Is it just me, or has this been a month of sequel games?

Anyway, this week I’m talking about God of War 3. Unlike some other games I’ve recently talked about this is an actual 3rd game in a series. Now, if you’ve ever read a game review and seen the phrase “It’s like God of War but…” there’s a good reason.

I am going to say this unabashedly- the first God of War is a freaking awesome game. It’s a game not meant to be played with children in the house. Separately, the brutal violence- and I do mean brutal-, the having sex mini-games, and nudity is more than enough to propel this game into the M rating. But put them together and you should probably put the kids behind protective lead shielding because God of War is explosive.

And it doesn’t wash off.

True story: my favorite part in the first game comes early on when the main character Kratos pins a harpy to the ground with his boot and rips her wings off bare handed. That’s just freakin’ awesome.

Oh, in case you didn’t know- God of War takes place in a world where the Greek gods are real. And by real I mean Zeus really is a serial date rapist, minotaurs are real, and your a rampaging psychopathic Spartan named Kratos.

The goal of the game? Kill all them bitches! And by bitches, I mean the Greek gods.

The third game picks up right with the major plot line of the first two games, the a fore mentioned bitch killing. You’re riding on the back of Gaea, the earth titan, as she and her fellow titan’s are climbing up the side of Olympus to assault the gods that imprisoned them.

It’s as impressive in the game as it is in your head right now. One of the things that I really liked about GOW3 is the cut scenes were made with the same graphic engine as the play scenes. That makes for smooth transitions in and out of story moments.

The controls are easy to use, and intuitive, but no one gets points for this any more.

But.

And, this may seem like small quibble, but I often had to question what I was doing on screen. I mean, over all, I knew what I had to do, but how did Kratos know?

As an example; in the opening scenes you’re riding the Titan of Earth as she climbs up the side of Mount Olympus, and yeah, that’s pretty cool. Then you get told to go fight some guys.

Which is done in the now typical over the top super violent God of War fashion, using your serrated chain-attached knives. And that’s the last prompt you get.

I should add there’s never a point of confusion about where you’re supposed to go, or what you’re supposed to do- the paths are well marked without be intrusive- and the enemies are, well, enemies. It’s a testament to fantastic level design: you know where to go and what to do with flashing signs.

But often as I scuttled about the titan I had to ask, “How does Kratos know where to go to fight more of these guys?” It didn’t make a lot of sense to me how he knew to climb up the cliff. It’s not like where he’s going is in easy sight. I can’t believe he saw the guys on top of the cliff, or the ones further back in the temple, or anything.

Which, at this point, I know what you’re thinking, “Abraxas, you’re okay with Greek gods, Titans, harpies, undead soldiers but you’re making a stink about how Kratos knows where to go and what to do without any prompting?” 

I know, it sounds like a nit pick, but it kept happening as I kept playing the game. I was always wondering, how does he know he needs to move the levers around to open that door to get out? Why can’t I just break that window over there? I’ve got these niffty flaming knife/sword things. They rip up everything else, and I stab rocks with them why can’t I break the glass? ‘

And that’s where the game breaks for me. No, not over the lack of breaking glass but that the game is so smooth that it slides you along instead of driving you along.

It’s well-designed, and it’s obvious what you’re supposed to do but the story isn’t driving you to do those things. The story isn’t driving Kratos with a reason to wipe out whatever is on screen other than that’s what he’s always done.

Which really brings me to the core problem with GOW3, it doesn’t raise the bar. It does improve the look from the first game, but damn, the first game was on the PS2. GOW3 was released on the PS3, a high-end game machine. It had better be superior.

But GOW3 is not doing anything new, it’s not pushing to tell a better story or do a better game than the first game. It’s doing the same thing it did before, and now it’s not even bothering to set an environment that drives you forward because they already know you’re going to jump through their hoops because you’ve always jumped through the hoops.

They don’t even have to tell you why the hoops are there, why they’re on fire, and when you should jump. You just do, because you’ve done it before.

In the end, God of War 3 is a superior game. Sony brought together a team of A list talent. Sound, and story, it’s all there but with all that talent it should be an A+ game and because it isn’t, the game glides in and that isn’t enough for me. GOW3 is a B list game. If you’ve never played the God of War series, then I recommend playing the first game.

It’s great.

If you loved the first game, then odds are you’ve already purchased, beaten, and sold off GOW3 (it’s only about 8 hours of content). If you haven’t…borrow your friends copy. It’s a good game, but it’s not great.

Which is too bad, because God of War 3 should be.