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God of War Ascension |OT| Gods up, Foes down

I went back and started GoW3 because I never finished it. Maybe its just me but I feel its better looking than Ascension. Up to The Forge with the Giant and the game is just super impressive looking after three yrs.

I know by technical terms, Ascension is better but its nowhere near as polished as 3.
 
I finished this with 2500 red orbs short of maxing everything out. Is there a way I can farm them without replaying the whole thing? The last few chapters were pretty sparse.


As well as what's stated, you ice weapon will generate big red orbs after you've frozen an enemy (Rage mode and magic) and killed them, which can help. I just made it with 70 orbs left to spare. I think I got most chests, bar the odd one and used freeze a bit in places but I didn't particularly farm any spot.
 

Carnby

Member
Playing Archimedes Trial right now........

Combat design is so fucked up, so broken. Small area, no "ennemies pattern" breaking moves, stupid gorgones attack range............. Absolutely ruins my run....

Fuck the combat designers, fuck the level designer.........

I was having a ball untill then, I think the game is great, but wtf at tis trial?

I was the same way until I took someone's advice. Use your body double and time stop magic as much as possible. Gorgons give you magic so use and save magic for phase 2. also use the jump and hold triangle attack a lot. Do this and you will find it easy.
 

Mik_Pad

Banned
I went back and started GoW3 because I never finished it. Maybe its just me but I feel its better looking than Ascension. Up to The Forge with the Giant and the game is just super impressive looking after three yrs.

I know by technical terms, Ascension is better but its nowhere near as polished as 3.
I have played GoW 3 about 5 times and Ascension looks better in every way, imo.
In terms of polish I agree with you GoW 3 is more polished than Ascension.

I loved the snakes sequence before entering Delphi's temple it was very impressive specially the ice cavern sections, oh and the manticore the changes in animations when you cut one of it's wings were really good.
 
I went back and started GoW3 because I never finished it. Maybe its just me but I feel its better looking than Ascension. Up to The Forge with the Giant and the game is just super impressive looking after three yrs.

No way man. You may prefer the art style, they are fairly different, but I did the exact same run a few days ago after reading some of the claims said here, and if we are only talking graphically, it is not a better looking game. Also on the art thing, GoW 3 is soooo dark compared to Ascension.

Agreed though, it still holds up fantastically. That's part of what made me so surprised people have been so down on them getting another GoW on ps3 - they worked on that engine for years, it still looks stunning, why abandon it without even a second game, before moving onto ps4? IT's crazy, because it looks so good.
 
I have played GoW 3 about 5 times and Ascension looks better in every way, imo.
In terms of polish I agree with you GoW 3 is more polished than Ascension.

I loved the snakes sequence before entering Delphi's temple it was very impressive specially the ice cavern sections, oh and the manticore the changes in animations when you cut one of it's wings were really good.

I'm really not so sure. I love ascension and think the art is incredible, but I can't really think of anything in ascension that matches Gaia's complexity and texture work. It's literally breathtaking.

Gaia01.jpg


Edit: google image search kind of failed on finding a reasonably sized one, this will have to do
 

Creamium

shut uuuuuuuuuuuuuuup
Started yesterday and played til I got to the
big hourglass chamber
.

After the negative response my expectations were somewhat lowered, only to find a kickass GoW game (at least so far). I'm definitely getting a GoW2 vibe as well, lots of different locations in the few hours I played. The changes in the combat take some getting used to, but it's actually a good thing. To do big damage you can't get hit, and even on normal it's not always that easy. After the first hours I didn't get a full rage meter that often... I'm actually looking forward to playing this on hard, because you'll have to keep up that rage meter there. On normal, it's probably the hardest GoW to date, but I'm not sure.

Soo... Varied level design, a different take on the combat ánd a gorgeous looking game on top of that. Seriously, Ascension looks insane. It's better looking than III for me, game seems more colourful and there's more variation in the settings.

Complaints? Well the camera being too far in certain spots is definitely an issue. They actually do this multiple times mid combat, which is annoying.
That and sooo many panovers. I was reading this thread when it was brought up and I can't unsee it. Every goddamn room.

All in all pretty minor complaints, I'm loving this game and I'm surprised by the tepid reception tbh.
 

Skidd

Member
The puzzles in this game are some of the best I have played in a long time
Perhaps I'm secretly a genious or something but I found most of the puzzles pretty straighforward. I just kept doing things in what I though was the most logical way and solved them by accident. I never fully understood HOW I solved them. The last couple of ones are the ones that make you think but even those I solved by accident.
 

Kak.efes

Member
For all the commotion over the trials, I actually managed to get passed it on my second attempt (largely due in part to the advise shared in this thread). The cerberus + satyr section in GoW3 was a way bigger pain in the ass for me personally.
 
I should have maxed out my blades the trial is kicking my assssssssss

Again, spam uroburos and Orkos magic. I sort of forgot I had them on my first playthrough.

Perhaps I'm secretly a genious or something but I found most of the puzzles pretty straighforward. I just kept doing things in what I though was the most logical way and solved them by accident. I never fully understood HOW I solved them. The last couple of ones are the ones that make you think but even those I solved by accident.

It's not really that they're that hard to solve, it's more just how massive and satisfying and solid the mechanics of them are. I'm not talking about the lever pulling etc, I mean actually watching the environmental transformations occur. To actually have the back half of the game be
a massive re-assembly puzzle on the scale of the Steeds of Time was just hugely satisfying.

I feel like a lot of people are missing all the great shout outs to GOWs past.
 
Again, spam uroburos and Orkos magic. I sort of forgot I had them on my first playthrough.



It's not really that they're that hard to solve, it's more just how massive and satisfying and solid the mechanics of them are. I'm not talking about the lever pulling etc, I mean actually watching the environmental transformations occur. To actually have the back half of the game be
a massive re-assembly puzzle on the scale of the Steeds of Time was just hugely satisfying.

I feel like a lot of people are missing all the great shout outs to GOWs past.

I'm spamming them believe me. Orkos seems pointless and leaves you completely open to attack. The damn electric biatches are ruining me even with 80% health by the time I get to them
 

hey_it's_that_dog

benevolent sexism
I'm spamming them believe me. Orkos seems pointless and leaves you completely open to attack. The damn electric biatches are ruining me even with 80% health by the time I get to them

You can block everything the enemies can do to you throughout the entire trials, except for snake grabs, which don't hurt much.

Use uroborous to give yourself a window to use Orkos, then just block, or use jump+hold triangle on the slowed-down gorgon. You can also spam square square triangle with soul element to keep the gorgons at a distance while doing decent damage.

Once the electric ladies show up, use lightning magic repeatedly. It will knock some of them over the edge. Always use the R1 kill when possible as it will restore your magic. Then use urobouros and Orkos to clean up. You don't need magic for the second or third phases. You can use Orkos and block EVERYTHING if you want to be very cheap and patient about it.

It's still easier said than done. Even knowing all this, it took me forever to beat it on Hard.
 
You can block everything the enemies can do to you throughout the entire trials, except for snake grabs, which don't hurt much.

Use uroborous to give yourself a window to use Orkos, then just block, or use jump+hold triangle on the slowed-down gorgon. You can also spam square square triangle with soul element to keep the gorgons at a distance while doing decent damage.

Once the electric ladies show up, use lightning magic repeatedly. It will knock some of them over the edge. Always use the R1 kill when possible as it will restore your magic. Then use urobouros and Orkos to clean up. You don't need magic for the second or third phases. You can use Orkos and block EVERYTHING if you want to be very cheap and patient about it.

It's still easier said than done. Even knowing all this, it took me forever to beat it on Hard.

3 hours couldn't do it :p

I'm restarting two chapters back to alocate my red orbs toward my blades and Orkos. Stupid mistake on my part.

Perhaps I'm secretly a genious or something but I found most of the puzzles pretty straighforward. I just kept doing things in what I though was the most logical way and solved them by accident. I never fully understood HOW I solved them. The last couple of ones are the ones that make you think but even those I solved by accident.

The hour glass one took forever to click but when it did I felt like I had discovered the algorithm for time travel
 
Sweet mother God of War 3 is absolutely incredible. I'm replaying it again (havent in a couple years) and I'm stunned how great it looks, it really destroys Ascension in all visual levels. I definitely think God of War 3 is the best looking game of this generation...

Replay it very slowly and just look at everything, amazing. I didn't even realize that Ares was burried under the ice the first time I played it, haha.
 

Loudninja

Member
Sweet mother God of War 3 is absolutely incredible. I'm replaying it again (havent in a couple years) and I'm stunned how great it looks, it really destroys Ascension in all visual levels. I definitely think God of War 3 is the best looking game of this generation...

Replay it very slowly and just look at everything, amazing. I didn't even realize that Ares was burried under the ice the first time I played it, haha.
Eh no it does not come on now.

I love GOW 3 and it look fantastic, but Ascension looks better.
 
Eh no it does not come on now.

I love GOW 3 and it look fantastic, but Ascension looks better.

I'm sorry, it does!

They definitely utilized a different shader engine that gave ascension a much more consistent and solid look as well as revamping the lighting. They gave Ascension a much more subtle/realistic tone and a lot of the level design was thought out better.

But they really pushed it hard w/ GoW3 and all aspects of the design really out shine Ascensions. Also the pacing and composition of GoW3 is truly beautiful and they really pushed the quiet moments to the intense portions well. Everything in GoW3 was much more dramatic and had a lot more punch (which is what they had to do for that scene) and you just can't beat all those titans vs all those gods at mount olympus.

I say this with some insanely talented friends that worked on Ascension and I feel like they are amazing designers. But, you can't beat the GoW3 scope...
 

TEH-CJ

Banned
I'm sorry, it does!

They definitely utilized a different shader engine that gave ascension a much more consistent and solid look as well as revamping the lighting. They gave Ascension a much more subtle/realistic tone and a lot of the level design was thought out better.

But they really pushed it hard w/ GoW3 and all aspects of the design really out shine Ascensions. Also the pacing and composition of GoW3 is truly beautiful and they really pushed the quiet moments to the intense portions well. Everything in GoW3 was much more dramatic and had a lot more punch (which is what they had to do for that scene) and you just can't beat all those titans vs all those gods at mount olympus.

I say this with some insanely talented friends that worked on Ascension and I feel like they are amazing designers. But, you can't beat the GoW3 scope...

God of war 3 looks amazing. But there is something about the lighting model in ascension that just tips it over the top for me. Looks incredible.

also....anyone else love you can play as the multiplayer model in the campaign? :)

I know I am going to get a lot of hate for this. But he should of been the main character instead of kratos hahah. I just really like the character model.

playing the campaign with the skorpian armour is awesome btw.
 

BadAss2961

Member
Is just me......or is ascension really short? wtf
8 hours, but never a dull moment.

MP is addictive. My best moment so far was stomping some guy's face in as my character shouted "THE GODS FAVOR ME!"

I'll be playing for maybe a couple hours tonight. PSN ID is in my profile if anyone wants to add some friends.
 

angels.phillipe

Neo Member
Just finished. Never played the PSP ones since i never really had the chance. This one is the worst GoW game of consoles so far, all my friends share my opinion, doesn't feel like its made by the same team of the others.

I never thought i'd find a GoW game unfun, but this is. I'll play trough III once again.

The MP is fun but the matchmaking is broken, please hire someone competent to do this shit SSM.
 
So I just made it up to the trials and I'm going to have a break. I'm really struggling to even finishing this off....

It can be so dull, uninspired and repetitive compared to previous God of War’s. The fights drag on way too long.
 
The MP is fun but the matchmaking is broken, please hire someone competent to do this shit SSM.

YES!

I sat for nine minutes while it was searching for players; and when it finally did find 7 others, it constantly dropped the 7th player for 5 minutes before ultimately dropping everyone and starting all over...

I then turned it off, never to attempt to play it again until, hopefully, it is fixed.
 

TEH-CJ

Banned
Holy Christ the multiplayer has hard locked my ps3 atleast 20 times now. No I am not exaggerating, its been that many times. This is Fucking ridiculous.

I am thinking I should stop playing this until they sort this shit out with a patch.
 

Skidd

Member
Survey posted on the official forums.

Perfect opportunity to vent on the multiplayer. And I swear, I'm trying my hardest to enjoy it, and it's not like I don't know the mechanics.

1v1, I can manage, but throw in one more player and the chances of me rage quiting increase exponentially. Constantly being grappled or either combo'd into one only to be combo'd again because you're either stuck in a corner or simply can't get out of it. Being constantly vulnerable takes the fun out of it for me. This usually forces me to rely on hit 'n run tactics, which is no fun. How often do you see people using basic combos?

Getting swept off my feet by a basic combo and being grappled in the middle of it is also one thing I can't wrap my head around because I can't perform such a thing.

People use specific weapons only because the specials throw people in the air. Right now there are too many variables, large battles become heavy attack/special only, grapplefests. For lack of a better word, clusterfucks.
 
The trial. I might actually stop playing it right here. It's just not fun, and it seems a bit unbalanced. At times you can't even see lol

Or I just suck and this isn't about a little bit of luck.
 

rdrr gnr

Member
The trial. I might actually stop playing it right here. It's just not fun, and it seems a bit unbalanced. At times you can't even see lol

Or I just suck and this isn't about a little bit of luck.
Use your two items religiously. If you can enter the second round with 1/3 of your health, you win. Because the final rounds require no magic and virtually no health.
 
Is just me......or is ascension really short? wtf

My file ended up at 7hrs 57mins on normal. I just replayed the psp games and they both came in at about 4hrs, so pretty much what you'd expect from a modern day action game. This comes from a player who hunts each nook so I'd believe people could get through it in six, longer than 8 on higher difficulties. Played up to the hades battle in 3 the other day and only took me an hour and a half, so feels pretty much par the course, though I can't say for sure how long GoW3 would take me. Again, you might argue it's short in general, but not really as a point in comparison to the other games.
 

TTG

Member
I thought of putting this off until after I played through Bioshock Infinite, fired it up just to see what's what and I'm completely drawn in again. It's everything I love about GOW, so I won't go into details, but I have to mention that the visuals are exceptional. I know people bring up Crysis 3, but if both are running on the ps3, there's really no comparison. It's smooth, image quality is great and it's flat out jaw dropping.

I played through the first 3 games in a row(went through the collection right as 3 was coming out) on hard and I'm glad I went for normal this time around. On one hand, yea I haven't died in combat yet, but I also don't have to be so conservative. I can start juggles in crowds and just generally explore the combos. A couple of questions:

I seem to be freezing guys at random. I don't even have the Poseidon blade selected, how do I actually do it intentionally?

Also, are the number of enemies and types of enemies affected by the difficulty? I'm still only one session in(riding the snakes), but I've only seen mini bosses get introduced and mostly one at a time. God Of War games are usually good about sprinkling guys around, I swear I've seen like 5 mini bosses now and it's been 1 on 1 fighting.
 

Sidzed2

Member
Eh no it does not come on now.

I love GOW 3 and it look fantastic, but Ascension looks better.

Gonna have to agree that GoW3 just flat out looks better across the board, save for some occasionally drab art design. I just think it moves smoother, looks sharper and the camera frames the action far better than in Ascension.
 

Sorral

Member
I'll give a go again tomorrow. My spirit is broken right now.

Be patient in the second and third rounds/waves. Block often and don't rush. The blue women can chip away at your health too fast if you rush. The same can be said in the third wave from Hades's minions. As MuseManMike said, use your items as much as you can. If they are fully upgraded, then even better especially the amulet.

On the MP stuff, I just got to lv30 ares today. Burned through it from lv12. My hades lvl is at like 8 now. Now, I really want some MP DLC and more maps. The 2vs2 team deathmatch is also great and a lot of fun.
 

Skidd

Member
Survey submitted. Here are the three things I'd like to see changed.

1) Remove the ability to grapple (R1) onto a evading (RS) player. It is a essential part of the combat and your only tool to avoid heavy attacks, and players should not be punished for using it succesfully. Should your enemy try to flee, you can still run after them or grapple them if they try to sprint.

2) Parry should repel all attacks (except rage and specials if #3 is implemented!). It's already a risky action to perform so the ability to at least block heavy attacks would greatly improve players' defence.

3) Significant increase in special attack (L1+) cooldowns. Right now they are used propably even more than regular attacks. These should be your trump cards, not something you can just spam. A cooldown timer similar to items (40-60 seconds) would force more players to engage in basic combat, creating longer lasting, more intense encounters and making them less chaotic.
 

Psykotik

Member
so i have all the god of war games, even the PSP ones.

thing is i've only completed GOW1 and haven't started or finished GOW2, GOW3, GOWCOO and GOWGOS.

thinking about buying ascension but would i miss out on huge story bits if i skip playing all the others ones and dive right into this one?
 

Sorral

Member
Link

Hilariously useless. No matter which in-game setting I use or how I feed my sound (5.1, 7.1, Headphones over my sound setup/headphones, stereo over TV-speakers), it's broken.

Mine works and unquiet after I move the slider between stereo/headphones etc. My setup is only HDMI/stereo though.


so i have all the god of war games, even the PSP ones.

thing is i've only completed GOW1 and haven't started or finished GOW2, GOW3, GOWCOO and GOWGOS.

thinking about buying ascension but would i miss out on huge story bits if i skip playing all the others ones and dive right into this one?

GoW2, GoW3 and GoS all got awesome stories. I don't think it will be a good idea to skip them alltogether because Kratos's main story and quest is in GoW1, 2 and 3 while GoS fills the gap between 1 and 2. CoO is before 1. Unless you mean to play them after GoW:A which is a prequel and it won't be a harm to play it now.

Might be harder to go back to GoW2 from playing Ascension because of that jump in graphics. It wasn't an issue for me to replay GoW1 after playing GoW3 though.
 
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