God of War: Chains of Olympus (PSP) > Reviews (7)

At last a God of War game with Kratos the Spartan facing off with the persians! Hurrah! i wondered how long it would take, there's no end to the joy of taking out legions of persian minions with Kratos's whirly death blades!
Set before the first God of War and the first title on the PSP, Ghost of sparta follows Kratos during his time as servant of the gods of Olympus, he is sent to Attica to fight off the persian invasion, after he slaughters there general takes out their army and fights off their HUGE Basilisk (excellent first boss as usual God of War!) he watches as the sun plummets from the sky. He travels to the city of marathon to find out whats all the hubbub. The god Morpheus has flooded the city with a deadly black fog and has allied with the goddess Persephone and the Titan Atlus in an effort to destroy the world and Mt, Olympus.

The game isn't as story driven as the other titles, but because the PSP memory is a lot smaller i guess they couldn't have it all, your limited to a few cut scenes narrated by Gaia and i personally felt wanting a little more from the story line, as a sequel to God of War I was expecting the story to be a little more relevant to the other games, Kratos's daughter makes an appearance but I still felt that story occasionally came across as a bit rushed, but that's not to say that i didn't enjoy the story, i enjoyed it thoroughly so i'll let those minor blips slide.

The game play is as the other god of war titles, but oh my word is there a big ol' problem, the dodge roll... Kratos's main functions are there, triangle for a heavy hitter and square for speedy swings and L1 to block, but to dodge roll, and anyone whos played any God of War title knows that you'll be rolling around like a lunatic unless you like a swift death, and to dodge roll you need to hold L1 R1 and flick the analogue in the direction you want to roll, but of course inevitably you'll get it wrong on multiple occasions or you'll roll straight into the enemy attack and the frustration will begin. Unfortunately the control system has the unfortunate position of being put up against the controls of the PS2 and PS3 versions respectively and i can understand that they have done a good job transferring the controls over, but i just can't help the feeling that the game feels a bit stiff and a teency bit clunky.
But like i say, on the plus side they've done a good job in transferring the controls over, you wont notice much difference other than that blasted dodge roll!
My only other real gripe is with the old PSP itself (i have the older version), because the game is quite action heavy i found my hands very quickly get cramped and it seems nigh on impossible to get into a comfortable position with the thing, but that's a console issue not a problem with the game.

Being an earliest PSP title in the God of War series, it's smaller, and there's only a handful of bosses, but what i really enjoyed about the game was it was handheld Kratos and you just can't beat that!

If your new to the series however, this isn't really the place to start, the original God of War does a much better job of setting the story up, but this is however, a worthy addition to any God of War fans collection.

That excellent soundtrack is back again for another round, i have always sung praises for the god of war soundtrack and this game is no exception, what it lacks in actual written story it seems to make up for in orchestration, from quiet moody music for the inner sanctums and temples to epic ballsy orchestra busters for riding on basilisks! For anyone who wants to know by the way T.C Carson is the voice of Kratos and what a fine voice indeed, see if you can hear him in Everquest (grimgash the black anyone?)!

The upgrade system has been copied over too, Red for upgrades (long labourious upgrades) green for health and blue for magic. You'll be getting that nice mystery weapon along the way to, but i'll let you in on a secret here, it wasn't that great, "the Gauntlets of Zeus" is in fact one huge gauntlet which although is very slow is very powerful, i just didn't find myself using it at all, but then iv'e always preferred the whirly blades, you may quite enjoy the gauntlet if it matches your play style.
You'll get your taste of magic to, and i felt that unlike some other games in the series the magic felt like it was really helpful here I managed to stop myself from pouring all my souls into the blades and upgraded the Efreet, a fire demon spell that can really mess up your enemies day, you'll also pick up the light of dawn a nice little ranged bolt spell and Charons wrath which was a lot of fun to break out, it electrocutes multiple enemies holding them on the spot while you pound them into the dirt! One item you pick up along the way was a nice touch, the sun shield looked great, when you block up pops this great looking shield which you can use to bounce enemy projectiles back with, and just so you know, Pheonix feathers and Gorgon eyes are back respectively, for your health and magic bar upgrades.

Overall i felt i was a little harsh on this game, i'm not a massive player of PSP games and it was a bit of a learning curve i went from strutting around cutting swathes of enemies down in the other games, to feeling a little vulnerable here and no one likes that!
It's a great addition for the series and for those of you begging for more Kratos, it's right here on the PSP, so pick it up and enjoy.

©peckinpigeon