Kratos is starting to look long in the tooth. His gruff growl, his single-minded pursuit of the gods, his willingness to destroy everything between himself and his goal... at the beginning of God of War 3 we already know who he is. We know how he got there. The only question for the Ghost of Sparta is simple: what next?

As God of War 3 begins, Kratos is laying siege to Mount Olympus, leading an attack on the gods using the Titans as living weapons. Zeus and a few others look down at the coming threat, and begin their defense. Riding on Gaia's back, aching for blood, it seems Kratos is close to achieving what passes for his dreams.

I'm playing God of War 3, taking notes on what I'm seeing in the first moments of the game. The first section dares the player to ask "if this is how it begins, how the hell will it end?"

You know this game

If you have played a God of War game in the past, you'll be perfectly at home in this world. The controls are what you expect, meaning you can jump in and start perfecting your combos instantly. The quick-time events that continue to split gamers are back in full force. The formula is not shaken up in the last game of this trilogy.

The difference in God of War 3 is the power of the PlayStation 3. Beautiful graphics can't make a bad game good, but they can certainly make a good game great. The scale of the first minutes of the new God of War is indescribable. You're riding on the body of a great moving Titan, the ground shifting and turning as Gaia climbs the mountain. You're attacked by Poseidon, who assaults both you and the Titan with a swirling, chaotic, watery horse that has the legs of a crab. Poseidon attacks both you and the Titan you're riding, and some of the Titans you've mustered have already fallen. The gods aren't called such ironically.

You'll fight Poseidon in multiple guises, in multiple places, and there is some light puzzle solving. There's nothing that will come as much of a surprise; the game reminds me of watching Avatar for the first time. There is so much going on around the screen, with so much attention to both scope and detail—when many games struggle to deliver one or the other—your eye can see something interesting almost anywhere. The game is exhausting to play on a big-screen television with a surround sound system—the intensity is so numbing.

So what has changed?

The gameplay is back from previous games, with a few tweaks. Now the button presses from the quick-time events pop up on the sides of the screen, on their respective sides. This is a very nice trick, as it allows you to keep your eyes focused on the middle of the screen where the action is taking place without missing the button presses. You can now respond based on placement instead of having to look to see what button to hit. Quick-time events are what they are, but this adjustment does make them more tolerable, and what Kratos does to his enemies as you hit these buttons makes their inclusion worthwhile.

Like other God of War titles, the violence is front and center.

When you finally overcome the opposition of Poseidon, fighting through and watching some achingly beautiful scenes, you simply beat the god to a bloody pulp with your hands. The twist? You watch this savagery through the eyes of Poseidon himself, watching the blows coming at you. At the end, you're asked to press down on both analog sticks in a sick attempt at verisimilitude: when you push down on both stick Kratos pops the eyes of Poseidon with his thumbs.

There ends the section I'm allowed to discuss. The game is in reviewers' hands, and we're all excitedly playing what is one of the most anticipated games of the year. The opening section of the game is so breathless, so large and impressive, that there remains the fair question of how it can be topped later in the game.

Of course, we've said the same thing before about past releases in this series, and we know the team is up to the task. God of War 3 is out, exclusively on PlayStation 3, March 16.