God of War: Chains of Olympus [PSP]

When God of War hit the PlayStation 2 in early 2005, gamers were treated to what most consider to be one of the best action games ever released. Its sequel, God of War II, hit the system earlier this month and quickly sold past one million copies, showing Sony that it wants more. Luckily, the publisher/developer already had the answer in the works.

Coming exclusively to the PSP later this year, God of War: Chains of Olympus is on its way from Ready at Dawn Studios, the group behind the fantastic Daxter. We had our first chance to catch a glimpse of the game at Sony's Gamer's Day down in San Diego early this week, and impressed we were.

Chains of Olympus takes place before the events of the original God of War, sometime in the 10 years between when Kratos was tricked into slaying his family and the beginning of the PS2 trilogy. Details are a little scarce on story details, but we do know that they do follow Kratos as he works for the gods and it will indeed tie into events that we've seen (and perhaps have yet to see) in the console titles.

The demo that we witnessed, which was said to be the opening moments of the game, was short but sweet. Kratos stands on a rooftop as an army of Persian boats and soldiers attempt to invade Attica. As hapless soldiers scale the building walls, Kratos utilizes his now-famous Blades of Chaos to dispatch them in a manner not unfamiliar to fans of the series. Most of his moves are taken straight from the console games, though he does have a few new tricks up his sleeves. For example, one grab kill begins with a leg sweep to lay the enemy on the ground, followed by a swift stomp to the head.

Once the initial soldiers are destroyed, Kratos takes to a nearby ballista, yanking back the oversized crossbow and firing a shot at one of the Persian ships. Its destruction sends fiery chunks everywhere, one of them knocking a hole in the roof nearby our anti-hero. Kratos then jumps inside the building and quickly dispatches a room fool of soldiers.

Once the room is empty, Kratos moves to the doors to open them just as a large cyclops busts through. The beast wields a very large pole that it attempts to bash Kratos with. Kratos then catches the pole and throws the beast back, but this fight never happens as an extremely large lizard-thing of some sort thrusts its head through the doors and quickly swallows the cyclops. Kratos' efforts then turn to this creature as it breaths fire, snaps its jaws and swipes its feet into the room. Finishing the beast by impaling it in the head with the Chaos Blades and then slamming its head into the ground, the demo was then over to our dismay.

While we didn't actually get to play the game, we did examine a nearby button layout sheet that clued us into how things will work. In the console games, the right analog stick was used for dodging. For Chains of Olympus, pressing L and R and then using the single stick will roll.

Unfortunately, Ready at Dawn and Sony are keeping mum on all other details about the game, though we do know that it'll contain a plethora of unlockable content like its console counterparts. God of War: Chains of Olympus will make a big appearance at this year's E3 and is expected to release sometime this winter season.

©2007, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved