Review by: Brandon "Poseidon's Rage" Cackowski-Schnell

For all of its epic set pieces and situations, the God of War series has always been paper thin in the characterization department. Kratos is a jerk, plain and simple. Yes, the gods screwed with him, but let's not forget that he asked for their help when he was about to buy it, so he somewhat brought it upon himself. He also appears to be a psychopath but that's an entirely different discussion. Knowing this, you can imagine how surprised I was when the latest, and possibly last entry in Kratos' saga, made me actually feel sorry for the guy. By now I expect great visuals, fantastic combat and thrilling battles in a God of War game but what I don't expect is to feel sympathy for one of gaming's biggest tools.

Ghost of Sparta takes place in between the events in God of War and God of War II. Kratos sits uneasily on Ares' throne as the new God of War. Plagued by visions of a dying woman, he sets out to find out what the visions mean and ends up on a quest to rescue his long lost brother Deimos from Thanatos, the God of Death. Through flashbacks we see that Deimos was taken by Ares and Athena when Deimos and Kratos were young children, as the gods had received visions that a marked warrior would eventually bring about the fall of Mount Olympus. Before the game is through Kratos will travel from Atlantis to Sparta to Death's Domain in a quest to rescue his brother and show the gods that they kidnapped the wrong dude. The story is well told and while it doesn't transform Kratos into someone you want to hang out with, it gives you greater insight into just how much he has been a pawn of the gods and where that seemingly bottomless pit of rage comes from. If my whole life had been spent as a god's plaything, I'd be pissed too.

Along with thematic elements that tie into the previous games, including plot elements referenced in God of War III, the game also shares a few gameplay elements as well. Kratos can charge enemies and drive them into the ground, as in the series' last foray, with the ability to chain it into even more brutal finishing moves. Along with the trusty Blades of Athena, you can arm yourself with a shield and spear combo that has its own set of combos and its own upgrade path. As with the previous PSP game, this is not a watered down entry, but a full fledged God of War game complete with all of the upgrades, magical powers, combos and quick time events that you'd find in a non-handheld version.

Unfortunately, in keeping the game as robust as its older siblings, the controls can become frustratingly complicated at times. It's great that Kratos has so many tools at his disposal, however the PSP has fewer buttons with which to pull off all of these moves which results in some moments where you accidentally pop off a spell when you didn't want to, or you hit the wrong shoulder button combination resulting in a combo attempt that ends up getting you stomped by a cyclops rather than you smoothly rolling away as you had planned. I'm all for varied combat but I'm ok with losing a few moves if it means that the system fits the hardware. Luckily health and magic chests are well spaced so if an errant move causes you to lose either of those, it's not long until you can refill your meters.

As with the last outing, the game looks absolutely fantastic in both the combat and environment department. Kratos' moves are extremely fluid and the various finishing moves and combos are fast paced and well modeled. The enemies are ones you've come to expect in a God of War game with the requisite cyclops, minotaurs, gorgons and undead soldiers. Unfortunately Ready At Dawn has gotten a little too good at wringing polygons out of the system as some battles are so frantic and filled with so many enemies at once that it gets hard to find Kratos in the middle of all of the carnage, which can be a problem when beasties start throwing freeze rays around.

There also seems to be an abundance of enemy attacks that require alternating presses of the shoulder buttons to escape from, which is made all the annoying by the fact that at least on my PSP, hitting the shoulder buttons quickly sounds like a machine gun going off. Many the time did I take the health hit instead of catching the Evil Eye from my spouse as I clacked over whatever was on TV while I played.