God Of War Ascension PS3
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Billy Idol
Legend
That is true. It just seems to me that it is used more often throughout the game. Not only climbing ladders and only straight up, but often you climb a wall from left to right while going up and so on. Maybe I'am wrong, just my impression, climbing around with some camera zooms and open vistas reminded me of uncharted
Two things....dynamic objects and the camera isn't "fixed".
So you don't look at objects from just one angle...beside low quality SSAO barely costs anything now.
Sigfried1977
Legend
I'm very underwhelmed so far (at the Oracle of Delphi, about 2 hours into the game). Story is pretty much non-existent at this point, and you are just traversing pretty environments for the heck of it. There's no purpose, no drive, and the pacing is utterly terrible so far. Sure, there have been a couple of rather spectacular moments, but where God of War 3 always put gameplay first regardless, Ascension frequently zooms the action so far out that you have no clue what the heck is going on anymore. The less artificial lighting only helps to compound the problem, because Kratos just doesn't stick out enough anymore. The first major boss battle could have been a revelatory moment. Instead it was simply a mess.
I'm not particularly in love with the new combat system either. Unless you are in rage mode, your arsenal of moves is extremely limted, and since even lowly enemies like dogs have the ability to punch right through your offense, there'll always be cheap shots coming from every which way, draining your rage meter in the process. Everyone and everything has bloody hyper armor in this game. The gimped defense isn't helping of course.
Visually it's a very nice looking game. Just about every little asset is exquisitely detailed, and the whole thing looks more like offline CGI than ever. Cut-scenes seem to be mostly real-time now and really highlight the vastly superior human character models. (Kratos hasn't changed much, but everyone else got a healthy upgrade). Unfortunately the direction is generally too weak to elevate the individual pieces. Ascension simply lacks GOW3'ssense of showmanship.
All in all the game comes across like a cynical cash grab. Sure, the team members were talented and commited, but the project seems like it was helmed by some mercenary hack director with a paycheck in mind and no enthusiam. It's the X-men The last stand of the God of War franchise at best, and a straight-to-dvd sequel at worst. It's also quite buggy despite two patches.
I'm not particularly in love with the new combat system either. Unless you are in rage mode, your arsenal of moves is extremely limted, and since even lowly enemies like dogs have the ability to punch right through your offense, there'll always be cheap shots coming from every which way, draining your rage meter in the process. Everyone and everything has bloody hyper armor in this game. The gimped defense isn't helping of course.
Visually it's a very nice looking game. Just about every little asset is exquisitely detailed, and the whole thing looks more like offline CGI than ever. Cut-scenes seem to be mostly real-time now and really highlight the vastly superior human character models. (Kratos hasn't changed much, but everyone else got a healthy upgrade). Unfortunately the direction is generally too weak to elevate the individual pieces. Ascension simply lacks GOW3'ssense of showmanship.
All in all the game comes across like a cynical cash grab. Sure, the team members were talented and commited, but the project seems like it was helmed by some mercenary hack director with a paycheck in mind and no enthusiam. It's the X-men The last stand of the God of War franchise at best, and a straight-to-dvd sequel at worst. It's also quite buggy despite two patches.
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Billy Idol
Legend
Play some more, for me it did get much better later on...I wonder if it will be the same for you. I was also underwhelmed at the beginning.
Sigfried1977
Legend
Even if it does get better, if the first 2 hours of your 7 hour game are a complete drag, then that's a huge problem. That's especially true if you are part of a franchise famous for its incredible openings. This isn't a role playing game with a 50 hour long tail.
Billy Idol
Legend
True
I agree with most however to call it a straight to dvd sequel might be a bit harsh without finishing it first. I'm pretty much at where you are and so far it's been average to good experience. If the 2nd half gets a lot better than I'm more than content. The environment texture work, polygon density, shaders and design are so much better than GOW3 that's for sure. I also noticed the texture resolution on Kratos body is now high res and consistent with his face texture res.
I am very underwhelmed actually, never happened to me before with any GOW games. Combat takes a bit more time to get used to but now that I get used to it it still feel very sluggish. Most of the enemies takes much longer to kill than other GOW games, Camera can be horrible at time when it zoom very far out trying to show you the large scale environment when the fighting is still going. And some time the camera zoom too far in that I miss lots of enemies on the side of the screen, felt almost like going back to 4:3 aspect ratio again. And about those flipping switch sequence, why use a chain to grab them and drag them around; they are completely pointless compare to previous games where you talk up them to and press grab, done. Graphics are nice, quality are much more consistence in this but art direction feels really off to me. And god the sound mixing is some of the worse in any game I have played, all the sfx are muted, every hit doesn't have the same impact as the previous GOW game and they rely on ambient sound too much. If I remember correctly this game is done by a junior team at Santa Monica, where Stig and his team are doing a new project, probably for PS4. I hope this game is a lot more fun in new game+ when you aquire all the moves and max out all weapons.
Billy Idol
Legend
Wow! Just finished the game. Gets really intense at the end, also difficulty and challenge goes up a bit. Took me exactly 9h total to finish. End boss is crazy!
It might not be the best GoW game yet, but it is still a hell of a game! I guess I will try play through on next difficulty, although it was already quite challenging on normal (especially near the end of the game, there is a hefty trial), I will see how far I can get. But I will probably wait a bit until they address the sound issues.
I really like the combat, except blocking takes a bit long. Some hints (imo, might not be good for others): use air combat, use items (L2+square), soul blades seemed to be strongest for me, especially L1+square helps sometimes to control crowds, otherwise classic combos rock!
In my play through I did max out health and magic, but not the red orbs based upgrades. So I feel that I have missed some stuff.
I also like the puzzles, very cool. Great variety in settings as well. Pacing (except beginning of game) is very good. Visuals are great for consoles, end boss has some stunning visuals.
Overall, highly recommended.
It might not be the best GoW game yet, but it is still a hell of a game! I guess I will try play through on next difficulty, although it was already quite challenging on normal (especially near the end of the game, there is a hefty trial), I will see how far I can get. But I will probably wait a bit until they address the sound issues.
I really like the combat, except blocking takes a bit long. Some hints (imo, might not be good for others): use air combat, use items (L2+square), soul blades seemed to be strongest for me, especially L1+square helps sometimes to control crowds, otherwise classic combos rock!
In my play through I did max out health and magic, but not the red orbs based upgrades. So I feel that I have missed some stuff.
I also like the puzzles, very cool. Great variety in settings as well. Pacing (except beginning of game) is very good. Visuals are great for consoles, end boss has some stunning visuals.
Overall, highly recommended.
Sigfried1977
Legend
I'm shelving the game until the patch comes out. (which is supposed to address the Trials of Archimedes difficulty spike as well by the way). I've had malfunctioning cameras, enemies spawning in midair / in their T-poses, and even 2 hard system crashes where I had to hold the power buttons down for 10 seconds or so. That's all within barely 3 hours of playing the game. Of course there's also the issue with the god-awful sound mixing. How is this kinda stuff getting past QA for fuck's sake?
That's shocking, from the guys that brought us what i personally regard as one of the most polished game this generation (GOW3), if not the most polished.
I was getting crashes and crazy bugs with some of my games when my HDD begun dying. Check it out before it may be too late.
Try to back up
Sigfried1977
Legend
Well, my saves are all in the PS cloud. Since I'm not the only person with these kind of problems and all my other games work just fine I'm not really convinced that my hard drive is to blame, though.
Billy Idol
Legend
Did not have any of this issues, except of the sound problems?? Furthermore, the trials is exactly the difficult part i mentioned. But I finished the game, so no big deal, really! Took me about 20-30min to beat the trials and to learn the crazy sirens. Downgrading this would be weird imo and a bit lame. People should play on easy, when game is to hard imo.
Sigfried1977
Legend
There are games that gradually ramp up the difficulty and prepare you for the things you are about to face (good game design), and then there are games that are easy almost all the way through, except for that one infuriating section right before the end. Dante's Infernd did this. Apparently Ascension does it as well, and it's just bad game design.
I like a good challenge, but I can sympathize with the complainers here. God of War has never really done something like that before. If you wanted to put your skills to the test, you simply had to up the difficulty.
I also think this "just put the game on easy" notion is kinda condescending. Most people are looking for a fun challenge that simply isn't overtly punishing. They don't want a push-over.
Making the game boring for oneself for 28 chapters just because the final one is supposed to be a complete bitch doesn't sound like an acceptable solution to me.
I like a good challenge, but I can sympathize with the complainers here. God of War has never really done something like that before. If you wanted to put your skills to the test, you simply had to up the difficulty.
I also think this "just put the game on easy" notion is kinda condescending. Most people are looking for a fun challenge that simply isn't overtly punishing. They don't want a push-over.
Making the game boring for oneself for 28 chapters just because the final one is supposed to be a complete bitch doesn't sound like an acceptable solution to me.
Just played through to the tower of Delphi in one sitting. Definitely doesn't heave the same level of spectacle that gow 3 had. Though the first fight with the fury brought back a fighting with a Titan vibe. Sections just seem like they are cut and pasted from gow 3and just have been given a perspective change and new textures, which don't seem as high a quality as 3 had. It feels very much like god of war: the filler. These are all the bits we had left on the cutting room floor, let's stick them together and see what we get. It's say it is a god of war game for god of war fans not really a good stand alone version.
Shocking. Just shocking. The fact itself that they have to patch the game after release, to correct an error (not just to suck more money out of us), from SMS, is absolutely disheartening.
I just hope they rushed into the release cause they have a mega title being worked on by the best in their team for PS4, but i'm doubtful at this point.
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