Hardest part of the game is getting a patch
God of War: Ascension is finally out, and players have been up in arms about one particular part of the game — the Trial of Archimedes. In this section found near the end of the game, you fight three large waves of enemies with no checkpoints, and hardly any health drops.
Many journalists and gamers alike have taken to Twitter and message boards to report that they’ve spent “nearly three hours (or more) trying to beat it.”
Those people will be relieved to hear that lead developer Todd Papy has confirmed that the chapter will be getting a patch to reduce the difficulty. Of course, you could always not patch the game, beat it once, then patch it to play multiplayer, and still experience the original design.
On that note, my guide is going up later today, which has a large section just on the trials.
I’m always torn with issues like this. Although it only took me three tries, and not three hours, I have empathy for people who have trouble with action games. But in this age of streamlining and difficulty reduction, there’s almost no challenging experiences left for people who want them. It’s one reason why I absolutely love Demon’s/Dark Souls and Metal Gear Rising.
All three of those aforementioned games are titles that demand certain requirements, and don’t hold your hand every step of the way. They give you the creative freedom to learn your own play style, and the sense of accomplishment you earn can be overwhelming.
Although I wouldn’t put God of War on the same tier as those games from a technical standpoint, it was still nice to have something in the game that was extremely difficult, and put your skills to the test.
Instead of nerfing the game entirely across the board, Ascension should have an option to switch the difficulty at any time, so if players couldn’t best that part, they could adjust accordingly, and not have to restart the entire game on Easy.
Todd Papy [Twitter]
