And here's my impressions. Spoiler alert I guess, but for a game this old that should be ok?

In nutshell: it's good. So if you want to skip ahead and rip me apart based on that feel free.

Otherwise I will let you know that yes, the pacing especially in the first half is atrocious. You seem to go from fetching one element to the next element without much motivation, much less explanation. When you get to the snakes (and the gliding!) I thought this is it, they have finally gone insane. But I had to admit the Manticore boss was well designed and fun. And Castor/Pollux continued that trend.

I also had to admit I was actually challenged, not just by those bosses but when I got the ice weapon and the goats kept spawning.

But I was still on the fence.

Then? Well then you get to the massive statue. And it was obvious that they had gone insane in a good way. This is SMS way to tell you they are in on the joke. I feel like that is a massive change in tone for a series as dead serious as GoW. And it started clicking for me from there. Who cares about story when you are swinging about and rebuilding a skyscraper of a statue. (btw I am a sucker for the mythology so even the little about the furies you get here still works for me)

I also like the way they changed some of the minigames to "no buttons", well you still click some buttons, but I guess just evading would also end them.

I was never one to parry in GoW games (unlike for example MGR:R, but I guess there you pretty much have to) so the combat felt very good to me. Perhaps better.

And man, the trial of Archimedes. What a bitch! But what a beatiful one! Like a real character action game, Ascension at this point has given you all the tools, and is able to ramp up the difficulty immensely. But you never feel out of control. Again, just like a real hack and slash game. Button mashing is definitely not the way to go here. Much much better than for example trial 10 in GoW1, where I felt you had to get lucky to get to the top. Here you have tools. Learn to use them. Could the game have done a better job easing you into using all the tools. Absolutely. You never even had a chance to use the eyes before this battle and I don't think the game even tells you they can be used in battle. But once you ease in and focus it all comes together.

So yea, I get all the negative reviews. But I don't think this game deserves them. It's good. The finishers are incredible. Well I wouldnt want my son to look over my shoulder while I gut a horse :), but if you are concerned about that kind of thing you already know not to play GoW. Just know it's a bit worse here.

So, if you're a fan of the series, or the genre even, and this one is available for cheap. give it a try. If you approach it with an open mind you might just like it.

Ah, one more thing in case any reads here :)

How can anybody think this is chronologically before CoO? He is a servant of the Gods there. And here he breaks his oath to them.

p.s. the story with the furies us pure genius. Check out the Orestaia if you care about the lore. I think it may have been an inspiration for GoW in the first place.

If you want to experience some really good GoW revisit the first games and learn to parry. I can totaly see how you think this game is on pair with the others if you never parried. Its like playing CoD without aiming down the sights.

I just really wasn't feeling it when I picked it up around release, I didn't play super far (about one third) but in some ways I remember it feeling like a step backwards after God of War 3, and it just wasn't doing a whole lot to impress me (beyond looking amazing visually), it soon fell into my backlog and I haven't touched it since (though I do intend to go back to it one day).

In terms of series with the initials GoW that received somewhat unnecessary sequels in the year 2013 I actually preferred People Can Fly's Gears of War entry. :P

Well I did parry. I parried Zeus :) Otherwise I tend to roll or hold block until I see an opening.

But I can totally see how that can frustrate you.

Me? I liked the bosses better. The likes of Poseidon or Colossus don't really interest me. I liked Theseus in 2, Hades in 3 (first form the phase where you swing around him was unnessessary), and pretty much every boss in Ascension. In terms of enemies the sirens can no longer be played basketball with, which makes them a nice challenge. The Amazon's were also a lot of fun to me. They seemed like they were like taken straight from a Ninja Gaiden game. More like actual 1:1 combat.

Regarding of the older games I think there is a liiiitle bit of nostalgia going on. I mean c'mon the puzzles in the first two games were more frustrating than challenging. And the ones here are actually quite well designed. And in terms of combat I have not seen a level as tense as the trials of archimedes. I had to play the over again because my save game was corrupted and they were tense as hell again. Not cheap tense like the spike battle in the labyrinth but actual skill based action game tense.

The story seems to get a bad rap too. When indeed the story told here is almost a necessary step between him serving the gods and breaking his ties to them. He HAD TO go through the furies for that. It is actually the closest thing to actual Greek drama we'll get out of the series. And it winks at you at the same time, which is a first for the series and to me the real game changer.

But I am not trying to put this over the other games. I love all of them. (CoO was the first I played so it will always be special) But this one does not deserve the bad reviews and overall cynicism it receives. Could they have focused less on MP and put that time into SP. Hell yea. But then They clearly needed more time for the first game too :)

@haniball: Playing the last boss in GoW1 (where you defend your family from clones) at God difficulty is as tense as it get in the series :)

Defending the scribe in two is also right up there up there :)

The gameplay was equally challenging and rewarding in those games where in Ascension you just run through the game at normal, see all the story and setpieces and then you are done with the game (like i get the impression you did with all the games). The combat doesnt leave you with an urge to bump up the difficulty and go for another run.

I do play games on hard difficulties. I beat Bayonneta 2 on IC. Revengeance on hard. Heck, I dabbled with Master Ninja in NGS2. But I never felt like the GoW games were challenging me to up the difficulty. (Well, I did play both the PSP games on hard. Blame it on long airplane rides.) Not titan or god difficulty though. Ascension I might almost be tempted to try. Because there is nothing cheap in there. it is just good old combat.

Call me casual but playing 1 on hard wouldn't occur to me because that would mean having to go through the spike crate, rotating blade balancing, rotating pillar etc. And btw, the clones was what I would call "escort mission tense". Even on normal :)

And the spike room in 3 on harder difficulties doesnt sound fun either. Or bouncing the sirens longer perdiods of time in the room after :)

@haniball: Im not trying to call you casual im just saying the big letdown for me with Ascension is the revamped "multiplayerfriendly" combat and mainly the broken parrymechanic. If you are ok with that you can have a good experience with the game (as you just had).

I totaly understand and agree with you about "escort mission tense" but the key difference is that at least you aint fighting the controll latency like you do in Ascension. And few things has made me feel as good as i did when i finally beat that shit, i was the king of the world for weeks :)

@rethla: Sounds like the way I felt after 4star'ing the castle with Leon XD

But on topic, the combat felt tight to me. I get the point on parrying but help me, what are some typical situations where you would want to parry. I guess the Amazons would be an example. A Minotaur? But why not block them, wait out the combo and go to town? Or evade and hit their back?

i dont like the series at all.after playing the devil may cry series and other games in the genre,god of wars combat just couldnt do it for me.i dont like kratos as a character either,which is surprising because i usually love his type of character.i just get bored playing these games,and just want to play another game in the genre like ninja gaiden sigma or devil may cry.whats funny is ascension wasnt liked by many,and yet it looks more appealing to me then the other games in the series.i dont know why that is though.

@haniball: All of those situations could be parrytime. Yes you can roll or move out of the way and wait for an opening but parrying will interrupt your opponent and give you an rewarding counterattack (upgraded its both a small stun and AoE). Get you in on the action and keep that combometer rising. At harder difficulties its essential for crowdcontrol, if you just block you will quickly be cornered by 10 enemies raining blows on you nonstop.

Mastering the evades and being highly mobile is ofc. equaly important, as is the invisibility frames, grappling and magics. I love those games :)

@nasp: I have spent more time with NG and Bayonetta too. My recent favorite was probably mgr:r. Try that if you haven't. And from some of the battles in ascension i get a similar feeling.

But it sounds like i will need to try my hand at parrying. Like i said, i had to for zeus and his gang of clones, but there was spamming involved tbh. And that clearly would not work with the new system.

I will try both and report back :)

So I started a new profile on hard this morning in Ascension. For a quick morning session. I played through to chapter 4 (completed the second encounter with the giant insect, after it kills the prisoner).

And: I am not sure I can tell a difference. If you play any character action game on hard. Bayonetta, DmC, mgr:r, NG, you will encounter remixed enemy waves and bumbed up AI. Here? Maybe the enemies hit a little harder? There is certainly no need to parry. And if the answer is a) just see whats coming up in later chapters b) titan is the real hard. Then the answer to both is: play chapter one of any Ninja Gaiden on Mentor and you will have a pretty good idea whether you can make it through (*). That is how you do difficulty is done right. Or DmC, where they mix up the immunities to really light up the dancefloor on SoS.

So, in a nutshell, while I really liked the game, imho, the replay isn't there.

(*) here I already know if I play through to the trials I will probably throw my controller. But also will have a really great fight. That is the only thing that might keep me going. But for now I'll switch over to III and gave that a try on hard.

EDIT: system wont let me post again but I said I'd look at III next and I did. Short morning session again. Up to the first save point.

the beginning of III on hard is a very different animal because a) you start all powered up, so the regular enemies are a complete non issue. and b) most of the first level is a gimmick "epic" boss battle. With 4 phases no less. The last of which I had trouble reading and resorted to jumping around wildly and spamming magic inbetween. Worked quite well :) Then you come up to the Horseman (centaur?) and I got a stick rotation qte and thought to myself how do people like this better. Then I realized, that is probably where you people would parry. See, I can still learn :)

UPDATE: continued Ascension on hard up to where you get the fire weapon this morning. I understand why players would wish for a quick way to control the crowd in such battles. Actually one of the boss battles before also had enemies swarm you while you were trying to get the boss to drop the platform. Grab, throw works alright but it's not as snappy as a quick counter. I guess it's more about the small aoe and breaking out of a swarm then the one on one parry in mgr:r or .souls.