God of War: Ascension

PlayStation 3

The latest entry in the God of War franchise attracted buyers, myself included, because of the addition of multiplayer levels. Unfortunately, there’s just not enough here to make the game worth playing for more than an hour. Ascension centers around the Spartan character Kratos, who is once again fighting his way toward an opponent who has wronged him in some way. This game is pretty short—I beat it in a few days—though the missions are a little tougher than previous entries. One of my main complaints is that a couple of the primary weapons from previous games—for example, the sword—have been replaced with “temporary” ones, which are virtually useless. I’ve never been a fan of the chains, a staple of God of War weaponry, so being stuck with only a temporary arsenal and the chains was a big letdown. The multiplayer mode feels like it was added on in an attempt to reach out to the Call of Duty audience, but it ends up being just a big jumble of people swinging axes around. Despite the fact that this is supposed to be a prequel to the series, it’s basically a stale repackaging of previous games.