Someone Misspelt Descension On The Case
In an ideal world God of War Ascension should be a great send off for the PS3, instead it makes us doubtful of Kratos’ future. God of War Ascension isn’t a bad game by any means but unfortunately the series has set some pretty high standards in the past to which this latest entry has difficulty matching. Even in this “watered down” state, God of War Ascension is still worth playing even if it isn’t quite the killer app it once used to be.
Having played all the previous games before it, going into what is ultimately the sixth entry in the series does put a certain amount of pressure on Ascension to freshen up the experience. If it isn’t broke then don’t fix, God of War isn’t particularly broken in any way, shape or form but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t getting stale by now. There’s only so many times you can tell a story about an angry Kratos beating up a bunch of gods.
Ascension ditches the usual Kratos we’re used to seeing in favour of someone more human and dare I say tame, the game acts as a prequel to past games so it does make sense in terms of story. Though not immediately clear, the story is told via a series of flashbacks with everything coming together nicely at the end. The problem that Ascension suffers is the story it tells isn’t nearly as epic or exciting as we’ve seen in Kratos’ past adventures. I actually couldn’t even tell you the name of any of the characters I met along the way, I don’t even really know the name of the main “boss” is. I’m not sure what exactly it is I’m fighting for, it don’t feel a sense of meaning as to why I’m doing any of this.
The story has always been a solid aspect of the series and has lead us to enjoy some truly amazing battles against Hercules, Aries and Zeus himself to name a few. Since the story in Ascension isn’t all that grand, the game suffers as a result due to a lack of boss battles. Normally boss battles in God of War are a real treat for players with plenty of specticule and “holy shit, did you see that?” moments but you won’t find any of those in Ascension, there’s only a select few boss battles and the only truly remarkable one is the final one. Yes Ascension’s opening can’t hold a candle to past games, I would go so far as to call it a rather boring.
While the story, boss battles and overall scale of Ascension is severely lacking, the gameplay holds up much better providing players with what could be considered the best combat in the series yet. You won’t find any new weapons along your travels but you will power up the trusty Blades of Chaos using the red orbs found in chests or enemies. Upgrading the Blades of Chaos nets you access to new moves alongside increase damage, the most interesting change however is the way the rage meter is handled. Subtle yet effective, the rage meter is filled by attacking enemies and once full grants Kratos with even more damaging attacks. What’s different here is that if you are hit, the meter drops so rage is purely driven by your ability not to get hit and rewards players who are good at dodging attacks to stay on the offensive.
Magic attacks have seen better days in the God of War series, in Ascension they feel more like an afterthought than something truly integral to the game. Using the D-Pad you’ll be able to select from four different types of magic attacks, fire, ice, lightning and soul. The game doesn’t give you much reason to switch between the lot, it feels like it’s there for the sake of variety rather than you’ll need to keep switching in order to damage different types of enemies.
The star of the show in Ascension would have to be the way the grapple is handled, a quick tap of R1 allows Kratos to grapple his enemies and keep them hooked. The cool part is that once grappled, the enemy is stuck allowing you to dish out the damage, throw them or even attack another enemy all together whilst still holding on to the first. It’s a lot of fun and really adds to Kratos’ personality of being a completely dominant character, if I had to pick my favourite new thing that Ascension brings to the table it’s easily the new grapple system.
Despite what fans of the series may think, the combat in God of War has never been the most in depth fighting system around. God of War is all about doing cool stuff with minimal effort, this isn’t a bad thing, it’s simply the route that the series chose to take from the start. It works perfectly well for what it is and in Ascension it’s just as good as it’s ever been though some elements are starting to wear thin. The evasive roll mapped to the right analog stick feels dated, rolling out of the way dodges attacks yet just sends you flying away from the enemy so you’ll spend much time running back to your target. It causes “stutters” to what is otherwise a seamless fight between you and the enemies, that’s just my personal opinion anyway.
Parrying returns in Ascension but sadly it has seen an unnecessary change in that it now requires two buttons to perform. In past titles the parry system worked by tapping the block button the second you were about to be hit, in Ascension that is still the case but now you’re required to press X as well which I found to be counter intuitive. Parrying used to be something you pressed on instinct but now requires “too much thinking” to perform, even worse is that it’s mapped to X which means in the heat of a battle, there’s a good chance you’ll screw up the timing and end up jumping instead of parrying.
Also returning to Ascension are puzzles which are a nice way to break out the action and allow the developers to explore pacing elements to the game. I wouldn’t say they are any better or worse than you’ve seen in the game, you’re still pushing blocks but there is one new feature which I enjoyed. The Amulet of Uroborus once attained allows Kratos to either decay or heal pieces of the environment, visually it looks great seeing broken debris come together. It does create puzzle opportunities but perhaps it never quiet reaches it’s true potential and ends up feeling underutilized. The rest of the puzzles range from time stopping elements which are usually more confusing than they are fun and block pushing does return to no one’s surprise.
The combat is good, the puzzles are okay and the story combined with grand set pieces are lacking but there’s one area we can all agree is great, the visuals. God of War has always been a showcase title for the PlayStation, whether it be on the PS2, PSP or PS3, you can always be sure you’ll be in for some eye candy. Whilst God of War Ascension is a gorgeous title that can be hard to fault at times, the lack of epic moments sadly means Ascension rather has no real chance to prove it’s visual worth. The framerate never drops below 30 and sometimes even reaches 60 but in the end it’s God of War III that leaves a lasting impression, not Ascension since it lacks those “epic moments”.
There’s one area that God of War Ascension completely BLEW ME AWAY, that final boss is truly something else. I was honestly there sat down in awe and wondering why the hell we even need a next generation system from Sony. In terms of gameplay, it’s rubbish and does nothing for me as the OTEs once again rear their ugly head but purely from a visual point of view, that last boss is something special. It’s a massive shame that Ascension didn’t have more of those moments, it’s exactly what this game needed to ascend (no pun intended) over the previous God of War titles.
Animation as always is more than superb with Kratos smoothly moving from one action to the next. Cut-scenes that are heavy on the OTEs are almost always the best showcase for the visuals. It seems however that Sony Santa Monica got a little too excited by the visuals that they forgot games are played and not watched. The camera loves to pan out to give you a “grand” view of the action but all it does is cause you to lose track of Kratos. Even when the camera isn’t panned out, the way that the game is coloured means you’ll still lose Kratos amidst all the action. It’s not a major compliant but it’s one worth mentioning, overall it’s still a fantastic looking game but lacks the “wow” factor.
Whilst the visuals are great, the same cannot be said for the sound design which is downright awful at times. The problem here appears to come down to the way the sound has been mixed, everything sounds clear enough yet the levels are all wrong. Whenever I slam down the Blades of Chaos I can hear a satisfying sound effect to go with it but whenever there is dialog I find myself having to turn up the volume. Even worse is that there appears to be missing audio cues throughout the game with OTE events hardly making any sound whenever the button prompt is entered. There’s even been times when the subtitles does not match what Kratos actually said in the cut-scene. The sound levels in God of War Ascension are ALL WRONG and needs a patch ASAP.
One of my complaints with God of War III was the game’s length, I blew through it in 6 hours and there wasn’t much reason to come back. God of War Ascension was a longer experience clocking in at just over 8 hours which is a fairer amount given it’s a full priced retail title. One stupid part near the end of the game spikes in difficulty and I’m sure it made the game at least an hour longer than it otherwise would of been, click here to read my huge ass ramble regarding the Trial of Archimedes.
Update: A lead developer on God of War Ascension has announced on Twitter that the game will receive patch in regards to the Trial of Archimedes. The patch will make that section of the game easier which is a good, I don’t have a problem with games that are hard, just games that are cheap.
Normally I’d start to think about ending my review right about now but there’s one more piece to God of War Ascension and that’s multiplayer. Pretty much every new release these days seems to lack the balls to ship as a single player experience, in the case of Tomb Raider the inclusion of multiplayer is straight up forced to put it nicely. Thankfully the results in God of War Ascension are not nearly as bad, in fact the multiplayer works a lot better than you think it would. Technically speaking doing a something fighting related online is always a pain in the ass due to lag and that’s one thing you DON’T want. I’m not sure whatever black magic Sony Santa Monica poured on the the multiplayer but the netcode is rock solid.
Multiplayer takes cues from Call of Duty so all the perks and experience based elements are taken from that game. Different weapons and armour can be unlocked, each has a set of variables that either increase or decrease certain stats so your character will play as you’d want them but probably not look as you’d ideally prefer. There’s a number of different modes to experience to add some variety though from what I’ve seen, everyone online usually just mashes away on buttons and hopes for the best. In some ways it reminds me of the PowerStone series though no where near as well designed as battles can often get a little too chaotic and random. It’s not going to keep you hooked but the multiplayer in God of War Ascension is a solid enough foundation for the next entry in the series to build upon, it’s not a forced extra that’s for sure.
If you’re looking at God of War Ascension as a killer app then you’re going to walk away disappointed. It looks great, plays great but sadly does not feel great due to the lack of “holy shit” moments which is what the series was all about. In God of War Ascension one of the highlights of the game is putting a giant statue back together, in God of War II the first 20 minutes are about kicking a statue’s ass. That’s basically Ascension summed up, it’s a God of War game with none of the “moments” we’ve come to expect from the series.
It’s easy to look at God of War Ascension and assume that due to the lack of four in the title, this is nothing more than a “B team” effort from Sony Santa Monica. I wouldn’t doubt the likely hood of the main team currently working on a PS4 project but Ascension doesn’t feel like a budget half assed effort at all, if anything the base is already there. It’s simply down to the team not doing anything with it which sucks because Ascension could of been the next God of War II so to speak. The original is used to get the game up and running on the hardware whilst the sequel ideally shifts it’s focus on bringing in the awesome to the title.
God of War III isn’t as amazing as some would have you believe, yes it had it’s epic moments but it wasn’t anywhere near as polished as God of War II was not to mention it was awfully short and full of cut content. Ascension was in a perfect position to take advantage of the base built with God of War III but fails to feel like a meaningful addition to the series. God of War Ascension is a good solid title but you can’t help but feel that it’s taken this godly series and turned it into a mere mortal.
