God of War, Gears of War prequels stick to formula

With Sony’s PlayStation 4 having already been announced and news on Microsoft’s new Xbox expected to come soon, developers are preparing their next big games to launch with the new generation of consoles.

Not wanting to forget about their current consoles, however, both Sony and Microsoft decided to leave fans with prequels to two of the biggest franchises for their respective platforms: Sony’s God of War and Microsoft’s Gears of War.

The two games, God of War: Ascension and Gears of War: Judgment, introduce the stories of each console’s bloodiest franchise, with each game providing the same violent, gore-filled experience of previous games while tweaking pieces of the formula.

“In terms of next-gen, I think the release timeline makes sense because this will allow both studios to potentially have a next-gen title out during the second holiday season, which, if previous history is an indicator, usually has substantially better titles than  during the launch window,” said USC engineering lecturer and former games programer Sanjay Madhav. “Most launch titles on the PS3 and Xbox 360 were ports of games that were also released on PS2/Xbox.”

God of War: Ascension, the seventh game in Sony’s action-adventure series, features protagonist Kratos. After Ares kills the man’s wife and child, Kratos renounces his blood oath to the god of war, only to be held captive by the three Furies.

The game takes you up to the original, as Kratos tries to kill the three Furies and free himself from captivity. The story, which doesn’t take long to complete, is told through flashback sequences going back to before he was imprisoned. It starts off with an extremely impressive and drawn-out boss battle, with many later bosses continuing the epic formula that God of War has become respected for.

The action has been adjusted to require more skill than usual, but remains as brutal and intense as past games in the series. The rage meter from past games returns, increasing as Kratos deals more damage, but now decreases if Kratos stays out of combat for too long or gets hit.

Filling up the meter allows for more powerful attacks and combos, while elemental attacks, such as fire, ice and electricity, provide the magic variation in the game.

While these adjustments do allow for more complex and action-packed combat, it is still easy enough to merely hack-and-slash one’s way through the fights, as most enemy attacks deal very little damage to Kratos, even on the normal difficulty level. It is also relatively easy to build up the rage meter after being hit by an enemy, as long as there are enough enemies left to slaughter.

There are some issues with the game play, but the magic system has been nicely improved. The magic can be used as a spell, an enhanced attack that doesn’t take up any magic, or as a rage attack, providing more variety than present in past games.

Unfortunately, the camera, though mostly capable of providing the right angles for combat, sometimes chooses questionable angles. The puzzles also often underwhelm as they generally prove to be mere hiccups on the player’s way through the game, an exception being a couple of especially challenging (and frustrating) ones.

God of War’s violent action makes its debut in the multiplayer environment, as players can align with one of the four available gods (character classes) and compete against bots and human opponents. There are plenty of abilities, armor, weapons and items to unlock by gaining experience for each class, whether it’s killing enemies, capturing points or opening chests. In a world where first-person shooters dominate online play, Ascension provides an entertaining and violent break from the norm. There is a learning curve, however, that comes with playing a game like this against human opponents, and that learning curve can get unnecessarily steeper if one gets thrown into games against high-leveled opponents with stronger equipment.

“I think from a financial standpoint, multiplayer makes sense because it may convert those who may not get a single-player-only game,” said Madhav about the inclusion of multiplayer.

Gears of War: Judgment centers around series staples Baird and Kilo Squad, as they stand trial for treason. The campaign starts out at the beginning of the trial, and the story is told through flashbacks, as one plays through the events leading up to the trial. The game, developed by Epic Games and People Can Fly, makes a couple of tweaks to the Gears of War experience, but doesn’t make any major gameplay changes.

The big new addition to the campaign, known as “Declassified Missions,” allows the player to go through each campaign mission with an additional requirement, such as reduced ammo supply or reaching a certain area within a time limit. These can be easily accessed at the start of each mission to provide greater difficulty and increased rewards, although players are free to simply breeze through the campaign if that’s what they prefer.

The Horde game mode introduced in Gears of War 2 also undergoes some changes in the new game. The new mode, called Overrun, has the player and a group of either computer- or human-controlled teammates defending an area from Locust attacks, which can also be computer- or human-controlled. The defending soldiers are free to switch between four character classes — soldier, scout, engineer and medic — depending on the situation, while those playing as the Locust can unlock more powerful aliens as they deal more damage. Though it does switch the focus of the mode from that of merely survival to defending a specific area, Overrun does provide a great alternative to the usual Horde mode.

Multiplayer in Judgment is standard for the Gears series, with one major aspect missing: executions. Though this allows free-for-all to make its debut in the series, being able to curb stomp an opposing player or use their downed body as a meat-shield was something that had become a staple in Gears so, though it does provide more options, it is something that fans of the series will miss.

Overall, both God of War: Ascension and Gears of War: Judgment provide another enjoyable entry in their respective franchises. For fans of either series, these prequels are definitely worth adding to their collections, shedding light on the roots of each series. The introduction of multiplayer to God of War, though seeming like a feature being forced upon games by the industry, provides an enjoyable alternative to the plethora of online first-person shooters available, even if it might not be for everyone.

Both offer great, albeit short, campaigns and, while neither multiplayer experience is likely to achieve the kind of following games like Halo and Call of Duty have, they can serve as fun diversions and will be able to tide fans over until the next-gen versions of these iconic series get released.