God of War: Chains of Olympus Review

16th Apr 2009 | 2,130 views 

saimcheeda

User Score
9.5

Presentation - 9.5
Gameplay - 9.5
Value - 9.5

The God of War Franchise has been well Known and is now even referred as the trademark franchise of the Playstation brand by some people, God of War and God of War II were released on the PS2 and God of War III will be released for The PS3, so it was not a surprise when God of War: Chains of Olympus was announced for the PSP.As the previous God of War games were instant classics this one continues the legacy because this is by far the best PSP Game i have played.

Set halfway before the events of the first God of War game, Making this a prequel, The game focuses on the 10 year span in which Kratos was serving the Gods of Olympus. The game begins in the City of Attica where Kratos has been sent by the gods to defeat the Persian King, who plans on "cleansing the land “with its basilisk. Eventually the story shifts to Kratos attempting to save the gods and humanity from eternal slumber, fighting through Hades and making an impossible choice. You would get the feeling that this game doesn't have any direct story line until the game reaches its climax where it starts to flesh out. Although this is a prequel you would still have to know at least the story of the first installment to understand the plot.

 
First Attica then The Underworld

The game play does not change so God of War Fans should feel right at home. Weapons and magic can be updated by collecting red orbs, which can be gained by killing enemies, from chests and the sex minigame(yes its back),although you don’t have to worry about saving up orbs all the time because you only get two weapons, the Blades of Chaos and Gauntlet of Zeus. The Blades are the default weapon you get at the beginning of the game and while not as strong as the Gauntlet, they are much quicker to use and good enough until you get the Gauntlet, The Gauntlet of Zeus is found near the end of the game, is Much more powerful to use and is necessary at some point of the game to access areas or to kill enemies. Magic is gained at the beginning, This includes the Efreet spell, which knocks out all nearby enemies, the Light of Dawn, which allows the player to throw balls of light, and Charon's Wrath, which can inflict damage on several enemies, there is also the Sun Shield which is used to parry enemy attacks and projectiles. Magic is good to use if cornered or to finish off enemies quickly, opening green chests to replenish life, blue for magic, red for orbs, and others for gorgon eyes and phoenix feathers in order to increase the life and magic bars respectively. The arsenal of enemies is much less this time round, the gorgons and the soldiers return, the new enemies resemble the enemies in the previous games. There are 4 boss fights in this game The Basilisk, The Persian King, Charon and Persophone.Killing Bosses require only minor strategies eventually leading to button mashing sequences which then bring the fight to a conclusion. There are also many puzzles in this game which take up a certain amount of time to think through and mostly involve directing lights to shields or finding a route to a new area. Climbing on walls and reaching higher areas to go further or to find levers are also amongst the returning features.

The graphics are by far the highest quality i have experienced for a PSP Game. The game itself looks like a work of art, with its Gorgeous Environments and the Gory. Simply maintaining a solid frame rate is impressive enough when you've got so many characters fighting onscreen at the same time, but when you toss in lighting and particle effects, moving backgrounds, and lots of blood, it's even more impressive. Soundtrack is similar to the previous games which is a good thing because it fits the feel of the game and makes using headphones a must have, it will definitely capture you completely in the game within its influence and make you more focused. The amount of Extras aren’t as much as the before but are still impressive enough, you can look through concept art, look through the "lost levels", which shows us how Ready at Dawn developed the game and the ideas they had before scrapping them. Play Through Hades 5 Challenges which lives up to its name because the Challenges feel like they are brought from hell, or go back and play the game again through higher difficulty modes which Consist of Easy,Normal,Hard and Ultra Hard. Playing through the versions is pretty tough but the Challenge surely makes it all the more fun.

 

Although this game is surely a hit the "similar" factor is a bit of a letdown. Even though its Good that you don’t have to learn some new control scheme, it wouldn't have hurt to put something new in this Game. God of War Franchise Purists or,Newbies who are fans of the Hack n Slash Genre, Should have a satisfying experience. Players who weren’t fans of the Previous installments won't be driven toward the franchise with this game because of it being similar in tone with the others. But Chains of Olympus is a superb Game for the PSP Library of Games and sure sits on top of the List for me. Not as much fun as the previous games its asset is that you can play it anywhere providing God of War Fans with a Good Solid 4 or 5 hours worth of Play and Newbie’s up to 6 or 7.If you want to buy a PSP this game should be on top of your must buy list, a fantastic game which wont let you down.