God Of War: Ascension would be the last God Of War game to be released for the Playstation 3. What makes this game special is that it is actually a prequel and not a follow on from God Of War III.
Story & Presentation
The story in God Of War: Ascension is set shortly after Kratos has killed his wife and child. Kratos has been imprisoned by these three crazy and evil characters known as the Furies. The reason he has been imprisoned is for breaking his blood oath with the God Of War Ares. While imprisoned Kratos learns that Ares along with the Furies plan to over throw Olympus. Kratos manages to escape killing the Furies and making himself free from his blood oath, but he will still be haunted by the memories of killing his family. The story if I am honest is not as great as what the original God Of War trilogy had to offer. It is still a good story, but it never really reaches the heights that the original trilogy did. After fighting Zeus and the Titans I found the Furies to be a bit of a step down.
The game looks great and is just as cinematic as the other God Of War games. And while I fully understand this is a great looking game. It did not make my jaw hit the floor like God Of War III did. Still God Of War: Ascension is a great looking game and maybe after God Of War III it was my expectations that were just too high.
Gameplay
Now Sony did actually try to change things up a bit in God Of War: Ascension in terms of the game play. Sure this is still that same hack and slash action that you would expect in a God Of War game, but the changes they made have to do with your Blades Of Chaos. Of course as this is a prequel there is no way that Kratos has learned any abilities from Gods. So what Sony did was give his Blades Of Chaos different elemental powers.
Now this may sound like it is taking a step back, but I actually enjoyed this more than having all the different magical powers of the other games. I think this was because I really loved using the Blades Of Chaos anyway. Still you have to give Sony a great deal of credit for making this change when it would have been so easy to just slap some new magical powers in there.
Now I do have one issue with the game and that is its far too easy. This is much more forgiving than the other games in the God Of War series. It’s like the game is always giving you a little nudge in the back to make sure you know exactly where to go and what to do. While I am sure that some people would have liked this I felt it was unnecessary.
One huge selling point of the game was that it was the first God Of War game to have online multiplayer. The multiplayer aspect has a fun little story that sees each of the eight players imprisoned like Kratos was. They need to battle it out on a map in order to get treasures. It’s a pretty fun mode, but not something that kept my attention for too long. Still I think it was a great idea and would love to see it expanded on in the first God Of War game for the Playstation 4.
Final Thoughts
Did I like God Of War: Ascension? Yes I liked it a great deal, but I do feel that it was a bit of a come down from the high that was God Of War III. I do like the changes that were made to the combat and it was great to play as Kratos once again, but I do think that God Of War III is the better overall game. To me this felt more like one of the Playstation Portable side games rather than a full entry to the God Of War series.
