Originally Posted: April 08, 2008
The two God Of War games on PS2 were visually stunning and evenly paced action adventures that set a high standard of gaming and kick started the PS2 as it approached the end of it’s lifespan.
The idea of a handheld prequel had left me feeling slightly uneasy. It could be another fantastic experience with Kratos but there was a nagging fear that it might turn out to be rubbish, like so many prequels.
I can allay those fears right now with a bold claim – God Of War: Chains Of Olympus is the best game I have played on PSP. I’m not saying it’s the most in-depth or has any new radical features, just that it was a lot of fun to play and has been my favourite gaming experience on the PSP so far.
Kratos, the lead character (and God Of War), has done bad things to many people – on the battlefield and just in general. He offers to serve the Gods of Olympus (Zeus/Hades etc) and in return they will erase his pain at the memories of what he has done.
The PSP game starts out in familiar territory – being sent by the Gods to sort out a mess and rescue a city. This involves lots of the hacking and slashing that have become the games trademark. As the game progresses Kratos proceeds through several places trying to work out who has caused all the problems going on, with several great boss battles and lots of the ‘match the button press’ kills that make the game so enjoyable.
The controls are simple and transfer directly from the PS2 with the face buttons as jump, interact, light attack and heavy attack – and then used again in conjunction with the L and R buttons for combos and magic respectively.
The game is stunning graphically – easily the most impressive on PSP and the developers have pushed the envelope on it. However this brings me on to the only downside of the game – it’s short. Very short. I finished this (albeit on Easy mode) in around 4 hours. Possibly this is due to the squeeze for the graphics but a few more hours would’ve been great.
Overall this is an essential purchase for any PSP owner and while it is on the short side I would rather play a great 4 hour game than a slightly disappointing, drawn out 8 hour one!
SCORE: 9/10
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