God of War: Chains of Olympus Review

Platform:Playstation Portable (PSP)
ERSB: M for Mature
Genre: Hack & Slash, Action-Adventure
Number of Players: 1
Publisher: Sony, Capcom
Release Date: March 4th, 2008
Official Website
Writer: Trina

Rating: 9.0

Kratos is back and with a vengeance in God of War: Chains of Olympus. The game is set as a prequel to the original God of War series. Set at the midpoint of Kratos’ 10 year service to the Gods, Chains of Olympus starts with sending Kratos to the city of Attica to defend them against the invading Persian army. You go through killing most everything and everyone, gathering power ups and learning new magic as you follow his tale. This is Kratos first appearance on the PSP and he is headed to the Playstation 3 soon in God of War 3.

God of War: Chains of Olympus was developed by Ready at Dawn who had previous experience developing for the PSP with Daxter. Interestingly enough in order to deliver the game on time, Ready at Dawn had to cut some co-op aspects, puzzles, characters and dialogue.

Graphics:
The graphics are incredible. Ready at Dawn took the PSP and completely challenged it with what they could do. Lands look vast and amazing. Cut scenes are detailed and lighting is done extremely well in the game. The camera system for the game is fixed, which doesn’t help in a few cases, but overall the fixed camera is not a hindrance. At times the game in fact looks like a movie, once in the game I actually had to pause because I was looking at the background in awe.

Controls:
Controls are the place where most games either make it or break it. God of War: Chains of Olympus is a third person action game that is similar in game play mechanics to previous generations in the franchise. There are times when you have to press the circle button in order to solve puzzles. The circle button also can launch a string of quick time events on an enemy if they are weak enough. This is where the game loses some of its grandeur. The timed events are a trademark and make sense to do on the PSP. What doesn’t make sense is the use of the analog stick, specifically when you have to do it repeatedly and quickly. This just does not work on the PSP. Another popular mechanic is button mashing very quickly is very difficult for me to accomplish on the PSP. I could not get my hands around. I tried setting the PSP up against various items in my living room as I mashed away. It just was not very comfortable.

Sound:
The music gets a bit repetitive. Although I did use sound as a way to get one of my attacks off. I used sound to tell me when to block with my shield in order for it to launch a counterattack. Not sure if that was the way it was meant to be used, but it worked for me. In sound, the dialogue is again one of the things that set this game apart from any other game on the PSP. It truly raises the bar. The voice acting is amazing and spot on for the characters.

Flow:
The game flows quite nicely. If you start off to hard of a level like I did, then you get frustrated fast. When I started on a lower level, I really got into the game and with that the story. The game is fast paced and never stalls until you are faced with a puzzle you can’t completely see how to solve right away. Many times the only thing that stopped my flow in playing God of War was the battery life on my PSP.

Fun Factor:
Okay who doesn’t love just beating the heck out of everything around you? God of War: Chains of Olympus is a fun and deep experience. You’ll definitely get your money worth game play out of it. Will you get frustrated at times? Heck yes! That is a definite. But you’ll come back, and then you’ll get right back into the game.

Female Aspect:
Be aware, your first introduction to women in the game are naked muses, which by the way, is a side-game where you time the buttons correctly in order to show you are the best at having sex. They actually sound disappointed when you mess up the button order. After that though, you come across Persephone the strong Queen of the undead. But she’s also a boss you have to beat because she got all bitter and planned to destroy the world. You briefly see Kratos’ daughter Calliope, which I have decided is a great name for a girl. For most of the game though, you are put against creatures or male soldiers.

Replay Value:
God of War: Chains of Olympus definitely has replay value if you like challenging yourself. At the end of the game you open harder levels but you also open God mode. You also open up some challenges that you can take on.

Overall I really enjoyed God of War: Chains of Olympus and I feel it’s a game that every PSP owner should play. Be ready for some moments of frustration but also get ready for moments that will take your breath away.