God of War: Ascension a mostly-worthy end to Kratos on PlayStation 3 (review)
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(Sony)
There aren’t a lot of reasons to own a PlayStation 3 over an Xbox 360, as any diehard gamer will attest. But the 8-year-old God of War series, a PS3 exclusive, is one of them.
The latest installment — presumably last for the PS3 console, now that the PS4 has been announced — is a brief but satisfying prequel called Ascension. New to the series: growling hero Kratos can decay and heal objects, split himself in two (à la Darksiders and other games) and take on distant foes in the first-ever God of War multiplayer.
Not so new: the silky smooth combat that has made the God of War series an industry standard. And, unfortunately, a growing sense that developerSony Santa Monica has run out of big ideas.
(Sony)
The series has always been equal parts moody and macho, but its overall tone is more of a simplistic grunt than a nuanced narrative. Don’t look for any additional depth in this installment, which again mines Greek mythology for back-story. Kratos is here for answers, not vengeance, so the atmosphere is a bit less hysterically masculine. Still, it manages to set a spooky (and often gross) tone that sends shudders down your spine.
The fighting mechanics are as natural and satisfying as ever. Kratos focuses on his chained Blades of Chaos this time around, augmenting them with elemental upgrades and magic, but mostly innovating with a seemingly endless variety of impressive-looking, free-flowing combos.
The fixed-camera perspective feels less forced and more refined as well. In the past some critics have complained about this feature, as it sometimes limits the player’s view and makes fighting in the corner of the screen a pain. That’s still occasionally true, but in a much less obvious way. The cinematic pull-backs show what a speck of dust Kratos is compared to his mammoth surroundings, creating a truly awesome sense of scale.
See that tiny speck near the bottom? That’s Kratos. (Sony)
However, the vistas are less ambitious than in God of War III, which practically cornered the market on stunning backgrounds. In fact, the graphics, while intricately detailed, don’t have the smooth, marbled appeal of God of War III (Santa Monica Studio’s first stab at a high-def Kratos) and that lessens their impact.
The production design and art direction are also solid, but there was something charming about the porcelain-miniature look of God of War III, which made the environments and characters pop out far more than they do in Ascension. Perhaps it’s the fact that this level of detail is now industry standard, but it’s not enough to elevate Ascension over God of War’s many imitators.
The single-player campaign feels truncated, too, especially after you master the fighting mechanics, upgrade all your weapons and fall into a rhythm with the clever environmental puzzles. The developers are no doubt hoping you’ll forgive that with the inclusion of multiplayer, which hosts up to 8 remote combatants and features a host of leveling-up opportunities. There’s not much new or interesting here in terms of gameplay, but it fills the same hole that the extra-campaign challenges in God of War III did (albeit with a far lower difficulty level).
God of War III was a revelation: inventive and groundbreaking, beautiful and brutal, cohesive yet surprising. God of War: Ascension has some of the same elements, but three years later, it feels more modest in scope — a lateral move as opposed to a forward rush. One gets the sense that the developers barely took a breath after the last game before moving onto this one, resulting in a slightly disappointing experience. Their ability to up the stakes is either going to make or break the next game — and possibly the entire franchise.
Still, this adult-oriented action platformer is worth picking up if you liked previous installments, and the tens of millions of development dollars are evident in every densely-pixelated screenshot..
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