God of War: Ascension

Ascension artwork (Not Final)

God of War: Ascension is the next installment in the popular God of War series, set for a 2013 release. It is the seventh game of the series, and will chronologically be the first chapter in the series, forming part of a saga with vengeance as a central theme.

It will predate Kratos' entire reign as the god of war, and supposedly features a timeline roughly six months after Kratos' unintentional killing of his wife and daughter. If confirmed, possible flashbacks could also occur, seeing as how this timeline follows his allegiance to Ares, which was already addressed in the original God of War.

It will mark a new chapter in Kratos' story, as its listing notes to "Join Kratos as he takes his first steps on a now legendary quest for freedom, redemption, and the clarity to avenge his family in the most ambitiuous God of War adventure in the series so far."

Story

Single Player

According to eurogamer, the single-player will feature a "revamped" combat and weapon system, "promptless" mini-games and new puzzles. Sony stated the game will offer "fluid, life-like characters, dynamic lighting effects, and world-changing scenarios", although the story is apparently shorter than previous games.

Taking place right before the events of God of War: Chains of Olympus and God of War, it's been 6 months since Kratos murdered his wife and child due to Ares' trickery. Having sworn off his oath to the God of War and refusing to fight for him or do his bidding any longer, the three great Furies, Goddess of Punishment, Justice and Torment have been sent by Hades to capture Kratos and imprison him in a Titan-sized prison for the living damned, where he is tortured for months on end, driven insane, and constantly haunted by the visions of the night he lost everything dear to him.

Fueled by a desire and lust for revenge against Ares, along with a need to redeem himself among the other Gods to earn salvation, Kratos manages to break free of his imprisonment and sets out on a journey to murder the Furies. If he can successfully murder them he can sever all ties to Ares without consequence. Throughout this journey Kratos will battle famous mythical beasts and icons of ancient Greece, as well as his own plunge into madness as he fights his constant nightmares, further testing his humanity and his determination for salvation and redemption.

Multiplayer

The multiplayer part of Ascension, will feature multi-level arenas, where several players can fight one another. One specific level requires players to kill each other, while a chained "megaclope", Polyphemus, interferes whenever players come too close. The multiplayer will most likely not allow split-screen possibilities, but instead pan out whenever needed to actively show all participants.

Items and abilities

Weapons

• Blades of Chaos: The cursed blades given to Kratos by Ares as symbol of his servitude. These carved swords look quite similar to the Blades of Athena in God of War III, only silver instead of gold.
• Enemy weapons: Kratos can carry now the weapons of his opponents as secondary weapon. In the E3 demo, Kratos steals the sword of a satyr and later, the spear of another group of satyrs.

Magic

• Life Cycle: Life Cycle is a new magic or relic used in God of War: Ascension. It is a green beam that can wrap time around the object or enemy it hit. Kratos uses this ability to reconstruct a elevator, which is destroyed by the Charybdis. When he used on enemies, they are freezed in time for a while; so if they are in the sky, they remain there as long as the magic works.
• Elemental Magic: Kratos' magic in the game is based on the four elements: Air, Earth, Fire and Water. These will be also connected to his rage ability. Each magic has own unique rage ability.
  • The first magic, shown in the E3 demo is a Circle of Fire: If Kratos presses his blades in the ground, a circle of fire ignites around him and damages or kills his enemies.
• New Rage ability: Like mentioned above, the rage abilities will be connected with the different magic.
  • The first rage ability is the element Fire, Kratos can cover himself in fire and have more devastating attacks, quite similar to Rage of Titans. But he can also set his enemies on fire with his swords or use all his rage to create a living bomb out of his enemy.
  • The rage ability is automatically activated when the meter becomes full, this is said to be so the player does not neglect the rage ability in combat.

Enemies

Common Enemies

• Satyrs: The satyrs have new design in the upcoming game, looking even more goatlike and are muscular.
• Satyr General: This Satyr is bigger than his fellow satyrs and wields a bigger sword. He commands them, similar to the Centaur General leads the Olympus Sentries and Legionnaires.
• Hades Talos: This new type of Talos are dressed in similar style of the God of the Underworld. Their head is also styled like helmet of Hades and as they are activated, their hammers start to glow like heated metal. They are also killed in exact the same way as the Stone Talos in GoW III.
• Elephantaur: This new monstrosity makes a similar appears as Geryon and is based on the unused concept art of the Berserker from GoW III. Kratos kills him by cutting open his head and expose his brain.
• Cyclops Berserker: In leaked footage of the multiplayer of God of War: Ascension (see below for the clip), we see one of Poseidon's champion prepare himself for battle and is attacked by a grey/green cyclops, wielding the same club as the Berserkers in GoW III. More likely they will appear in the single player as well.

Bosses

• Charybdis: Charybdis is shown in the E3 demo of God of War: Ascension. Looking similar to the Kraken, she has large tentacles and tries to kill Kratos on several occasions during the demo. At the end of the demo, we see Kratos running over one of the creature's tentacles and charge to her giant mouth underwater. If one looks very carefully, one can see parts of something like a horn, similar to the Scylla in God of War: Ghost of Sparta.

Background

Following Amazon's leak, game director Todd Papy wrote on the official PlayStation Blog, promising 'a glimpse of what’s in store for God of War: Ascension' during a livestream event, which took place on Monday, April 30. A new God of War: Ascension page on the Sony Playstation facebook page also holds a trailer, and pre-order link to BestBuy.

Game director Todd Pappy has previously worked as design director on God of War III. He now takes a development role previously filled by David Jaffe, Cory Barlog and Stig Asmussen.

The game will be released on March 12th 2013, according to its official PlayStation page. Together with the game, the special and collector's edition will be released.

The Collector's edition wil feature: an exclusive 8" Kratos Statue, a Premium Steelbook case, Official Game Soundtrack (Digital Version), PS3 dynamic theme, PSN Avatar Pack, Multiplayer Double XP Unlock and a pass for future DLC content. The prize is $79.99

The Special edition will feature the same but without the 8" Kratos Statue and the DLC-pass.

Trivia

• The announcement trailer is voiced by the Titan Gaia. It tells about a time during Kratos' life before he was made the "Ghost of Sparta", when he was no longer bound in blood.

External Links

• Guardian article (detailing multiplayer experiences)
• David Jaffe discusses Ascension (IGN article)
• Gamespot Multiplayer reveal article

Gallery

• The Amazon product page
• Teaser Banner
• Title Card (at the end of the teaser)

1/15

Videos

	Single Player Gameplay Trailer
Multiplayer Gameplay Trailer

God Of War Ascension Furies trailer. PAX Prime 2012