God of War: Ascension - Discussion Thread

Yeah. At this point, I could care less about the demo. Got way too many titles around the corner to enjoy. Almost done with Ascension. Just 4 more chapters to go I think.
 
Yeah. At this point, I could care less about the demo. Got way too many titles around the corner to enjoy. Almost done with Ascension. Just 4 more chapters to go I think.

Not as good/engrossing as God of War III yeah? What are your impressions? And what's with that particular level when the difficulty spikes all of a sudden?
 
Not as good/engrossing as God of War III yeah? What are your impressions? And what's with that particular level when the difficulty spikes all of a sudden?


Just completed the game and I'd say it was not as EPIC as God of War III. But that isn't a bad thing at all. I had expected it to be a notch below God of War III, which it was, but it turned out to be an awesome action game. In fact, I liked the ending battle much better than Zeus's battle.

As for the game itself, I'd rather have you play and experience the changes. You may like some, but hate the rest. For me, I really felt the gameplay took a step in the awkward direction. Blades of Chaos being your only weapon in the game, which is fused with elemental upgrades to substitute the weapon variety. Rage mode was an absolutely atrocity. It was nothing like the previous games, especially the one we had in God of War. Items like Amulet of Uroborus, Charybdis & Oath Stone of Orkos were supplemented to be used for solving puzzles and aid during battles. Artifacts can be gathered throughout the game, which only be used after you complete the game (WTF?). The health, magic and blade upgrade drill remain the same i.e. gather Gorgon eyes, Phoenix feathers and red orbs respectively. Level design and puzzles were excellent. There were some areas which really made my jaw drop.

The story, for the most part, was really boring. However, it did touch upon a more kinder side of Kratos, in some parts, mostly connected to his family. But this seemed more like a filler story, rather than adding anything concrete to the previous titles. I don't think Santa Monica had much to go with seeing how all the other games have pretty much covered a very large ground on Kratos's past and present. Anyhoo, the graphics were very similar to God of War III, but the frame rates weren't as steady as GOW III. Sound effects seemed to be a bit off at times and sync delay would kick in. Better patch it up to v1.02, lest you encounter other bugs.

As for the difficulty spike, it occurs in a chapter called 'Trials of Archimedes'. It ridiculously puts you in a very restrictive space with wave after wave of enemies being hurled at you. At first I was really getting pissed off, but somehow I managed to pull through after a couple of tries. I had heard so many horror stories about it, but it didn't come close to the frustration I endured with MGR: Revengeance's final boss. It could have been luck, but doesn't matter as long as I managed to beat it fair and square. Rest assured, you'll have a great time with the game.

EDIT: Some wuss complained on Twatter about the difficulty spike in that Trials chapter being way too hard and Papy responded saying it will be patched. LOL!

https://twitter.com/ToddPapy/status/312028592408256512
 
5 hours and 30 minutes clocked, reached Chapter 19 - The Foot of Apollo and paused it right there. Shall resume tomorrow morn. :D

Loved the ride this far but I am desperately missing those epic boss battles. Even the opening sequence was disappointing. And what's with that Juggernaut creature?! Since when did Greek mythology have elephants lol.
 
Done and dusted! The last God of War title for the PS3 comes to an end. Gaming history's most pissed off protagonist makes one last comeback for the console.

No doubt this was nowhere in the league of GOW III which was EPIC in all proportions but it was certainly enjoyable. There weren't much changes compared to GOW III so fans and critics were a bit upset; I don't see why they shouldn't be! Visuals were enhanced by a notch with improved textures but frame rates were choppy during certain occasions. For instance, in the most frustrating and nerve wracking part (I'll come to that later!) of the game - Trials of Archimedes, Chapter 28, when Kratos does a magic attack (using R2) and when the gorgon deploys her red vision, the frame rates went completely haywire; more like a brief slideshow that lasted few seconds!

However, some of the set-pieces in the game were incredible and jaw dropping, such as the Labyrinth in GOW III. And when the display zooms out to show the epicness of the set, the Kratos stands a puny human being somewhere in the corner, hanging on to a ledge of a platform or a tree branch. The opening sequence was a downer compared to the previous title and so were most of the boss battles which were essentially a mix of QTEs and random button mashing. There were a few puzzles here and there but those were fairly easy.

End-game stats -

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Clocked 9 hours and 1 minute on the Normal difficulty. Upgraded Kratos completely, health and magic was maxed out and so were all the weapon based powers. There were surplus red orbs towards the end of the game just like the previous title. I recall, I had missed a couple of chests in one level and one of them was a white chest (I could see it from a distance but couldn't access it; might have missed the way) but despite that, Kratos was able to max out his abilities.

Coming to Chapter 28 - Trials of Archimedes, this is THE MOST frustrating part in the entire game! It must have taken me at least an hour to clear this section which comprises of waves and waves of enemies without any savepoints in between and without any magic or health orb chests! I just couldn't get past the Centaur towards the last portion and due to those spikes on the either sides, Kratos kept evading towards the side eventually hurting him and dying. Fortunately, I could use the decay/heal power on the Centaur to slow it down while hacking and slashing my way through. A patch may be necessary considering other sections are virtually a walk in the park compared to this one and would definitely feel odd.

Came across this weird painting with some random jumbled letters -

h4V0wRv.jpg


There's a huge thread on GAF suggesting this might be a possible indication of the next title in the franchise coming on PS4.


Oh and my copy's up for sale - hit the market section or eBay! :p
 
Done with this game. Not as good as gow3 but that was a 10/10 game. I personally didn't think there was a difficulty spike, but one of the puzzles did get me, lol.

Any kratos lover will undoubtedly love this game. NQAT.

Finished the game in 7 hours 30 minutes.

8.5/10 from me.
 
Overall the game is nice but for some one who has already played all the versions of the series,there is not much to be excited about. But overall as a Fanboy i loved this game too.
 
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