Kratos climbing Olympus, a titan on his back and nothing in his head but revenge.

When the community picks on gut feeling alone, with no criterion, God of War III lands ahead of a little under two thirds of games. Decent, nothing more. But the breakdown by criterion is far more interesting. The music blows everything away: ahead of 97% of titles. Connection climbs ahead of 92% of games, art style ahead of 89%, desert island ahead of 84%. Where it collapses is fun: ahead of only 10% of games. Controller feel sits just under the average. Some of these rest on few votes and remain to be confirmed, but the tension is impossible to miss. God of War III is remembered for its excess, its fury, its sonic and visual scale, not for the urge to dive back in on a weeknight.

That is the classic fate of a spectacle game. This 2010 hack and slash bet everything on shock, staging, scale. Up against games built for replay value and sessions that stretch into the night, it loses ground on criteria it was never designed for.

So, who is it for? For you if you want a mythological gut punch, a colossal soundtrack and god fights shot like cinema. Much less so if what you want is the game you keep coming back to for the raw pleasure of the controller.