There are no two ways about it, God of War: Ascension is by far the weakest link in the incredible series. You know the saying: if it ain't broke, don't fix it? Well, devs behind GOW: Ascension disregarded that saying and made quite a few changes to the combat, most of which were bad decisions that completely ruined the combat perfection found in GOW III. Also, you can see the devs were aware of all the problems the game had the moment they replaced the save points with checkpoints. Shame they took the easy way out.
Pros: Stunning visuals, last third of the game ranks up there with the series' best parts, biggest emphasis on platforming, exploring and puzzles out of all the entires in the series, New Game+
Cons: Destroyed perfect flow of GOW III's combat, first two thirds of the game have really poor pacing, combat and barely any traces of a story, multiplayer (although surprisingly serviceable) is nothing to get too excited about, occasionally troublesome camera