I enjoyed the original PS2 God of War duology and Ghost of Sparta on the PSP, but by the time God of War III rolled around in 2010, I was over the character and the formula. Needless to say, Ascension was not even on my radar when it released in 2013.
After loving the 2018 requel, I went back and played through the PS4 remaster of GoW III. I was able to appreciate it on its own terms, and it rekindled my fondness for the Greek era of GoW. I revisited some of the PS3 remasters, but burnt myself out on GoW again before getting to Ascension.
While going down the rabbit hole of PS3 Games Still Playable Online in 2025, I discovered that people were still playing Ascension online. Not only that, but they were playing it hard. This compelled me to finally give the game a shot. While I haven’t dug into the multiplayer yet (honestly I’m kinda scared), I’ve spent 3 hours or so with the single player, and it’s pretty damn good.
It’s impossible to talk about the Greek-era GoW games without discussing “scale.” The games are known for their enormous, epic set pieces and Ascension is no different. In an era when AAA games (including the GoW series) have become more “grounded,” Ascension remains breathtaking in the scope of its set pieces. These are typically brief moments, but still wildly impressive.
The visuals overall aren’t quite on the level of Naughty Dog’s PS3 work, but Ascension is right up near the top of best looking PS3 games. It only runs at 30 fps, but in my experience the game has felt pretty smooth and responsive.
Aside from the multiplayer, there isn’t really anything new here. It’s (another) prequel story, and full of the gory combat, environmental puzzles, and QTEs that you’d expect from this era of the series. It’s not perfect: some of the puzzles operate on goofy video game logic and rigid cinematic platforming always sucks. But fortunately the game moves at such a brisk pace that you’re never doing anything that sucks for too long. While the formula was tiresome in 2013, I’m finding its lean focus refreshing and enjoyable in 2025. Kratos is a far less interesting character here than in the Norse games, but the requel series has recontextualized his portrayal in this era in fascinating ways.
Unless the game takes a turn and kills my interest, I plan to see its 8 hour runtime through. Time and context has changed Kratos, and it’s also changed my appreciation of his early adventures.
Played and captured on a PlayStation Triple
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