An improvement on its already great predecessor in almost every way.

Promises an interesting puzzle-solving experience and a heartfelt love story, while falling just a bit short on delivering either.

Often beautiful and sometimes profound, the unique and innovative control setup can occasionally falter in ways that stall the otherwise emotional and effective narrative.

A great step forward as a follow-up to FALLOUT: NEW VEGAS, putting a lot of that game's narrative malleability and intelligent thematic depth to good use in creating an original universe.

That said, exploring this game's world -- with its somewhat generic, empty-feeling environments -- isn't quite as fun as exploring its characters and lore.

Even if it no longer represents the apex of the series, GOD OF WAR III still has a level of polished world design, intense and reactive combat (sometimes hampered by an unwieldy camera) and dynamic storytelling that many games 11 years later still struggle to match.

Still a decent source of mindless fun like the base game, though the increased difficulty and intensity only serves to highlight the inherent flaws, and forces the game into the murky waters of horrible framerate and undercooked combat controls.

The current gold standard of how to remake a classic video game.

Yes, it's unfortunate Rockstar hasn't given this any meaningful single-player support in eight years. Yes, it might be second only to SKYRIM as the most rereleased game ever.

Even after nearly a decade, it still plays like new and represents an apex of open-world game design that's basically unmatched.

What it lacks in technical polish this game more than makes up for in heartfelt characterization and creative world-building, culminating in one of the very best Marvel games in years.

The 2003 game design at the heart of the experience definitely shows its age at points, but this nearly 20-year-old game still holds up surprisingly well, even without taking the updated aesthetics and minor playability improvements into consideration.

A great example of how to remake an older game, though some of the dated elements of the original are still present enough to tarnish the shiny new finished product.

Some good mindless carnage for a few hours, but when the vehicle handling and camera are the most dangerous opponents in your vehicular combat game, there's only so much fun to be had.