God of War: Ascension

A prequel telling the story of the period preceding the original trilogy shows Kratos shortly after the murder of his own family, imprisoned by the Furies for breaking his oath of allegiance to the god of war Ares, forcing him to fight for freedom and to rediscover his own identity outside his former allegiances. Santa Monica Studio preserved the series' brutal, spectacular combat system with expanded options for combining weapons and magic, added the series' first full-fledged multiplayer mode, and experimented with a narrative that, instead of simple revenge, explored Kratos's loss of faith and humanity.

Combat changed compared to the third game mainly in that Kratos no longer switches between several weapons but instead upgrades his blades using four elements, each of which alters the properties of his attacks and his finishing charge ability. New additions included the ability to pick up a fallen enemy's weapon and fight with it for a while, clearer handling of crowds of opponents, and less emphasis on the long button-press sequences the series had previously used on nearly every larger enemy. The graphics reached a further technical improvement on PS3, with even more detailed environments and more monumental boss fights, including battles against giant beings connected by chains that affected the gameplay mechanics. Several sections, especially the final arena trial, still hold a reputation today as extraordinarily unforgiving.

Critics received the game positively, though with less enthusiasm than the third installment, partly because of a sense that the series had lost some of its original novelty and surprise in the meantime. The cooperative and competitive multiplayer, where players fought as enslaved warriors competing for the favor of the gods, was a bold, if not entirely successful, attempt to add a social dimension to a purely single-player franchise, one that was never repeated. God of War: Ascension became the final entry of the classic Greek era before a long pause, after which the series underwent a fundamental reboot toward Norse mythology and a more introspective tone on PlayStation 4.