I finished it over a week ago, and after sleeping on it, here are my impressions on the game:
Good stuff:
+ Great pacing. People thought the game tapered off in the last third but I couldnt disagree more. Kratos actions had a very ominous tone and he felt more alone in his vendetta against the Gods. I loved the Labyrinth!
+ Genius level design. Fuck me, no-one does this better- Returning to previous areas in the game at sometimes surprising intervals helped develop a feeling of familiarity between the player and the game world. One of my favorite things about the GoW series.
+ Unmatched epic scale. Needs no explanation.
+ Visually impressive. I couldnt give a shit about resolution, AA, FPS or any of that crap. The game looks amazing and the visual style is perfect. The game could have been less flashy and I would still come away impressed. I didnt get the impression the game was trying to push the hardware beyond its capability and cant recall any issues with texture-pop-in, tearing or any other of those symptoms. Draw distance was amazing.
+ Art style. Immediately appealing to a broad player base, but unique enough not to come across as derivative. I love the GoW look.
+ Flying parts. Weeeeeeeeeeee! Provided a nice breather from combat without dragging on for too long, controlled very well and looked amazing. Weeeeeeeeeee!
+ First person perspective parts. Fucking genius- both from Kratos perspective, and from his victims. Felt really visceral and in-your-face yet somehow looked and moved completely different from a first person shooter.
+ Animated cutscenes. I liked the pseudo-comic book silhouette style. Design was original yet consistent with the games visuals and mythos.
+ No fucking around. You put the disc in and a few minutes later youre fucking up all the Gods shit.
+ Animation. Apparently this game had no physics and was all pre-cooked. Good. Scenery crumbling away and wobbling bosoms all looked great.
+ Titan fights. An amazing feat from both a gameplay and technical perspective. So much happening on screen- climbing up Chronos arm whilst fending off skeletons while a bunch of shit happens in the background. Wow.
Not so good stuff:
- Too easy. Yeah, Ive only completed it on normal, so what, but the only real challenging bits of non-boss combat seemed to be packed into the last third. Many a time I would stroll happily past health chests.
- Way too easy. I found all the upgrade items and fully maxed out my weapons with buckets of orbs to spare. End boss was a cake walk.
-Blocking. Parrying and countering felt a bit squishy. In the world of fruit, Bayonetta is an apple and GoWIII is an orange, but I think Bayonettas perfect blocking system has left me spoilt.
- The only GoW game Ive played with noticeable glitches. Nothing major, but I never had a problem with Kratos getting stuck on scenery or suffering weird animation effects in previous games. Graphics were smooth though.
- Not enough puzzles. GoW have always had great level-based puzzles. GoWIII had maybe two or three, but only one that I can really remember- Heras Garden- possibly one of the best conceived puzzles in the series. Still, it wasnt enough.
Stuff that is kinda good, kinda bad:
* High emphasis on boss fights. All the encounters with Olympians and Titans were jaw-dropping, but I would have enjoyed a higher presence of encounters against swarms of vanilla enemies. Regular enemy fights were a bit bland- in previous games, a fight against say, skeleton warriors would be interrupted by the appearance of a spawning Minotaur, requiring the player to quickly adapt from a crowd control strategy, to slower heavy attacks. In GoWIII, a fight against a cyclops was typically followed up by a fight with another cyclops. Yawn. I was rarely kept on my toes like in previous games and Im not sure whether it is a result of laziness or exhausted creativity on Santa Monicas part.
* Combat is a bit plain. Not as deep as other games, BUT, it ensures the pacing keeps the narrative going at a nice clip and allows the game to achieve its cinematic aims.
I had more thoughts on it, but can't remember...