The Trial of Archimedes is now a shadow of its former self
When God of War: Ascension came out, people seemed to forget that it was an action game, and occasionally may put up a fight. Much like the penultimate fight in the first God of War (against the Kratos clones), Ascension has a similarly taxing area — the Trial of Archimedes.
Enough people complained, and now, Sony has rolled out a patch to make the area easier. How much easier? Well, it basically ruined the entire area. See, the whole point of the Trial is that it’s a test of your ability to cope with attrition. You have to go through three waves of enemies, with barely any health items to recover your stamina.
Now, post-patch you receive health and magic orbs at the end of every wave. To add insult to injury, this update “affects all difficulty levels” according to Sony. See, I would have been perfectly fine with an update that helped players who wanted to tackle the Easy difficulty, but to go all the way up to Titan Mode? It cheapens the most fun part of the game for people who want an actual challenge.
If you’re about to play the game for the first time, don’t patch it, and just try the base build first. I promise, it’s not that hard. If all else fails, check out my guide. This nerf was the major focus of this new patch, but a few aesthetic multiplayer customization options have been added as well.
God of War: Ascension [PlayStation Blog]