God of War: Chains of Olympus

Feb 29, 2008

The acclaimed God of War series is leaping from PS2 to handheld, and it might be easy to write off Ready at Dawn's God of War: Chains of Olympus as merely "Kratos on PSP." That's not a totally unfair comparison, but it doesn't do the new game justice. Chains is a leaner and more compact experience than its console cousins in many regards. It's also one of the best titles available on any handheld system right now.

CoO takes places at some point between the death of Kratos' wife and daughter and the events of the first God of War. As the action kicks off, Kratos' story starts in the ancient Greek city of Attica, where he's defending against an onslaught of Persian forces. That's just the beginning, though, as he moves from Attica to Marathon, where Helios, the sun god, has been weakened, and the god of dreams, Morpheus, is putting Greece to sleep so that he can loosen Olympus' grip on the nation.

Ready at Dawn utilizes the PSP's full capabilities in ways that past titles haven't, making CoO one of the best-looking PSP titles yet. As the first game to use the PSP processor's maximum speed setting, CoO's action runs at a blistering speed. Textures look as detailed and epic on the tiny screen as they looked on the PS2. The art design pulls off an effective compromise between the familiar and the primal -- this is a prequel, after all. Kratos looks marginally younger, and some creatures look like prototypes of their console counterparts. It goes a long way toward fostering the idea that chronologically, Kratos hasn't reached the point at which he's ready to kill Ares.

One of the other reasons that CoO works is thanks to its control scheme. Some things, like accidentally setting off magic spells, can initially be off-setting, but after an hour of gameplay the controls feel natural. Beyond those small hiccups, CoO functions wonderfully because it almost perfectly mimics the PS2 games' button layout. It's got the fundamental combat system of the first game with flourishes from the second, such as wall-climbing. One can only hope that future PSP versions of other big action franchises capture their progenitors' essential gameplay with this level of twitchy fidelity.

A big part of CoO's charm lies in its tools of combat. Kratos spends most of the experience engaging in butchery with his trusty Blades of Chaos, which feel immediately familiar and accessible whether you've played a God of War game or not. Kratos also gains the Efreet, a demon genie that creates a wide blast radius, early on. Eventually he'll earn more abilities, though the Efreet's fiery attacks will be a fallback resource throughout the game. The Gauntlet of Zeus, a super-powered punching glove, could rank as one of the best weapons in the series. Although the weapon and magic counts aren't as high as in the console games, every tool CoO does offer works wonderfully.

That's not to say that all is perfect. There's a puzzle that's not particularly intuitive thanks to the fixed camera and lack of cues, and a few more frustrating moments that take some patience to get through. And though there's no problem with CoO's short initial playthrough (seven hours for us on Normal), the storyline, entertaining as it is, isn't as strong as in previous games. Although both issues are worthy of mentioning, neither does much to ruin the overall experience.

As always, there's plenty of bonus content to unlock. After beating the game once, God mode (very hard difficulty) opens up, as well as challenge modes. The challenges can be tough if you're not a GoW vet -- it sounds easy to kill X number of enemies without getting hit, but it's quite another thing to pull it off. Clearing those challenges opens up more costumes for Kratos. The content on the UMD works as an effective tool to encourage replay value in what's otherwise a rather brief title.

God of War: Chains of Olympus is likely one of the year's best handheld titles. The combat is tight enough to attract both long-time fans and gamers who've never played the PS2 games. It's also one of the best-looking PSP titles to date; the fusion of familiar-looking art and prototypical-looking monsters ably captures that prequel feeling. It's worth noting that there can be some frustrating sections, that the story is good but not great, and that it'll be a brief experience for the voraciously hardcore. Despite these complaints, the bonus content should provide strong motivation for another playthrough. Chains of Olympus is more than another console game grafted to PSP; it's a pint-sized triumph for the platform.