Ben-DutkaGod of War: Ascension wasn't a bad game. In fact, it was a great game.
Let's not make the mistake of saying the latest entry was "crap" just because it didn't haul down the mid-9s we're so accustomed to seeing for every new GoW installment. However, given the fact that Ascension did feel a touch lackluster when compared with previous entries, what do you expect to see when God of War eventually makes its return?
Bear in mind that it'll be the first GoW of a new generation, and this is one franchise that has always tried to push the technical envelope. Therefore, when they do announce a new title, I'm immediately expecting visual superiority. I'd want Sony Santa Monica to embrace the PlayStation 4 and take advantage of that extra power, thereby resulting in a stunning – albeit insanely gory – production. But what about that enduring bald protagonist, Kratos? Are we sticking with him or what? There have been times when we expected him to disappear forever but he isn't gone yet.
I don't think there's any doubt that God of War remains a critically important franchise for Sony, and action aficionados everywhere count GoW as one of the very best IPs of all time. Perhaps the new GoW will be one of the first must-have titles for the PS4…well, depending on when it finally hits store shelves. I do know that God of War III was a damn good reason to pick up the PS3, so couldn't the next GoW prove to be a system-selling title for the PS4? I think it has a great chance of being just that.
What do you think?
Wait, another God of War might be coming? This is news to me. I thought Ascension would be the final one, though admittedly, I didn't play it and therefore don't know the ending.
Don't post the ending either, I wanna play it sometime in the near future.
seriously!?
being surprised theres going to be a new GOW is like being surprised a new COD releases every year.
GOW is one of $onys best selling franchises they aint giving it up anytime soon!
not to mention 3 ended on a massive cliffhanger so they HAVE to at least give us 4!
Don't even waste your time playing Ascension. Watch the ending+boss fight on youtube. Save yourself the pain of playing a stripped down GOW.
A new protagonist, new setting and plot, physics, and a movable camera.
A new protagonist who comes to unseat Kratos as the GoW…a child of one of his fallen foes, perhaps even his own son/daughter.
How do you wanna evade, if you have a movable camera?
With a shift trigger that authorizes the stick to be a dodge control probably.
I didn't mind Ascension. Never bothered with the multiplayer.
GoW on PS4 is hard to turn down.
Im hoping for a new IP and putting kratos to rest for awhile. After all the hell he has been through I think he deserves it.
I would only be interesred if it was Kratos' story. If Kratos isn't part of it dont call it God of War. If it doesnt revolve around that mythological character and setting dont call it God of War. Theres a reason it has that title anything otherwise would be regretful.
Im actually curious to see a true sequel to GoW3. Just get past the story and move on with his life. I fully expect it to be bigger than anything weve ever seen as was the case with GoW3.
I also stand by Ascension through and through and will continue to say it deserved to be scored right up there with the others. Because it was more of the same doesnt warrant it a lower score. And in fact many upgrades made it more enjoyable.
What more can they milk out of Kratos' story besides going backwards?
God of War can't just be limited to Greek Mythology, you can explore Gods of War from many other mythologies such as Ancient Egypt, or Norse mythology.
If that route is explored then theres a possibility it may turn out okay. But everyone knows Kratos as the GoW and anything else would almost seem underwhelming. Thats beside the point though. Im up for anything SSM does so long as it doesn't toss Kratos aside.
But theres no reason there can't be a true sequel to GoW3. No reason at all. There is a lot to explore and a lot of questions left unanswered. There is inevitably answers to those questions.
Why don't they ponder on the idea of conquering other realms; like the Maya or the Pharos. Whether with Kratos or a new protagonist.
I know nothing beats Greek mythology but what else to do?!
I find the "upgrades" to be gameplay steps backward that disrupt Kratos' flow.
World – thats just not true. The combat is way more fluid and accessible than ever, not to he mistaken for a button masher. This game – especially on high difficulties – requires you to plan your attacks to keep things rolling. The gameplay mechanics are refined, and tighter.
Everything else is just pie. GoW is what it is and it does what it does better than any other game in the genre. To atleast enhance on a few things is an accomplishment.
It's still fun, but a little different than I prefer 🙂
I hope they pursue a new mythology and a new protagonist. I may not be a fan of button mashers, but watching people play GoW 3 blew me away. I could not believe how epic that game was. If i didn't get bored of mashing square for the 2 hours i did play it, i might have finished it. SSMonica can dish out all kinds of talent, so they should use that talent to create a new god of war. They can do it.
New IP with a new Protagonist.
Ascension suffered from too much GoW exposure in too little time.
One GoW the way we know GoW for PS4 should be plenty. It'd be enough to see the same 'true to it's form' game play taken to the next level on PS4 hardware.
True that…
I also think the team should have implemented multiplayer with GoW3, during the multiplayer booming time. Delaying it until GOW:A had it competing against an infectious anti-multiplayer adoption stigma among some critics. I believe the game actually got rated lower for having it as a result of it.
Despite it actually being one of the bright spots of the game, being well.implemented and being one of the most balanced mp experiences out there. Its also been supported better than most mp games keeping it fresh and evolving. The community really loves it, as they should.
Plus it's impossible for people to see a prequel as anything but a financial decision to capitalize on a character.
Unfortunately…
Maybe a spiritual successor. An open world visual feasts of blood and guts mayhem sets within Norse Mythology (Odin, Beowulf etc) or Japanese myths with all of those Yokai. Let the spirit of Kratos live in peace and Zeus is no more.
I'm down with this, although it doesn't necessarily have to be open world .
I'm just imagining a scene, a prologue maybe. The hero will descend from the sky to a battlefield filled with monsters, giants and 10 or more Hecatonchires size monsters fighting and the land will be soaked in blood and littered with guts. With the PS4 having a lot of memory, I hope I can see something like that and I also hope that the CPU can keep up. Hehe.
To b better than ascended but they need to go bck to the way it b4 god of war 3 one of the best ps3 games of all time
I liked Ascension well enough. If I had to rank them I'd go…
1. GOW3
2. Ghost of Sparta
3. GOW2
4. Ascension
5. Chains of Olympus
6. GOW.
So for me it wasn't the worst in the series but certainly wasn't the best. I just hope what ever they do it's at least as good as Ghost of Sparta or 3. They need to bring Stig back as director but that's doubtful. I bet that Cory dude (GOW2 director) is working on the next GOW. Which is fine by me. I liked 2 well enough.
Last edited by Jawknee on 9/14/2013 1:57:00 AM
Stig has bigger ambition while Cory is an excellent director for a good thought out story. What Stig did woth GoW3 was unreal while Cory's vision for GoW2 made for a well paced and told story.
I put GOW2 at the top, it did the most great things at once imo.
I put GoW3 then GoW2. Loved em both byt the scale of 3 keeps me amazed.
Ya the scale, the combat, weapons and camera work in GOW3 > 2.
The shadow fight… just sayin.
I liked the design, length, and diversity of elements in GOW2 best. GoW3 had the most memorable bosses and yes, the scale was memorable as well. GoW3 went soft about 2/3 in. Too much time in Pandora's Box made it feel like they under budgeted time to make it match or exceed the length of GoW2. I liked Ascension's combat system the best (thank you multiplayer mode for turning the devs attention to improving this component) and a few of it's bosses were off the hook incredible. Those few last battles totally left me very satisfied. It did feel the most buggy compared to any others I played.
I thought CoO was far and away the weakest of them all.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 9/14/2013 9:30:48 PM
Ghost of Sparta was AWESOME. Of course the graphics didn't compare to three but the story and locations were so awesome I got chills playing Ghost of Sparta.
Fun fact — did you know Corey Barlog wrote the script for Ghost of Sparta, the same guy who directed God of War 2? Gotta think that's why he's back at Sony Sana Monica, to helm the next God of War. VERY good news if true, the man understands the series better than anyone.
All god of war games r good js lik uncharted but ascended felt lik it was missing what kratos is a mean cold S.O.B. that what I miss hopefully the next god of war brings bck that same feeling
id like to see a mix of both ascension and 3.
literally everything they changed for ascension was for the better, it just felt so much smoother and fast paced.
what let it down though were the boss battles and epic scale.
GOW3 was so impressive because of its epic boss battles and scale, its holy sh*t i cant believe my eyes, moments.
its funny pretty much every ps3 franchise has gone through this.
KZ2 had lots of big epic set pieces and boss battles, but very thin on actual gameplay, story and level design.
3 was the complete opposite, much better gameplay, much better level design, nice stealth elements, and actually some f*cking colour thank god!
but no big epic set pieces and boss battles.
🙁
WTF happened to those awesome ATACs, or heavies?
resistance 2 was the same, big epic boss battles but very bland boring level design, and gameplay.
resistance 3 oh so much better gameplay, level design, story, yay even health packs are back!
but gone big epic boss battles and 8 player MP co-op.
🙁
uncharted 2 big epic boss battles and set pieces, but again crap thin cliche story, basic level design, and basic gameplay.
uncharted 2 no big boss battles, no big set pieces, but again much better story, much better level design, and much better gameplay.
GOW3 again the same, big epic boss battles, big epic set pieces, but again thin simplistic restricted gameplay and level design, and crap cliche story.
GOWA no big epic set pieces, no big epic boss battles, but far improved combat level design and story.
why cant we have both?
why do we always have to have a sequel with big epic set pieces, but crap simplistic gameplay and story?
why cant we have the best of both worlds?
why cant we have the big epic boss battles of GOW3 with the improved level design and combat of ascension?
thats what GOW4 needs, no thats what ALL sequels need!
a compilation of the best of both worlds.
Last edited by ___________ on 9/14/2013 4:47:20 AM
i'll get GOW4 on ps4 cos i got GOW3 bout 2 and a bit months ago on my mid year break and it's got gud combat gameplay and it's challenging which is gud and i enjoyed it so that wud be enticing game to have on the ps4 system.
happy gaming =)
I expect the next God of War no earlier than 2017, if one happens at all (and I kind of don't want it to). Look, I loved GoWIII, and while Ascension has an interesting premise, I'm in no rush to go out and pick it up, not because of the lower review scores than the rest of the series, but because the series just doesn't feel as though it's on the cutting edge of action games anymore. Simply, I could do without Kratos and his violent, bloody campaign to rip, tear and kill everything that gets in his way.
I want Santa Monica to move on and create something that's pared back a little bit and is more nuanced. Something that follows in the footsteps of The Last of Us and actually takes the time and effort to explore the human condition, rather than human viscera. Does that mean that Kratos needs to vanish? No, but tell me that we wouldn't be more amped about his next adventure if it was five years in the making, rather than two or three.
But to answer the question directly… I'd like it to pick up after GoWIII. At this point, it isn't necessary to keep delving into his past. It needs to adopt the sentiment of the first two games, where you're driven through the story and constantly happening upon new locales and enemies, rather than reusing environments like they did in III. Larger multilayered environments would be a boon, but hardly necessary. And the gameplay definitely needs to be evolved. Add more depth to the combat system, but don't make certain enemies immune to certain weapons. Make it a bit more tactical, yet encourage diversity, experimentation and playful gaming. Bump up the challenge presented by the puzzles, and make them more frequent too. Seriously, the games have always had cool puzzles, but they come pretty much at a rate of one per game: the spiralling tower of death in the original. The room where you have to move the box into position before the spikes pop up out of the ground and insta-kill you in the second and Hera's Garden in the third. A renewed focus on those elements would definitely be beneficial in my mind, as it would help to moderate the pace, and encourage that atmosphere of thoughtfulness that I've already expressed an interest in above.
But what of the story? That would be a tricky one considering the end of III. I'd like to see Kratos return, but maybe he would take the role of mentor to a new warrior, perhaps someone more modern? Perhaps Kratos could mimic Ares in some way by fooling a mortal into doing his bidding, and ultimately betraying him when he outlives his usefulness. It would definitely fit Kratos' character and turning him into the primary antagonist after playing as him for six games would be an amazing twist. But again, scale it back. Don't ignore everything that went on with the Titans and Olympic Gods, but don't let them return in any way, shape or form. There wouldn't even need to be a new set of deities, as it would ultimately be a personal quest. I feel a return to Greece would be out of the question, but Santa Monica could pillage from other mythologies. What if the protagonist had to face of with Grendel at some point? Or sandworms? Not deities, but mythological entities and personalities through the ages.
Man… Just looked back over this post and it's getting a little out of hand. I'll leave it at that.
I enjoyed Kratos, but I don't feel any pull to keep going through Ascension. Big K doesn't really belong in this decade I think. He's a mix of Hercules, The Rage of Achilles, and Bruce Willis. I don't think that character works anymore creatively and adding to his story eventually begins to devalue it by just jamming more deities onto his original kill list.
"A renewed focus on those elements would definitely be beneficial in my mind, as it would help to moderate the pace, and encourage that atmosphere of thoughtfulness that I've already expressed an interest in above."
This is what I think a lot of character-driven games can learn from TLOU. To use contrast as a compositional gameplay element. The downtime moments in the game create such a great contrast, and gives the developers space to really build the world and the characters in it. How that can work in the world of Kratos and GOW, well, that's for them to figure out.
Have you completed it yet by the way? I'm nearing the end of my 3rd playthrough, and I can barely contain my need to discuss the game with someone lol.
Ja, Liam, I finished it. I'll be working on an analytical breakdown of it over this coming week and I'll be sure to let you know when it's done and where you can take a look.
Awesome. I've been analysing it as well; when you really analyse this game…oh man. There are some really subtle things that 99% of people will miss. So yeah lemme know!
We need a new God of War from another mythology, I'd like to see one form Hindu mythology. That means a new protagonist and a new setting, but we could still call it God of War, just like Castlevania. Also I'd like to combat to be sharper. Kratos was an angry brute and his fighting style matched his personality, I think the new protagonist could be given and entirely new personality and a slick and stylish fighting style.
As a long time fan of the series and an even bigger fan of Kratos they really need to give it a rest for a few years. While admittedly Ascension was a bit underwhelming it did provide some positive changes. I was getting a little tired of Kratos being constantly angry. I liked seeing the human side of him,the Kratos that still had conscience. Till then he was just a raging a**hole,though for good reason it was still boring. Have a good mix of both like in the original or the PSP iterations.
Game play wise they need to step it up a notch. I'm not saying they need to have DmC type of combat,but it would be nice for more variety in game play and combat. They could possible take a few ideas from Lords of Shadow on that front. While I wouldn't be totally against a free camera I'm not sure how well it would work in GOW style game. They have the fixed camera nearly perfected I feel. Again I defer to Lords of Shadow. In the next one they have free camera. They could possibly get a few ideas from that. I don't feel they need to go full open world,but I wouldn't mind a bit of non-linearity. It would feel a bit refreshing.
I won't lie I absolutely love the Greek mythology setting,as its my favorite mythology they need to change the setting up a bit. While I'm not a big fan of it I feel the next logical step would be Norse mythology. I feel the 2 have a lot in common and have equally as powerful if not more powerful gods than in Greek. It would be a challenge for Kratos. It could be something like the Norse gods have took notice of what he did to the Greek gods and they feel threatened and imprison Kratos,but he escapes steals Thor's hammer,girdle of strength and iron gloves. Just an idea. That or possibly Freyr's sword. Look it up the possibilities with that would be nearly endless.
nice ideas! I agree that it's probably time to at least take a break from the greek myths for a bit. Pretty well-tread territory at this point. There are a million ways to have Kratos "reincarnated" in another mythology, and doing so is a great chance to if not completely reinvent him, give him much more nuance than he had by the end of his war with the Greek Gods.
To be released on ps vita. As exclusive? Hell, I don't mind.
"God of War rules"
Like with Second Son and Killzone Shadow Fall, Sony is clearly interested in reboots/spinoffs more than straight-up sequels for PS4. I love this idea because it will give developers a chance to really rethink what makes the games great and what could be better in the future
I think God of War is a fantastic series but as others have said here, it's showing its age in places. Here are a few ideas for reinvigorating it:
I'd like to see slightly less linear stages — open world wouldn't work for God of War, I don't think, because the games are such JOURNEYS to new and different places, and you can't really do that in an open world. But think of the Last of Us: you have to go through the "funnel" the game developers laid out for you, but it was a huge funnel with lots of ways to get through many of the sections. I think GoW would benefit from being just slightly more "spacious," for lack of a better word.
It may be time to either retire Kratos or completely reimagine him. His quest for vengeance was, well, completed, and let's be honest, he was a complete psychopath by the end of 3. No coming back from that! We need just a smidge of humanity so we can care about Kratos, or whoever the protagonist will be.
I think a good way to either reimagine the character would be to have him "reincarnated" or something in the service of a new set of gods. And in fact *spoilers!!!!*
if memory serves, the God that is hinted at in the beginning of God of War: Ascension in that puzzle is from the hindu stories. Think that might tie in to a reincarnation narrative? A chance at redemption for Kratos? A new mission, a new purpose? A LOT of possibilities here.