So I look at the review scores on metacritic, and being a GoW fan, I thought they were being unfair in saying that "it's the same old GoW" and gave it a low score. However, upon playing the thing, I recognize that it really deserves those scores, or even lower.
1.) The story is too short, and it's about something even shorter - the plot is sooooo long-winded that it's ridiculous. It details such a small part of Kratos' life, but the game forcibly renders it to go on longer and longer. There are far too many pointless areas and there are just too few story details that you can't get into what he's doing. In fact, halfway through, I didn't even understand what the hell I was doing anymore.
2.) Aside from being short, the story is simply bland and pointless - compared to other GoW games where you're actually doing something epic, such as in GoW 3 where you fought the gods themselves, this time you're just fighting 3 crazy women who keep yelling the same thing over and over: "death for you!". There's no epic boss battle to be had here, because the furies are 3 pay grades below what we've seen Kratos fighting.
3.) There's no variety in the weapons anymore - yea, Kratos gets 4 elements to his blades of chaos. Unfortunately, there's no clear cut definition on how the other 3 would be useful. They act in almost exactly the same way and the world weapons you pick up just don't cut it. You're basically blades of chaos guy with no other option.
4.) Jaggies, low definition textures, rushed production everywhere - in GoW 3, you could really go close up on Kratos and you wouldn't see anything wrong with him. In Ascension, he looks like a mess. There are very few moments where you'd be wowed by the graphics, and oftentimes you get to wonder why they put so little effort in the polish.
5.) Multiplayer is fun but not varied enough for the purchase - The single player story can be completed in about 8 hours if you're going around looking for everything. That's 8 hours of no variety nor epic moments. So basically you're buying the game for the multiplayer, but that alone isn't enough for your 60 bucks.
Conclusion: Disappointment. I was at launch day and I was in line. This time the reviewers have it right. It just isn't all that good. It's still GoW, it still has non-stop action, but it has less of everything we've seen before. I understand it's not a numbered game in the series, and it's more like a spin-off, but Santa Monica really tarnished their reputation with this one.
7.5/10
edit:for the people talking game length:
that's not the point of what i'm saying. the point is that the game does so little in the 8 hours it has. you spend so much time doing random battles with insignificant foes and so little time fighting really epic opponents and having more significant story plots. there were essentially just 3 bosses, and you fight them over and over again in different forms. you tell me how many boss battles and how varied were they in the previous god of war games. those games packed a lot of entertainment in 8 hours, far more than ascension.
it's not about game length. it's about the quality of stuff they cram into the thing.
