God of War: Ascension update 1.03 goes live, adjusts difficulty of Trial of Archimedes

Sony Santa Monica Studio announced today the arrival of God of War: Ascension's update 1.03. Taking player feedback into account, the most notable feature is an adjustment to the Trial of Archimedes, which has been criticized for its hard difficulty.

"We received extensive feedback from the community that the “Trial of Archimedes” section (Chapter 28) near the end of the game was excessively challenging," said community strategist Aaron Kaufman. "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."

Update 1.03 adds a measured amount of green health orbs and a "nominal" amount of blue magic orbs at the end of each elevator stage. The change will be implemented across all difficulty levels. Other changes include the addition of "Marks" and eight additional new tints for added customization to your Champion in multiplayer. The six marks include:

• Mark of the Thief, for HADES
• Mark of the Trojan, for ALL
• Mark of the Spartan, for ALL
• Mark of the Legionnaire, for ARES
• Mark of the Mercenary, for ZEUS
• Mark of the Deep, for POSEIDON