Collector’s Edition releases are nothing new in the gaming industry and neither is a hundred dollar price tag on them. The ultra successful God of War series is slated to release the third leg of the trilogy early next year and to commemorate the release Sony is going to be releasing a $100 Collector’s Edition bundle. For long time veterans and fans of the series the only question is whether or not the set is worth it.
First things first: What is it and what’s inside? While there are going to be some collectors who buy it simply because it has God of War etched across it somewhere other prospective buyers are going to have to be wowed by something inside. For starters, the box is actually rather impressive. Those who played the original God of War will remember that Kratos was tasked with retrieving Pandora’s Box in order to battle Ares on even terms. Scaled down appropriately the box that the Ultimate Edition (the actual name Sony gave the edition) comes in is a replica of the Pandora’s Box model. It’s definitely a looker and while it won’t exactly fit in side by side with the rest of your gaming cases it’s a joy to look at, resembling something you’d have to buy from a video game specialty store.
The contents aren’t slim, either. Music was something that usually wasn’t a part of the special features in the previous God of War titles, even though it was memorable. The God of War III Ultimate Edition will be packed with two different music items: one is the trilogy’s soundtrack while the other is an “inspired by” heavy metal album. Mini-features were commonplace unlockables in both of the previous God of War titles, which are undoubtedly expected to return in the latest installment, however, the Ultimate Edition will contain feature-length reminiscence on the series. An art book is also slated to be included.
What’s the real kicker? While music and art are well nice Sony included something else that will be much more valuable to the gamer side of the collector: more content. Players will have access to a unique skin, challenges and downloadable content that won’t be available for those who simply buy the standard release. For anyone that’s played any of the previous titles before they’ll know that the game makes it living off of replay value and the Ultimate Edition adds to that wholeheartedly.
