*God Of War 3 Thread v2.0 + Interview Stig Asmussen

[nightshade]

Maxed out is definitely possible on Titan...I missed so many chests yet I was just 2000 orbs short of upgrading Helios' head.

EDIT: So after a while of thinking I have come to a conclusion that GOW3 eventhough being the strongest in the series as far as combat goes, is still the weakest game in the series as a whole. This is probably because of the design choices they made. One thing which can be taken for granted is that the game never ever during its course of entire length reaches the benchmark set by its opening. Of all the moving level technology & titan gameplay they talked about all the time, there were just two battles in total which you fought over titans or moving levels alike. Its like Santa Monica wanted to do those levels right from start & did them with so much care that they forgot to space out time for other levels.

Another thing to complain is the dull level design that they have in this game, there were lots of varied area in GOW1, even more so in GOW2 (You rarely ever passed the same area twice) but here the whole game is centered around the Realm of Hades & a bunch of Cubes (The Caverns). There was in total just one level that was set in a bright sunny area ie. Olympia, rest of the areas are either indoors or in a dark environment.What good are the God rays & awesome HDR lighting if you can't have areas that really show these features extensively..??

The last thing which I would complain about are the weapons, two of them are just too similar to the default weapon (Blades of Exile) while Cestus is like the only different weapon.

It almost makes me believe that the devs thought of few bits of elements before making the game, then centered their attention around those areas while still not having enough ideas for the rest of the game. Then as time started to run short they did everything in a hurry & since they normally do story part right near the end its no wonder that they couldn't spread it out across other landscapes enough. This ultimately led to a shortened game length too.

 

[Phil]

Ah yes, that lovely part. The most important thing to do is save your magic and rage meter for phase three. My weapon of choice was chains of exile maxed out. Here's what worked for me; in the first phase, the best thing to do is kick the dogs back at him and do the heavy (triangle x3) chains of exile attacks. In the second phase, do the same thing while doing your best to ignore the satyr... this phase drove me nuts because of him. Whenever he gets close, dodge out of the way and hammer him with the bow to push him away and keep hitting Cerberus. Do not try the QTE to take away his spear because Cerberus' will keep spitting those dogs and they can damage you mid-animation.

In the third and final phase, use your magic and rage meter to kill Cerberus. The chains of exile magic works great since it damages the two satyrs as well. Once Cerberus is dead, go for the satyrs with the QTE's (move close and press circle in case you didn't know).

Good luck. That was without a doubt the most difficult part in the game.

I'll probably be jumping a few posts with my reply, but I just beat him yesterday on Titan (still on my first playthrough) and think to have found a good way which worked for me. It will especially work, if you haven't got the luxury of having all weapons upgraded (my only fully upgraded weapon is the Nemean Cestus [Hercules gloves]). If you have the same, use the standard attack (Square) and try to always tackle him from the side. Ignore the dogs and you should be able to get his first head without losing any health (or only little) and relatively quick.

Once the satyr comes into play, I switched to Claws of Hades and used magic (set soul to gorgon serpent first!) which if you do it right will turn the satyr into stone, making it a one-hit-kill. Then immediately switch back to the Nemean Cestus and kill him (I found I never quite got him with the other weapons). Then concentrate on Cerberus and continue with the square attack of the Nemean Cestus and tackle him from the side. Once you get his second head, the tricky part starts as you'll have another two satyrs.

With the little health remaining, I used a second magic (switch to Claws of Hades again first to use the gorgon serpent) on the satyrs. This will turn at least one of them to stone. Kill him by using the Nemean Cestus quickly. This will leave one more satyr remaining. Then use the rage-sword only on Cerberus until it's empty. Use the remaining magic on Cerberus aswell (I used Spartan Army of Blades of Exile becauseI didn't have enough magic for another Gorgon Serpent) and that killed Cerberus for me. Then I concentrated on the last satyr by switching to Nemesis Whip and pulled him close by pressing L1 + Circle. Then Circle him until the QTE comes. Repeat this 3 times and you will kill him without taking any damage. This only works if you only have one remaining and no other enemies.


I also tried other ways, also by throwing back the dogs but this never worked for me, as usually, one of the dogs would explode near me taking valuable health. BTW: If you kill the first satyr, you'll ultimately have to beat 3 of them in total. If you ignore him, you can keep it to two. I decided to kill the first one as he just took too much health off me on the 2nd head and instead used my health advantage to get through the last two of them later.

 

[nightshade]

I'd like to mention that whenever you are in a situation of getting attacked...just use the boots.
It'll go past everything without you taking damage.

Anyways I got the platinum trophy today...the challenges were very very easy to do,except for the spawn 5 cyclops challenge...I got a bit lucky in that one as one of the cyclops fell off the arena & finished my challenge.

 

[Phil]

I'd like to mention that whenever you are in a situation of getting attacked...just use the boots.
It'll go past everything without you taking damage.

I tried that, but I found that running around in the Cerberus fight only made me more vulnerable to the dogs exploding or I landed in an area where he would spit fire. Staying close to him, though to his side was the key for me.

Oh, and the boots will only make you go through with smaller enemies. Some big enemies will block your way and will make you vulnerable after the animation. At least, that's what happened to me in the Cerberus fight as well as some other larger enemies (I think Hercules) was another one which I tried the boots on.

Congratulations on the platinum btw. Very impressive. I can't begin to imagine, since I'm not even through on titan yet (and some of the battles are ridiculously difficult, like the last labyrinth room)...

 

[nightshade]

I tried that, but I found that running around in the Cerberus fight only made me more vulnerable to the dogs exploding or I landed in an area where he would spit fire. Staying close to him, though to his side was the key for me.

Oh, and the boots will only make you go through with smaller enemies. Some big enemies will block your way and will make you vulnerable after the animation. At least, that's what happened to me in the Cerberus fight as well as some other larger enemies (I think Hercules) was another one which I tried the boots on.

Congratulations on the platinum btw. Very impressive. I can't begin to imagine, since I'm not even through on titan yet (and some of the battles are ridiculously difficult, like the last labyrinth room)...

I thought the Labyrinth was piss easy as I got aMAZED trophy in my first try ever & that was in titan mode.For the rotating room with spikes all I did was jump & glide so as to lure the enemies into the spikes. In the last room the only real challenge are the minotaurs & Wraiths which can actually be tackled very easily...all you need to do is L1+square with the cestus to do that spinning move to knock away the miniature, once he's in the corner just use L1+square again to launch him in the air & use ur basic square square square combo to juggl, there is no way he's counter that. Don't worry about the other enemies since they almost never come near you if you are doing this to a minotaurs.For dealing with the Wraiths [enemies that dig underground] spam L1+Circle grab with the Blades of Exile. The best thing about this room is that you have a gorgon so you can use it to turn everyone into a stone.

I did these & once I was near the end with only 2 sirens,1 Wraith & 1 minotaurs remaining, I realized I was low on health so all I did was spammed magic & Rage of sparta for the left over enemies as I didn't used any for the whole length of the battle.

 

[djskribbles]

Got those too...& apparently I was able to get more than 600 orbs by killing those which I decided to miss last time. But now I realize that its not just the weapons that you have to upgrade for the trophy its also the items & I am yet to upgrade the Helios' Head.

wtf ! The trophy says upgrade all weapons, not weapons & items

All this is happening because it was only until halfway that I realized the game has invisible chests that needs to be revealed using Helios' head, I used to think that it only reveals paths. If I had upgraded my magic/item/health bar atleast 2 chests before I'd have enough orbs to upgrade even the last thing.

I haven't played this yet (waiting for my basement to be renovated) but how are you supposed to know where these hidden chests are? Are you supposed to check every corner with Helios's head? That seems like a PITA.

 

[corduroygt]

Now on to Zeus & he's a bit tough to take down on the 2nd battle.

After seeing Zeus recharge his health from Gaia's heart, I literally just stood next to it and spammed the cheap L1+square attack with the blades, so that I hurt Zeus and his clones, replenished my health, and denied Zeus access to the tree all at the same time. This was on Normal mode though, but it felt so cheap, and almost like hacking/glitching.

 

[Billy Idol]

After seeing Zeus recharge his health from Gaia's heart, I literally just stood next to it and spammed the cheap L1+square attack with the blades, so that I hurt Zeus and his clones, replenished my health, and denied Zeus access to the tree all at the same time. This was on Normal mode though, but it felt so cheap, and almost like hacking/glitching.

ha ha...so true...I did the same

 

[Gradthrawn]

I haven't played this yet (waiting for my basement to be renovated) but how are you supposed to know where these hidden chests are? Are you supposed to check every corner with Helios's head? That seems like a PITA.

It's explained how to find them when you "acquire" his head.

 

[Rys]

Not all chests are hidden behind gold dust areas either. Some are just out in the open, or round corners you wouldn't normally visit. There are two right there in the arena with you when you visit the Caverns for the 2nd time, for example.

 

[BoardBonobo]

I haven't played this yet (waiting for my basement to be renovated) but how are you supposed to know where these hidden chests are? Are you supposed to check every corner with Helios's head? That seems like a PITA.

You see lots of sparkly motes floating in the air. Just aim Helios head at them and light 'em up or charge up his head and let rip to reveal everything in range and break any urns etc.

 

[tha_con]

I haven't played this yet (waiting for my basement to be renovated) but how are you supposed to know where these hidden chests are? Are you supposed to check every corner with Helios's head? That seems like a PITA.

Like others said, it's really easy to see, there is a ton of distortion and some golden sparkles floating around. THe very MOMENT you get Helios' head you can find one right behind you. You just have to pay attention when they tell you, or you'll miss the note.

 

[djskribbles]

Thanks for clearing that up.

 

[corduroygt]

Also don't forget to get helios' shield by using the head to reveal it, right next to his headless body.

 

[nightshade]

Also don't forget to get helios' shield by using the head to reveal it, right next to his headless body.

You don't need to reveal it, once you kill him the cutscene follows & after its over you can see his shield a few steps beside him.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

crap i didn't pick it up. What does the shield do anyway?

 

[nightshade]

Turning it on Increases the Hits Counter by 3 times.

 

[corduroygt]

Turning it on Increases the Hits Counter by 3 times.

Which is useless since you can't get the 1000 hit trophy with it, activating items disables trophies.

 

[nightshade]

Which is useless since you can't get the 1000 hit trophy with it, activating items disables trophies.

Well yes..activating any item or costume (There isn't any beside Fear Kratos) disables trophy for the whole playthrough...which is kinda disappointing. [having 1 bonus costume is disappointing too]

 

[RobertR1]

Rented the game on Sunday and beat it last night. Took me around 9 hours on Normal.

The graphics are amazing. I love the scale and the camera work to bring you the right angles. At no point did I care for a free camera. Outside of the tech demo level in Uncharted 2 (level 16 i think) this is clearly tops for graphics, to me. The only knock being Kratos much more detailed than the other characters in the game. Hera being the worst.

The music went well with all the stages also. Nothing exceptional but a very good mix throughout. Kratos voice acting however was cringe worthy for the most part.

Platforming done right. Naughty Dog needs to call up Santa Monica for UC3 so they can get some help with puzzles and platforming. The only issue i had is jumping. This was 90%+ of my deaths. I'd try to jump at the last possible second, an instinct from having played too many platformers growing up, and more often than not Kratos would do a half ass jump and die. However the actual platforming bits and puzzles were fantastic.

The story was a mixed bag. I love the setting and the story arc but the characters were lifeless. I never once cared for Kratos revenge, Deadilus, Pandora's father or anyone else in the game. No one was really likeable. The sex scene was pitiful and thrown in for teen boys looking for a quick rub, I assume? I tried to explain to the gf why a rage filled God of War has time for quickie but failed.

Combat is easily the weakest point of the game. It doesn't know if its' trying to be hack n slash or action. There are quite a few times when you're a spec on the screen fighting other specs with the camera zoomed out. Not exactly ideal for deep combat. I stuck with blades of chaos and cletus for most of the game. Tried the others but didn't care for them. Coming from Bayonetta this combat system just doesn't cut it. For the next version, I'd like to see an overhaul of the combat system. It's one of the only things holding this game back. I'm generally not a fan of QTE but most were fine. Some were annoying because it meant instant death and this accounted for most of my deaths not related to missed jumps.

The boss fights were fun. This is where I felt closest with the combat. It was more action like. I was worried about the infamous Cerebus fight from what I read but I was able to take him down first try. I died to Scropion boss once and Zues twice because I didn't figure out how to have basically unlimited health during those two fights, right away.

Overall it's a really good game just being held back by it's combat system and life less characters. I'd give it a 8/10 and would certainly recommend it to anyone.