14 DAY TRIAL // The God of War series has been criticized for how easy its mechanics are to pick up and master, but the developers working on the new Ascension say that they have no plans to make it more difficult to understand.
Jason McDonald, who is the lead combat designer working at Sony Santa Monica on the new game, told Gamasutra that, “We want to make sure that most of the fans get the experience, no matter what.”
The focus continues to be on variety rather than on extra depth and the developer added, “It's always that line, where it's like, you want to make things advanced - and with the Cestus last game, we did experiment with a few things that are a little bit more technical, and stuff like that. But once we simplified it back down, suddenly everyone was raving within the studio.”
God of War: Ascension will include different abilities, items, special moves in order to keep players interested and convince them to try out a wide variety of them rather than simply focus on those who are the most effective.
Ascension will focus on the early life of series protagonist Kratos and will see him use a number of new weapons as he once again fights impressive number of enemies and links his attacks into impressive specials.
For the new installment in the God of War franchise the single-player element of the game will also serve as a testing ground for those who plan to make the move to multiplayer.
I had a chance to get hands-on time with Ascension during the show and the shown mode was engaging and impressive, with all the depth of combat linked to God of War and a hectic battle over control points.
God of War: Ascension will be launched on March 12, 2013 exclusively on the PlayStation 3.