Review: God of War Ascension (PS3)

Star of the show is a brawny, bare-chested man waving a very large weapon around, that man of course being Spartan warrior Kratos in his sixth appearance on a PlayStation platform.

Serving as a prequel to the whole GoW saga, the plot involves gods, blood oaths and Furies. It's clearly a lavish and sophisticated storyline but I've never been big on Ancient Greece so I'm not going to try and explain it in detail. If like me, much of it goes over your head, all you really need to know is this is a tale of vengeance. Someone or something has wronged our main dude and he's not happy.

Kratos is a shouty and angry character, while the overall mood of the game is very serious. It starts off dark and just gets darker as it progresses. Don't expect many light moments or humour.

Action in Ascension is split between good old hack n' slash, puzzle-solving and platforming.

Kratos takes out his anger by chopping, smashing, kicking, punching, throwing and generally reducing all manner of creatures and monsters that get in his way to a broken mess.

Enemies include insects, a big slug-like thing, a giant ogre-looking creature, something that sort of resembles an elephant and various other nightmarish creations.

Blood and guts are plentiful during the extremely violent fighting segments. This is not a game for the squeamish - one or two moments had me struggling to keep my dinner down.

As graphic as the violence is, when Kratos is let loose to fight freestyle and string together combo moves the action is up there with the best you'll have experienced in any game.

His main Blades of Chaos weapon (a combination of killer blades and chains) is a versatile piece which is satisfyingly savage and powerful, allowing him to dispose of enemies in suitably unforgiving fashion.

Along the way there are other weapons he can acquire for a limited time such as a club and sword.

Kratos can also call upon magical powers which boost attacks and give him other abilities such as breathing underwater.

Where the action is let down slightly are the quick-time events which require the pushing of certain buttons in sequence and at the right time to trigger cinematic set-pieces. For me personally, these were sometimes too fiddly to execute and also felt like a cheap way of killing particularly ferocious foes.

Ascension could fall into the territory of being just a mindless beat 'em up but is pulled up to a more cerebral level by its puzzles. These provide more intellectual moments and add some variety to all the killing.

They range from simple tests of manipulating a single object to allow progress through a stage to much more intricate and multi-faceted puzzles that involve some proper thinking. Kratos comes across as someone who;d have been a big star of reality TV if it had existed in Ancient Greece (Made In Olympus maybe), someone who is all body and no brains - so it's a good job he has someone (you) on hand to help him out with the clever stuff.

Various items Kratos obtains during his journey come into play during the solving of puzzles. These give him further extra abilities such as being able to heal objects or create a shadow of himself so he can be in two places at once - his shadow self is particularly useful for pulling levers, stepping on plates and so on.

GoW Ascension is a game that does everything on an epic scale, and there is no clearer example of this than the platforming elements.

Platforming is a well-worn gaming instrument but Ascension breathes new life into it with its incredible sense of scale and its visually stunning scenery.

Like the gods reached through time and implanted a vision in the designers' minds, the landscapes truly are sights to behold. Creativity bursts out, matched by high production values that make running, jumping and climbing through levels more enjoyable than the mechanics of platforming usually allow.

The views are so arresting that sometimes you'll find it hard to concentrate on playing and will just want to sit back for a moment and admire them. For a game that's got such a bloodlust and is so gruesome in places, Ascension is also surprisingly artistic.

The three elements of the gameplay combine in harmony with each other and also with the story so that Ascension moves along at a rapid pace. It always feels like you're going forwards and something new is happening.

For the first time in the GoW series it is not just a single-player experience.

This time there is competitive and co-operative online mutliplayer for up to eight people at once.

It's not something I've dabbled in as I'm sure I'd get creamed as soon as stepping into an online battle, but for more skilled weapon handlers there are four modes in which to achieve glory. There are a couple of types of deathmatch, along with a capture the flag game and a time-trial mode in which you can team up with somebody else to defeat waves of monsters.

Online multiplayer here is a bit of a double-edged sword. On one side I see no harm in allowing people who want it the opportunity of using the game's mythological world as the backdrop for pitting their skills against other players worldwide. But on the other side God of War is one of those increasingly infrequent franchises that has always been about giving players a deep and absorbing solo experience. While I appreciate online multiplayer must be present in all games in some form these days, I hope it isn’t going to take over in future editions at the expense of the single-player campaign.

What can be said with certainty for now is God of War Ascension is a very good single-person adventure which offers one of the greatest spectacles seen on the PS3.

The visual extravaganza along with the three superbly executed gaming components provide many heart-stopping and show-stopping moments.

Verdict: 8.5 out of 10

Out now on PlayStation 3