We all know how it plays out. In five titles Kratos has killed gods, titans, the Fates, his peers, innocents and his own family. He is the ultimate warrior, showing no mercy, weakness or compassion. He is rage incarnate, snuffing out the life of everything around him. But under all that rage, all that shouting and unbridled destruction, there is a man. A human.

bmUploads_2013-01-30_1092_gowascesnsion_screens_chainedintro-1024x576

A human on the wrong side of the Furies. These beings, neither titan nor god, look after all of the oaths and are quick to punish those that break them. Masters of illusion, the Furies plague Kratos with nightmares and visions, driving him to the brink of insanity.

This time around, Kratos seems pretty happy with his Blades of Chaos, not bothering to get any other permanent weapons. To make up for this, Kratos collects various elements to imbue his weapons with. Each element modifies several of his attacks, often adding spectacular extra effects to the ends of combos, such as setting nearby foes on fire. Each of these elements can be upgraded with red souls, unlocking special moves, a rage attack and finally a magic attack. Kratos has a rage bar, which fills as you slice off bits of your enemies. It loses charge over time, however, as well as when Kratos takes damage, meaning that clever use of block and dodge are tantamount. Once full, Kratos can unleash his pent-up frustration in an elemental attack, or attack with strengthened elemental properties, as well as unlocking several devastating combo moves. These elemental effects add some tactical depth to the game, but nowhere near as much as I thought. No elemental weaknesses are apparent, meaning you can fight with your favourite one for pretty much most of the game. Each element also proudly boasts being able to provide you with certain orbs. This only happens if you kill an enemy with certain attacks, which normally nets you one tiny orb. I found this a bit annoying, thinking I could use one element to get my rage built quicker or another for a bit of magic.

god-of-war-ascension-screenshot-2

Luckily most levels are littered with weapons, some of which you steal from your opponents. These weapons replace your physical attacks, which includes a familiar Spartan Kick, for while. They often have a better chance of disarming or breaking past blocks, or sometimes have a high chance to stun enemies or knock them off platforms.

God of War: Ascension has the most impressive and daunting level design of the franchise. A statue taller than a skyscraper is one example of how mind-bogglingly large everything is around Kratos. Some boss battles are similarly massive in scope, making Kratos use every dirty trick he has to make up for not being the size of a city. Some locations are revisited at night, with new abilities to traverse to previously impassable and impossible alternate paths. Kratos and many of his enemies are able to destroy parts of the level, creating new paths, using them as weapons or making the fighting arena smaller, which makes for more intense fights. A new type of QTE mini game appears too, one in which you have to dodge attacks with the left stick, often while attacking. Missing the dodge can either result in losing a chunk of health, or interrupting your brutal finishing move. While for the most part, like in boss battles, this is really well done, it tends to get stale rather quickly for standard fare monsters. Still, Kratos doesn’t disappoint, bringing creative, painful and sinister death to his enemies.

bmUploads_2013-01-30_1098_gowascesnsion_screens_prophet4-1024x576

Then it happened. Mere moments from the end of the game, I hit a snag. I was in an impossible-to-beat fight. Now before someone mumbles Cerberus or Zeus at me, hear me out. I know each game in the franchise had ‘that fight’, the one that seems impossible, especially on higher difficulty levels. I also don’t mind a game having a good few challenges or to make me scratch my head during a puzzle for a while. This was, however, horrible. After finishing every other game in the franchise and a quite a lot of other hack ‘n’ slash titles, I was presented with a solid blank wall. After making it this far, about 7 hours in, without breaking a sweat, I was dying again and again and again. Curses were uttered. Controllers were threatened with flight lessons. My heart sank. I had failed. Through all the fights I thought I was doing okay, that I knew enough about the moves and skills that I could handle anything. But I couldn’t. So I quit to the main screen again, this time not to take a break but to change the difficulty level. I was defeated. Then I noticed you can’t change the difficulty level at all. So I started a new game, muttering curses at whoever made that section of the game. The second time through, I took time to look at the levels, still enjoying them, still marvelling at how dynamic and colossal they were. In time I learnt more about the finer points of the combat system, with easy dropping the frequency of attacks against you and enemy’s resistance to being staggered or interrupted. One day I will go back and beat that level, but I fear that some gamers will reach that point and sell the game, swearing off the franchise and telling all their friends to do the same. Which is a damn shame because it is so close to the end of the game.

God-of-War-Ascension-Gets-New-Single-Player-and-Multiplayer-Screenshots-9

This is the first game in the series to have multiplayer. I couldn’t actually find any players to play any of the modes except for the tutorial and a single player challenge mode. In multiplayer, you pledge fealty to one of four major gods. This gives you access to items and magic that is in line with their desires. Multiplayer has both PVP and PVE elements, with some levels containing bosses and various minions. Kills earn you experience, which is used to upgrade your character as well as the gear you are wearing, increasing health, damage, magic damage and a whole host of stats. Various tasks, called labours, can be completed to earn new weapons and pieces of armour. Several mechanics, as well as new weapons appear to be present. Without being able to play against anyone, that is about all I can say on the multiplayer at this point. From what I see, barring any netcode issues, it is pretty solid.

bmUploads_2013-01-30_1099_gowascesnsion_screens_prophet6-1024x576

After God of War 3, many players were left wanting more. Some closure or perhaps a happy trip off to the lands of the Norse gods, where Kratos could get a fur coat, sleep with Valkyries and probably start off Ragnarok. (A man can dream right?) But this was not the case. After two filler titles on the PSP, the thought of a prequel had me worried. Ascension adds a new dimension to a character that is pretty much a bucket of rage, showing us more about his former life, before Ares manipulated him.

Throughout the game you are reminded that all of this happens before all the other hardships, the betrayal, pain and loss, that Kratos still has to suffer. At one point I felt truly sorry for Kratos. Too often we have seen the God of War or the demi-god stepbrother of Hercules. Now we see the man. His grief and his regret are both raw and real. The stage is set for an epic tragedy and I suddenly feel like replaying all of the games with this glimpse of the man Kratos used to be.

Last Updated: March 12, 2013

God of War: Ascension
True to the franchise, this is unadulterated God of War. While the insight and motivation of the character is highly enjoyable, the game doesn't do enough new things to make it as impressive as the huge creatures and levels it portrays.
8.0
God of War: Ascension was reviewed on PlayStation 3

21 Comments

  1. Sir Captain Rincethis

    March 12, 2013 at 12:43

    Awesome review as usual mate!

    Reply

  2. FoxOneZA

    March 12, 2013 at 12:53

    I thought Kratos was going to kick Dante’s teenie rat’s ass 🙁

    Reply

  3. Draco Lusus

    March 12, 2013 at 12:53

    I miss the days when 6-8 hours of gameplay was you just getting into the game…

    Reply

    • Fnuik

      March 12, 2013 at 13:05

      I love games being between 6 and 12 hours long. I do not have the time to sit and play games for hours on end. If a game is 12 hours long I can finish it in just over a week maybe, if a game is 40 hours+ I play for like 10 hours before quitting because I know I will never be able to finish it before something else comes along.

      A good example of a game just long enough is Sleeping Dogs. Brilliant game and exactly the right length. Never got bored of doing the same thing over and over.

      Reply

      • matthurstrsa

        March 12, 2013 at 13:24

        I just finished Sleeping Dogs and I agree, I kept coming back to play more of that game. And how great was that combat system!

        Reply

    • Skyblue

      March 13, 2013 at 09:44

      Agreed, I also miss the days when God of War was a release I used to look forward to.

      Reply

  4. Guest

    March 12, 2013 at 12:55

    Lol Garth couldn’t finish God of War 😛

    Reply

  5. Lebogang Molefo

    March 12, 2013 at 13:01

    Good thing I pre-ordered the game 🙂 thanks for the awesome review

    Reply

    • Sean Carbutt

      March 12, 2013 at 15:58

      I mentioned this on Monday, Gameplay 9, story about 7, graphics 9. Garth, where did you get stuck? Was it perhaps the crystal puzzle in apollo’s statue? I hope not, but i was also like WTF and then my 11 year old son, solved that stupid puzzle for me. Dam, the mind of a child is something to respect.

      Reply

      • Valshen

        March 13, 2013 at 08:43

        Nope after that, the three waves of enemies on a dumb lift.

        Reply

  6. Admiral Chief Erwin

    March 12, 2013 at 13:25

    There was a section in SpecOps the line, where I raaaaged and raaaaged and eventually dropped difficulty. FUBAR mode achievement will remain elusive for now. I hate it when its like that.

    Reply

  7. TriangularRoom

    March 12, 2013 at 13:28

    Awesome review! I must say, the scale of the levels was really impressive. And the human side of Kratos was certainly pretty interesting.

    And boy is he a creative killer…

    Reply

  8. CaptainNemo42

    March 12, 2013 at 13:37

    Garth, I had a bit of the same issue with finding matches playing the the MP Beta. I really hope that once the game is released that more people will be in it because it seemed like a lot of fun.

    When we get there we’ll have to see if you’re really such a n00b that you can’t even beat a God of War level. 😛

    Reply

  9. Marius Nell

    March 12, 2013 at 14:22

    who is up for some multiplayer tomorrow night? add me my psn ID: malmarius

    Reply

  10. Matthew Figueira

    March 12, 2013 at 15:08

    Awesome review Garf 🙂 RAWR!!!!

    Reply

  11. Nosgoth1979

    March 12, 2013 at 18:03

    Six to eight hours is about perfect to me; long enough to have some fun without wearing out its welcome. I can’t wait to play through it myself. I had to do something to get my Kratos fix while waiting for Ascension, so I rented the God of War Collection and God of War 3 through Blockbuster @Home from DISH. Trying out the range of services we come out with is one of my favorite parts about working for DISH, and I’m particularly grateful for Blockbuster @Home because previously I’d always end up buying all my games, but that gets expensive. And considering I rarely play through a game more than once, they just don’t usually seem worth paying sixty bucks a pop for. Luckily now that I rent my games through Blockbuster @Home, I don’t have to—its flat-monthly rate has allowed me to keep up with my gaming habit without going broke.

    Reply

    • Sir Captain Rincethis

      March 13, 2013 at 15:56

      Was this some form of SEO advertising?

      Reply

    • Tbone187

      March 13, 2013 at 16:10

      Spam alert!!!

      Reply

  12. wayne

    March 13, 2013 at 15:29

    god of war is so crappy!!! i wish kratos had more main weapons like the chains blades. thank god that thats the last god of war ever made!!! im only in the middle of the game and i fuckin hate it 63 fuckin dollars gone waisted and i always was kratos fan but all his other games was killas so i guess it wasnt a complete waste of time and money BUT ASCENSION SUCKS FUCKIN ASS!!!!! why kratos couldnt forge his own weapons?? at least they could of had more main weapons dammitt

    Reply

  13. Purple_Dragon

    March 13, 2013 at 16:13

    Ok, I’ve been playing this for a while today and it’s been interesting. While graphically it is outstanding and it’s kind of fun to play there is something missing. It’s like a spark or something is missing, I can’t quite put my finger on it.

    But I love the controller, its freaking awesome.

    Reply

  14. Milni06

    March 20, 2013 at 11:12

    My general dislike for the God of War series is no secret, but I am actually quite tempted to play this. Sounds like a good balance, and much better combat generally. Great review, as always 😉

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Check Also

Twelve Minutes Review – Stuck in a Mystery Time Loop

We’ve all experienced deja vu a few times in our lives, but what happens when you ha…