So I'm back to God of War III: The Manly Adventures of Kratos. When we last left our angry Spartan he had just found the Flame of Olympus. Inside the Flame is Pandora's Box and Kratos needs the original Pandora to open it so he can kill Zeus.
Kratos is standing in the Flame room and there's a tutorial practically screaming at me to use Helios' head. This has become a common problem in games. I don't need an endless stream of tutorials telling me how to solve a puzzle. Just drop a hint and leave me alone. If I can double check the hint, fine, but don't blatantly tell me what to do. What's that point then of even having the puzzle? Tutorials are nice when I get a new item or power, or if I have to use a power in a unique way for the first time. But don't tell give me a tutorial for an item's basic use after I've already used it numerous times. The head of Helios can reveal hidden objects, just look for the God Dust or whatever it's called, it's pretty easy to spot. If you don't know that about the Head by now then you deserve to be stuck!
So I use the Head to reveal three paintings and they actually seem to give clues to a puzzle. At this point Hermes shows up and the showdown begins. The real fight against Hermes is this really awesome chase scene. Kratos chases Hermes all along Olympus (I assume Kratos is still in Olympus) while the city is slowly falling apart. This means while Kratos is running along a bridge it just might collapse from under him. It really is a fun, well thought out chase. It's hampered by a few moments where I wish I could control the camera, but I actually wish for camera control on a regular basis. The entire time Hermes is taunting Kratos about how slow he is, and that he's a mortal. This makes crushing Hermes all the more satisfying. The chase comes to a head while Hermes is standing on a statue, Kratos launches a boulder at it via catapult catching Hermes off guard. The statue goes down and Hermes is badly wounded.
At this point you actually fight Hermes. Hermes is to weak to run away, but he does try some hit and run maneuvers on Kratos. To call this a fight is almost insulting. Hermes is pathetically weak and he staggers easily, dropping health orbs. I did love that when Hermes is down he still takes time to insult Kratos. Hermes actually tries to make Kratos feel bad about everything he's ever done in his life. Kratos just cuts off Hermes' legs and takes his boots (shin guards?) for himself. This is such a grand Kratos moment you just have to appreciate it.
So Kratos now has "super speed". Really you just point Kratos at a part of a wall that has glowing footprints on it and press L2+X and Kratos will run across/up/over that section of wall. While I initially praised the use of buttons in this game I'm finding my lack of magic attacks frustrating. Where's my Poseidon's Rage or Cronos' Rage that I can spam on enemies for massive hits? All of my magic attacks have seemed pretty pathetic so far. Yes I can use the Head to "attack" and the Boots also have dash attack, but I find the attacks pretty pathetic so I don't even bother with them unless forced, same goes for the bow.
With the boots I make my way to the upper-floor of the Flame room and eventually find a musical based rhythm puzzle. It involves the Muses so music makes sense. It's just funny to see Kratos play a giant harp/piano thing in time to button presses. It really made me think of Rock Band and that just made me laugh more. The puzzle wasn't that hard, but the chuckle made it all worth while, you even had to play chords by pressing two buttons at the same time.
I then took a generic elevator ride where enemies spawn on the way down. The only reason I mention the ride is because I actually had a brutal kill fail here. You have dead guys with shields spawn and eventually a Gorgon would spawn (the Gorgons are all fat in this game). Now I'm used to God of War games forcing enemies into certain camera views so Kratos could brutally kill them. This didn't happen when I was trying to kill a Gorgon. The stupid Gorgon ended halfway up the wall before the game freaked out and just stopped the kill. I actually had no idea that could happen. Maybe I should try to reproduce it and right a bug report for the guys at Santa Monica studios, not that they'll fix it at this point. But it could be fun.
Currently sitting back in the lower-floor of the Flame room, preparing to go up a spiral staircase. We'll see what happens.
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