Game: God of War: Chains of Olympus
Developer: Ready At Dawn Studios
Platform: Sony PlayStation Portable
Play Mode: Hard
Disclaimers: This review contain SPOILERS for ALL THREE GAMES in the series. I have written this review as a synopsis and a look into the various aspects of this game as a whole. With the exception of the image above [image courtesy of PlayFrance.com], all screenshots were personally created by me (Dahk). If used, please contact me. I probably couldn't care less anyway =).
Take a moment and breath at that thrilling panoramic view of Kratos in a field. That is exactly what this half-prequel of the God of War series reflects - an unrivaled thrilling experience.Ready At Dawn's development God of War: Chains of Olympus is heralded as one of the greatest achievements (if the the greatest) to be made on Sony's little portable machine. Responsible for blockbusters like Daxter, the upcoming Wii port of Okami, this development studio has made great strides in graphical technology. By just looking at some of these screenshots, this is FACT. The graphical magnificence of this game is jaw-ripping gorgeous, and unmatched in the PSP realm.
Getting into the game, God of War: Chains of Olympus, while not really being a true prequel, dives into a side story of Kratos, fleshing out some details of his past. Kratos, also known as the Ghost of Sparta, had previously been deceived into killing his wife and daughter by Ares, the God of War. With immense guilt, sadness, and anger, and with the last pieces of humanity stripped away, he became the perfect warrior. He gave himself to the service of the Gods seeking redemption from his sins and wanting the pain of his ceaseless nightmares to go away.
At the beginning, we notice Linda Hunt's perfect voice casting of the narrator Gaia and Terrencce T.C. Carson as Kratos's unmistakable voice. With the start of the game, Kratos runs head on against the Persians who have sent their entire army to destroy Attica, kind of like the invading scenes in 300, only... virtualized beautifully in a small portable device. Furthermore, as you start to knock down soldiers and traverse through the level, you notice Ready At Dawn's near perfect translation of controls with the dodging being controlled with L and R held down, L for block, and R for magic uses. The dodging takes a bit of time to get used to, but after a while, this seems more preferred since you don't have take your thumb away from the attack controls.
Getting into the action the game doesn't disappoint, with soldiers climbing and wavering their petty little swords trying to hit something other than your gorgeous shield and the floor. The action stays tight and feverish with shaking environments and camera angles from the incoming fireballs. Kratos even indulges himself with some ballista action. Soon after, if you've never played a God of War game, you discover just how absolutely frickin' awesome their signature boss battles are. You tank a rampaging cyclops only to have him eaten by this gigantic mother of a monster. With a couple teeth swipes and fireballs to dodge, these battles keep you hell on the ball. Once finished, the 'minigame' or the 'finding frickin' sick and creative ways to kill big bosses' game starts with quick time events to get you integrated with the game.
GoW:CoO really does a good action of making boss battles challenging and seriously, no-joke, heart freakin pounding. Honestly, time your heart beat after playing this and I'll give you an Aston Martin (... paper model) if it's below 100. My big gripe about this game is that I wish that there were more gigantic bosses to fight. Persian Generals, Cyclopses, and wierd shield + sword floating things don't cut it when you've (spoilers - but I've already warned you) fought Ares in God of War I, and Zeus in God of War II. Honestly, there weren't very many memorable boss battles. Everyone's so tiny in this game! Charon, the ferryman of Hades, is cool looking (with a floating mask!), but small! Persephone, the Goddess of the Underworld... is ALSO SMALL! After God of War II, I want to run up a giant attacking soldier's arm stab him in the eye, swing/stab him in the other eye, slice down from his nose, etc etc. There weren't any of those OHMAGAWDLookWhatHeDidOHMAGAWD moments unfortunately.
One of the things I think Ready At Dawn did a great job doing was balancing the challenges of the game. On hard mode, the bosses were ACTUALLY HARD. For the final boss battle, I probably retried close to 50 tries. Even the punches from the regular minions in the game hurt. For a lot of the battles, you literally have to memorize orders of attack and the timing of all your attacks. Then you keep pounding until the next 'stage' of the boss. This leads to my second big gripe about the game. They put the checkpoints AT THE WRONG LOCATIONS. The final boss battle has like a 60 second cutscene where your forced to watch in anticipation of the fight, or (in my case) stare at the guy in front of you on the Go-train ride home from work. This happens continually throughout the game. You run into an insanely difficult area with compound phases of enemies and little health, you die, and you have to wait TWO MINUTES of story explaining and clips of Kratos running around or shining horses before you get to retry.The God of War series traditionally doesn't have the deepest of stories. It mostly relates to Kratos's anger and dealing with betrayal through, well, slicing and mashing with his wonderful Blades of Chaos. One awesome thing this brings though, is a variety in levels and environments. From lush green meadows (though rare) to blood-watered Hades, electric-swirling storms, and the blue waters of the Aegean Sea, I must stress again -because it's that important- that the environmental visuals in this game are absolutely gorgeous. The level designs are brilliant, cameras work perfectly, and there's NO loading time! Let me say this again: No loading time. This game has the ability (though I couldn't) to immerse you for 9 hours straight (twice as long on Hard difficulty) without even dropping a frame between cutscenes. Leading to my other point, when I say "without dropping a frame" this also pertains to the framerate. No lag whatsoever with bullets, explosives, and blades flying left, right, and centre. I experienced this in the demo and was rightfully scared. But the retail version on UMD was flawless.
A minor issue with the level design however, is that there were a couple puzzles in the game. Traditionally, the puzzles make you think for a while (generally validly extending the length of the game). These were WAY too easy, and its kind of unfortunately really. Then again, I didn't feel the need to punch a wall, because answers were staring at me right in the face - like it did in GoW2. Also, (let me get this in quickly), if you're playing on commutes, try not to sit beside someone who would likely get annoyed. The bright lights, flashing, and -worst of all- mad button mashing isn't the most neighbourly companion... I couldn't care less with this game in my hands though.
Running parallel in amazing stupendousness to the visuals, the audio doesn't disappoint with regards to musical scores, voice castings, and sound effects. The orchestral/choir scores are chilling when it needs to be, and beat blasting intense when those scenes are called for. Unfortunately, the game sticks to its previous roots, with various arrangements of the same music. They're amazing scores nonetheless, it's just not defined and unique - which I'm not sure it should have been anyway. Closed headphones (like all PSP games) should be used as the trembling bass doesn't really pull through those tinsy speakers.
This game sticks VERY closely to its roots from the first and second game, in almost every aspect. So much so that in the end, I wish there was something more defining - and this is my last gripe. The second game brought in wall climbing, roof swinging, rotating platforms that rotate other rotating platforms, and different, unique mechanics altogether. Unfortunately in GoW:CoO, nothing is really added. In fact, there's barely even any swimming or wall climbing. Most of the time is spent entrenched in blood-pressure-overwhelming battles in one arena. However, I must provide a little assurance of non-monotonous gameplay - the new magic abilities are pretty sick. The Gauntlet of Zeus provides a whole different action set, and nearer to the end of the game, basically replaces the famed Blades of Chaos. It's INSANELY powerful and will damage just about everything - something which your Blades of Chaos does not. I also fell in love with Efreet and it's ground pounding action. I actually USED the magic bar a lot this game.
God of War games have impressed boundlessly every time - this time is no exception. GoW:CoO makes a worthy addition to an already god-impressing series. If you were to play, I suggest hard mode not be played if frustrating challenges are not wanted, due to difficult boss battles with wrong checkpoint choices. However, I MUST recommend this to EVERY PSP owner (18+ due to some booby action). The 5-6 hours of non-stop, heart-pounding, gag-inducing, eye-piercing, sweat-inducing gameplay is ABSOLUTELY worth every penny.
Game Design: 9/10
Graphics & Visuals: 10/10
Sound & Audio: 9/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Overall (not an average): 9.4/10
Since this is a personal review, these numbers only have a meaning to me. They aren't objective, and I don't really want them to be since this is a personal tech blog. You can take it to mean whatever you want =).
