From the Top - God of War Part 3

In this mini-series, I've been looking at the roots of the God of War series with the goal of gaining a thorough understanding of who the mighty Kratos is and what led him to move up north and grow a rocking beard in the critically acclaimed God of War (2018). This is a multi-part series, wherein we've looked at both God of War and God of War II and the evolution in both mechanics and characters therein. I recommend checking these out if this is your first time joining me!

After the two PlayStation 2 titles, we've finally moved on to the behemoth that is the PlayStation 3. This move promises amazing graphics, more effects, and a whole lot of things on the screen at once! Many readers may immediately turn their mind toward God of War 3. This is natural since the title is widely beloved and the final title (chronologically) before the soft reboot! However, before we take our final step, I want to take a step back and look at an earlier note in Kratos' shenanigans, God of War: Ascension.

Released three years after GoW III (I'm getting sick of writing the full title, bear with me), Ascension takes place right before God of War (2005), after Kratos breaks his vow to Ares, dealing with the ramifications of his decision and the horrible acts he committed. The game is what I'd call… flashback-ish. We start off with our hero being imprisoned and questioned by a trypophobia-inducing foe, slowly learning where we are and why during our adventure. Kratos, being the escape artist he is, simply breaks out and begins exploring his surroundings. Naturally, all this is preceded by decking his captor hard enough to shatter stone.

Long story short, Kratos has been captured by the Furies, who are the goddesses of wrath and justice. They specifically hunt down oath-breakers and make them suffer for their transgressions. The Furies consist of three siblings: Megaera (our trypophobia triggerer), Tisiphone, and Alecto. The sisters' main task seems to be to get our sputtering Spartan to return to the service of Ares in order to progress a secret plan. In order to escape the Furies and get some answers to his burning questions, Kratos makes his way to the Oracle of Delphi, who has the Eyes of Truth, a magical artefact (starting to sound familiar?).

So, Kratos is on a quest to get a magical artefact, some god or godlike being is angry at him, and there is an army –- consisting mainly of goat men for some strange reason — between the divinity slicer™ and his goal. By now, we know how this song and dance goes. We wade through enemies and areas, collecting magical items and equipment while we do so. The flashback mechanic is not that noteworthy, as the "current" time acts as a bridge between past events, introducing magic items or enemies right before we gain/meet them in our memories. After the flashbacks are done, the current time becomes the now, and we keep on going.

As usual, our main weapons are the Blades of Chaos, and they feel pretty similar to what they were in the previous games. The swings are flashier and the swords themselves look nice, but the basics are still the same... until we get our first magical power. Unlike in earlier incarnations, in Ascension, you gain four different flavours of magic directly related to the gods (more on that in a bit). This magic is always active (one at a time, naturally) and imbues your blades with its element, unlocking unique abilities, rage powers, and area of effect attacks. This is interesting since it's a large departure from the earlier model, and I believe God of War (2018) has some kind of elemental attack system. I wonder if we're seeing its precursor. So, elemental powers — Kratos gets these by dipping his swords into magical flames he finds on his journey. Each one represents a god and their "element", so to speak. We gain the fire of Ares, the lighting of Zeus, the darkness (it's totally an element) of Hades, and the ice of Poseidon. The ICE of POSEIDON. It's better than lightning, but it still hurts. Each element offers varying speeds of attack and skills, and enemies drop xp, mana, or rage orbs depending on the element used to slay them. An effective, if odd, system especially since there doesn't seem to be any resistance/vulnerability mechanic to go with it.

In addition to the revamped magic system, Ascension has changed up the sub-weapons as well. Instead of having certain sub-weapons and sticking with them, Kratos is now able to steal and wield the armaments of enemies! You can have a fast and effective sword, a big club, a la Herakles, a javelin, a sling, and even a shield! The sub-weapon system worked well to add a bit of variation to the combat, as switching to them was smooth and blended well with your combos. This is good since the combat did not feel as fun this time around, with it taking ages to take enemies down and theDragon Age II problem of more enemies spawning in as soon as you finish one group off.

The final major change to Ascension lies in the combat. While the basics are the same: light attack, heavy attack, block, and dodge are as they have been so far, with the addition of some combos and moves. To my horror and sadness, the parry system introduced in God of War II has been downgraded. It still exists, but instead of being part of the block, you have to keep blocking and hit a separate button to activate a "parry field". I understand the change since Kratos doesn't get the golden fleece until later, but I'd rather they'd not have it all than use the current clunky system! In addition to this, our hero can now flick his sword into an enemy, which will now stay lodged into them, allowing you to pull them in or keep them busy while you whack their friends? What fun. While I liked the idea, I seldom remembered to use the thing.

Now, what about the artefacts? As usual, Kratos improves his armoury with magical items that either help him in battle, aid his progress toward his goal, or both. This time around, we have a total of three: The Amulet of Uroborus, The Oath Stone of Orkos, and the Eyes of Truth.

By the power of the hungry snake, I command thee to be fixed!

The amulet allows our anger-prone protagonist to see the start and end of the life cycle of anything he points the amulet at and return the object to any state within the cycle. In gameplay terms, this means if Kratos finds a broken thing, he can "return" it to the beginning of its life, thereby fixing it. In combat, when used on an enemy, it slows them down for a bit, because sometimes in life, you have to take it slow, I guess? The Oath Stone allows him to be in "two places at once", meaning he can transport himself from his current position and leave behind a duplicate. In-game, this means you can plop a Kratos down to keep a button pressed or lever pulled, as any Zelda fan should know. In combat, you can summon another clone to fight with you for a while, which was honestly a ton of fun! Finally, the Eyes function as a sort of flashlight, which reveals secrets hidden by the Furies and blinds enemies in combat. Of the three items, the stone was my favourite, and I really have to hand it to the game — some of the puzzles it presented were really fun!

Phew. Now with the crunchy stuff out of the way, we can finally speak about the characters! Regretfully, there's not much to say, in addition to two we'll get back to later. The main antagonists of the game, The Furies, aren't very interesting. Their designs seem a bit odd, with me mixing up Alecto and Tisiphone constantly and with them not really having anything going for them. Megaera summons insects, Tisiphone uses illusions, and Alecto… well. We don't talk about Alecto. The other enemies, such as Pollux and Castor, are one and gone for the most part. The only exception to this is Kratos' one ally throughout his adventure, Orkos. Orkos is the son of Alecto, so he's basically a Fury in his own right, but when he sees how Kratos is treated after breaking his oath (among other reasons), he decides to aid the Spartan in ridding himself of his mother. Orkos is a frail being, seemingly mistreated by his family and generally much less threatening. Despite this, he helps Kratos more than once, even giving him his Oath Stone, with which he has escaped his mother's attention so far. There is a strength and honour to him that I've not yet seen in God of War; it makes his character so interesting! But even more interesting is his relationship with the upcoming war god himself.

During the adventure, Kratos and Orkos meet multiple times. In the beginning, Our hero is weary and angry, as always, but with time, he seems to warm to the frail demi-Fury. Kratos even seems to show concern toward his new ally when the latter offers his Oath Stone, declining the gift to ensure the former's safety. The two seem to form a bond over their shared traumas, and by the end, they are probably the closest thing to friends the Ghost of Sparta has had. It was amazing seeing this interaction and the way Kratos showed the demi-Fury respect and friendship. At the end of the game (avoiding spoilers), our haunted hero is forced to do something horrible, which also affects Orkos. While the wrathful rager we've known would have had no issue with this, he is actually reluctant and even sad to have to do it, despite his new friend’s multiple reassurances. In addition to his newest friend, our hero's ties to his daughter and wife is a strong presence in the story, them being the only thing keeping our hero moving when the urge to stop is at its greatest.

God of War: Ascension is not what I'd call a fun game. The combat got annoying and the skill upgrades were not exciting, so playing through was more of an obligation than a joy. Regardless of this, I'm happy I did! The relationship between Orkos and Kratos was fascinating and the game had some absolutely breathtaking environments and fun puzzles. If you, like me, want to experience the whole saga of Kratos, I'd definitely recommend Ascension, if only because of the many themes it shows that are to be found in God of War (2018). I would, however, counsel you to either play it on the easiest difficulty or just watch a playthrough! Thank you for joining me again, and I hope I'll see you on the next and final leg in our journey as I delve into the golden lands and favoured hills of God of War III, from the top!