God of War: Ascension Hot

You'd think Kratos would have had enough by now, but judging by the fact that it took him three attempts to clamber his way up to the realm of the gods and get his revenge on Zeus, we probably shouldn't be surprised to learn that even before he decided to take revenge on the entire pantheon of Greek Gods he had plenty of other adventures. Ascension is set before the rest of the series, and tells the story of how Kratos took on the three Furies at the behest of Ares. You'd be forgiven for not knowing any of this, however, because as the demo begins we're introduced to pretty much the same Kratos as ever - still sour-faced, tattooed, and as eager to spill blood as ever. Of course, if you're playing God of War for the story you're probably missing the point, but in any case don't be put off by the game's prequel status - this is still the same Kratos you're used to, and whilst the combat systems do feel to have been tightened a little it still plays the same as any other God of War game. That's not to say nothing has changed, though. Kratos has gained a couple of abilities. Firstly, he can now wield secondary weapons such as greatswords and spears, which do help to broaden his repertoire of moves and help add a little more variety to the game's admittedly slick combat. The other ability is primarily used for puzzle-solving; Life Cycle allows Kratos to freeze and rewind time in small pockets of the world. In the demo, he uses this to repair a crane demolished by the attack of a giant sea creature, enabling him to climb up the wreckage as he freezes time mid-destruction. It's pretty clever, and could potentially be put to use for some fiendish puzzles later in the game. Other than that, though, Ascension is pretty much God of War, same as usual. You can expect fluid combat, sharp controls, gorgeous visuals, and typically juvenile gory deaths - one notable example involving ripping an elephant man's head open and extracting it's brain. Kratos can rewind time, and it very much feels like this is what Santa Monica Studios are doing here as well - don't be surprised if you don't notice much difference at first between Ascension and any of the previous God of War games. More of the same, then, but when the same has proven so successful, who can blame Sony for treading the same familiar ground?