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By Keith B (26th Apr 2008)

Unleashing Kratos on the PSP was always going to be subject to lots of discussion, but we're glad to report that God of War: Chains of Olympus is the best PSP game out there, bar none.


For as long as there has been DS and PSPs in existence, the PSP has played second fiddle. Owners of a DS have revelled in a constant stream of releases, while its PSP rival has been in catch up mode all the time. With the release of Gods of War: Chains of Olympus, all that may change. Don't get me wrong - one title isn't going to suddenly see Sony's platform steam ahead, but it could very well be a glimmer of good things to come. Especially when you consider things like enabling Skype on PSPs and the synchronising of the PSP and PS3 platforms.

But back to Kratos. The God of War series has been a wonderful thing for Sony, and for gamers in general, therefore cramming a release onto the PSPs screen seemed an unusual step. But there is enough different about this release to look at in an independent light although you’ll have to be a little patient with it.

First of all, this is a prequel to the series, so you get Kratos with his anger meter turned to low (although that will certainly change). The game doesn't have to worry itself with continuity or pre-existing plots or characters, so it's essentially a clean slate for the developers. Which is good, because Ready at Dawn weren't involved with any of the other titles in the series. But using Ready at Dawn wasn't a bad idea because it has been created by the minds behind the likes of Blizzard.

Kratos starts out this time around as the same servant to the Gods of Olympia as before, working in the hope that they will remove the memories of his past from his head. Known as the Ghost of Sparta, Kratos is struggling to leave behind a world of pain that includes the loss of his daughter, and so completes tasks for the likes of Persephone, queen of the Underworld and wife of Morpheus, the God of Dreams in a prequel to the rest of the games in the series. Kratos’ journey takes him beyond the world of man and into whole other realms.

And this is the thing about God of War: Chains of Olympus that is so striking, because the scale of the game, the tale being told and the locations travelled through, is so immense it makes the PSP seem larger than life. From meeting the ferryman in Hades to a Titan, the original inhabitants of the earth, you often find the that setting is so well presented that playing it on a PSP isn’t distracting. You see, PSP games in general, along with most handhelds, feel like handheld games, lacking any form of grandiose feeling. God of War shatters that idea and casts it to the wind. There are times when, while running Kratos around, he becomes no more than a few pixels tall, so large are portions of the map you travel across.

The game is incredibly linear, but that’s also part of its saving grace, because the linearity of it meant the developers can get away with only one control input, the left thumbstick, and the lack of a second one is rendered redundant. This is particularly good because third person games tend to rely on having dual stick inputs.

There is one small criticism I have, and it’s the lack of variety in bonuses and power ups. As Kratos runs about the place, he comes along various chests, and each provides either a special item, or a boost for one of three areas – magic, health or experience. The experience power allows you to boost your base level of weapons and magic, while the others fill the power bars back up again. As your experience total climbs, you can upgrade your swords, shield, and various magic abilities. But there are only six things to power up in total and there is a terrible lack of variety in the power ups available.

You can overlook the above complaint though because Kratos is such a machine anyway that it’s more fun kicking the seven shades of everything yourself and not using magic from afar. With the larger adversaries, once you knock their health down to a certain level you get a O icon appearing above their head. Get in close and hit O and you must then follow the on screen prompts to negotiate a killing blow on the enemy. I hate this sort of ‘monkey see, monkey do’ element in games, since I player Fahrenheit, and I didn’t like it any better here, although one of the set pieces allows Kratos to satisfy two women at once, just after you’ve killed their boss.
I actually found this interesting. In God of War: Chains of Olympus you can have simulated sex with two women, albeit just off screen but represented by the groans and moans, and the shelves that are in shot rocking and shaking with a candle atop it, but something like GTA needs editing. Go figure.

To conclude, God of War: Chains of Olympus isn’t a perfect game, but it’s about as good as you can get on the system. It’s got a brilliant tale and great controls, looks and sounds excellent, and sets the tone for the rest of the series. Brilliant.