A prophecy predicts that after the Titans lose power, one of the Three Gods will rule. You are a member of the Caos, a race of ancient warriors sworn to one of three gods: Darkness, Void, and Light. Pledging your allegiance, you fight and crusade across the land, desecrating shrines and converting humanity so that your god may rule once more. Standing in your way are the Titans, monstrous immortal giants who reign over the land with astounding power. Your goal is simple: kill the Titans and ascend into the heavens with your god.
It is a simple narrative, and if it were any more complex it might be too much for the game. There is not much plot behind it. You choose a god, fight for that god, find a means to take down the Titans, and then take them down. The objective is clear. It is attractive. And there is a strange sense of fulfillment in becoming a warrior that finally earns a Titan’s attention and then taking the monstrous beast down. It is the obvious lust for power and glory scenario, but it is an effective one.
For comparative purposes, the game carries a God of War-esque fighting mechanic, a Dark Souls monetary feature, and a map conquest mentality. You have a light attack, heavy attack, magic, dash, blocking, and combos to mix things up. The controls are not particularly complex, but the executions and rough combat make for a satisfyingly violent gore fest.
Players can customize their Caos warrior with armor designated by player level and upgrade level. Armor, weapons, and upgrades all derive from the currency of souls. It requires some planning to make sure you have enough souls to repair gear and advance your character, but it never approaches the punishing difficulty of Dark Souls.
The god a player chooses is not a permanent commitment. At preset levels, a player can choose to ascend their Caos to that god and then pick a new god to fight for. During each ascension, the player selects legacy items from their current inventory to carry into the new Caos warrior. Keeping a large portion of your items costs a hefty sum of souls, so soul management becomes critical in these moments.
After an ascension, the player’s previous Caos warrior, carrying whatever they had at the time, guards the shrines and land already captured. Other players attempting to steal those shrines may face this ascended warrior in combat, so the stronger you are when you ascend, the better your odds of holding ground.
The Three Gods also factor into the economy of the world. Depending on the global state of land dominance, each god will offer rewards to new Caos warriors fighting in their name. These rewards shift based on that god’s desperation for more territory. Serving a god also unlocks new spells, abilities, powers, and weaponry over time. The strongest players aligned with each god earn a seat in the Sanctum, visible to all players.
After ascending, the player is placed a few levels below where they were and given their legacy items and accumulated souls. The crusade continues against the Titans, and against the other gods and players competing for land.
All of this is a surprisingly deep and satisfying system for a free-to-play game. The game is technically single-player but includes an asynchronous multiplayer component, similar to Dark Souls, where ghostly apparitions of other players appear in your own playthrough. You can curse them, bless them, or attempt to invade their world with enemies or to take their shrines. It is a fun mechanic, though it also carries a familiar frustration: when all you want is to bring a friend directly into your struggle against the Titans, you cannot. At the time of this review, a locked door in the Sanctum read “Co-op Coming Soon.” It never came.
Ascend: Hand of Kul will not satisfy everyone, but it is not a game anyone should overlook. The combat makes you feel like a legitimate force, particularly when you have an army of human archers riding alongside your Caos warrior as you charge into trolls, orcs, and eventually a Titan or two. The most notable complaints are the potential for grinding (which, in practice, was never that frequent) and the constant irritation of other players cursing you with enemies and handicaps. There is no strong character-driven narrative, no mind-blowing visuals, and no revolutionary gameplay. But it is fun, and for a free-to-play game on Xbox Live Arcade, that was more than enough. It was one of the best the platform had to offer.