Hands On With God of War: Ascension – Single Player

Tucked away in the corner of Eurogamer’s Over 18 section sits God of War: Ascension, the seventh game in the series about a fallen Spartan’s revenge. There was a single and mulitplayer demo set up, and went I for the traditional story-driven single player.

God of War: Ascension is actually a prequel to the entire series, which gives Sony Santa Monica a chance to start fresh with the story. However, Kratos is as badass as ever, and even has a few new tricks up his sleeve. Or are they old tricks? Prequel continuity is hard to figure out!

The demo plays much like God of War games of the past. I started off on a dock with a small horde of weak badguys in my way. Time to bust out those Blades of Chaos to take them out! There’s really no point in describing this aspect, as it hasn’t changed much since the original game. However, you can now wield sub-weapons you find littered around, and this adds a little variety to the standard combos.

After disposing of the opening enemies, I encountered a glowing green patch on the ground, and this is where a new element came into play. By standing on the spot, it was possible to use Kratos’ godly powers to resurrect the broken pieces of dock; by stopping them in mid-air I created a path with which to climb. It’s unclear if this aspect will add any challenging puzzles into the mix, but at least it’s something new.

The rest of the demo played exactly how you would expect: I ran along some cliffs; took out a few more batches of enemies, including a few larger minotaurs; and dispatched a couple of sub bosses. Finishing them off involved the traditional quick-time event button presses, and I unleashed a few super moves when my magic bar was full. Once the Kraken rose it’s tentacles from the ocean, the demo was over.

It’s tough to say much about the experience, really. It was fun, fast, action packed, and cinematic, but still played just like every God of War game that came before. The additional elements weren’t used much in the demo, although I imagine they will come into play far more during the final release. However, since it’s been a few years since I played a GoW title, it was a nice reminder of why I liked them to begin with.

With DmC: Devil May Cry and Bayonetta 2 vying for the mind share of action gamers, it’s going to be touch for GoW: Ascension to get itself noticed, although I’m sure many long-time fans will enjoy it as much as ever. I guess we’ll find out when the game hits stores next March.

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