Was God of War: Ascension As Bad As I Remember?

[@JB2FROSTY]

What I can't believe nobody is mentioning (I am finally play Ascension at the moment) is how much this game has inspired the new games even all these years later. The shield attacks In ascension are identical, switching from ice to fire is identical to switching from blades to the leviathan axe, many runic attacks are just regular moves in Ascension, the magic for the ice blades is essentially identical to the Breath of Thamur attack, the orange crystals prevalent in Ascension is clearly the inspiration for the crystals from the pond of the Crater in Ragnarok's Vanaheim side story, and craziest of all, the spear weapon pickup in Ascension is practically one to one with the Draupnir spear in Ragnarok aaaall these years later! You throw it and it regenerates another into your hand immediately and then when you L1+O you rain it down from the sky to explode with yellow assets. This game, as a God of War fanatic, is so amazing to play. Not to mention, the amulet used to heal and decay objects by fast forwarding or rewinding time HAS to be the entire inspiration for the game Entropy Centre. This game is looked down upon but it is clearly a huge inspiration for games all the way to this day; even those made by it's very own devs. This game is fascinating and a very fun play if you are a true fan of the series. Oh and I just got to where he duplicate himself to complete puzzles. Literally a 1-to-1 of what they used for the girl in one of the levels in "It Takes Two". This game has inspired many games even over a decade later.

[@selinaw.9751]

THIS THIS THIS!! I didn't get to play this game until this year and it's so cool to be able to point out aspects from this game that have filtered into 2018 and Ragnarok. Ascension had to be born, die, and be cannibalized for newer games to live. I'll always appreciation Ascension for what it tried to do and I will continue to hyper-fixate on the bammin-slammin soundtrack!

[@ShatteredGlass916]

I think both the Shield and Spear attacks 1st introduced in GoW Ghost of Sparta tho. Kratos's Sparta Arms is the 1st weapon where those movesets were introduced. The shield charge (L1+O), repeated spear throws (R1+Square), repeated spear thrusts (L1+Square) and the spear 'rain' (L1+Triangle). GoW Ascension just reused the movesets

[@chikotowocky3538]

I played the game 5-6 months ago and I thought all the same things you said🔥🔥

[@nottoday9182]

Seeing kratos shake someone's hand in a prequel is 100% wrong. Only in the 2018 did he finally learn to show a tiny amount of humanity. This just feels forced and weird. I'm glad it changed and I wish more cowardly aaa devs would do this. It clearly pays off.

[@DecayingReverie]

Just one more game to go in the series, huh? Me think you're forgetting the unforgettable GOD OF WAR: BETRAYAL! In all seriousness though, I just binged through all six GoW retrospectives and it definitely has me wanting to go back and play at least the original trilogy.

[@MayorHairBear]

I thought about covering Betrayal actually but just couldn't bring myself to do it 😂 Stoked your enjoyed the series so far mate and I highly recommend giving the original trilogy a revisit! Just one game left to go and I can't wait

[@IAmTheEagleHTM]

Played it a month ago. It's basically prince of Persia with God of War reskin. It's pretty enjoyable

[@TheSantach]

GoW Ascension is actually not that bad. Amazing graphics. Gameplay was an upgrade but the whole going back and forth between the past and present should of been done better but it's overall good

[@haroeneissa790]

I also felt like this game had a few long moments without any story or cutscenes. With the end of the game as the biggest example. The story almost completely stops when you reach Delos and it doesn't really continue until you enter the lantarn. The Fury fight is the only exception as far as I remember.

[@iggydaking9117]

That sounds like a positive.

[@ChristianFrates1997]

Ascension is underrated.

[@sunsetman22]

very

[@kirayoshikage9218]

Its almost kill the series

[@jmamijr]

​@@kirayoshikage9218no it didnt😂

[@jeremy123577]

Yeah have extra weapons would have been better for this game each time get you a new element would have given you a new weapon Hades: scythe Ares: Two handed sword Zeus: Hammer or a light bolt Poseidon: trident

[@Bronze_Age_Sea_Person]

Scythe wasn't an Hades thing, his most known weapon .was the bident. GOW3's Hades' Claw could be seen as a sort of bident in a way

[@rdu239]

Things I observed in this game: 1. The blades of chaos got an aesthetic change; the sounds of the chains are more pronounced, and everytime it slams on enemies and in the grounds it feels very "bassy" thudding sound effects, like in DOOM 2016 and Borderlands 3.

[@jollama]

“Things I observed” Proceeds to only describe one thing 💀

[@LokiTricksterG]

My least favorite GOW title, and one I barely remember to be honest. That's not to say the game is bad or anything, but I'm sure everyone would agree it's a huge step down from 3. The only improvement I remember this game making is including the option to go back and select which chapter you wanted to play, which made getting trophies easier.

[@MayorHairBear]

I'm in the same boat, definitely my least favourite of the series but by no means a bad game

[@Pupppeteer]

Fantastic retrospective. I always wanted to play every god of war but I remember hearing this wasn't as good as the originals which surprised me because I felt like the combat in god of war games somehow made the mundaneness of hack n slash and made it something different. It's basically already got the recipe for perfection haha.

[@MayorHairBear]

Thank you so much mate! That's my biggest problem with Ascension because I know Santa Monica wanted to try something different to mix it up... but to mess with the formula was not the answer. Not a bad game though but yes, comparing it to the other games in this series, it doesn't stack up amazingly in my opinion.

[@Pupppeteer]

@@MayorHairBear it's one of those situations where do you mess with a perfect formula or not. Risk it getting stale or trying something different and not come close to the levels previously established.

[@MayorHairBear]

@@Pupppeteer exactly right! I admire that they attempted to mix it up but unfortunately they just didn't pull it off

[@bobafett8768]

So much of what you're saying is true. I'm a DIE HARD God of War fan. Been playing since the OG came out in 2005. I've replayed the trilogy games several times, replayed both PSP games & 2018, just beat Ragnarok a few days ago......but not once in 10 years now have I felt a shred of desire to replay Ascension. The story is so forgettable and the relics used throughout the game were more of a pain to use than fun

[@MayorHairBear]

I'm the exact same mate, even now I'd go back and play any of the games... but Ascension. I just have no desire to ever play it again

[@ThePreciseClimber]

I find it curious both Gears of War Judgment and God of War Ascension came out in March 2013, only a week apart. Two "GoW" prequels and follow-ups to GoW3 that acted as the big finale of their respective franchise up to that point. :P

[@sunsetman22]

while Ascension is definitely not the highest point in the series, one key story aspect is actually great imo: that the prophecy of the oracle ended up coming to pass anyway due to Kratos. for those of us who played God of War 3, we already know that it is Kratos himself who ends up exterminating the olympians and destroying Olympus himself, but Orkos and the oracle wrongly attribute all of this to the "current" God of War (Ares), and thus they help Kratos against the Furies and set him on his path of vengeance, not knowing that they doomed Olympus in the process. had it not been for them, the Furies would've probably killed Kratos, and the gods would've found another champion to take down Ares, and Olympus would still be standing. it really seems like Kratos was always destined to overthrow the gods from the beginning, and this game lets us see the first steps towards achieving that goal.

[@TimSmith-rk9sf]

Campaign was all right but the multiplayer was awesome. This is actually one of my favorite ones though. I still play this regularly for the multiplayer mode

[@MayorHairBear]

I do remember the multiplayer being a good time

[@ThePreciseClimber]

Still a shame they didn't include this with GoW3 on PS4. Since the previous 2 GoW re-releases included 2 games each.

[@jeremygray7435]

I hated the blade combat in this game. Filling up the meter to do basic combo’s from the other games? No thanks.

[@MayorHairBear]

I know, just made the combat less interesting

[@yautja89]

Really great stuff here. Agreed about the combat, I enjoyed the story and concept but I could never get my head around the fighting. To this day I still don't understand the magic mechanics and wonder why couldn't they have brought in a secondary weapon system, like improving the Arms of Sparta or a parred down Nemean Cestus.

[@MayorHairBear]

Glad you enjoyed the video mate. Yeah Ascension just fumbled the combat trying to mix it up with changing too much

[@xanniebeats8065]

really appreciate this series 🙏 by far the most digestible of any other GoW retrospectives I've watched. super high quality too. gonna start checking your other vids out, keep it up man!

[@MayorHairBear]

Thank you mate, that means a lot and I'm glad you're enjoying the videos!

[@LegionHimself]

This game is broken in so many ways, none of which appealing. Remember the pointless multiplayer? Remember the quiet desaturated sections that kinda sorta pretend to be Shadow of the Colossus? Remember that one parallel universe puzzle at the end that is completely incomprehensible and you just sleepwalk through it by hitting prompts? Remember the final boss battle that is clearly a repurposed Charybdis mid-game battle in a remastered Atlantis setpiece for no reason at all?

[@LegionHimself]

The problem with Ascension is that it desperately wants to be smart and thoughtful, with its nonlinear story and its attempts at introspection; but the problem is that God of War is at its core about an amoral brute in a world populated by idiot enemies. Ascension wants to be smart, but it cannot be, because God of War as a franchise is intrinsically dumb. Also see: those fucking Norse era games.

[@coolranch_handsome_doritoz]

I played GOW3 more times than I can remember, and would've platinumed it if it wasn't for a bug that kept my head of Helios kills from tracking towards the progress for the sunburned trophy😩 I was however able to fully platinum Ascension, and I gotta say, I enjoyed every last bit of it😁 I think the only 2 things I disliked about this game came from the aesthetics of both Kratos' imperfect abbs, and the Dragon-like boss's cheap looking design which lacked detail, making it seem like it was made out of clay or something😅...Everything else was a smash hit tho! And don't even get me started on the multiplayer!🤩 Honestly as a whole, I'd have to rank this game even higher than the very first one and Ghost of Sparta🏆 I know that'll be a very hot take for most, but when you consider all the elaborate boss fights and set pieces that were absolutely METAL, all while keeping in mind that this is a "PrEqUeL" game, not to mention being able to make your own unique champion of the gods, and play with your friends and others or solo...MAN! This one just takes it over the others easily for me😤 *edit: Oh, I geuss there was one more thing that might've been a disappointment about this game, and that was just the simple fact that I don't think my boi got laid this time around😂😭

[@chancylvania]

Lol online pass. That bs. The multiplayer was something I remember looking forward to back in the day. But I couldn’t get the game cause I was like 14

[@MayorHairBear]

Gotta love the online pass system 😂

[@BLACKMASKSOUL491]

It sucks

[@jeremy123577]

See all these how vid have me hoping Sony put the whole series on pc

[@frogglen6350]

This game was really scraping the bottom of the barrel with its Greek lore lol

[@MayorHairBear]

It does feel like that 😂

[@canadianturtle7240]

This game's greatest sin is the nullification of "parrying." I loved parrying in all the previous GoW games. It's almost like they wanted to discourage it in Ascension because it's practically rendered useless, and leaves you vulnerable to other enemies. In the previous games, a successful parry leads you to be invincible for a split second by knocking back all the surrounding enemies.

[@MayorHairBear]

The parrying or lack there of is a big problem in Ascension!

[@raresmacovei8382]

The parrying still does what you say. The problem is the fact it requires 2 buttons, so you miss a lot of parries in the one God of War that arguably needs it the most

[@caligula1872]

Played ALL God of War games and Ascension was one of the best for me.

[@HugoStiglitz88]

Tbh I really like when you make criticisms, it seems like you don't enjoy it. Total opposite of most youtube game reviewers who almost love to talk shit about games and just have a repulsive attitude. Can tell you actually enjoy games and have the bigger picture in mind when you are being critical of them

[@MayorHairBear]

I know exactly the type of reviewers you speak of 😂 Look for me, it's not as if I have a problem with pointing out issues or problems with games but the reason you'll tend to hear me reiterating that "I still had fun, or had a good time when playing" is because I'm usually not making a video on a game I don't like. Every game has problems but it's almost harder to justify why you enjoyed playing a game when you spend a good few minutes tearing it down. You hit the nail on the head, I enjoy the games I'm talking about and I don't want the negatives or cons to take away too much from the bigger picture that the game is still enjoyable.

[@arjienridderstap7770]

You guy's alway's complaining about a game this the best the best!!!! .l. other wise you guy's try to put a game in the way that you can't!!! Be happy that the god of war came in a memoria in your life to witness .l.

[@diegobrando7057]

Ascension is a good game but the timing was horrible

[@samuelgeaney7556]

This game needs a HD remaster like GOW3 got on PS4

[@Terra_94]

I’m interested to see your opinions on Halo1-5 retrospectives, Sega Dreamcast sonic adventure 1&2 retrospective & tomb raider reboot trilogy . A new subscriber

[@MayorHairBear]

Halo and the Tomb Raider Reboot trilogy are definitely future retrospectives I'd like to make, never played a Sonic title before though! But welcome to the channel mate, happy to have you here and I hope you enjoy your stay!

[@Terra_94]

@@MayorHairBear yea the Sonic & Halo fanbases are huge as heck! So don’t be afraid to tackle those games this year once you have time.

[@vmia159]

The problem is they should have released this game first then gow 3 but honestly I have more fun on this game than those new one.

[@badasahog]

The elevator fight ruined the whole game for me. I literally couldn't finish it

[@graytoast6139]

I agree with most of the video, about 90% just slightly on combat in a way. At first yes absolutely feel limited butt after a few times I thought of changing up the combat a bit. And surprise to me there's a bit more. Agian agree you are limited and holds you back too much and rage meter is cool but restricted too many moves like the 3 heavy hit and the full light hit combos. But if you experiment with the combat looking at the list there's a few great moves in my opinion like holding square or evade and press or hold x. There's more evade attacks and the hold attacks and there great in my opinion but damn I do miss ripping into enimes like God of war 3 and having more wepons too. But overal great video make me think a bit more from another veiw point from another fellow fan

[@MayorHairBear]

I actually do agree their is a lot of room for experimentation with combinations, grappling and evading but personally, I just couldn't seem to find this games flow state and I really did miss just that one other weapon outside of the chains. I'm glad you enjoyed the video though mate!

[@graytoast6139]

@@MayorHairBearshoot me and my bro found your channel 2 weeks ago on the first game and i was hooked on your channel. So thanks for reading my comments! Having a badass wepon in god of war mythos or a real greek myth wepons would be amazing too. Kinda blame multiplayer forced on them. If you know the multiplayer was a decision by sony so the glitches, combat, frame rates all that would have been better. Could have been one of the goats of the god of war series. Or been the same but they focused on the multiplayer first then single player. Basically the gameplay for the single player is like call of duty being a somewhat training for multiplayer but faster which is in my opinion is why it was not as good as it should be because the single player story was the bread of the whole series and combat was the butter.

[@MayorHairBear]

@@graytoast6139 very well put my friend, I agree they focused a bit too much on the multi-player for this one when the single-player is what made this series. Happy to hear you're enjoying the content mate and always happy to reply to comments!

[@AZBCDE]

By far the worst game in the series

[@joelramnarine]

Well for you okay that's your opinion but for me it's the best in the series

[@AZBCDE]

@@joelramnarine It being is the worst is what the majority of the fans think, just google it

[@melancholyman369]

Honestly they should transitioned earlier to the Viking Pantheon before those soyboys turned GOW into Last of Us. And ppl have attitude to say Kartos wasn't deep. Any plans on playing the Darksiders series? Tho imo only Darksiders 2 is worth playing. The first was bootleg Zelda and the third threw away all the mechanical depth the second introduced in favour of being generic Soulslike. Ugh😒

[@MayorHairBear]

Yeah I hate the argument that God of War 2018 was the only game to flesh out a softer side to Kratos. After the God of War Retrospective Darksiders is actually the next series we're tackling!

[@melancholyman369]

@@MayorHairBear nice brov, you've got a great taste.

[@kennykujo8603]

Amazing video I think this was incredible. Do you think you might do a retrospective on Gears of war?

[@MayorHairBear]

Thank you so much mate, happy to hear you enjoyed it! I'm a huge Gears of War fan so absolutely would love to cover the series in the near future

[@sergeantwombat]

hydra from gow2? you mean the kraken at the phoenix bridge?

[@SXJAYSX]

This is the only god of war game I skipped. I fully intended to play it, even once got it for free or really cheap years later. Still never got around to it.

[@MayorHairBear]

Yeah it sort of feels like it doesn't need to exist

[@joelramnarine]

​@@MayorHairBearwill if you think it shouldnt exist thats your opinion and I wont argue but for me it existed its the best ever no matter what

[@joelramnarine]

Well if you skip the game that your opinion I won't argue but for me I will play this game no matter what and love it

[@kratosasura5875]

Love your videos

[@MayorHairBear]

Thank you so much mate, that really does mean a lot!

[@martinfeldman4321]

The game is OK at best. I do remember hating it back in 2013. I wanted to know what happened after the end of GOW III, not this PSP type of prequel. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed both Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta, but expected a lot more from a console release. Sadly we had to wait 5 more years for a proper game.

[@ravipathak4614]

God of war Ascension is such a difficult to have one opinion on. Its combat is both massive upgrade over previous games as the blades have never felt better, rage meter is actually useful, you need to be more aware of arena and magic is more involved in the combat strategy. But at the same it's a massive downgrade as well considering the awful parry and no secondary weapon Overall, I really enjoyed the game. It may not be among my favourites but holds a special place in my heart. Kind of like Darksiders 3, Castlevania LoS 2 etc

[@michaelsparda8145]

You should watch how extreme gameplays do god of war Ascension

[@nemeru3352]

The new title is accurate

[@MayorHairBear]

I thought so too 😂

[@shallbeknown]

I hated the twins fight tbh I like the fight on the boat the best

[@beamersisland-8877]

im bias, I love this game too much , I got all the trophies, did the hardest difficulty and I loved all of it

[@MayorHairBear]

To each their own my friend, everyone enjoys what they enjoy and I'm glad you had such a great time with Ascension!

[@joshifan29]

🤣🤦‍♂️

[@gabrieledavidepavan2459]

Nice video.

[@MayorHairBear]

Thank you mate, I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[@HunterForHire422]

So I played every game in the series i missed a few months ago and have come back to get the platinum for each one and im nearly there...with one exception and yeah it's ascension. Hell I haven't even beaten it on hard. For some reason I just can't put up with the game despite not feeling any fatigue. I honestly think it's the bugs I encountered and the framerate breaks the fun. If this game ever got a remaster like 3 I'D BUY THAT IN A HEARTBEAT cause I wanna love this game and I want my journey to the platinum trophy to be something I enjoy not regret.

[@HunterForHire422]

Welp...ended up getting that platinum anyway. Was not terrible. But my least favorite mostly due to the bad performance

[@sunsetman22]

would you say that the performance issues are the one thing holding this game back from greatness?

[@InternetNinja100]

My favorite GOW game

[@JazzyUnderscoreTrumpeter]

I would honestly put this one below 2018 just in terms of disappointment, that said, really happy you covered this!

[@MayorHairBear]

Yeah Ascension was disappointing especially considering I went in hoping for a bit of an underrated gem. Happy to hear you enjoyed the video mate!

[@theriffwriter2194]

I get that graphics aren't everything but since God Of War 3 was made towards the beginning of the PS3's life cycle and Ascension was made towards the end, after they knew the hardware like the back of their hand, I think it's by far the best looking of the Greek saga. And this is why I like it as much, if not more than anything from that era. Yes the story isn't as epic but I've always considered narrative a distinct second to gameplay and by the time they got to Ascension, *that* aspect way so refined, polished and tweaked, it wins hands down. Fight me!

[@Maesterful]

It may look and sound great but the gameplay is assss, hence the name Assscension.

[@coreyjames9560]

I completed God of War Ascension on Easy difficulty, and for the plat I need to do it on Hard. But I'm taking a break before I do as I didn't like the story. The combat was tired, and it's a story that wasn't really necessary. I'll go back at some point but I'm not desperate to. I have platted the 5 mainline GoW games though so do I need to plat this one or should I leave it at 91%

[@jmamijr]

I was doing that until my ps3 gave out....I felt like I had no reason to live after that 😂

[@drkcrstl]

Ascension did at least one thing right: the environments. At least i really enjoyed the Oracle temple, the intro was amazing, theres a part in which i felt like i was traversing heaven when we had to deal with that "snake/dragon", etc. i dunno the game felt ... mystical

[@fuckhead0]

So in regards to the story needing to be told... I'm guessing it does kinda? I mean the Furies are Kratos' first really big kill and the story being structured with flashbacks is one of the few times the story and game have tried (emphasis on tried tho) to make us feel a little bit of Kratos' visions and nightmares instead of just telling it to us Combat wise I'm pretty much agreeing and I believe that what makes the gameplay feel off is that we have a mixed up formula while facing enemies too similar to what we're used to, I like the ideas they tried but I feel it needed a bit more time also on the framerate damn, I don't know how this game can look so good but it clearly shows that the PS3 wasn't ready for it, and to this day the audio bugs remain unfixed Overall I have somewhat of a soft spot for this game but yeah I do recognize that it's not the brightest example of the franchise