Before God of War III begins, a quote from Plato reads, "The measure of a man is what he does with power". It refers to the game's murderous anti-hero, Kratos, and his gruesome struggle against the mighty gods that betrayed him. That said, it also applies to Sony's Santa Monica Studio, because these skilled programmers harnessed the PlayStation 3's advanced processing muscle to create the most awe-inspiring video game we've seen. Regardless of how you feel about the publisher, the system and even the franchise, one thing is clear: God of War III is phenomenal. It succeeds for a plethora of reasons that go well beyond its beautiful graphics. Unlike the competition, it doesn't take several hours to get going, or burden the player with laborious upgrades. The game moves like a recalled Toyota in that it can accelerate without warning, except instead of putting the car in neutral and braking on the side of the road, there's little you can do when things get crazy. On the positive side, it's a much smoother ride.

Expect to battle enemies both big, small and ugly.

Once again, you play Kratos, the fabled Ghost of Sparta. Spurned by the gods, including the almighty Zeus (his father), the ornery warrior continues his perilous quest to take down Greek mythology's heavyweights, one punishing death at a time. Unlike most video game heroes, he is without remorse, easily slaughtering enemies and allies at will; you can forget about making good and bad choices, since Kratos only serves himself. To that end, almost everything that moves in this game can die, should you choose to turn the handful of weapons against the innocent, but as any God of War veteran knows, there's no point discerning friend from foe when all hell breaks loose. You just mash buttons and decorate the ground with dismembered limbs.

On that note, game receives two severed thumbs up for violence. You can do a ton of damage in just a few seconds, whether you slice monsters to pieces with Kratos' Blades of Exile, grab and rip them in half or pick them up and use their bodies as a battering ram to plow through opposing forces. Later, he'll acquire the mighty Bow of Apollo (charge this up to light evildoers on fire), the head of Helios (illuminates dark places and temporarily blinds creatures with the power of the sun) and other delightful toys that we'll let you discover. In addition, he possesses limited magic, including a cool looking Phalanx, where a group of shield-carrying soldiers drop from the sky and quickly jab surrounding bad guys with their spears. He can also ride some of the larger monsters, something that comes in handy against large groups.

While chopping monsters to pieces never gets old, we preferred to destroy them via Quick Time Sequences, where the game challenges players to press a series of buttons to perform some nasty looking maneuver, whether it results in snapping a minotaur's neck, decapitating a gorgon or cleaving flesh from someone's chest. The game's a gore lover's paradise.

Moreover, it's a dazzling visual feast comprised of epic set pieces designed to make you say only one word: wow. Right from the beginning, Sony doesn't hesitate to show off its mastery of the tech, plunging Kratos into an uphill battle (literally) between the gods on Mount Olympus and the Titans, humongous rock monsters making their slow and treacherous ascent. What's especially impressive, aside from the jaw-dropping size of these creatures, is the way Sony effortlessly transitions from battling on one of them to blasting off and exploring the mountain, perfectly contorting the scenery to shatter everything you thought possible in a video game. You literally go from hacking foot soldiers in a forest (in what turns out to be the Titan Gaia's arm) to hanging upside down on that arm attacking a monster that's a cross between a horse and a crab. Even better, that's but a small taste of the anarchy that ensures throughout the adventure; more impressive surprises await.

See that huge rock monster? Yeah, that's actually a level. You fight on that.

We also love the little things that enhance the experience. For a guy that wears the ashes of his murdered family, Kratos has never looked better, from the musculature of his chest, triceps and traps to the various scars and golden armor that grace that chiseled physique. Other features, such as the rain animation, enemy movement and physics involved in splintering wood/crumbling stone scream high quality.

The same can also be said of the audio, a dazzling mix of screams, torn flesh and smashed rocks, combined with a Hollywood caliber soundtrack that hits all the right notes, especially during the more dramatic moments. It also helps that Kratos sounds as badass as he looks. He's a tiny gnat compared to the rest of the game, but you never stop believing that this one man can take down Mount Olympus.

Boss fights, in the God of War tradition, are both long and immensely satisfying affairs that often involve multiple acts, sometimes in different environments. They all boil down to specific patterns Kratos can exploit, but Sony does a nice job peppering each confrontation with straight up button mashing and Quick Time Events to keep things varied. We died more times than we care to admit, but always persisted, simply because the payoff was always worth the effort; Kratos punishes each defeated god in stunning fashion, and often acquires a new ability/weapon for doing so. Plus, there's a user-friendly auto save that resurrects Kratos in the desired location.

As with all games, of course, it's an imperfect experience. Sony could have done a better job placing save points or just eliminated them entirely. We also groaned whenever the game's designers forced us to push things around to solve the most cookie cutter puzzles, but none of these complaints ruin the experience or stopped us from playing.

With that, there's only one thing left to say: buy God of War III immediately. Sony fulfilled expectations while setting the standard in the action adventure genre, with a game that serves as both a killer app and showpiece for PlayStation 3. Give Zeus our regards.

Final Score: 10 (out of 10)