Hello everyone, I recently finished God of War Ascension on hard difficulty on my PS3 and wanted to talk about. I was planning on platinumming the game but it has online trophies😢.
-Gameplay:
The best thing about GOW Ascension's Combat is that it retains about 90% of the stuff from GOW3, and GOW3's combat was fantastic so Ascension's combat is great by default. So this section will focus more on the new stuff Ascension does:
I read online that people complained Ascension only having 1 permanent set of weapons: The Blades of Chaos, while other GOW games typically gave you 2-3 other weapons/abilities, typically a short range DPS focused weapon (like the Blade of Artemis, Barbarian Hammer and Cetsus) or some long range projectile weapon (e.g Zeus Lightning, Bows, Spears). And I don't mind this aspect. In past GOW games, players would main The BoC for 90-100% of the game since the game is built around them. Most encounters have Kratos deal with groups of enemies while the camera is zoomed out. The BoC have good range, are fast, do decent damage and have great combo and dodging potential. Expanding the Blades to do more is neat.
But my main issue is that GOW Ascension doesn't go far enough with the concept. You get 4 elemental effects on the BoC: Fire, Ice, Lightning and Soul, that change some of your combos and special moves but as a whole, play the same. There are some strats with now, if you finish enemies with a charged rage meter, the element used gives you a bonus (like Ice giving you extra Red Orbs or Soul giving you extra Green Orbs) but it's too inconsequential.
Moreover, only the Fire Element comes stock with a Magic Attack. For the others, their final upgrade is their magic attack. You need to invest like 10000 Orbs into an element to finally make it fleshed out, in addition to upgrading the BoC themselves separately. On Hard Difficulty, for me, I found I only managed to fully upgrade the BoC, Fire and Soul elements by the time I finished the game. The end result being that rather than adding variety, this limited what I was doing for most of the game.
I also want to complain that Magic is now segmented into pre-selected charges. Each Magic Attack will eat 1 charge in a massive AOE. Past GOWs had different magic attacks consuming different amounts of magic rather than using pre-set charges. So you could, for example, drop multiple Chronos' Orbs and then fit in Eurayle's head so managing effective magic usage added variety.
Here's a suggestion: You can spend Rage to do a "mini-magic/elemental attack". Lets say I press L1+R1+square, I spend 25% Rage to immediately switch to the fire element and do a fire slam attack that coats enemies in weak DoT fire. If I then hit enemies with Lightning Blades for a while or immediately press L1+R1+Triangle to switch to Lightning and do a Rage Lightning Slam, it coats enemies with electricity. Enemies coated with Fire and Lightning do a chain explosion.
Kinda like what Genshin Impact would do later with its elemental interactions. I'm imagining this is a bonus add on for GOW Ascension's combat since it's already the hardest GOW (even regular mooks would kill me on hard which is just embarrassing 🥲). You could have enemies or groups of enemies weak to certain elemental combinations to encourage exploration and switching between elements as well as encouraging getting Rage going by fighting well normally and spending a little Rage or keeping the Rage and switching Elements to get those bonuses.
The Rage Meter itself, I am mixed on. In past GOWs, the Rage Meter built up as you hit enemies and could be used to enter a "Devil Trigger State" where you were near invincible and ultra powerful. I usually would use this as a last resort "I am about to die, time to enter my final phase" move. But in GOW Ascension, the Rage Meter now fills as Kratos deals damage and decreases when you don't deal damage quickly or get hit. When full, it gives you access to Kratos' default moveset from GOW3 with a few more explosive endings on some attacks.
I suppose it works narraitively. This is Kratos at the start of his adventure. He is more driven by desperation and concern rather than pure anger. He's even against killing innocent people. Makes sense he'd have to push himself in fights to really get going. It puts you in Kratos' shoes. You have to fight more desperately, barely hanging by a thread, and have to push yourself more than ever because you aren't that unstoppable monster yet. Like a Hulk who can't go all out because Bruce Banner still has some control and is holding him back.
But gameplay wise, I can't deny it feels rough to have to work to max out the meter just to get Kratos where he is at the start of GOW1, and lose that immediately with 1 hit.
Another change, which helps make Kratos feel weaker and requiring more skill from the player, but feels worse to play is how parrying works. In past GOW games, you just tap L1 right before an attack to parry. You can argue this doesn't really feel justified since if you're too early, you can block most attacks. But this approach worked in improving flow and keeping your combo going. I remember in GOW: Ghost of Sparta on Hard Mode, the early game was rather challenging. But once I got parrying down, I was tearing through enemies and getting high combo counts and it felt so good. I was in the zone.
Ascension changes it that parrying requires you press L1+X right before an attack. If you're too early, Kratos gets hit. It means Parrying is now too risky to use in combat unless you really get good at knowing enemy patterns. And even then, you can sometimes "whiff" a parry counter attack if the enemy moves out of the way or Kratos tracks the wrong target. In past GOWs, getting a parry but whiffing a counter attack didn't feel as bad since it still pushed enemies back and gave you some breathing room. But here, given how aggressive enemies are, how challenging it is to even pull off a parry, the whiff stings more.
Ascension also shuffles the controls around. R1 now does a grab/tether that lets Kratos tether enemies, hit others around him and pull in and throw the enemy. I wish this was expanded a bit more with letting the player have more options. Maybe with a toggle in the options menu to expand the moveset with R1+ other buttons. Maybe R1+square makes Kratos do a GOW3 style Hyperion Ram so he can zoom over into an enemy. And R1+O makes Kratos do the current Tether move.
The other change is the Circle button. Just pressing it normally makes Kratos do a basic kick/punch that can disarm some enemies (although they still fight normally). You can pick up their weapons and press O to use it or L1+O to throw that weapon at the enemy in a stun attack.
I didn't use this much. O attacks don't build Rage so you're better off using the BoC. You only have one combo with just O and it's not really intuitive to weave them into a normal BoC combo. The only ones I got use out of were the Club since that could send some enemies flying, and the Sling and Spears since they acted as Ranged weapons.
Ascension also adds "Tether minigames". Some finisher sequences in past games that would just be regular QTEs now play out a sequence where you mash square to damage enemies, move the left stick to dodge their attack and continue mashing square until they die. I don't really like this. In past GOWs (and even Acension), the QTE finishers were long enough to give you a quick breather and look cool but short enough to not feel like a drag. The Tether ones go on for too long and the added interaction doesn't add enough. There's no "challenge" if I will fail. I already won when I started the grab. Save them for solo minibosses at most. The Trial of Archimedes really started to drag when I had to keep repeating the Tether Minigame on every Gorgon as a safe way to kill them and get some Blue orbs.
One aspect GOW:Ascension unquestionably does better than GOW3 are the sub items (well, 2 of them). GOW3 had 3 sub-items. The Bow of Apollo (which was goat-ed), Helios' Head (which was too impractical to use in combat and didn't provide much extra use) and Hermes' Boots (which I only used for Air Dodging). Ascension's Amulet is what Helios' Head should have been. When maxed out, it fires a quick beam that freezes a target and creates a bubble that slows down nearby enemies. It becomes invaluable on Hard mode to help either freeze an enemy for you to beat up on, or temporarily get out of the way so you can focus on others.
The other is Orkos' Heart which pulls a doppelganger to do some damage and draw heat off you. I used these 2 a lot. The Eyes..... less so. I feel they could have worked as a recharging nuke or strong AOE attack.
Other notes on the gameplay, the puzzles were quite mind boggling and I had to consult walkthroughs a lot of times. The creative uses of heal/decay and Orkos' Heart always stumped me. I suppose that's a me problem but part of that is due to how "rigid" heal/decay are. You can only use it on specific spots and move it to specific "times" so the challenge is more in figuring out what the game wants rather than figuring out the puzzles on their own terms. A lot of the later chain puzzles had me scratching my head with a "Damn, that looked so confusing. I don't think I would have figured it out. There was one conveyor belt puzzle where you have to drop your doppelganger that I was like "damn, this one is cool. I'm not even mad I didn't get this one. It gets points for creativity alone".
Also, I am not fond of the climbing in Ascension. Ascension ditches the blade climbing in GOW3 where you could do a bit of combat for Uncharted style climbing. While it does look better, it lacks the gameplay variety of prior GOWs. It also "feels slower and longer" which meant it felt a bit more tedious on average.
I want to give a shout out to the Trials of Archimedes. I had heard this would be a rough section in the game but I wasn't worried. I've beaten prior GOW games on Hard Before. This can't be that bad. I was wrong. The Trials of Archimedes humbled me. It throws so many hard to hit enemies at you with attacks that can't be blocked and requiring tight timing to dodge, it's easy to get overwhelmed and there are no health refills or checkpoints for 2 rooms! This section is not for the faint of heart. It will separate the wheat from the chaff, the gamer girls from the girls, the femboys from the boys.
-Story:
As for the story, I am a bit mixed on it. In terms of the broad strokes and on paper, it is rad. GOW Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta already cover a lot of Kratos' past and family life. Ascension opts for a Kratos at essentially the start of his "career". Resulting in a Kratos that, for the first time to us, is arguably a full on babyface despite being in his Greek era (Even Chains of Olympus Kratos was kinda a dick). Even his rampage and quest here feel the most justified and even noble. We have a Kratos that, excusing the cliches, feels more human. He uses sarcasm and humour when talking with Orkos, going so far as to have a decent friendship with him that feels legit. He shows concern to people like Oracle and even innocent civilians. Pushing them out of the way of enemy projectiles and saying he hates killing innocents. Like, this Kratos is what Atreus probably thinks his father was like when he was younger.
It adds to the tragedy. This is Kratos without the nightmares and traumatic memories as a result of amnesia, and his quest is about finding the truth which gives him back the nightmares, memories, trauma and anger that leads him down to the path to GOW1 Kratos and as a result, GOW3 Kratos. GOW1 Kratos would have regretted the decisions he made in Ascension. Ascension Kratos shows that, without all that baggage, Kratos would have been a solid guy and could have been a proper and legit Greek Hero. Dude could have been a better Hercules.
In a weird way, Ascension is kinda GOW's Metal Gear Solid 3. Kratos is Naked Snake before the events of the story make him into the villain we see later on. If you're making a prequel to GOW, Ascension chose arguably the only point in the timeline that has the potential to be novel. Because the previous earliest game in the timeline, Chains of Olympus, took place during Kratos 10 year servitude to the Gods. At that point, he's become way more cold, stoic and angry. We still see some of his desperation and brokenness/trauma, but Ascension explores a Kratos before that.
The issue is more in the finer details. The Story can't seem to decide how much of Kratos' amnesia is "active". He cuts off Orkos before he talks about Lysndre and Calliope's deaths. Implying Kratos knows he was was responsible there. But still acts like he is searching for knowledge and the truth. But he shouldn't have Amnesia yet since he wasn't yet tortured by the Furies.
I feel the story would have been stronger if it was both more clear on Kratos' amnesia and leaned into it more. Have Kratos be doubtful and even insecure about his reputation and adventure. Regular people are scared of him despite him trying to be a bit heroic. Maybe Kratos wonders if what he did in the past he can't remember really was an unforgivable sin. Also lean into it for the adventure. This is meant to be Kratos' first adventure. When he fights monsters like the Heritoncles, have the game lean into how even Kratos is out of his element here. Dude is pushing on from sheer force of will, tactics and planning rather than pure anger and brute strength.
Kratos should be surprised at how far he's getting as well as being something of an underdog. He should have doubts if he will even make it since nobody has any expectations on him. The game sorta does this in places. Like how he is vulnerable to the Sisters' goo and needs to use Orkos heart to escape. Or how he gets covered in scars, scratches and cuts by the end. Rather than looking powerful, the game tries to show us a Kratos that really is making it through by the skin of his teeth. I wish the game pushed this further. The idea of babyface underdog Greek Kratos, who tragically is going on a quest to make his life worse when he already has what he wants later, is cool.
I also dislike how Ascension tries to add more context and explanations for future GOW games. Like how Ares planned to overthrow Olympus which is why he sought out Kratos, and Kratos is destined to kill Ares in revenge. This is something I always disliked about the GOW prequels. Like, what I loved about GOW1's story was the simplicity of it. Ares is destroying Athens because of his warlike nature but also as a show of pride and jealousy. He is competing with Athena in the eyes of Zeus.
Ares did manipulate Kratos but as the ultimate servant for him and the Gods to mess around with. Which showcases how shortsighted and cruel the Gods are. And Kratos' motivations for getting Pandora's Box are framed in an excellent way. GOW1 initially makes it look like Kratos is doing it for revenge but then pulls back the curtain and shows Kratos is motivated by like 80% guilt and 20% revenge. You get the impression that if Kratos could cure his trauma without needing to kill Ares, he would do it. Moreover, there is a sense of doubt if Kratos could even pull this off. You get the sense that for Kratos, this is a "win-win" for him. Either he does the impossible, gets Pandora's Box, kills Ares and this cures his trauma. Or he dies in the attempt and doesn't have to worry about it anymore.
The prequels, by adding in stuff about Destiny, prophecy and other planning, takes away from this. GOW2's reveal that Kratos is Zeus' kid is weakened if Kratos already knew that from Ghost of Sparta. Kratos' suicide quest in GOW1 that nobody, not even him, is sure is even possible, feels less impactful if we get the impression that Kratos was always destined to succeed and even he knew that. It also muddies the moral ambiguity in GOW2 whether if the Gods or Kratos was in the right.
I suppose Ghost of Sparta and Ascension didn't have much choice. I love of Chains of Olympus added to Kratos' character without undermining too much of GOW1 and 2 but it is ultimately "filler" in a sense. You want a new GOW game to feel important. I suppose adding more to the story is a way of doing it even if it's one I am not happy with.
-Presentation and performance:
GOW Ascension looks and sounds fantastic. My poor little PS3 was sweating as I played the game. Environments look massive in scale and are extremely detailed. To the point I feel this could pass for an early PS4 title. The game also sounds incredible, with Kratos' echo-y Orkos scream in particular sounding so guttural. A lot of the music feels like it's been taken from past GOW games but still suitably fit Ascension.
Compared to GOW3 PS3, (which was a rock solid 30FPS no matter what), I did notice a lot more performance drops in Ascension. The game seems to hover around 30-45 FPS when playing regularly, but drops to a choppy 23-ish during certain cutscenes and down to 17-20-ish when doing certain extravagant magic attacks with a lot of enemies around. The sound and music would also cut out or lag for a while sometimes and the game would sometimes stop and throw up a loading screen as I was moving through levels. In Past GOWs, that only tended to happen if I were to intentionally backtrack through an area or roll fast through certain levels and even then, it was brief. At least there were zero crashes but there was one game breaking bug I encountered.
Early on, you fall into a sewer and the game introduces the climbing tutorial. You need to climb out, open a grate and jump out. For one reason, the game doesn't seem to load the outside area and the camera is so zoomed back and washed out by external light that I can't even see what's going on so I spent 30 minutes of slowly climbing out, then trying to jump out only to fall to my death multiple times. Had to restart my PS3 to fix that.
My conspiracy theory is that GOW Ascension was rushed to meet its March 2013 release date. Any later and it might have been competing with Sony's other big 2013 PS3 release, The Last of Us 1 as well as Grand Theft Auto V. And any later and it would have been overshadowed by the PS4 launch. Poor Gran Turismo 6 is the "worst selling GT game in the series" due to its release date. I do wonder if it would have been better to delay the game to 2014 or even 2015 as a crossplatform PS3/PS4 title? Even the multiplayer mode might have fared better being on PS4 (certainly helped TLOU1).
-Conclusion:
Ascension is often treated as the "black sheep of the GOW series" in online discussions (which is saying something when Betrayal exists lmao). Its changes to combat didn't resonate with people. Moreover, it's the 7th game in a series with similar gameplay to its 6 predecessors. The funny thing about Ascension is that, by the standards of any other game or series, it's a technical marvel and easily one of the most impressive and fun games I've ever played. But by GOW standards, it's only..... good. The other GOW games raised the bar so high and did so many of the same things well that poor Ascension feels overlooked.
It's like you're an A grade student with tons of projects and accolades under your belt and easily one of the top students in your class..... but you have 6 other older siblings that did the same stuff as you (and slightly more) before you so you don't stand out. I imagine if Ascension was someone's first GOW game, it would have blown their minds. It's about as epic in scale as GOW3, looks slightly better (runs slightly worse), packs an interesting world etc.
Ascension is a PS3 only GOW game releasing in 2013 after GOW3 already wowed the world with its scale, spectacle and near perfect combat system. It's hard to stand out after that, especially if you make some divisive changes. Ascension isn't even novel as a prequel as GOW Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta cover a lot of ground. Ascension's only novel aspect, underdog babyface Greek Kratos, isn't explored in enough depth to compensate. No wonder the poor game hasn't stood out much.
A shame because despite everything, I had a good time with Ascension. It deserves to be preserved better with a current gen port/remaster along with the other Greek GOW games besides 3. If nothing else, its visuals and graphics would shine a lot brighter because everything else is pretty solid already. I don't feel any rush to replay Ascension if I want to replay a GOW game (I might do any other GOW game first since I like their flow and combat more), but its "last place" status is still better than many other games' first place attempts.
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