We were able to play two rounds of the multiplayer mode for the upcoming God of War game at E3. It was essentially a 4-vs-4 capture the points mode where players for Sparta and Troy are trying to capture various points around the map that when captured pull the cyclops Polyphemus toward either faction’s side of the map. Once enough points have been captured long enough, the gods grant a spear to the side that “won” the point capturing, but the catch is that the spear has to be more or less captured itself before it can be used on Polyphemus to end the match. So, not only could the team that captured less points still steal the spear and win, they can also make the spear disappear by capturing other points and dragging Polyphemus away. During our play time, neither of those eventualities occurred, though, as the Game Usagi Krew managed to best the opposite team both times in both capturing the points and the game-winning spear itself. Combat is kept fresh and strategic by the placement of special items around the map like boots that increase your speed and time-limited super weapons, as well as the ability to set or activate traps near the capture points to keep enemies on their toes.
For a game that isn’t due out until March 2013, the God of War: Ascension (GoWA) multiplayer felt very robust and complete. There were no mechanical or graphical glitches to be found and everything looked great (not really better than God of War III, but about the same). The best part, though, is that it was quite fun to play. I normally steer clear of the God of War games because I’ve never been able to conquer it’s more complicated 3D platforming sections and I just don’t have fun playing games that repeatedly drop me off the same cliff no matter what I do for an entire afternoon; the multiplayer in God of War: Ascension, on the other hand, was platforming-free and allowed the players to experience the raw PvP combat potential that is inherent in the GoW battle system. I never mastered the controls entirely, so there were some very cheap moves of which I was constantly on the receiving end that I think could translate into balance issues in the release version of the game. Balance issues aside, I was pleasantly surprised with the multiplayer in GoWA, and even if what we’ve seen so far of the single player campaign currently smacks of Sony just trying to turn GoW into more of a cash cow, the multiplayer seems fresh enough that this game shouldn’t be too far off any PS3 owner’s radar.