Diminished Returns

As I currently stumble my way through God of War: Ascension (which I blame mostly on the developers and maybe 20% on myself) on my Playstation, I realized that I had ceased to enjoy the game on the level that its preceding trilogy had inspired.  Maybe it isn't quite the dropoff of Sophie Marceau following up Braveheart by starring as David Spade's love interest just four years later, but much like Sophie's choice (hee hee), the path God of War took to this point is not paved without the occasional bad decision.  The series survives despite its weaknesses rather than on their shoulders.  Is it fair to hold it up to a standard that may never have existed in the first place or was that reputation fairly earned?

God of War has a good story based in mythology.  False. 
God of War has a story.  Ehhhh...that's a little closer to the truth. 
God of War has a premise that justifies large scale battles with epic consequences.  Sure.  I'll go along with that.     

God of War has prodigious combat.  True-ish.  Once you cut away the fluff.
God of War's combat is like an onion, it has many layers.  Seriously?  Maybe an onion with rotten outer layers. This is an onion you want to eat?
God of War stages impressive battles with repetitive combat that minimize the redundancy of the routine combat. I'll give you this one.  The game never fails to entertain but does so with cinematic grandiosity rather than a well thought out combat system.

God of War has strong RPG elements.  This is a joke, right?  How did you even get in here?
God of War has RPG elements.  Still?  Let's agree to agree that you are wrong.  When did the definition of RPG elements become so lax that every shooter laid claim to the title?  Call of Duty?  Fallout?  I enjoy a good RPG, I don't enjoy those titles.  Mass Effect.  Uh-uh.
God of War comes in a box with an instruction manual.  Now that is something we can agree on.  Unless you downloaded it, in which case you didn't even get this courtesy.  I rented it.

My internal dialogue has made me think I hate not only this game, but the series as a whole.  This couldn't be farther from the truth.  The initial trilogy delighted me with it's gore and epicness, but it seems they may have gone back to the well one time too many and some of the luster is fading.  On the face, the game seems to be more of the same, so to be judgmental of its primary characteristics calls its predecessors onto the mat as well.  Kratos will survive.  He is an enduring character that grounds the game in perseverance and general badassery. 

As the fourth entry in the God of War series proper, I think it's worth considering how they got here.  We live in the age of the trilogy.  Ever since George Lucas claimed that he always conceived of Star Wars as a trilogy, "artists" have spoken of their visions for a three-part story.  Did they really have plans or is it a convenient strategy to lend legitimacy to sequels?  Recent popular trilogies in the video game realm have played this strategy to the hilt.  Mass Effect, Killzone, Halo, Uncharted.  But do they stop at three?  Some do, some don't.  When you talk about the impact of a story in three parts with a beginning, middle and end, how do you expect people to take the fourth installment seriously?  Isn't it superfluous by definition? 

George Lucas also managed to circumvent this issue with Star Wars, eventually claiming that his trilogy was actually a trilogy of trilogies.  Very clever.  Unfortunately he came down with Alzheimer's and died before he directed Episodes 1-3 of that series.  Now J.J. Abrams will be responsible for figuring out the beginning of the end.  Ultimately, each story must survive on its own, whether it is the beginning, middle or end of an overarching beginning, middle or end.  God of War achieved that level of credibility with the first three entries in the series.  But the fourth one represents a bit of a stumble into familiar territory that lacks polish.  If Sony wants to keep this juggernaut chugging into the PS4 era, it will need to figure out what made the previous entries so unimpeachably fun and ditch the posturing.  I'll let you know if I still feel the same way at the end, but I'll stick with it for now.