Consolation Prize

After two successful outings on the PS2, it’s time for the Ghost of Sparta to step into the mobile market for God of War: Chains of Olympus on the Sony PSP. The development reigns (or should that be chains) have been handed over to Ready At Dawn Studios using an enhanced version of their proprietary engine that was developed for Daxter (PSP).

Set as a prequel to the events that took place in God of War, this entry in the franchise nicely fits into the story arc that has already been told thus far and fleshes out more of our angry Spartans background.

At start of the game Kratos, already in servitude to the Olympian gods, is sent to the city of Attica to repel the Persian invasion. It’s an adrenalin inducing start and introduces the player to the controls gradually throughout the level and finally climaxes with a showdown with a Basilisk that has been terrorising the city. The level however is merely a taster of things to come and it’s not until vanquishing the beast that the true story line becomes apparent as Kratos witnessing the sun falling from the sky begins a quest to restore the god Helios.

Thanks to the recent firmware upgrade the true potential of the PSP processor has been unlocked, allowing it to run at 333MHz instead of 222MHz, and because of this God of War: Chains of Olympus looks and sounds absolutely stunning. Without a doubt this is a rich God of War adventure, not some limited mobile version that we’ve sometimes come to expect from franchises that have made the transition to portable devices. I’m sure some compromises had to be made along the way but because they’re not obvious they don’t detract from the overall enjoyment or game experience.

As you’d expect the presentation is first class. From the initial sounds of the horns and beating drums blasting out the familiar God of War anthem on the menu screen to the way the story advances using a mixture of in-game engine, CGI, and static hand drawn images which seamlessly meld into one another is outstanding. Familiar voice actors return and breath life into the characters once more and it’s great to hear the voice of the orator and the angry gravelly shouting from Kratos again. The game features a number of interesting and atmospheric locations and along the way you’ll be visiting the “Temple of Helios” and of course no God of War game is complete without a trip to the underworld, in this case Tartarus.

The successful formula used in the first two games has once more been recreated with aplomb and experienced players will feel right at home from the get go. Combat is as fun as always, intermingled with some truly tense encounters which are completed by the skin of your teeth. The new weapon, “Gauntlet of Zeus”, once obtained, is exceptionally good with some powerful combos and it soon became my default weapon of destruction (sorry “Blades of Chaos”). New magical abilities such as the area effecting “Efreet”, and multi-targeting “Charon’s Wrath” complement the melee well and soon become an essential part of combat allowing you that little bit of extra breathing space when tackling multiple enemies.

The controls are fluid and responsive, and even though the PSP has fewer buttons than the PS2 controller at no stage did I feel this was a problem. All of Kratos’ attacks, magical abilities, and dodging can be executed easily and in some respects I actually prefer the PSP implementation over its bigger brother as I’ve always found using the right joystick to control dodging on the PS2 controller to be a slightly cumbersome experience.

There have been occasions where checkpoints and save points have been badly placed in previous God of War games, thus leaving you to repeat difficult sections time-and-time again. However, in this case I must congratulate Ready at Dawn for remedying the situation and placing checkpoints and save points at sensible intervals and locations. If anything some would argue that it’s “too generous”, and I’m sure this has something to do with the handheld design constraints but I for one welcome the improvements.

If anything familiarity could also be the downfall of God of War: Chains of Olympus. Apart from the story and locations the game features a similar game structure to its brethren. It’s a linear progression of dispatching a multitude of enemies in vicious style, gathering “red experience” orbs from chests and defeated foes to power up weapons and abilities, and solving some simple pull-lever push block type puzzles. The real negative of the game however is its length, which on first play-through only clocks in at a measly six hours or so. And although there are some extras to play with such as the “Challenge of Hades” and a couple of extra costumes there isn’t really much incentive to keep you playing beyond a second run through. Even given the aforementioned similarities and short longevity this is still a glorious action adventure romp that fans will love, and without a doubt one of the best games I have played on the PSP to date.