God of War: Ascension multiplayer began during GoW 3 development

God of War: Ascension developer Sony Santa Monica Studio has revealed that it began experimenting with online play towards the end of God of War 3 development. The studio felt Ascension was the right time to implement it.

Speaking with OPM, lead combat designer Jason McDonald discussed the team's experimentation.

“At the end of God Of War 3, we did some tests with the PSN and multiplayer in general," he revealed, "players fighting with each other to see how fun it might be. We found it was pretty enjoyable, people were having a great time and were talking smack, just beating each other up.

“We looked at that and thought, ‘if people are having this much fun with something that we just put together quickly, what if we put the whole God Of War spin on it?"

McDonald stated that this meant, "Putting in the epic scale, the brutality, making it feel just as visceral and good as the single-player does”

Such experimentation isn't new to the series he added, “[With] every God Of War, we have ideas that we can sometimes do in the game and some we can’t. It just happened this way. I haven’t seen any game that has the look of God of War multiplayer so it was unique and it was fun and it was the right time to do it.”

Critics seem to enjoy it enough, that's for sure. Check out our God of War: Ascension review round-up here:

God of War: Ascension review round-up, all scores here.

Have you tried God of War: Ascension's multiplayer? Is it a worthwhile addition to the format? Let us know below.