God of War Ascension Will Have Multiplayer May 1, 2012

It’s a story as old as time itself.  Man pledges his loyalty to a god in exchange for assistance in slaying the barbarians that outnumber his troops.  The god eventually becomes a megalomaniac and makes his servant slay his wife and daughter.  Okay, it’s not that old, it’s the story of Kratos, the protagonist of the God of War series, which we learn in bits and pieces over the course of the first God of War game.

God of War Ascension, the next God of War game coming exclusively to the Playstation 3 will tell the story of just what happened after that night, when Kratos became the Ghost of Sparta and what he had to do in order to break his oath to Ares, who had betrayed him.

However, that single player story is not all that is going to be included with God of War Ascension (in fact it has been announced that the single-player game may be slightly shorter than previous God of War installments)  God of War Ascension will be the first God of War game to offer multiplayer, and it will be coming in the form of eight player competitive play.

In competitive play you will be able to customize your own character to play as, and adjust things like appearance and clothing.  Eight players will be able to battle at one time in an arena and will have access to a full moveset as well as quick-time sequences for finishing moves.  It sounds like all the gameplay and controls we remember from the previous games will not be compromised in multiplayer.

This is hardly the first game series to bring multiplayer into a sequel after previously featuring games which were single-player only but as far as I know this is probably among the latest any game series has added multiplayer.  Five games have already been released in the God of War franchise (not including the HD re-releases) which featured no multiplayer, whereas most game series which didn’t have a multiplayer component initially will usually add it by the second game (Splinter Cell, Uncharted) and the previously latest I saw was the third game (Max Payne).  I think the latest I’ve seen at this point to add multiplayer may have been Grand Theft Auto, which added multiplayer in GTA4.

God of War Ascension is coming exclusive to the Playstation 3.