Review: God of War: Chains of Olympus (PSP)

With that in mind, the arrival of God of War on the PSP was inevitable. With development duties passed from SCEI to Ready at Dawn, who had just a single game to their name as a studio (the well received Daxter, which also appeared on the PSP) and, with many PSP games suffering due to the lack of a second analogue input to control the camera, Gamestyle was concerned that this handheld version might struggle to live up to the pervious games.

Gamestyle need not have worried, for Ready at Dawn have delivered not just a worthy entry to the God of War canon but arguably the finest PSP game to date. Set ten years before the events of the first Playstation 2 title, the plot follows Kratos as he does the bidding of the Gods. Initially repelling a Persian invasion of Attica, Kratos is soon sent on a quest by Athena to find Helios, the God of the Sun, and return him to the sky. Along the way Kratos takes his usual journey through Greek mythology, slaughtering all those that stand in his way. And the journey here is as spectacularly imagined and realised as the game’s big brothers on the Playstation 2. There’s no escaping the fact that this is the most visually opulent title appear on the PSP to date. Chains of Olympus doesn’t feel like a pared down cash-in, or an afterthought. Rather, it is a flagship title for the PSP, showing the machine’s ability to the fullest. The art design and direction is superb. The environments are rich and detailed and, even though confined to the PSP’s small screen, feel epic in their execution. The cut-scenes are of an equally high quality and are on a par with those on the Playstation 2. Throw in to the mix the fact that all of the original voice cast have returned for this title and the feeling of big-budget, home console production values is complete. The real icing on the cake though, is that all of this is achieved with virtually no loading times and certainly no loading screens. Sure, the cut-scenes are pretty long in places, and unskippable, clearly hiding the PSP getting up to a fair bit of work, but when developers can’t manage this on home consoles, who are we to complain?

The fixed cameras imposed on the Playstation 2 God of War titles are a god send here, neatly allowing Chains of Olympus to sidestep the fact there is no (or perhaps no easy way) to control the camera without a second analogue stick. Instead, all the camera points are perfectly located to give an optimum view of the vistas and the action, as well as the direction in which to proceed. However, no PSP game would be complete without some form of niggle with the camera and Chains of Olympus is no exception. Here, it’s possible to get knocked between one camera and another during the course of combat, causing the screen to flick between the two too quickly, although this is only a minor irritation. The only part of the game to be lost during translation is the dodge move, originally mapped to the right stick. This is now done by holding the shoulder buttons and tapping a movement direction, but even this isn’t a hardship once you get over automatically trying to hit a non-existent right stick.

As ever, Kratos is armed with his trusty Blades of Chaos. In addition, there a number of other weapons and magic waiting to be unlocked and without wanting to give too much away, these are all entertaining to say the least. A good job as well, as this game offers up far more combat than its predecessors, no doubt as a result of the move to a new and smaller home. Puzzle solving is kept to a minimum, and even though well told and paced, the story is less involved than in previous God of War games. Fortunately, there’s a veritable menagerie of creatures to fight through, together with the now obligatory QTE to finish off a downed opponent. To the game’s credit, even though the game is almost totally based around combat, it never feels tired or boring.

If we had to level one criticism at this game, it would be that it is perhaps too short. Taking not more than seven or eight hours at best to get through the game on its default difficulty setting, the unlockables and tougher difficulty levels do add some replay value, but once you’ve gone through the game once you’ve seen all the story has to offer. Checkpoints are sprinkled liberally around the levels, although this is part and parcel of the title’s portable home and the stop/start nature of handheld gaming.

God of War: Chains of Olympus is a fantastic game and a worthy addition to any PSP owner’s collection. It’s easy to bandy around phrases like “system seller” but this game is. A technical marvel that also remembers it’s a game. It’s just a shame that the system it should be selling is one that so many have made their mind up about already.

Rating: 9 / 10

Words by Andy Lucas