God of War Chains of Olympus

God of War: Chains of Olympus (PSP)

The PSP isn’t having a bad time of it at the moment. With the addictive Patapon released fairly recently, the awesome Wipeout Pulse, the oh so sweet Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII and last, but certainly not least, the first God of War title on the PSP, Chains of Olympus.

God of War is a fighting game, more specifically a hack and slash ‘em up. It has a very solid story based around a rather morally ambiguous main character, this man is not your run of the mill hero in any sense of the word.

Without spoiling anything as far as the overarching plot is concerned, Chains of Olympus is a prequel to the original God of War on the PlayStation 2 while Kratos, the game’s lead character, is still in the service of the gods of Olympus. Anyone who has played either God of War or God of War II will be instantly at home with the controls and various combos at Kratos’ disposal with only the dodge/evade mechanic undergoing a significant change since the previous games.

Visuals and sound

Chains of Olympus is a very, very good looking game by pretty much any standards, but the fact that it looks so good on the PSP, a 4 year old handheld system, is as much of a feat technically as it is artistically. The animation is top notch and the levels and backgrounds are on a scale rivalling many of the bigger and more extravagant scenes in the PlayStation 2 games. Plenty of QTE’s (Quick Time Events) are thrown in for good measure and again these scenes are gorgeously rendered. The weapon and special effects and blood are all suitably flashy and some of the lighting and the reflections used are highly impressive. As with Crisis Core, Chains of Olympus is a game built around the recently unlocked PSP processor operating at 333MHz compared to the original 222MHz and it really does show.

Aurally the game delivers as well, decent voice acting, good music, meaty sound effects, a suitably epic soundtrack when the shizzle really does hit the fan (and it will) and even the scripting is of a good, if somewhat cheesy at times, standard.

Combat

This is where the God of War games tend to distance themselves from most of the other wannabes, as per usual the combat in Chains of Olympus is off the chain (chain…blades? Get it? Nevermind…). The combo system is superb and deep and the way the combat flows and links together is almost perfect, only parts of the Devil May Cry games and some sections of Heavenly Sword really come close to matching the level of fluidity, style and the impression of massive damage being delivered that the God of War games seem to be able to pump out at will and Chains of Olympus is no different.

Conclusion

Overall Chains of Olympus is a great game, a real showpiece for the PSP and an excellent addition to the God of War series and story. It isn’t a particularly long game but it is challenging. The action is broken up nicely by gorgeous prerendered sequences and QTE’s and some of the boss fights are nothing short of epic. There is even a bit of humour thrown in for good measure as well. Ready at Dawn seem to be able to make the PSP jump through hoops for them (this is the same team that did Daxter, another impressive PSP game) but unfortunately for the PSP, Chains of Olympus is their last game and they are moving on to other systems which is a shame, but talk about going out on a high!

God of War Chains of Olympus is nothing short of excellent and is yet another must have title for the PSP.

There is a demo available on the PlayStation Store via the PlayStation 3 or you can use the PC front end at the following address:

http://store.playstation.com/game/index.vm