That being said, there are still some very satisfying fights in Ascension.
It's like Sony Santa Monica relishes changing the rules on you mid-fight, and it's irritating to no end because games are about fixed rules, about taking a system and learning and perfecting it.Īctually, I think QTEs are all about changing the rules of the game in ways that are intrinsically opposed to the nature of gaming, and very rarely succeed at improving gameplay at all. Either way, there's too many QTEs.Īt times you latch onto a big monster and have to prepare yourself for that button flashing on the top/bottom/left/right of the screen and at other times you're just expected to slash away at the beast. I was hoping for less of this in Ascension, but it's still everywhere. It's one of those love-hate things, where every time combat starts to get interesting I'm forced to press O, now mash X, now hit triangle just at the right moment and Kratos will do some super cinematic kill move that's all gratuitous violence and no actual game. The game can be hard and satisfying at times, but fights are so often punctuated by Quick Time Events (QTEs) that I want to quit out of principle. Combat in the series has also only ever half-impressed me and once again Ascension succeeds and fails in equal measure.
