There are those that believe that the holy grail of handheld gaming is the ability to recreate the graphics, sound, production values and controls of a traditional console experience on something small enough to play while on the bus, or standing in line at the DMV. For those pinning these particular hopes of handheld perfection on God of War: Chains of Olympus, you have chosen…wisely. This is the God of War as you have come to know and love—blood, guts and all, just pint sized and portable.
Chains of Olympus is set prior to the original God of War, and as such, Kratos is kicking it for the gods and cutting a bloody swath whenever he goes. After defending the city of Attica from the Persian army, fire breathing basilisk and all, some bad juju goes down, Morpheus’s creatures start attacking, Helios is nowhere to be found and only Kratos can put everything right, the rest of the Greek pantheon is caught up in whatever it is the gods do while Kratos uses undead archers a pincushions. Over the course of the story, Kratos will rediscover a bit of his lost humanity as well as make some extremely difficult choices to further put him in the god hating state of mind on display in the first game of the series. The story is well done, full of the amazing imagery of the various parts of Greek mythology brought to life.
One of the most fun parts of the God of War games is the unbelievable amount of carnage Kratos is capable of dishing out. At first, Kratos is equipped with only the Blades of Chaos and a few combos, however it’s more than enough to keep the body parts flying as Kratos mows down waves of enemy soldiers. Killing enemies and smashing containers yields red orbs which can be used to upgrade Kratos’ weapons and magical attacks, unlocking additional combos and increased damage. The magic selection is limited to three powers in this outing, however they’re all useful and fun to pull off in battle. The best addition to the game however is the Gauntlet of Zeus, an alternate weapon obtained around two-thirds of the way through that allows Kratos to pull off massive punches and damage dealing ground strikes. The Gauntlet is a worthy companion to the Blades of Chaos, and picking which weapon to use will be the key to surviving the many battles intact.
As with the other games in the series, Chains of Olympus follows a strict pattern of entering an open area, having the entrances blocked off with devil magic and then fighting waves of enemies with the doors reopened only when every last beastie has fallen. It’s a simple design however it never gets boring due to the sheer variety of the enemies as well as the fluidity of the combat. As you upgrade Kratos’ weapons, the combos become more and more devastating, and pulling them off in succession, or targeting one enemy with the first move of the combo but finishing the combo off on an enemy behind you is simple and intuitive.
The God of War series has always made the player feel like a whirling dervish of bloody destruction and this is no different. Simple attacks are done via the face buttons, with the left shoulder button plus a face button used to pull off combos. Magic is done via the right shoulder button along with the face buttons making it easy to jump in the air, pull off a spell and then unleash a combo before hitting the ground. Due to the lack of a second analog stick, evading is done by pressing both shoulder buttons and moving the thumbstick, which takes some time to get used to, however you’ll have so many excellent aerial attacks in your arsenal that you may choose to simply go over your enemies rather than dodge away from them.
The controls aren’t the only thing that came over nearly untouched in the journey from the PS2 to the PSP as the visuals in the game are as impressive as ever. From the flaming trails of the Blades of Chaos to the well defined character models and backgrounds to the bouncing cavalcade of orbs found in defeated enemies and chests, all of the visual flourishes you’ve seen in the series’ previous games are all here. The game never slows down, never hiccups, and save for a very brief loading screen upon starting up, never gives a pause to the action. The fact that Ready at Dawn was able to make such a smooth, good looking game is to be commended, that they were able to remove the long loading times found in most PSP games is downright amazing. Audio is similarly well done with T.C. Carson and Linda Hunt back as Kratos and the narrator. The various pieces of background music fit the on screen action well with swells of music pushing on as you defeat your foes and then retreating to the background as you navigate the environment.
The smaller size of everything comes at a price though as the game is quite short, lasting only six hours or so on normal difficulty level, and that’s if you take the time to find every gorgon eye and phoenix feather. Luckily, once you’ve completed the game you can go back to finish it on the harder difficulties, including the titular God mode. The Challenge of Hades is also unlocked, pitting Kratos in various contests to unlock more contests and additional costumes and concept art. Even without the replay value, the game’s story and visuals are so well done, that it’s hard to fault the game for being short.
