Why do people hate this game.

[IntroPhenom]

This game is on sale now.  Do any of the trophies demand multi-player action?  I'm uncertain by reading the descriptions.

[Varhur]

On 11.12.2018 at 9:19 PM, IntroPhenom said:

This game is on sale now.  Do any of the trophies demand multi-player action?  I'm uncertain by reading the descriptions.

You need to have Online Pass to and pass the tutorial. You'll get pass with the digital version of the game.

[IntroPhenom]

3 hours ago, Varhur said:

You need to have Online Pass to and pass the tutorial. You'll get pass with the digital version of the game.

 

Good to know, thanks.

[JohnCenaSong-]

The main problem I think that hurts the game is coming off the high of GoW3. There's nothing bad about Ascension but its more of the same, people would be getting tired of it and then after peaking so high with the 3rd game it just doesn't really feel too exciting.

 

I liked it, but it didn't get me very enthusiastic about the it.

[BubbleJayGum]

I personally love this game. God of War are my favourite game series, and Ascension is just awesome. I love the fights! They are challenging at times, brutal and super-fun. God of War for PS4 was a fantastic experience, but I didn't feel the same satisfaction from fighting enemies as I felt during playing Ascension. Maybe I'm crazy, but I think that fights in Ascension are much cooler. The Trials of Archimedes are just mad! One of my favourite moments in gaming. I remember how I've done them a long time ago when there was no patch. Ha-ha, that was so stressful, but so much fun!

There's also a fantastic environment in this game. The statue of Apollo and the background are just breathtaking, even now, for PS3 graphics. Just finished the game again today and 100%ed it. Feels nice!

[BrettyBoy]

I find the game decent besides the boring puzzles which kill the mood of the game since I just want the virtual killing experience. 

Edited August 30, 2020 by BrettyBoy

[Brave-Mage-GT]

Ahh the game that started my trophy hunting pastime, I played all the previous games previously back when trophies meant nothing to me and I found this game just as good except from the size of the game being like 30gig which was a lot for a PS3 game.

 

From what I can remember I enjoyed it so I guess that’s all that matters.

[Mostwantedtbest]

People don't hate the game, they just think it's not a good God of War game. They said it was decent but yeah it was really good. It's a God of War ffs

[RedRodriguez87]

^^This is one way to look at it. Also, there are SOME changes that are detrimental, at least to me.

 

1. They switched up the gameplay just enough to throw familiar players off. Countering, combos, stage interactions are all done differently now, which can be jarring to how one plays.

2. No permanent secondary weapons in your arsenal. The BoC may be the most popular, but I also know players enjoyed the additional options they used to have. Now all the additional weapons have limited move sets, can only be found in specific areas, and run on a sort of timer for usage, and barely do any more damage to justify said timer.

3. The graphics are very good, but the artstyle isn't. Environments are very boring to look at, and 90% of the game takes place during what I can only guess is midday, so we have a constant light glare almost all the time, which gets very annoying to look at.

4. The game goes way too overboard in the body horror department. There was definitely some gross stuff in the other games, but this one just revels in scenes that involves body parts like skin pores and faces being ripped open for something to crawl out of.

 

And that's all I can think of off the top of my head.

Edited December 19, 2020 by RedRodriguez87

[kidson2004]

Honestly, I liked it. I know it’s the least of the bunch, but I enjoyed it. 

[Fish613]

On 3/30/2017 at 3:32 AM, Spaz said:

Ascension simply doesn't hold up to God of War 3. That's the main reason why people were disappointed with it. 

 

 

No, the problem is people are tricked into thinking GoW 3 is better than it actually is, because it was on PS3 and big giant fights.

 

GoW 3 was one of the worst in the series. Kratos talked and whined way too much. The writing was corny, the story was cliche and predictable..... way too much dialogue. They tried way too hard on the game and failed. GoW 3 gets about a 5/10. 

 

Ascension, on the other hand, felt more like playing Gow 1 and 2. A more stoic badass Kratos that didn't act like a 13 year old girl.

 

God of War

God of War (PS4)

God of War 2

God of War Ascension..... in that order. GoW 3 isn't even in top 4.

[AJ_Radio]

5 hours ago, Fish613 said:

No, the problem is people are tricked into thinking GoW 3 is better than it actually is, because it was on PS3 and big giant fights.

 

GoW 3 was one of the worst in the series. Kratos talked and whined way too much. The writing was corny, the story was cliche and predictable..... way too much dialogue. They tried way too hard on the game and failed. GoW 3 gets about a 5/10. 

 

Ascension, on the other hand, felt more like playing Gow 1 and 2. A more stoic badass Kratos that didn't act like a 13 year old girl.

 

God of War

God of War (PS4)

God of War 2

God of War Ascension..... in that order. GoW 3 isn't even in top 4.

I have to disagree entirely. 
 

Neither God of War 3 nor Ascension hold up to God of War 1 & 2 in terms of story. In the first two games, Sony Santa Monica gives Kratos character development. We see how he was a Spartan warrior who fell victim to Ares, and ends up killing him in an epic battle. Then in God of War 2, he gets help from the Titans as his quest moved on to confront and kill Zeus. 
 

In God of War 3, the story was basically a mess of a checklist, killing one Greek god after another in gory fashion. The plot was equivalent to watching a bad old 1990s era cartoon where it becomes the villain wanting world dominance. Because Kratos is the anti-hero, he wants to destroy the world. In God of War Ascension, the dialogue almost bordered on childish. It did nothing to further the series. 
 

God of War 2018 has the best storytelling, but I found the gameplay much too slow and cumbersome. It’s version of ‘Challenge of the Gods’ was an absolute joke. I hope in the next GOW, we finally get some backstory on what exactly happened to Kratos after he slaughtered virtually everyone in GOW 3. The graphics will be phenomenal of course, Sony Santa Monica always did a stellar job in the graphics department. 
 

In terms of gameplay, the first three games in the series were excellent. God of War 2018 sacrificed a lot of adrenaline filled gameplay in place of telling a story that could of been a HBO 1 hour drama television series. The Last of Us truly changed how stories would be told in Sony exclusive productions, and God of War 2018 basically walked down that path. 
 

Good story, not so great gameplay. I prefer the old games as opposed to the new God of War. Hopefully the upcoming reboot sequel will change my opinion. 

Edited December 20, 2020 by Spaz

[Mostwantedtbest]

On 12/19/2020 at 7:07 PM, AJ_Radio said:

I have to disagree entirely. 
 

Neither God of War 3 nor Ascension hold up to God of War 1 & 2 in terms of story. In the first two games, Sony Santa Monica gives Kratos character development. We see how he was a Spartan warrior who fell victim to Ares, and ends up killing him in an epic battle. Then in God of War 2, he gets help from the Titans as his quest moved on to confront and kill Zeus. 
 

In God of War 3, the story was basically a mess of a checklist, killing one Greek god after another in gory fashion. The plot was equivalent to watching a bad old 1990s era cartoon where it becomes the villain wanting world dominance. Because Kratos is the anti-hero, he wants to destroy the world. In God of War Ascension, the dialogue almost bordered on childish. It did nothing to further the series. 
 

God of War 2018 has the best storytelling, but I found the gameplay much too slow and cumbersome. It’s version of ‘Challenge of the Gods’ was an absolute joke. I hope in the next GOW, we finally get some backstory on what exactly happened to Kratos after he slaughtered virtually everyone in GOW 3. The graphics will be phenomenal of course, Sony Santa Monica always did a stellar job in the graphics department. 
 

In terms of gameplay, the first three games in the series were excellent. God of War 2018 sacrificed a lot of adrenaline filled gameplay in place of telling a story that could of been a HBO 1 hour drama television series. The Last of Us truly changed how stories would be told in Sony exclusive productions, and God of War 2018 basically walked down that path. 
 

Good story, not so great gameplay. I prefer the old games as opposed to the new God of War. Hopefully the upcoming reboot sequel will change my opinion. 

I agree with you. The gameplay in the new one was okay but it wasn't the God of War I know and love. I just prefer the hack and slash but it does make sense because the new one is more calmer and story driven

[LegendExeter]

Probably because it tries to do things that the other God of War games don't which is why they are more enoyable to play.

 

I would say I'm probably half way through this game, maybe not.  Fighting the stupid Manticore at the end of Chapter 9, and it's just so annoying.  For several skirmishes in the game, not even the boss fights so far, yet just battles with enemies I've had to watch video on how they beat them.  I would like to believe after getting through Gow and 2, and Dantes Inferno that I'm pretty good at this genre.  Yet there are a lot of issues with this game and I don't even think it's specific to hard mode.

 

So in watching video and even beating the Manticore and getting that trophy, I'm still in that spot because I died to one of it's spawnlings after I killed the damn Manticore.  Due to no save points that I can control, I have to fight the Manticore all over again, and then hopefully kill the spawnlings before the game will register another save point.

 

Additionally this battle exacerbates the shit of the combat system.  1st, the Manticore never wants to stop flying, and then when he comes down he doesn't want to stay on the ground for you to hit him.  You can walk through his fire on the ground and take very little damage, yet if he breathes it on you, you are pummelled by it.  When trying to get out of a roll with Kratos and hitting the quick attack, the game likes to do a Ram move by Kratos and it has a lag at the end of it leaving him open to attack and it's just fucking stupid when all you want to do is start your chain attacks.

 

Building up the super meter while actually fighting most battles is near impossible and even if you can, you won't need it.  Meaning on the weaker enemies you can build it up on, you shouldn't need it to beat them, and the harder ones you will either get hit before being able to activate it or you won't be able to keep your attacks going in a row to get that meter built up at all, and unlike other games it lasts for about 10 seconds max rather than a nice killing spree Kratos could go on.

 

Additionally during a chapter, without guidewalking the game, or watching an entire chapter before you play, you have to know exactly where you should be using your magic, because the game is not generous in refilling that.  Simply put I have 2 full magic bars, yet they are empty at this spot, and when i am respawned from death I don't get any magic, therefore my only solution would be to restart the entire chapter which I'm not going to do because that is dumb as hell.

 

Many say this is the easiest GoW, I don't necessarily think it's the hardest it's just all around annoying.  Rather than QTE's that actually killed monsters in previous games, in this one, the QTE's give the monsters a chance to break free.  While some might argue that makes it challenging and some sport to it, I'm sitting here thinking how annoying in comparison to other GoW games.

 

The scenery is beautfiul while admittedly dark, yet there is very little dialog and so all these places Kratos is going I don't even know why he is going there.  The game is pretty, the fonts are cleaner, and it looks like a more professional layout then the prior games, yet certainly not as fun, definitely more annoying.  Not a super hard game, just cheap, like you feel ripped off by a combat system that was modified to be shit.

[Zephrese]

I admittedly still enjoy the game to an extent, and I sort of like the idea of having the different elemental blade types or whatever you want to call them.
That said, I agree with @LegendExeter; the game just comes off as pretty cheap and annoying at times more than anything.

 

Honestly in many ways it feels like this game suffers tremendously from "first game syndrome", and that's despite the fact that it's the sixth entry in the series by this point. lol

Despite feeling like the first game and Chains also struggle from this, and are therefore a little hard to go back to, I think I like Ascension less than those two games.

 

I appreciate that they tried to change things up a bit, but it feels like they didn't have any meaningful idea on how to reinvent the classic formula of the previous games.

(That, by this point, had gotten quite repetitive and formulaic even if I still love II and Ghost to death, and was probably why 2018 was such a big - and, imo, great - change)

Edited October 20, 2021 by Zephrese

[LegendExeter]

On 10/20/2021 at 3:13 PM, Zephrese said:

I admittedly still enjoy the game to an extent, and I sort of like the idea of having the different elemental blade types or whatever you want to call them.

 

I appreciate the shout out.  This I don't really understand though.  I kept thinking...but the game said when I would use them.  Because I would want to use Hades some times so I could get life back on Hard Mode, yet it didn't seem to happen.  It seems like it still gave Red Orbs, and even when you did a QTE Death with one of the elements, it wouldn't necessarily give you health, or mana back based on your blades, it gave it based on what the monster type gives you.  At least that is what I noticed.  I think it would have been a cool concept in action, had it actually have worked.  Perhaps you got it to work elsewhere.

 

Having finished the game, I can't really say why some hate the game, I don't hate it, yet it was annoying for an "easy plat" if people call it that.  I'm more thinking a popular plat and I would say the difficulty is right at 4, or maybe 5.  The Trials of Archimedes, and the end game took me less time than that Manticore from like the 9th chapter.  The difference here being that my character was a lot weaker back then and is a lot stronger now.

 

Ultimately I still have to give mad respect to SMS for the amazing landscapes and scope.  The thing that has always bothered me about these games is that they feel more egyptian than roman.  I think it's just some of the lighting devices that make me think that though.  Candelabra's I believe they are called.  It has some annoying parts, and it's a relatively short game, yet I at least appreciate the fact that my character was stronger as the game went on without the enemies being scaled up to match my upgrades, in effect making me never actually feel like I'm getting stronger.  Which is something I hate in games.  

[Zephrese]

1 minute ago, LegendExeter said:

This I don't really understand though.  I kept thinking...but the game said when I would use them.  Because I would want to use Hades some times so I could get life back on Hard Mode, yet it didn't seem to happen.  It seems like it still gave Red Orbs, and even when you did a QTE Death with one of the elements, it wouldn't necessarily give you health, or mana back based on your blades, it gave it based on what the monster type gives you.  At least that is what I noticed.  I think it would have been a cool concept in action, had it actually have worked.  Perhaps you got it to work elsewhere.

 

Oh, oops. lol I meant that in the sense that the idea in of itself was neat, but I can certainly agree with you that it wasn't really well executed.

[Pottercito_]

On 3/8/2016 at 2:47 PM, PooPooBlast said:

I personally was skeptical at first I i tried it at first myself. Here's why:

1) like you said, this was the 6th God of war oand of course many fans including me were kinda getting weary of the franchise. Mind you I was getting a lil tired at the 3rd gow but it's because I played 4 other ones before it.

2) after playing gow3 I'm pretty sure many felt that this game felt uneeded It felt as filler of some upcoming gow or something

3) in gow 3, you freaking slay the entire Greek Pantheon. You just can't get bigger than that. I mean I felt pretty badass already and unnervous in ascension from the start since the crazy fight with Zeus, Poseidon, Hercules, Hades, etc.. I mean I didn't believe enemies would get any tougher and they didn't so I didn't feel that much of a thrill.

4) graphics were top notch and gameplay was very good, however story fell very short. I mean it added a little different and softer side for kratos and made him look a little bit human than he was before but that's about it. It really didn't add anything new.

5) lastly, the horrible MP was very uneeded and I felt the resources spent towards it could've been made towards ameliorating the game a little more but that's just my opinion. Also this is just for trophy hunters, if you bought the game used, you're out of luck because you have to pay for the online pass for one simple and very stupid online trophy.

However you can bypass it by renting gow ascension for the shortest time possible or for free if you haven't used your PS trial on PS now.

Anyways thats all for me and my opinion about the game. I'll be happy to discuss further arguments or points made about the game

side note ( only game with no sex minigame )

Horrible MP? I still play it and I invested money into it with weapons and armors xD. It is a really decent multiplayer.

[PooPooBlast]

7 hours ago, Pottercito_ said:

Horrible MP? I still play it and I invested money into it with weapons and armors xD. It is a really decent multiplayer.

Whew! That was a 5 year old post made by me ?.

 

Anyway, there are many game where a MP component feels like a great addition but unfortunately I didn't feel that way with ascension. 

 

I'm glad to hear you liked it though! I was just expressing my opinion

[Gommes_]

Cause it felt like a cash grab, had nothing to tell and had a tacked on multiplayer mode on board.

[Pottercito_]

1 hour ago, PooPooBlast said:

Whew! That was a 5 year old post made by me .

 

Anyway, there are many game where a MP component feels like a great addition but unfortunately I didn't feel that way with ascension. 

 

I'm glad to hear you liked it though! I was just expressing my opinion

Yeah I like to read old posts and post my current opinion. However, mp can be omitted by people if dont catch them but I feel it was underrated by the community. Most of people threw the fault to the mp of the single player experience which I think it should not be. I saw them as two separete products and mp is really good and thats why I think it was underrated because of the expectations and what was expected to be the single player experience.

Edited November 2, 2021 by Pottercito_

[GUDGER666]

Finished this today, one of the best PS3 games I've played, really enjoyed it. 

[TheIndru]

I would rather ask "Why do people love GoW 3 so much?"

I played through the entire series, and out of all the Greek saga, Ascension is my favorite.

 

My order: 

God of War Ascension

God of War 2

God of War 1

God of War Ghost of Sparta

God of War Chains of Olympus

God of War III

 

God of War III is simply too bland and has the worst plot ever, who even thought killing off all the Olympians is a good idea? Only thing good about it are some of the puzzles.

[Nabeel_of_Steel]

Well I believe that one of the reasons a lot of people didn't like this game as much as the other titles in the series is because of the complete lack of weapons. For me that was the most glaring issue.

 

The fact that we only had the Blades of Chaos which got 4 different magics from the 4 gods and nothing else made playing through the story multiple times while killing the same enemies in the same way extremely repetitive. I mean come on! The only thing you got for changing the element was 2-3 different moves and a different magic attack. The freakin item moves with the Shadow Kratos was more original than the main weapon! Even GoW3, which had similar looking and feeling weapons, had the standout in the Nemean Cestus.....one of THE best and fan favorite weapons in the series. All we really got in Ascension was the BoC tbh.

 

And don't even get me started on the story. Who the hell thought it was a good idea to constantly switch back and forth between the past and present and completely confuse the player? I barely remember anything in Ascension's timeline because it was just all over the place.

 

The graphics and combat were top tier ofcourse, as is to be expected from a Santa Monica game .....but it all just felt like a late console life cash grab. Especially so with the tacked on multiplayer mode which they thought would keep the game afloat till the new entry (it didn't lol). Good thing they knocked it out of the park with GoW2018 and now GoWR is also getting rabid reviews. This game is truly the black sheep of this genre defining franchise.

[Xillynoc]

I enjoyed the story quite a lot and will defend it...but playing through the game on Hard was rough. Those damn satyr enemies are so relentless that it wasn't until I unlocked the Hades magic letting me spam AOE effects that I could actually stand a chance, and that's like halfway into the game. Otherwise didn't mind the gameplay too much.