of God of War 3 have managed to do anything great, that is to have developed one of the most attractive and compelling opening sequences in the history of videogaming. When the new PlayStation 3 exclusive opens up starring Kratos, you are treated to a smooth and stylized sequence that offers the significant events of the series up, while also pointing out who the men responsible for the experience are before shifting to actual control of the Spartan warrior turned God of War as he assaults Olympus from the back of Gaia. What follows is pure heart-thumping madness.
The perspective shifts so many times and so completely that I actually felt a bit motion sick at one point while the well known mechanics of the series are reintroduced quickly and painlessly.
What the people at the Santa Monica Sony studios understood is that players do not want to be taught about the controls while they kill rats and move around an area bereft of threats but rather jump right into the action as quickly as possible. It's one thing to learn the Dante Inferno way, as part of the Crusades killing Muslim prisoners, and another to be thrown into the fight for Olympus by being asked to put down Poseidon himself, with his water-based monstrosity and to then face Zeus.
I almost regretted having the game put out those small hint screens detailing how to actually play it. The sequence feels so crucial to an entire universe that they felt a bit intrusive. Thankfully, there's an option to turn them off somewhere in the menu.
Of course, after the highs of the God of War 3 opening go down back to the Underworld with all the nice toys and half the health taken away by greedy souls is a bit of a downer but the prospect of another exciting and monumental showdown like the one that opened the game is enough to keep any fan going forward.