Damn, that's some good ass cover art. The image of Kratos being chained up, looking down in shame, it's a striking image that makes him look weak, which is the complete inverse of the unstoppable force that he is in the past games. It got me intrigued, thinking Ascension will show a more vulnerable side to Kratos' characters. Unfortunately though, when it comes to the story I think the game drops the ball.
For starters, Ascension doesn't really do anything new with Kratos' character aside from him being slightly less pissed off than usual. Other than that, the plot just reinforces stuff that was made very clear all the way back in GoW1 only with a harder to follow and less interesting plot.
When it comes to the gameplay, this game made a terrible first impression on me all because of the camera. In the opening hours it is zoomed so far out in the larger scale parts that it's impossible to distinguish Kratos from regular enemies. It puts cinematics before gameplay and it is pretty frustrating. Luckily though, this is only really a problem at the start of the game and is a non-issue after the snake part.
Ascension makes a lot of minor changes to the gameplay, some good, some bad. For starters, the combat here puts way more emphasis on grabbing enemies since you can bind enemies with the R1 button and throw them after, ragdolling enemies is always fun. Instead of having multiple weapons, Ascension instead gives the Blades of Chaos 4 elements that you can switch between on the fly. It's essentially an expansion of the fire element you could use in GoS and it makes for one of the better combat systems in the series since the elements all feel distinct from eachother. Ascension also reworks the Rage Meter. Here, the meter goes up when you're doing well in combat, and vice versa. When the meter is full, you get to use a special move with L3 + R3 and you also get extended combos. It's certainly more interesting than how it made you invulnerable in past games, and the fact it rewards you for playing well is a welcome change. However, I think locking away moves until the meter is full is a pretty unnecessary restriction. The last major change that Ascension adds are weapons that drop from enemies like Swords, Javelins etc. The idea of it is cool, but the execution in singleplayer leaves a lot to be desired. There's only 5 weapons, there isn't a lot you can do with them (some can only be used a limited amount of times) and getting them from enemies is awkward as hell since you have to mash circle and hope they drop it. Also, the finishing moves in this game are the best they've ever been with how insanely brutal they are here.
Though it has its faults, the combat here is still solid, but where the game undeniably shines is in the puzzles. The amulet of uroborus lets you manipulate time and the oath stone of Orkos lets you be in 2 places at once. Ascension uses these to create the most interesting puzzles in the series and it required me to think outside the box on multiple occasions, unlike in prior games where the puzzles are mostly really basic.
On a side note, I hate the enemy designs here, I can't quite put my finger on it but they just look off compared to the rest of the series.
When playing Ascension you can really tell the developers are a little strapped for ideas but I do think the game changes enough to narrowly escape feeling like just another GoW game. I can't really see myself ever going back to this entry over GoW3 but I still enjoyed the game overall.
For starters, Ascension doesn't really do anything new with Kratos' character aside from him being slightly less pissed off than usual. Other than that, the plot just reinforces stuff that was made very clear all the way back in GoW1 only with a harder to follow and less interesting plot.
When it comes to the gameplay, this game made a terrible first impression on me all because of the camera. In the opening hours it is zoomed so far out in the larger scale parts that it's impossible to distinguish Kratos from regular enemies. It puts cinematics before gameplay and it is pretty frustrating. Luckily though, this is only really a problem at the start of the game and is a non-issue after the snake part.
Ascension makes a lot of minor changes to the gameplay, some good, some bad. For starters, the combat here puts way more emphasis on grabbing enemies since you can bind enemies with the R1 button and throw them after, ragdolling enemies is always fun. Instead of having multiple weapons, Ascension instead gives the Blades of Chaos 4 elements that you can switch between on the fly. It's essentially an expansion of the fire element you could use in GoS and it makes for one of the better combat systems in the series since the elements all feel distinct from eachother. Ascension also reworks the Rage Meter. Here, the meter goes up when you're doing well in combat, and vice versa. When the meter is full, you get to use a special move with L3 + R3 and you also get extended combos. It's certainly more interesting than how it made you invulnerable in past games, and the fact it rewards you for playing well is a welcome change. However, I think locking away moves until the meter is full is a pretty unnecessary restriction. The last major change that Ascension adds are weapons that drop from enemies like Swords, Javelins etc. The idea of it is cool, but the execution in singleplayer leaves a lot to be desired. There's only 5 weapons, there isn't a lot you can do with them (some can only be used a limited amount of times) and getting them from enemies is awkward as hell since you have to mash circle and hope they drop it. Also, the finishing moves in this game are the best they've ever been with how insanely brutal they are here.
Though it has its faults, the combat here is still solid, but where the game undeniably shines is in the puzzles. The amulet of uroborus lets you manipulate time and the oath stone of Orkos lets you be in 2 places at once. Ascension uses these to create the most interesting puzzles in the series and it required me to think outside the box on multiple occasions, unlike in prior games where the puzzles are mostly really basic.
On a side note, I hate the enemy designs here, I can't quite put my finger on it but they just look off compared to the rest of the series.
When playing Ascension you can really tell the developers are a little strapped for ideas but I do think the game changes enough to narrowly escape feeling like just another GoW game. I can't really see myself ever going back to this entry over GoW3 but I still enjoyed the game overall.