Overview
God of War III Remastered is the definitive version of the 2010 PS3 action game, rebuilt by Red Kite Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for PS4 in July 2015. It picks up exactly where God of War II left off, with Kratos leading an army of Titans up the slopes of Mount Olympus in an all-out assault on the Olympian gods. The scale of that opening sequence, with Poseidon manifesting as a colossal water deity and the ocean itself rising to swallow the world, set a standard for spectacle that few hack-and-slash games have matched.
The story follows Kratos from the depths of Hades to the peak of Olympus, dispatching nearly every major figure in the Greek pantheon along the way. Each boss encounter reads as a set piece rather than a simple health-bar fight. Poseidon is beaten into submission from a first-person perspective that makes the brutality feel uncomfortably personal. Hades, Hermes, Hercules, Helios, and eventually Zeus all fall in sequences designed to feel like mythology itself being unmade. The narrative is lean and relentless, and it benefits from that focus.
Gameplay and mechanics
Kratos fights with the Blades of Exile as his primary weapon, but the game hands out additional tools steadily across the campaign:
- Nemean Cestus: massive lion-head gauntlets for armored enemies
- Bow of Apollo: ranged fire attacks
- Claws of Hades: soul-ripping crowd control
- Nemesis Whip: fast multi-hit combos
- Blade of Olympus: late-game power weapon
Combat rewards aggression. The magic system ties directly to which weapon is equipped, so switching mid-combo opens up different elemental options rather than just changing attack animations. Puzzles are woven into the pacing at regular intervals, breaking up combat without ever overstaying their welcome.
Visual and audio design
The remaster runs at 1080p and targets 60fps, a significant upgrade from the original PS3 release. Red Kite Games improved texture resolution and lighting across the board, and the environments, Olympus, the Underworld, the Labyrinth, hold up well at the higher resolution. Character models on major bosses were always detailed, and at 60fps the combat reads more cleanly than it did on the original hardware.
The audio design deserves specific mention. Gerard Marino's orchestral score shifts between Greek-influenced choral arrangements and driving percussion that syncs with combat escalation. Voice work from Rip Torn as Zeus and Kevin Sorbo as Hercules adds weight to encounters that could otherwise feel like pure spectacle.
Impact and legacy
God of War III originally released to near-universal acclaim in 2010, and the remaster gave a new generation of PS4 owners access to the conclusion of Kratos's Greek mythology arc before the 2018 Norse-mythology reboot arrived. The game sits at the end of a complete trilogy, and playing it after God of War and God of War II makes the payoff land considerably harder.
The remaster also arrived on Steam, broadening access beyond PlayStation hardware. For players who missed the PS3 generation or want the cleanest version of the Greek-era God of War games, this edition of God of War III remains the best way to experience Kratos's most operatically violent chapter. The combat system, scale of boss encounters, and pacing across its roughly 10-hour runtime make it one of the most focused action games in the genre.