When it comes to franchises that have strictly only ever existed on the Sony platforms, God of War has easily been my pick for the best of the Sony franchises. God of War and God of War 2 are classics, which tell an epic tale on a grand scale, and serves up an amazing and complex story with tons of visceral combat against fiendish mythological foes. When I first heard of a prequel coming to the PSP, I decided to buy my system ahead of time, because I needed to play the game when it was finally released. Well the time has come, and though it isn’t quite as epic as usual, it still remains a good time.

THE STORY SO FAR
The story of God of War deals with Kratos, a warrior who found himself about to be killed in battle, and in that moment called out to the god of war – Ares – to save him and strike his enemy down, and in that prayer came eternal servitude in the name of the god. Kratos was used by the god, however, and eventually the god placed him into a position that led to the death of his own wife and daughter by his own hands.

God of War: Chains of Olympus (God of War: CO from here on) is a prequel to the first two God of War games, meaning that you don’t need any prior knowledge of the franchise to pick the game up and get into the action, as the game doesn’t rely on previous knowledge as much as God of War 2 did, say, the first God of War game.

In God of War: CO you find yourself starting the game out like normal, facing off against humans in a city being attacked, which is basically nothing more than an extended tutorial for the most part. Though your mission begins like any other quest given to you by Ares, things suddenly become more serious as Althena asks you for help, hoping that you can restore the sun that has fallen to the ground. Throughout your time in God of War: CO you’ll adventure high and low, slowly seeking out the truth behind what happened, and hopefully at the end of the day you’ll be able to return the son to the sky and the world shall go on like it always does.

Much like the previous God of War games, God of War: CO is still very much story-driven, as there are plenty of in-game narrative moments, whether they be the CG cutscenes, in-game cutscenes, or spoken voiceover that details some of the stuff that is going on and the thoughts that are happening in Kratos’ head. Like the other God of War games, though the action is great, the story is what ultimately keeps us the most involved and matters the most to us, and in God of War: CO there is still a really high quality story, though not quite as epic as the previous games.

GAMEPLAY
For those familiar with the past games, the controls of God of War will feel familiar, though the controls do suffer from the lack of two proper thumbsticks. Like the first two games, combat plays a major part of God of War: CO, and a lot of the fun comes from pulling off wicked combos and doing things like complicated air juggles, mixed with some swerving and dodging, and then follow it up with a QTE (Quick Time Event) kill minigame. Many of the moves are actually pretty much the same from the previous two games, though it’s by far harder to control Kratos this time around than usual.

The first problem with the controls come from the fact that you can’t easily flick the right thumbstick and have Kratos naturally duck and roll in that direction, letting you swiftly evade an attack and then follow it up with your own attacks. In God of War: CO, since you’re playing on the PSP, there is no second thumbstick, and so to do a trademark roll you have to have both shoulder buttons pressed in, and then flick your thumbstick in the direction you want to roll. The duck and roll system of the PSP works, but it doesn’t always work well, as it can sometimes cause your fingers to cramp, and it’s not always easy to get it into your mind that you need to hold those two buttons in to dodge, so more often than not you’ll either end up simply trying to block or your roll won’t put you out of harm’s way at all.

Another problem with the controls comes during the QTE events that require thumbstick movements and swirls, such as a few death kills and moments that need you to do things like twirl your thumbstick around to bring down a statue, for instance. The problem is that the thumbstick is just too set into the PSP, not letting you get a good leverage like you can on the PS2 where the thumbsticks stick up out of the controller and let you get an easier swivel. The biggest problem, for the record, came during a moment where I needed to swivel my thumbstick around and around in circles several times over, but because of the lack of an arc it wasn’t easy to do, and what usually takes a few seconds normally suddenly took minutes. Also, the kills that require a swivel are often so hard to do at the right time that’s it’s often better just to plain kill them with normal attacks.

One thing that’s always been nice about God of War’s combat is that it actually requires some thought, as you can’t simply go in slashing left and right and expect any results, as enemies will block and more often than not their attacks are way more powerful, so that if you find yourself mindlessly mashing buttons to attack, you’ll usually find something like a giant axe upside your head and doing some tremendous damage. The combat is actually where all the difficulty comes from, because though there are some light platformer and puzzle elements, the real challenge is definitely surviving the game one battle to next while you try to juggle your health and magic meters.

Like past games you’ll slowly gather a variety of spells and weapons you can use, which aren’t always needed, but you’ll find yourself using them enough to slowly craft Kratos into your own fighting machine. As you gather red orbs throughout the game by killing enemies and opening chests, you’ll be able to spend those points to upgrade your weapons and spells, not only giving you more combo and attack opportunities, but increasing power as well. So, if you find yourself only using one weapon and one spell most of the time, you’ll probably spend all your points upgrading those to their max, but if you like to spread the love around, you can improve everything bit by bit; the ability to shape Kratos’ fighting style to your play style really has always been a huge plus for the series.

The game also features its usual share of bosses, though nothing quite as outlandish or mighty as past bosses in the game series. The boss battles – though few – are still pretty fun, but nowhere near as challenging as they once were, and don’t require too much thought as their patterns are pretty obvious and from the moment the battle starts you usually have a good idea of what you need to do to win.

Besides the battling there are some light platforming and puzzle elements, though nothing that should have you scratching your head or cursing in frustration from missing jump after mistimed jump. There actually isn’t a whole lot of platforming – at least not Mario like platforming – as Kratos stays grounded for most of the time except for if you jump him into the air to launch an attack. Meanwhile, when it comes to the puzzles, they are pretty much of the “turn this to open this” or “destroy this to open this” variety, so don’t expect to spend too much time trying to figure something out.

GRAPHICS
For being the first God of War game on the PSP, it looks amazing, and is possibly the best looking game yet on the system; the game isn’t completely able to recreate the graphics exactly as they used to be on the PS2, but you’ll find many of the same type of area stylings, camera shots, and overall art style that has been used for both previous games.

AUDIO
The God of War series has always done an excellent job when it comes to the voice acting part of the game, and when it comes to God of War: CO nothing has changed in that department, as everyone from Kratos to the Narrator are all just as great and well-done as they’ve always been. The game also features some great sound effects, so you’ll definitely want to play this with the headphones on so you can soak in all of the ambiance. When it comes to the background music, however, though not as great as previous games, it is still overall very good.

IN CONCLUSION
Whether you’re a God of War fan or someone completely new to the franchise, you owe it to yourself to add this game to your PSP library. Now, though the game is still great, there are some minor flaws that fail to keep up the consistency and exact quality that the series has set so far, keeping the game from being a true classic and deserving of the “system seller” title.

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