I never really mention how I'm doing on collectibles. I don't normally think they're worth talking about but I suddenly feel inclined. You see, for the first time ever in all of the God of War games, my magic bar was bigger than my health bar. It completely creeped me out. My health bar is always the bigger bar, then the magic bar might catch up later. But God of War III bucked that trend. It was short lived though, since the very next collectible I got was a third Gorgon's eye so the two bars were equal again, but the damage was already done. I am genuinely bothered by this.
So standing in the Flame room on the bottom floor is where we last left Kratos. It's up a spiral staircase, do some other things and we reach another cutscene. Here we are introduced to Hera, the wife of Zeus. It suddenly makes sense why Zeus is always cheating, she is not easy to look at. The fact that she's a lush doesn't help either. And the two are brother and sister! Kratos and Hera actually seemed to be getting along, Hera seems to like the idea of Kratos killing her husband. If I remember my mythology, Hera was very tired of Zeus' constant cheating. That's probably what aged her so quickly and pushed her to the drink. I know I don't want to be married to a cheater.
Hera calls in Hercules to fight. Now I've seen quite a few versions of Hercules over my life time (Disney's, Kevin Sorbo, Hercules Unchained) and this has to be one of the ugliest renditions of Hercules I have ever seen. Hercules actually bothers calling Kratos "brother". Sadly, all Hercules can do is whine that Zeus loved Kratos more, blah, blah, blah. Can someone send in Kevin Sorbo please? This Hercules is whining to much it's starting to annoy me. It seems Hercules is intent on killing Kratos and taking over as God of War. Battle start.
HOLY CRAP! I just looked up Kevin Sorbo on imdb, and Kevin Sorbo VOICED Hercules in this game. WTF?! So I guess they need to send in the Disney Hercules instead.....*sigh*
Fighting Hercules is fun. First he'll sends all of these undead guys at Kratos and then he'll try for a cheap shot here and there while Kratos is distracted, all the while bragging about how great he is. The fight progresses in natural stages. Hit Hercules enough times and he'll charge Kratos, once Kratos over powers him, Kratos will slam Hercules into a wall of spikes and rip off some armor. Eventually Kratos steals Hercules' weapon, his Nemean Gauntlets and this what Kratos will use to finish the fight. Once Kratos has the Gauntlets the battle almost becomes a long interactive cinematic. Sure, you still need to hit Hercules, but it's really easy to survive his attacks. Eventually Hercules lifts up the entire center of the arena, which Kratos climbs and uses the Gauntlets to knock the arena back down and on top of Hercules. Kratos then pounds Hercules' face into hamburger, fight over. Oh right, the two fall a couple of stories into some water.
I really like the gauntlets. They're more unique then the Claws of Hades and they actually feel useful. Almost immediately Kratos has to use them to break the shields of some enemies. This is how multiple weapons should be treated. You don't have to use them, but they clearly make certain situations easier. This actually encourages weapon swapping. The Gauntlets special is a "ground pound" attack (the Nemean Roar), so far it might just be that crowd-clearer I was looking for.
I played a little further and found some topless girl locked in a cage. This is a pseudo escort mission. I never actually saw any enemies attack this girl (except during a cutscene). Kratos has to escort her past some dogs and some living statues (Gauntlets prove their worth right here) until Kratos gets her back to this wheel that controls some gates. Kratos opens the gates and then attaches the girl to the wheel so he can get through. What a great use for a topless girl, this also makes me realize that I probably missed the sex mini-game since that normally happens in the first level.
Kratos then gets to talk to the little blue flame girl who is finally confirmed as Pandora (like there was any doubt). Apparently she is in some kind of labyrinth (dance magic!) and she needs Kratos to save her. Pandora is snatched away and Zeus tells Kratos to stop what he's doing. I of course didn't stop. I made my way across some platform into what I assume is the start of the labyrinth and then I saved.
There better be a minotaur at the end of this labyrinth or I'm going to be very disappointed. Or else it could be the castle of the goblin king! "You have no power over me!" Kratos should so say that line when he kills the (hopefully) minotaur.
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