God of War III

"There will be only chaos."

-Kratos

God of War III is the latest installment in the popular God of War series. It was released on March 16, 2010 for the PlayStation 3. It is the fifth chapter in the series chronologically, after God of War: Chains of Olympus, God of War, God of War: Betrayal and God of War II.

Story

Following the ending of God Of War II, God Of War III picks up directly after this with a stirring opening narration from Zeus discussing the actions of the rogue God of War, Kratos, who is 'commanding' a small army of Titans rescued from the Great War (using the power of the Fates). The Olympians immediately rush to battle; Hermes speeds down the very peaks of Olympus as Zeus watches on, Hercules receives the order to lead his troops down into the fray, Hades lunges off and engages several Titans in his giant form, and Poseidon (using his amazing aquakinesis) shoots down from Olympus like a missile and performs a death blow through the chest of Epimetheus, and then manifests himself as a massive water being and spawns several water horses called Leviathans to aid in the battle. With Poseidon as their greatest threat in the battle, having already decimated numerous Titans and soon going after Gaia herself, Kratos engages the God of the Sea and after drawing him into Gaia's grasp manages to knock a weakened Poseidon out of his godly form and onto a separate platform. The two berate each other briefly before Kratos walks up and beats the Lord of the Sea severely, finally gouging out his eyes and snapping his neck as he tosses him off into the ocean. With Poseidon's death, the seas cataclysm and ocean levels rise significantly, causing a flood that appears to engulf the entire world and destroying almost all of mankind save those on top of Olympia.

After killing Poseidon, Gaia and Kratos reach Zeus's pavilion, where the king of the gods angrily anticipates Kratos's arrival and, at last, assaults them with a mighty blast of lightning that blows off a massive amount of Gaia's arm and sends the two spiraling down Olympus (Kratos survives presumably by using the Golden Fleece to absorb most of the blast). However, even using the Blade of Olympus to stab into her back, Kratos is unable to hang on as Gaia fights to survive and climb back up to Zeus. She warns him that he was only a pawn and is now expendable now that the Titans have reached Zeus, allowing the embittered Spartan to tumble to his death. Kratos contemplates his life as he lurches through the River Styx and its caverns, and resolves to escape Hades (once again) and destroy Zeus. On his way to Hades's chamber after being sucked of nearly all of his power from the dead souls of Styx, he reunites with a newly-formed Athena who claims to have reached a "new level of existence" and is willing to help Kratos assume his revenge, granting him new weapons to survive the Underworld and the foes that lie ahead, and also defining his next quest of finding and extinguishing the Flame of Olympus in order to truly defeat Zeus.

Kratos makes his way through the Underworld meeting a couple of lost souls, encountering statues of three Greek kings, meeting Hephaestus who informs him more and more about the secrets of Olympus and Zeus, and finding mysterious scrawls on the ground that he silently acknowledges to be from various people in his past, finally entering Hades's palace, finding the coffin-wed body of Persephone that Hades had restored, and engaging the Lord of the Underworld himself inside of a dark cavern. Hades matches Kratos until the bloodthirsty Spartan manages to rip off his helmet and steal his weapons, and then ripping out Hades's own soul and absorbs it using the Claws of Hades. Escaping the Underworld through a Hyperion Gate, Kratos renews his journey up along Olympus except that he now faces both the Titans and the Gods - he 'amputates' the legs of Hermes, mercilessly beats his own half-brother Hercules to death with the Cestus, breaks Hera's neck after she insults Pandora, a small child-like creation of Hephaestus who is the key to extinguishing the Flame of Olympus and revealing its contents, encountering a radiant Aphrodite and her handmaidens in the goddess's chamber, and finally arriving at the Flame's chamber with Pandora, only to be interrupted by Zeus himself.

Zeus prevents Pandora from her destiny and engages Kratos, though the latter bests the King of the Gods in a duel and suddenly has a change of heart. Pandora was made to be the "Key" to Pandora's Box, which is what truly rests within the Flame of Olympus, and would have to sacrifice herself. However, due to inadvertent prodding from Zeus pleads that Kratos not "fail in his decisions this time", Kratos releases Pandora and attacks Zeus in a rage, only to be stunned by the Flame's dissipation. Kratos opens the Box once again, just as he had in the first game, only to discover that it is empty. Zeus mocks him for "another failure", and heads outside in order to recover while Kratos's fury boils even further. Father and son meet outside once again on a familiar platform, but before either can claim victory, the platform is suddenly shaken by a reawakened Gaia (believed to have been killed during the fight and subject of many Titans anger against Kratos), who violently shakes them and causes them to flee inside of her body. Inside of her chest, Kratos and Zeus duel near her heart; Zeus sucks her heart of her life and rejuvenates as does Kratos, and finally Kratos impales Zeus with the Blade of Olympus against Gaia's heart, killing both of them (although Zeus's Invincibility demonstrates that contrary to previous belief, he cannot be killed by the Blade of Olympus, yet it is notable that Kratos does not use the Blade on him as much as he did in their original epic battle in the second game).

Awakening amidst cracked earth, Kratos finds Zeus's body impaled in the same position on a rock, and extracts the blade callously. But Zeus's spirit, consumed by some lasting hatred of his 'infidel' of a son, attacks and apparently drains Kratos of his willpower, his anger, and instead fills him with fear and a sense of loss whilst he is on the verge of death. Before dying, Kratos shares a last-minute mental journey with the guide of Pandora, whose spirit lives on within him, and begins abolishing the various things that torment his soul - the very things that the Astral Zeus is using to kill his mind, similar to what Ares once did. Overcoming these hurtles with a feeling of Hope, Kratos destroys Zeus's astral spirit with a final series of blows, ending the reign of the Olympians once and for all as it seems...

Athena arrives to congratulate Kratos on his victory and requests that he turn over the power he claimed from Pandora's Box, but he reveals that there was nothing inside. Athena claims he is lying, because when the evils of the Titanomachy were first sealed into the box, as a safety measure, she placed into the box the "most powerful weapon in the world", hope, to counteract the evils. She demands Kratos return this power he obtained from the box that rightfully belongs to her, for now that the world is cleansed by chaos, she will rebuild it under her rule with the power of hope. Athena realizes, however, that when Kratos first opened the box to kill Ares, as the evils infected and took hold of the gods of Olympus, especially Zeus, the power of hope infused itself into Kratos. Hope had been buried deep beneath the anger, need for vengeance, and guilt, and when Kratos had finally learned to forgive himself for his past, he had released the power. She asks one more time for Kratos to aid her, but he refuses and chooses to instead commit suicide by impaling himself with the Blade of Olympus, releasing "Hope" into the moral world for humanity to embrace - an action that the ethereal Athena clearly despises, as she in fact wanted to rule using Hope in Olympus's stead. Removing the Blade from his chest, Athena voices her disappointment in Kratos and leaves, and the game closes with an exiting shot of Kratos, bleeding and dying on the ground, laughing to himself, his vengeance finally over.

In a post-credits scene, the spot where Kratos's body was lying is now empty, and a trail of blood leads to the sea that now consumes the world...

Weapons

Blades of Athena - The blades given to Kratos by Athena at the end of God of War. Kratos uses them for the first portion of the game, however, like in the previous games, they are soon replaced by the Blades of Exile.
Blades of Exile - New blades given by Athena's spectre in the Underworld, using mystical new abilities she "upgrades" the blades, representing now how Kratos has been exiled from his Spartan army, from the Gods of Olympus, and now even from the Titans.
Blade of Olympus - Kratos is shown at the end of God of War II to be holding the powerful blade, and he'll use it again in God of War III, but only in Rage mode. Kratos is often seen using the Blade amidst context scenes, and constantly uses it to seemingly one-hit kill bigger opponents and drain their energies.
Claws of Hades - Acquired after killing Hades. They serve to raise the souls of underworld to help Kratos.
Nemean Cestus - Two large, strong handles in the form of a lion's head, that have similar moves to the Gauntlet of Zeus. Contrary to first viewing from the trailers, these are actually wielded by Hercules from the beginning and stolen by Kratos.
Nemesis Whip - A pair of blades consisting each of three swords, crafted from the Omphalos stone Kratos retrieved from Tartarus for Hephaestus. They carry an electric charge and can power mechanical devices to some degree. They appear to harbor Hephaestus's own power, and are ironically used to kill their creator.

Magic

Army of Sparta - Kratos is able to summon soldiers to form a protective phalanx around him.
Soul Summon - Kratos summons the spirits of some of his enemies to attack his enemies.
Nemean Roar - Kratos slams the ground causing waves of magic to hurt his enemies.
Nemesis Rage - Kratos shocks surrounding enemies with a blast of energy.
Diving Reckoning - Kratos drives the Blade of Olympus into the ground, and causes a vortex of energy to hurt surrounding enemies. (Usable only with the Blades of Athena)

Items

Bow of Apollo - A bow and arrow of fire with movements and attacks similar to Typhon's Bane which Kratos used in God of War II.
Head of Helios - The head of the God of the Sun. Kratos uses it to blind his enemies and light up dark areas.
Boots of Hermes - The Boots of the Messenger of the Gods. Kratos uses it to attack his enemies at high speed, and to reach areas he otherwise could not.

Relics

Golden Fleece - The fleece allows Kratos to reflect any projectiles and beams.
Hermes Winged Boots - Acquired after killing Hermes. They give him better aerial combos and give him the ability to run on any walls.
Icarus Wings - Wings from the famous Icarus that allows Kratos to glide around distant places.
Poseidon's Trident - This relic has the power to make Kratos breathe underwater indefinitely.
Rage of Sparta - A new Rage Mode that Kratos will use. It works like the Rage of the Gods and the Rage of the Titans from the previous games. Arguably, this rage mode appears to be far less effective and less active than the previous two incarnations, although its possible that this is a result of Kratos lacking now both the power of the Gods (from the first game) and the power of the Titans (from the second game) and this "rage" is derived purely of his own willpower and aggression.

Godly Possessions

These magical items that once belonged to the gods can now be found hidden in several places in the game, once found, they can be used at any time during your second play through. They can be very helpful, but once you activate a godly possession, you won't be able to receive any Trophies for the entire play through.

Zeus' Eagle: Infinite Rage of Sparta
Hades' Helm: Max out Health, Magic & Item meters
Helios' Shield: Increases combo time by 3x
Hermes' Coin: Collect 10 times the amount of Red Orbs
Hercules' Shoulder Guard: Decreases damage taken by 1/3
Poseidon's Conch Shell: Grants infinite Magic
Aphrodite's Garter: The Blades of Exile are replaced by Athena's Blades
Hephaestus' Ring: Automatically win all O prompts
Daedalus' Schematics: Grants infinite Item
Hera's Chalice: Causes the Health meter to slowly decrease over time, although it will never completely kill you.

Mythological Monsters

These are the common enemies that you will be fighting during the course of the game:

Brutes - A massive new enemy: brutal, animated statues of gold. They are similar to Talos and are part of the class enemy.
Talos(es) - stone warriors made by the gods for the purpose of killing Kratos. They carry huge hammers and are strong, but extremely slow. They are of the same class enemy Brutes.
Chimera - A three part sub boss , a beast with the front of a lion, back of a goat and tail of a snake.
Centaurs - Unlike the original game, these are the melee fighters and masters of the Undead.
Cyclops - Basically the same as before, Kratos will have a capacity to take temporary control over them by force.
Harpies - Will be used as part of transportation "tool" to overcome pits.
Undead Legionnaire - The most common type of enemies will achieve extraordinary amount of units on the screen (about 40).
Satyr - Appear, seemingly fighting the same way they did in previous games.
Cerberus - The three headed dogs will return as enemies.
Skeleton Cyclops-A incomplete born or made cyclops that only appears on Cronos's shoulder.
Minotaur - Make a final return and come in an armored and unarmored form.
Wraith: The enemies from the first two God of War games are confirmed to return.
Siren: These deformed women use their songs and magic as before to defeat Kratos, and now they can turn invisible.
Giant scorpion - A new boss that Kratos will fight inside of My. Olympus.
Leviathan(s) - Poseidon's horses, created using giant chunks of rock that are used to manifest seemingly "living" water as the creature's flesh and body. They are immensely powerful, capable of punching holes through the bodies of Titans and completely INFESTING them from the inside out in a matter of seconds if left unchecked.

Characters

Trivia

A playable demo is contained in the Blu-Ray of the movie District 9.

Videos

E3 2009 Trailer

TGS 2009 Trailer

GT 2010 Exclusive Trailer

The first 5 minutes

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