God Of War 3
I’m kind of deciding what to do with my blog at the moment. But I did enjoy a few things about God Of War 3 (PS3, 2010) that I wanted to remember…
The first is the notion of (visual) scaleability, which apparently was a key consideration for this development team from the start, and was mentioned by N’Gai Croal recently to remind me. In the first level the game states its intent – a distant long-shot of the Titan God Gaia scaling mount Olympus. Swooping into a medium view of the God with your character Kratos like a stickman hanging onto its back. Then getting closer as you battle the nasties as you travel over Gaia’s body. Then getting right up to a close-up as you shimmy in full-screen through a small space in Gaia’s insides.
It’s just a really nice sensation to see these different scales in the same sequence with no join inbetween. It’s actually the best thing about Dark Void as well. It’s at once epic in scale but also interactive in design. You really get to see your connection with the environment. And it destroys the usual notion of having a foreground and a background, because at every turn the camera may swoop around and literally turn the environment on its head. There’s a truly fantastic battle with Cronos using a similar scale about halfway through the game which is the highpoint.
Another thing I liked was the use of repetition and motifs in this game. Despite being totally linear, it actually reminded me of one of those explorathon games like Shadow Complex where you really get to know the place inside out. There are a number of environments (Hades, the Labyrinth, Olympus etc) but the hero Kratos has to weave his way in and out of each pursuing his goal. Many scenes are revisited or totally transformed with a new twist etc. And so landmarks and places don’t just become the next parade of set-dressing – they are places that you come to recognise, and you kind of know how they join up in principle.
I particularly liked one puzzle in the game, which uses a set viewpoint that you can toggle to work in an Escher-inspired visual puzzle. Platforms and stairs that aren’t adjacent in one view look seamless once you’re locked into one viewpoint accessed from the eye of a statue, and you can defy physics on that basis. It’s a little bit like Echochrome could be in a full 3D environment. It even has a puzzle with trickling water that just adds a real visual frisson to the scene. I can’t imagine how they even began to make the puzzle work within a 3D engine.
And there’s also one brilliant visual trick which I think I can describe without it being a spoiler. God Of War as a series is about an alpha-male sense of simplicity, in that the lead character Kratos seems to reject and hint of complex thought and pacifism from the start – it’s a liberating experience, as you think only of revenge and do what you have to to get to that end. But there’s a great scene where, as you’re smashing an enemy to a pulp, the vision becomes totally obscured with blood but the usual quick-time event prompts remain – you get the sense that the game has finished its scene but is inviting you to carry on in the same spirit “if you want to”. It’s a brilliant moment, because you keep mashing the buttons for a while and then you start to wonder quite why you’re doing it. And then at some point you have to stop. It’s a lovely moment where you’re actually invited to consider what you actually feel about Kratos and his violent ways, but almost outside of the game for a moment.
God Of War 3 isn’t my favourite game of the year so far by any means, but there is so much polish and richness throughout that it did give me some great moments. And I’ll drink to those…
