God Of War: Ascension Difficulty Patch Now Available

God Of War: Ascension developers Santa Monica Studios have made good on their promise to patch a section of the game so difficult that fans balked in their masses. The PS3 title’s infamous Trial Of Archimedes was giving players trouble even on lower difficulties, enough so that the developers took heed.

Their statement in full:

Though small this 1.03 update may be, we addressed an issue that was preventing some players from progressing past the Manticore battle in Chapter 27. We have also addressed the Trial of Archimedes:

We received extensive feedback from the community that the “Trial of Archimedes” section (Chapter 28) near the end of the game was excessively challenging. In every God of War game, establishing a well-paced difficulty ramp towards the end of the game is paramount to us. Based on player response, the degree of challenge offered here was short of our goal of being perfectly balanced.

In the 1.03 update, at the end of each elevator stage (3 total), players will now receive a measured amount of Green Health Orbs and a nominal amount of Blue Magic Orbs back. This change affects all difficulty levels. We are confident this revision will address feedback regarding “Trial of Archimedes” while still preserving the level of challenge appropriate for this late section of the game.

Thank you for your understanding and patience. Good fortunes in your quest to conquer the Trial of Archimedes and complete Kratos’ ascension!”

Gamers conscious enough to label themselves hardcore may choose to ignore the patch in favour of taking the game as is, but I imagine the news comes as welcome indeed to a great deal of players, myself included, whose struggle with the sections mentioned made the later passages of the game something of an ordeal.

In our review, we called God Of War: Ascension “an essential purchase for the experienced and the doe-eyed alike”. While I imagine a great deal more Platinum Trophies wil be gracing the top-rights of screens given this latest development, do you think the gaming community deserves such molly-coddling in an increasingly interactive era? Comments below.