When Sony Santa Monica Studios revealed that God of War: Ascension would have a multiplayer mode, I thought to myself, why would they choose to do this? I’ve been a fan of the God of War since the beginning in 2005. The single player formula is just awesome with interesting puzzles to solve and the epic feeling of wielding the Blades of Chaos. Some of the most satisfying moments I’ve ever had playing video games is just beating enemies to a pulp with the Blades of Chaos swinging around and feeling my controller rumble as the blades sliced through my enemies.
I was worried about the idea of multiplayer, thinking that Sony Santa Monica only added it because every other game these days has been adding multiplayer to the mix. Through playing the God of War: Ascension multiplayer beta for the last month, I have to say while my opinions changed throughout the month, my final impressions are ultimately positive.
When entering the multiplayer mode for the first time, you pick an allegiance with one of four gods: Zues, Ares, Hades, and Poseidon. Each god gives you different magic powers and items to use, adding a variety to the mix.
While you pledge allegiance to one god at the start, you still have access to the other gods’ powers. Instead of having just one character to play with, you can swap between four characters, each belonging to a different god. Each of these characters has their own EXP bar so while you might pick one as you dominant character, you can always go back and play as the other three. This adds a lot of opportunities to keep coming back to the game.
In the beta, you can only pledge to Zeus or Ares. I played mainly as the Ares character. His magic attack involves a fire blast that does massive damage to your enemies. Zeus’ magic attack releases thunder, hurting any enemy you are facing. As you level up each character through killing and collecting treasure in matches, you will receive more powers and upgrades.
The controls and combat are better than I imagined. When first playing, I didn’t memorize everything I learned in the tutorials and could barely kill anyone. Once I went back to the tutorials and understood the controls better, I was able to actually kill my enemies. Basically, you must both attack and defend yourself. Defending like in any God of War game is with the L1 button. Pressing “X” while blocking will allow you to parry attacks so you can switch from being defensive to offensive. While attacking, the other three face buttons represent light attacks, heavy attacks, and physical attacks such as punching and kicking. Holding L1 while releasing one of these three attacks unleashes your special attack. You have three special attacks and they must take a few seconds to recharge before you can use them again.
