![]() It makes them a witness to a man trying to make up for the sins of his past. This makes the player more than just an unseen force controlling the characters. Now voiced with the commanding, heartbreaking clarity of actor Christopher Judge, Kratos bears the hallmarks of someone who has lived a life. It’s not surprising that the 2018 God of War game featured a single shot camera that never cuts away from Kratos and his young son, Atreus. But it ultimately proves why the God of War franchise needed to reinvent itself five years later. It’s undeniable that God of War: Ascension was one of the most ambitious games of the PS3 era. Video games aren’t just a trick of the eye, ear, or even the mind. But part of the magic of video games is when the game tricks us into believing that it is real for the character. It ultimately illustrates how the success of action games directly connects to our investment in their protagonist. In doing so, God of War: Ascension prioritizes the spectacle of the beings Kratos fights, rather than the spectacle of Kratos, a human being, fighting these creatures. Even as he earns the God of War franchise’s Mature rating by stomping heads and leaving a blood-soaked trail, the player doesn’t learn the physical costs of these actions for Kratos through the game’s sound design. Similarly, the sound design drowns out most of Kratos’ grunts and noises during the fight. As the camera deftly keeps up with Kratos in battle, it does so from a great distance. He takes on hordes of monsters before he must fight the enormous being he was imprisoned in, Aegaeon the Hecatonchires. The game opens with a heart-pounding scene where Kratos must battle his way out of his imprisonment by the Furies. This is only possible through a story that connects with us on a human level.īut for all of Ascension’s exhilarating moments, Kratos feels like an afterthought. ![]() But we return to them time and time again because we want emotional and psychological fulfillment. This is what separates “good” action games from “great” action games. With Kratos, God of War has always had the opportunity to marry its strongest selling point, action, with a gripping story and memorable characterization. And it is precisely because Kratos came off as more of an action figure than an actual human in God of War: Ascension, that he needed to become a fully-realized, force of nature protagonist in God of War 2018 and its sequel, God of War Ragnarök. Players get only a paper-thin sense of Kratos’s humanity, which often gets lost in the visual spectacle of the game-literally. While the game excels on a visual level, it does so at the expense of its protagonist, Kratos. These prove why the game’s 2018 overhaul was so necessary. This would later become a unique part of the 2018 game, as it increased the immersiveness of the franchise.īut beyond the technical achievements, God of War: Ascension has several shortcomings. Instead of a noticeable decline in animation quality between the game’s cutscenes and gameplay, God of War: Ascension rendered both at the same depth. Ascension spearheaded the push for seamless animation between cutscenes and actual gameplay. This is where the God of War franchise began to diverge from other games of the PlayStation 3 era. It featured story beats and eye-popping action sequences rendered, impressively, in-game. God of War: Ascension showcased the very best of what the PlayStation 3 had to offer as a console.
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