God of War Ascension, going to the ends of the Earth to find redemption

In God of War Ascension Kratos is on a mission to break his oath to Ares, the god of war. It started with a difficult boss fight, and a prison escape, but it wasn’t just any jail. He escaped from a prison made out of a living giant, the hundred armed Hecatonchires. Then he traveled through the port village of Kirra, in the search of an oracle to guide him. No soothsayer was as famous as the Oracle of Delphi in actual Greek mythology. I was grateful for the studio for doing such a deep dive into Greek history. I never imagined what the temple would have looked like, or how one would even reach it. Sony Santa Monica decided to set it in the peaks of a mountain. A frozen breeze gave motion to the environment. But so did gigantic mechanized snakes that powered the bridge leading to the temple. It was certainly a fresh take on stage design. There were a lot of enemies leading up to the temple, and an amazing encounter against both a Chimera, and a Manticore.

Once inside the temple Kratos discovers that some unscrupulous twins (labeled the False Profits by the developers) have sequestered the Oracle. They were ordering slaves around in her absence, and having them build tributes to themselves. When I saw the name Castor I instantly knew who they were. The brothers Pollux, and Castor were experienced sailors, and renowned horsemen. They had been featured in a few classic mythologies. Their most famous appearance was as Argonauts, traveling with Jason. Pollux was a demigod, the son of Zeus, and Queen Leda of Sparta. His brother Castor had the same mother, but his father was Tyndareus, the King of Sparta. Castor was mortally wounded in battle, and his brother begged Zeus to make him immortal. Zeus agreed so long as Pollux were willing to give up some of his godhood. When he agreed Zeus turned the duo in the constellation Gemini. Where they spent half the year on Olympus, and half the year in the fields of Elysium. The adventures of Jason took place before Kratos became a legendary captain in Sparta. It explained why Theseus was past his prime in GoW II, and why the twins were old in Ascension. Their age didn't matter as they could use the power of the oracle to make themselves young men.

It wasn't enough for the art team, and animators to put two separate characters for to battle against. That would go against the library of other memorable bosses. What they did instead was make the brothers conjoined twins. The more powerful Pollux was sticking out of the side of Castor, just about where his liver would be. It was grotesque, and awesome at the same time. Anybody that had seen the movie Total Recall would get the punchline following the battle with the twins. Each brother actually had their own weapon, a sword, and a mace. When those weapons were joined Castor used it as a massive walking staff. The majority of the twins attacks were not physical but magical. They could decay the ground, and cause Kratos to fall to his death. They could also slow down time, and strike Kratos before he could react.When the twins sensed that they were losing the battle they decided to rob Kratos of his goal. They caused the Oracle to fall to her death. It was certainly a tough, but memorable battle against the duo. The Oracle survived the fall, but she was living on borrowed time.

Kratos took the Amulet of Uroborus from the lifeless body of Castor. With it he could rewind the life of an object, or speed it up, and cause it to decay. Unfortunately he could not use its powers to reverse the injuries on Alethia, the Oracle of Delphi. Although she only existed in the game for a few moments I always thought the performance was one of the best in the franchise. I was surprised to discover who performed the role. It was Adrienne Barbeau. She was the sexy brunette character in a number of late '70s / early '80s movies, and TV shows. I first remember seeing her in the film Escape from New York in 1981, the same year my brothers, and I saw Clash of the Titans. Then she popped up again in 1982 in the films The Swamp Thing, and The Creepshow. She would turn up on TV over the years, and was always a fan favorite whatever she did. But I digress. Adrienne brought a lot of gravity to her performance. She explained to Kratos that her eyes were taken, and hidden away by the Furies because she could see the truth. A mysterious character named Orkos had been trying to aide Kratos through the adventure. She revealed that he was son of Alecto the Queen of the Furies. They both tried to warn Zeus that Ares, and Alecto were conspiring against him, and looking to take over Olympus. Orkos was imprisoned by them in the Hecatonchires, and Alecto imprisoned in her own temple. It was up to Kratos to retrieve her eyes, and break the magic of the Furies.

The moment with Alethia lasted only a few seconds, but in it you could see Kratos show a range of emotions. Most important he had a little bit of compassion for her as she took her last breaths. You could see Kratos take her hand, and offer her some comfort as she accepted her fate, and sent him to complete his task. These little moments were all throughout Ascension. T.C Carson got to show off his acting chops, and Kratos went through the spectrum of emotions while dealing with the cast. It was the first time the studio was using performance capture technology with the voice actors, and not solely with the stunt performers. We actually got to see Kratos be something other than just a rage machine. He had much more dimension than he did in GoW III. I was grateful for the studio for giving us a reason to empathize with him, and his impossible decisions. The other thing that I was grateful for was the studio not being scared of lighting the environments, and showing us what the PS3 was capable of. The look of the game was far removed from the infinite shades of gray, and mud that colored GoW III.

Kratos continues his adventures, while gathering additional power ups. With the Amulet of Uroborus he is able to create bubbles that slow down time, and allows him to strike at enemies that are almost frozen in space. He also gains the Oath Stone from Orkos, this allows him to create shadowy clones of himself that can fight, or help solve puzzles. A huge portion of his journey takes place on the Isle of Delos. The mathematician, and architect Archimedes has been busy at work on his masterpiece, the Statue of Apollo. This statue is the largest in the world, even on bent knee it is taller than the Colossus of Rhodes. A group of sailors that Kratos travels with considers Archimedes mad. Because he has sent all his workers home, and is determined to finish the statue all by himself.

This location is notable for several reasons. It was one of the most important port locations in all of the Mediterranean. Settled around 3000 B.C. it was a prosperous location. In mythology the Isle of Delos is the birthplace of Apollo. He is the god of light, dance, wisdom, and music. He is also supposed to be an exceptional archer. Most important to the story of Ascension is that Apollo is the patron god of all oracles. He was blessed with wisdom, and prophecy. He shared this gift with the oracles, and was primarily worshipped in Delphi. The statue of Apollo was going to be a monument to the highly influential god. It was enormous in scale, easily as tall as the biggest modern skyscrapers, with a footprint dozens of city blocks wide. The statue was so big in fact that its size alone had a personality. Even in its ruined state it was as cavernous, and as dangerous to explore as the Temple of Pandora from the original GoW.

The designers working at Sony Santa Monica wanted the set piece to be awe inspiring. The concept art was painted, and repainted, with tiny details like ships, and birds being added to give you a sense of scale. This art was used to sell the game to vendors, and featured in magazine spreads. The 3D model created, and textured for the game was as majestic as the concept art. Kratos is dropped off at the port, and the sailors convince their captain to leave right away as they believe the island to be cursed. Kratos sees that there might be some truth to that as he has to fight off wave after wave of monsters sent by the Furies. He claws his way up each level. After several minutes of fighting, and climbing you realize that you’ve only made it to the ankle of the statue. It felt like it was going to take days to reach the top, and that was fine with me.

The traversal in the game was easily the best in the franchise. I think it was even better than the climbing mechanic used in GoW (2018). The studio realized that it was too simplistic to have a flat face with a slightly different texture than the surrounding areas. This signaled to audiences where Kratos could simply stick his Blades into the rock face, and start climbing. It made sense in the original game, but by GoW III the studio had no excuse to keep using that same type of level design. In Ascension Kratos could grab ledges, and pull himself along. It felt like the freestyle climbing used in other popular games like Assassins Creed, and Uncharted. His movement was natural. The animation flowed smoothly from climbing with just his bare hands, to bracing himself with his feet, and making realistic lunges to nearby ledges. Before you knew it you had climbed hundreds of feet. The camera would turn to show you a vertigo inducing shot of Kratos hanging by his fingertips over the ocean.

Kratos has to explore the dangers lurking within the statue on his quest. There is no ladder, or staircase inside the cavernous interior. To reach the highest level in the torso he has to activate the Forge. The genius of Archimedes is evident in every corner of the statue. In order to build the statue without having to wait for supplies he created a self-sustaining forge within. A conveyor belt of raw material, and molten metal would automatically move throughout the entire frame. It could be dumped where needed. Archimedes also developed a series of elevators, and pullies that raised the lantern of Apollo when it was finished. When Sony Santa Monica was developing the game they had a lot planned for the genius inventor. The concept artists had fleshed out dozens of concept illustrations for the character. In one version he had a metal plate stapled to his head from a previous injury. He wouldn't let a cracked skull stop him from working. He carried a staff that had acted as a surveying tool, but was capped with all manner of mechanical innovations. Plus he wore various gadgets on his belt, and wrist. He would interact with Kratos on several occasions, perhaps in the place of Orkos, and explain why he worked alone. All of this pushed the plot along. Sadly as time constraints hit the developers less, and less was made of Archimedes until his role was ultimately cut. Instead all we get are some of his notes, and a mummified corpse laying across his workbench.

The Furies hid the Eyes of Truth in the statue. They were doing everything they could to keep Kratos from reaching its secret location. Since they had a portion of the Primordial powers, essentially the forces that created the universe, this meant the Furies could create their own reality. They used it to create realistic illusions. These places were solid, with actual sites, sounds, smells, and even people. They were convincing enough to keep any mortal trapped in illusion for the rest of their lives. They tried to appeal to Kratos in a number of ways, through his lust, through his ambition, and finally through his family. Kratos was able to focus on what was real or not because Orkos gave him a pendant from his daughter Calliope, and a ring that belonged to his wife Lysandra. These items would help Kratos break through the visions. Often in an extremely violent manner.

The actresses behind the three Furies all gave exceptional performances. Debi Mae West voiced Tisiphone, the Furie that tried to get Kratos to submit to his ambition for Sparta. She had also voiced the Fate Atropos, arguably the best design in GoW II. Nikka Futterman voiced Megaera, but pop culture geeks would recognize her as the voice of Asajj Ventress from Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Of the three I think veteran voice actor Jennifer Hale delivered a knockout performance as Alecto, Queen of the Furies. Game fans might recognize her from her award winning runs on Mass Effect, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Metal Gear Solid 4, and BioShock Infinite. Alecto's design was possibly the best female villain in the entire franchise, although Megaera's design was great as well. The closer Kratos got to the Eyes of Truth, and breking free from his bonds to Ares, the more determined the Furies became. None more than Alecto.

The team at Sony Santa Monica was hiding a big reveal for the final boss battle. Kratos had defeated Megaera, and had stolen the Eyes of Truth from Alecto. In doing so he forced her hand. She transformed into an enormous, squid-like beast, and pulled Kratos into the dimension of the Furies. A world made of inky illusions that she turned into a raging tempest. Those that had played the Ghost of Sparta would recognize the whirlpool battle was very similar to stage where Kratos was sailing into the Nexus of Atlantis. Not only that but there was a battle against an enormous sea creature, similar to the Scylla, also from Ghost of Sparta. The sea creature turned out to be Alecto's alter-ego. The queen was also known as Charybdis. She often appeared opposite the Scylla in Classic Greek Mythology. She would create ship-eating giant whirlpools. You could imagine that this reveal made the mythology geek in me instantly decide this was the greatest GoW adventure ever.

I think the final battle with Alecto/Charybdis was a way for Sony Santa Monica to do something they had always wanted to. This type of battle was a wish in their design notes going back almost a decade. Remember when I mentioned that Atlantis was originally going to be a playable stage in GoW II? As Kratos ascended the Tower of Atlantis he would see the Kraken swimming in the ocean, behind the magical waterfall. It would suddenly break through, and attack before Kratos could reach the summit. The battle with Charybdis is a wonderful mash up of the Atlantis whirlpool from Ghost of Sparta, and the proposed Kraken battle from GoW II. In a way it is even more dangerous because the ocean in the realm of the Furies is made of ink. It's impossible to see very far in the darkness, when the Charybdis appears it is meant to be a jump scare. As if the fight wasn't already stressful enough the soundtrack raises the stakes. Tyler Bates drops the Madness of the Fury Queen to really get our heart going.

The final battle is amazing. With the Three Furies defeated Kratos is able to learn the truth. Ares, and Alecto had conspired for Kratos to kill his family, and create false blood oath to Ares. When this deception was revealed Kratos was able to break his bonds. But it came at a price, the death of Orkos. It was a bittersweet ending for the Spartan. He would have a long road ahead of him following the events of Ascension. It would be one that I would follow him on again, and again for the next 18 years. God of War Ascension had even more to offer than a fantastic single player story. The multiplayer game may have been even better. I’d like to talk about that in the next blog. For now I’d like to know your thoughts on the game, and what you liked best about it. Let me know in the comments section please. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

God of War Ascension, a second chance to say goodbye to the Greek saga

The final title I want to dig into for the current series is God of War Ascension. It is easily one of my favorite games of all time. to be fair it is actually an even toss up between Ascension, and the Ghost of Sparta as my favorite in the franchise. When this blog series started in January I talked about a conversation I had with my cousin about why I thought Elden Ring was going to win game of the year over GoW Ragnarok. He then asked which GoW I liked best. The best way I could do that was to compare the two games to the greatest dark rides ever made. In my opinion those would be the Disneyland versions of The Haunted Mansion, and the Pirates of the Caribbean. It’s all but impossible to choose one over the other because they are such unique, and memorable experiences. The Haunted Mansion came out after PotC, and incorporated many lessons learned from the previous attraction. That didn’t necessarily make it a better attraction, but stronger than it could have been for sure. I see Ghost of Sparta, and Ascension in a similar vein. There is a lot that the studios learned from the previous title, and even pulled the best elements into the new experience. I want to highlight the things that I truly enjoyed in Ascension.

Let’s start with the villains. We don’t learn who the main enemy is by the end of the game, but instead see them in the opening seconds. When Ascension starts we see Kratos has been captured, and is being tortured by a scarred female warrior with four bug-like arms sticking out of her back. We would learn that she was Megaera, one of the Furies from Greek mythology. They are also known as the erinyes, which is not to be confused with the character Erinys, the daughter of death from Ghost of Sparta. There are three furies in mythology, they were created from the blood of Ouranos / Uranus, when his son Cronos castrated him. They all have Primordial powers, and existed before the Olympians. In the game they became the oath keepers. If you swore a blood oath to a god they would hold you to it, and punish you for all time if you broke it. Megaera was striking Kratos at the start of the game. She was a goddess that caused jealousy, and punished people who committed crimes of passion, such as marital infidelity. Alecto was charged with punishing those who committed moral crimes with anger, especially when used against others. She was the goddess of Anger. Tisiphone was the one who punished crimes of murder: patricide, fratricide, and homicide. She was also recognized as the guardian of the gates of Tartarus. They didn't have exactly the same roles in Ascension, but seeing them visualized as anything other than gorgons was refreshing. A credit to the art team at Sony Santa Monica.

I would argue that the story, and tone of GoW III left audiences feeling a little let down. It didn’t really capture the look, and magic of the earlier titles. Even though it looked amazing, and sold well, it didn’t capture the spark of the previous games. I think that Sony Santa Monica went back to the drawing board. They studied their best work, as well as the work of Ready at Dawn to identify the elements that worked best. The studio had three goals that they wanted to accomplish, the first was a single-player game. I in my opinion a Greek saga that felt like a classic GoW adventure. The second was to create a multiplayer game that showed Kratos-like combat could make for entertaining online matches. The third was to make a two player co-op game featuring Kratos, and another warrior. Let’s talk about the first goal. I honestly believe that the Three Furies were chosen as the villains in Ascension because they paralleled the Sisters of Fate from GoW II. They each had their own unique look, and could provide an independent challenge. In essence a series of progressively harder boss battles just as the Fates did. The other thing that Ascension did well was a return to the epic formula. It allowed us to follow Kratos as he traveled all over the Mediterranean. To visit unique regions, with their own climate, and atmosphere. Remember that in GoW III the entire game took place on Olympus.

The first few moments of the game set the entire tone for Ascension. After breaking out of his chains Kratos chases Megaera all over the prison. It turns out to be a jail made of flesh. That of the gigantic Aegaeon the Hecatonchires. He was also known as Briaeros. If you remember the start of my series that was the name of one of the stars of the manga Appleseed. The Hecatonchires fascinated me as much as the titans had when I was growing up. The movie Clash of the Titans was really the only time I remember seeing the Kraken, and titans in pop culture. So it was very rare to see them mentioned anywhere else. I never saw what a Hecatonchires looked like in classic tradition, not in any art book from any library. I had to rely on my imagination. Did they look like trees with hands at the end of each branch? Did they look like the statues of Shiva? I had no idea what the Ancient Greeks had envisioned when they wrote about them. The fact that this mountain-sized monster was the basis of an entire group of stages made that mythology loving kid in me go absolutely crazy. I was geeking out at seeing the hundred handed giant just as hard as the first time I saw Cronos in the original GoW.

The team at Sony Santa Monica, and Director Todd Papy were raising the bar on stage design. There were technological leaps between GoW, and GoW III respectively. Look at how quickly things changed in the first stage epic battles. They went from the Hydra in a storm, to the Colossus as he staggered around the port of Rhodes, to fighting on the shoulders of Gaia while she climbed Mount Olympus. This time Kratos chased down Megaera as the entire stage came to life around him. It turned, twisted, and folded all over in real time. The jail cells, and buildings implanted into Aegaeon's forearms tore apart, and collapsed as Kratos ran, slid, and climbed through them. You would fight off one gigantic enemy, only to have a larger one pop up, and take its place, and then another. Eventually Kratos was nothing more than an ant-sized character on the screen as he was fending off a creature whose entire head couldn't even fit on the screen. It was the type of spectacle that always made for the most memorable encounters in the game.

No sooner does one battle wrap up than we are taken to another time, and another place. Ascension is told in a series of flashbacks, and then jumps back to the present. It can be disorienting, and took me a few play throughs before I understood the sequence of events in the game. The leaps in time I think were part of the reason this game wasn't as well regarded by fans of the series. I appreciate what the studio was trying to do, playing with the narrative was something that other sequels did well, but Ascension could have used a more linear series of events. That's possibly my only criticism for the game. Each place we were taken to was just as memorable as the Hecatonchires. We managed to move all over the Mediterranean over a span of a few hours. For example I absolutely fell in love with the look, and atmosphere of the port town of Kirra. We arrived to it during the night, and returned back from the adventures during day break. Sony Santa Monica learned how to properly light stages set at night. I could now make out the details of the locations, see the unique architecture, landscape, paint schemes, and various clues layered in each location. Playing in the dark was not as laborious as it was in GoW III.

One of the reasons I didn't enjoy the modern GoW (2018), and Ragnarok as much as the earlier games were the lack of civilians, and other NPCs sprinkled throughout the stages. The different realms were enormous, however the lack of other humans, or humanoids made them feel like empty parking lots. You could spend all day traveling between them, and never see, or hear another person. The addition of a traveling companion, whether Atreus, Mimir, Freya, or the occasional dwarf to upgrade tools was nice, but it wasn't the same thing. Earlier GoW titles sprinkled people throughout the encounters. Even when they weren't seen, at least they were heard. Think of the people shouting from the streets of Marathon in The Chains of Olympus. The studio managed to sell the absence of civilians in most of the games because Kratos was passing through during a battle. The only other mortals he would see were soldiers defending their city. In Ascension there were prisoners, sailors, artisans, and warriors in appropriate places. When there weren't it is because of a tragedy, or conflict. At the statue of Apollo all the workers were sent home, and for the city of Kirra it was the destruction of their fresh water source, and the poisoning of their wells. The citizens fled the town, and left the fires in their homes burning. It was fun visiting locations where the workers had just left, it made the world feel lived in. Every visual cue in the game was accompanied by great sound effects, and foley work.

Sound, and music has always been a big part of the GoW franchise. Ascension is no different, and in my book has possibly the best score in the series. This is not a knock on the other composers. The music in this game was by Tyler Bates, but he credits the previous composers, specifically Gerard Marino, for creating the template. He calls out hints of Marino's original theme twice in the soundtrack, especially in the song Warriors Truth. My favorite new song in the game is the Ghosts of Kirra. In it you can hear hints of a Middle Eastern influence. It was something alluded to visually in the design of several stages in other games. Sometimes they were subtle, liked the domed roofs in the Port town of Rhodes. Or plainly obvious like the Sphinx statues in Kirra. It would be fair to think you are listening to an Adhan, or Muslim call to prayer in the background of the song. It would remind you that there was a lot of cultures cross pollinating in this part of the world. African, Persian, Middle Eastern, as well as Roman. The music of the era wasn't all lyres, and pan flutes.

As far as timelines go Ascension takes place earliest in canon. This is shortly after Kratos kills his wife, and child, and decides to break his oath to Ares. He doesn't yet have access to all the magic, and abilities he would pick up as he got older. He has yet to give himself in the service of all the gods. This early adventure allows Sony Santa Monica to reimagine how Kratos would learn to use magic. They did this by allowing him to plunge his Blade of Chaos into an urn for one of the gods; Ares, Poseidon, Zeus, and Hades. Every few stages Kratos earns another new power. Players can then switch between the different properties that each god blessed the swords with. There is an advantage to each power, some allowed Kratos to earn Red Orb experience, or recover Health, or deal extra damage to groups of opponents. The balance between the magics was well done, and helped make the game play unique.

It feels like Kratos has to travel to the ends of the Earth in this game, and yet he ends up back at the beginning of his journey by the end. If there was something that I especially enjoyed in storytelling, it was a tale that went full circle. I’m going to dive a little more on the adventure in the next blog. If you played the game I’d like to know what you enjoyed about Ascension, and how do you rank it when compared to the other games in the series? Let me know in the comments section please. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!