God of War: Ascension
| God of War: Ascension | |||
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| God of War: Ascension logo | |||
| Studio | SCE Santa Monica Studio | ||
| Publisher | Sony Computer Entertainment | ||
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
 March 12, 2013 March 13, 2013 |
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| platform | PlayStation 3 | ||
| genre | Action-Adventure , Hack and Slay | ||
| Subject | Fantasy , Greek mythology | ||
| Game mode | Single player , multiplayer | ||
| control | DualShock 3 | ||
| medium | Blu-ray disc | ||
| language | German , English | ||
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God of War: Ascension is an action-adventure - video game , which by the SCE Santa Monica Studio developed and in March 2013 Sony Computer Entertainment exclusively for the PlayStation 3 console was released. It is the seventh installment in the God of War series and a prequel to the entire series.
As in the other parts, the player steers the protagonist Kratos , a Spartan military leader, through a fantasy world based on Greek antiquity and Greek mythology . God of War: Ascension is about Kratos' fight against the Furies , who take the Spartan prisoner for breaking his blood oath with the god of war Ares .
The game received mostly positive reviews from the critics, although the reviewers' tenor sees it as a stagnation at a high level within the series. The multiplayer mode , which Ascension contains as the first game in the God of War series and in which up to eight players can compete against each other, received mixed reviews from the gaming press.
Gameplay
The gameplay of God of War: Ascension is essentially the same as its predecessor. The action adventure focuses on combobased battles of the character Kratos, mostly against several computer opponents at the same time, all of whom have to be defeated in order to reach the next section of the game. Between the fights, the player controls Kratos through climbing and jumping passages and has to solve interspersed puzzles. The camera follows the character in the third-person perspective ; their position and angle cannot be influenced by the player, but rather show the game, depending on the situation, mostly from a medium distance, sometimes also from a long shot or as a close-up.
weapons
Kratos' main weapon are the so-called Chaos Blades , two blades with chains attached to them that are wrapped around his arms, which means they can be used both in close combat like a pair of swords and up to a certain range as ranged weapons. In the course of the game, the player receives four so-called divine abilities (fire, ice, lightning and soul energy), these are “elements” that modify the attacks of the blades and can be switched between at any time. They also allow magical attacks, on condition that there are enough magic points .
A new feature in Ascension is that weapons can also be picked up from opponents and used in combat for a short time. A shield can also be used this way.
struggle
In combat, attacks fill a meter which, when it is full, triggers what is known as the wrath of the gods, a state in which normal attacks are much more effective and additional combos are possible. Between fights or when Kratos is hit, the gauge quickly clears. Attacks from opponents can be blocked or avoided by quick evasive movements.
If the opponents are sufficiently weakened, a display appears which signals to the player that they can now be finally destroyed by pressing a button. For bosses and larger normal opponents, a quick-time event is initiated in which the player must press the buttons displayed on the screen in good time. As a novelty in Ascension , this procedure is varied for some enemy types by a mini-game in which counter-attacks must be dodged until a correct time for a fatal blow results.
Depending on the type of enemy and the type of destruction, the player receives so-called orbs , glowing balls that exist in four different colors: green and blue for filling up life energy or magic points, red for gaining experience , with which weapons, spells and objects are leveled and finally golden orbs that quickly charge the gods wrath bar.
Other elements
The game world also contains chests with red, green or blue orbs as well as chests with so-called gorgon eyes and phoenix feathers ; these are collectibles that increase the maximum health and magic points. Other collectibles, so-called artifacts, make it possible to use cheats such as unlimited magic when playing through them again on the same level of difficulty .
Sometimes the player has to solve puzzles in order to reach the next section. In the beginning, these are mostly simple switch and shift puzzles that become more complex as the game progresses, as two special objects are used: With the first, Kratos can manipulate time and thereby disintegrate or restore objects, such as gates or pillars Let them go rotten or repair bridges or machines. The second item enables Kratos to create a kind of copy of himself that can, for example, hold a lever while the character moves to another location. Both items can also be used in combat to gain tactical advantages.
action
The main character of the game, like the whole series, is the Spartan military leader Kratos, who took a blood oath with the god of war Ares on the battlefield in order to avoid imminent defeat, but was then tricked into having his own wife and daughter by the god to murder.
The game uses a narrative structure in which the main storyline - Kratos' escape from the prison of the Furies - is interrupted several times by the prehistory that begins three weeks before and describes how his imprisonment came about.
prehistory
Kratos is visited by Orkos, the oath-keeper, in the Greek village of Kirra and is advised by him to break his oath with Ares and fight the furies that are responsible for the visions that plagued Kratos after the bloodshed against his family becomes. The Spartan should travel to Delphi and visit the oracle . Once there, he is confronted with the Siamese twins Castor and Pollux , whom he kills in battle. This gives him the uroboros , a magical amulet that enables him to manipulate time. From the oracle Aletheia, Kratos gets the hint to go to Delos in order to gain the eyes of truth , which could break the illusions of the Furies.
On his travels Kratos is supported by Orkos, who reveals himself to be the son of Ares and the Fury Queen Alekto. The god of war wanted a perfect warrior for his son, rejected Orkos, who did not live up to these expectations, and chose Kratos instead. Initially still pursuing his task as oath keeper for his mother, Orkos renounced the Furies after Ares' deception against Kratos. Orkos hands over the oath stone to the Spartan and brings Kratos to a safe place when he finds himself in a hopeless position during an attack by all three Furies. There Orkos reveals a plot by Ares and the Furies who want to take over Olympus together .
In Delos, Kratos succeeds in gaining the eyes of truth in a huge statue of Apollon , but he is ambushed by the furies, who snatch the Uroboros, the Eidstein and his eyes from him and take him prisoner.
Main storyline
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Captured and chained by the furies, Kratos is humiliated and tortured by the fury Megaira, which also gives him an opportunity to break his chains and seriously injure his tormentor. He can then move relatively freely in the prison of the Furies and takes up the pursuit of Megaira. The prison is a type of city built on the body of Hekatoncheiren Aigaion , the first victim of the Furies, to punish mortals who have broken an oath with the gods. The persecuted defends herself by resurrecting parts of the body of Aigaion, with additional help from the fury Tisiphone, who tries to confuse and stop Kratos with illusions. The Spartan still manages to destroy some of the hands and the head of the giant Hekatoncheiren and kill Megaira.
With the Uroboros received back from Megaira, Kratos can penetrate further into the prison, where he has to fight off Tisiphone's illusions several times, but also brings the Eidstein back into his possession. When he finally reaches the chamber of the Queen of the Fury Alekto , Tisiphone confronts Kratos with an illusion in which his wife and daughter are still alive. When he can also escape this, she offers the Spartan to live with this deception forever, which the Spartan refuses. The furious Furies Tisiphone and Alekto go on the attack, but Kratos can first tear the eyes of truth to himself and finally kill the two Furies in an epic final battle. As he dies, Alekto predicts the Spartan that her death will not change anything and will not set him free.
Back at his house in Sparta, Kratos is visited by Orkos, who reveals to him that the oath with Ares will only be completely dissolved when he, Orkos, is killed by Kratos. He asks the Spartan for an honorable death. At first he refuses because enough blood has already been shed, but upon further requests he kills the oath-keeper. From then on, Kratos is haunted by the nightmares that have so far been covered by his bond with Ares and that ultimately drive him into the attempted suicide around which the plot of God of War is based.
reception
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God of War: Ascension received a largely positive response from the critics : According to Metacritic , it achieved an overall score of 80% out of 89 evaluated reviews.
The game magazine 4Players praises innovations such as the amulet, with which time can be manipulated, and describes the game as a tried and tested mixture of action, puzzles and skill. However, the reviewer misses the “wow factor” of the previous parts and has the impression that he has “seen everything” in the series. He also lacks an interesting story.
To date (as of January 3, 2014) around 2.09 million copies of the game have been sold worldwide, around 590,000 of them in Europe.
Web links
- Official God of War Portal
- Official German-language site
- God of War: Ascension at MobyGames (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Count including the mobile game God of War: Betrayal
- ^ God of War - Ascension. With fire, ice, lightning and soul. Retrieved September 5, 2013 .
- ↑ Ryan King: God Of War: Ascension Review. In: NowGamer. Retrieved September 5, 2013 .
- ↑ a b God of War: Ascension. In: Metacritic . Retrieved September 3, 2013 .
- ^ Meta-evaluation "God of War: Ascension". In: GameRankings . CBS Corporation , accessed January 27, 2015 .
- ↑ a b Michael Krosta: Test: God of War: Ascension. In: 4Players. Retrieved September 5, 2013 .
- ^ God of War: Ascension. In: VGChartz. September 3, 2013, accessed September 3, 2013 .
God of War (2005) | God of War II (2007) | God of War: Betrayal (2007) | God of War: Chains of Olympus (2008) | God of War III (2010) | God of War: Ghost of Sparta (2010) | God of War: Ascension (2013) | God of war (2018)