Kotaku
God of War: Chains of Olympus is a stunning and portable prequel to the much touted God of War franchise. Taking place ten years before the original God of War, Kratos is delivered to gamers in a title that can be played on the go. While the story-driven gameplay and over-the-top action of previous God of War games made them nearly instant classics, developers Ready at Dawn had to try and encapsulate all of that screen-filling glory on a 4-inch LCD without losing any of the pizazz.
Ready at Dawn certainly achieved their goals, but they didn't do so without a bit of stumbling.
Loved:
Channeling God of War: This pocket-sized God of War is an amazing reproduction of the big screen version. Everything from the epic scope of the backdrop, to over-the-top battles, to the hidden sex mini-games is packed into this excellent title.
Pacing: As with the original, Chains of Olympus keeps you enthralled with a storyline you care about and the perfectly paced blending of battles and puzzle solving.
Graphics: Miniaturized, Kratos is just as much a bad-ass as he was in the original games. The detail of animation is at times awe-inspiring, and the character design at times almost surpasses the first two in the franchise.
Controls: With the exception of a few quick-time boss battle kills, the controls are flawless, allowing you to hammer out 40 to 50-chain attacks on a screen full of enemies.
Weapons: From the Gauntlets of Zeus to Kratos' mainstay Blades of Chaos, the portable God of War comes packed with an amazing selection of boostable weapons, a half dozen all told.
Bonus Material: While the game's five hours or so of campaign play was more than enough to satisfy my God of War bloodlust, it's nice that the game also includes five challenges that unlock silly bonus material, like being able to play as Kratos in a dress, and a God difficulty.
Addictive: Because of the vagaries of early builds and demos, I managed to play through chunks of Chains of Olympus three to four times, and it never got old. In fact, I had a lot of trouble putting it down. It's rare that a game gets its claws into me so deep. Even rarer that it would be on the PSP.
Hated
The Thumbstick: There are a number of big monster, quick time event kills in which you have to do timed swirls with the thumbstick and often it just doesn't register. There's nothing as annoying as failing in a boss battle or creature fight because of the hardware.
Save Points: There are a couple of unforgivable save points in the game. Why on earth would you put a save point right before the unskippable cut-scene that introduces an incredibly hard boss battle?
Story: This prequel to the original God of War has a wonderful, potentially emotional plot marred by disjointed delivery. There are moments in the game that could have truly touched gamers, but felt too forced to work.
God of War: Chains of Olympus delivers more to the Playstation Portable than I thought was possible. The game is nearly flawless in its production value and what minor issues it does have has more to do with the irritating difficulty than any real design flaws. My only disappointment lies in the story, which had such great potential for evocative gaming, but never fully delivers.
Set aside a chunk of one day to sit down and enjoy this experience uninterrupted from beginning to end. If I could only buy one game for the PSP, this would be it.
God of War: Chains of Olympus, developed by Ready at Dawn, published by SCEA, released March 4, for $40. Available on Playstation Portable, played to completion.
Comments
A stunning achievement for the PSP, I hope it's a sign of greater things to come, now that developers know the hardware.
For the first time ever, the PSP now gets more of my attentions than the DS.
i cant believe the game hasnt arrived in my local store yet...
(i live in armed forces europe)
good review wonder is crisis core will get the same marks?
Now I wish I had a PSP. :(
Guess I'll be buying this one today
"Why on earth would you put a save point right before the cut-scene that introduces an incredibly hard boss battle?"
Isn't that a good thing?
Looking forward to playing the game.
No, not unless you want to watch the save scene EVERY, SINGLE, TIME, you have to replay it.
Will pick this up when I get the chance, along with the other two games. >_>
I love this new review feature you guys have, it gets right to the point and I will actually read the review to see the pros and cons. Thanks Brian, I'll be getting this game in 3 days, so nice to know it's awesome.
Yes, I think I remember having to go through that in the demo. Either that or it kept freezing.
Nevertheless, I'm excited to pick it up. It'll be my new business trip companion game!
This game makes the PSP a god.
Is the cutscene skippable? And it does pad out gameplay time in a bad way.
I don't really like God of war.
@mentalboy11: armed forces europe? What country is that? They speak english in "armed foces europe"?
I am waiting for the Red PSP bundle package. Perfect chance to upgrade from the phatty.
@Brian Crecente:
Ah, I see.
Jeez so freaking temting to get a PSP lately. But I cant get myself to do it. I already have so many games that I havent tried or beaten yet. No More Heroes, Condemned 2, Mass Effect, Uncharted, Smash Bros, replay HL2, ep1, ep2, portal for 360 cause I'm an acheivment whore... the list could just keep going but you all get the idea.
"Save Points: There are a couple of unforgivable save points in the game. Why on earth would you put a save point right before the cut-scene that introduces an incredibly hard boss battle?"
Because people such as myself would smash their PSPs if they had to replay an entire huge section of baddies just to get back to this incredibly hard boss?
@XGamerX: Look at that. That is why I love Kotaku's review system.
Red vs.Blue + No Score=The end of fanboys comparing games. GoW:CoO and Crisis Core are completly different games. Why should they get"the same marks"?
I played the first God of War for about 2 and a half levels and had to put it down because I was really unimpressed. Maybe that's not fair, but everyone has built this up as one of the best action games ever, etc. I was really expecting something special, and it was just so ho-hum. Not that it was bad necessarily, but it certainly wasn't nearly as good as I had been led to believe.
I doubt I'd enjoy it anymore on a PSP. Those controls seem to be made specifically to thwart any attempt at playing an action game.
One gripe about this title, as well as the PSP as a whole. Does Sony realize that this thing is a portable system at all? First it comes with the worst battery situation since the Game Gear, then we receive a generous amount of great CONSOLE games, but very few (if any) portable ones, and then they have the gall to actually make the damned thing hook up to the TV.
This game's problem is definitely the second one, as is most of the PSPs library. It is miserable to take on the go. Between save points and the PSPs sub par battery keeping me from being able to pause it and put it in my pocket, this game will be staying at home for me to play in the long bursts it demands (If I even get to it with Smash Bros. sitting there) while my DS travels pretty much everywhere with its VERY portable games.
Also, quick time events, and every game that has ever used them save for RE4, need to go straight to hell. Laziest game design I have ever seen. Nothing to take me out of a game than flashing PRESS X NOT TO DIE in my face.
@Norellicus: emphasis on cut-scene, which isn't skipable btw.
While the technical achievement of this game should not be understated, I'm still amazed at the high praise heaped on what is the same game done for the third time.
When God of War rehashes "awesome gameplay" it is called a good thing. When Nintendo does something conservative with a famous franchise we call them out. I'm looking forward to the day when using the nigh-exact same movelist from your past games is not given a thumbs up.
@Brian Crecente: I always seem to lag on the comments, didn't see this follow-on. That's more a problem with the cutscene mechanics then :P
All cutscenes should be skippable (and to a lesser extent, pauseable), but they should do it via some confirmation menu; I don't want to accidentally skip a cutscene that I wanted to watch :(
Interesting way to make the review. I like the format...force the person to read, but not too much. I like it. I might have to try that format on myself...though I still think the number system is still workable. Good review though!
@KingDavid73: In Soviet Russia, God of War really doesn't like YOU!
@usfslacker: Do people realize how well the sleep mode works on the PSP? I've put my PSP to sleep playing Jeanne D'ark for DAYS and came back and jumped right back into a battle. PSP Tip; USE SLEEP MODE.
@db9: I agree. This is probably the BEST feature of the PSP.
I got through Final Fantasy Tactics: WOTL without exiting once to the menu, by just flipping it on and off.
NO one else does this. Certainly, Nintendon't.
Quick-time events in GOW are awesome!
True they aren't so good in other games but this "QTE=fail" trend of late is getting silly.
@jackal888:
by marks i mean praise and or acclaim, calm down.
The console manufacturers should really create a rule that all cutscenes should be able to be paused, and then the user should also be able to skip the cutscene from the pause menu. (Looking at you Metal Gear!)
I really liked this game and normally I'm not into brawlers with hundreds of guys. This game is really more about areas with specific battles though, and they mix it up nicely.
I do have two big complaints so far that make it look bad:
1. You can leap 10 feet in the air, but you can't leap over a 6 inch rock because debris has infinitely high invisible forcefields around it. In Tartarus, this gets REALLY obvious when the mighty Kratos can't step over rubble that an 80 year old with a broken hip could clear.
2. They really seem to like giving you a brutal battle, THEN a savage fight harder than the bosses, THEN a big empty dead end puzzle room that takes forever to get out of, all without a save point, so if your batteries die or you want to play something else, you have to go through hell just to get back to the boring spot where there's nothing (except one non-obvious thing) to do.
Other than that, it's awesome. If I beat this, I'm totally going back to play the first two. I may stall out on this one though because the difficulty curve goes straight up. I was marching through the whole game but now that I've hit Tartarus I have to redo every fight a dozen times just to continue. If it stays that brutal, there's just no fun to be had...
@Norellicus: The easy solution is surely to make the cut-scenes unskippable first time around, then skippable every time after that? Seriously, more developers need to remember that after our 80th try within the space of half an hour, no matter how good their cutscenes are, they're things we'll want to skip at that point.
@Brian Crecente: the cutscenes are actually skipable when you play the game a second time :)
@Spoony Bard: What, like closing the DS doesn't put it in sleep mode?
@MasterOfPastures:
United States Military Overseas, the base i live in is in italy, but its technically american soil.
Excellent game, nuff said.
I agree, the cinemas are the pain when you have to fight a difficult boss.
It's like me right now, stuck in God mode in the last boss and I have to watch the cinema all over again.
@Pombar:
Ha, thats part of the complaint about having the save before the cutscene, the save area is also the last checkpoint, so when you die you revert back to before you saw the cutscene. I must have watched it nearly a hundred times!
@usfslacker:
First, the PSP is …a Portable Playstation. It was created with the ability to feature home console quality games in mind. The Sleep function is also perfect for pausing the gameplay at any time, using the absolute minimal battery power, and then being able to jump back into the game exactly where you left off.
@taidan19:
While i do agree to some extent, perhaps more emphasis should be put on "done for the third time" as opposed to twentieth.
Having only played the original God of War and this PSP version, im a little tired of the gamplay, but the presentation is far beyond most other titles.
@Brian Crecente: but it also means that if you keep one save file, you have the option to go back to get health chests, red orbs or whatever. if you save after the cutscene, you're forced to go straight into the boss fight which would be impossible if you saved with 10% health.
@emag: Does it? A friend of mine was complaining that it doesn't the other day.
If it does, great! I'll go smack aforementioned friend in the head. :)
I definitely love this game. The PSP is quickly becoming my portable PS2. :)
@Pombar: But if I've played all the way through a game and have since started over on a new save file, I want to have the option to skip scenes that I know are unnecessary. Usually, the type of flag you're talking about is only transient within a given save file.
@lordofsword: If you constantly keep dying on the same part, after about 5 deaths, the game will slowly replenish your health with each death until it gets to around 90%. This feature alone saves your ass on God Mode.
@Spoony Bard: The DS has a sleep mode, just close the lid. Your game will pause and the power light will fade in/out green.
Longest I've ever gone with it like that was 3 days, without a hitch.
@Norellicus: I think it was more the "unskippable cutscene" part of that quote that you somehow missed that caused the complaint.
@SquirrelPhister:
I did that too. I beat the dragon (?) and wandered on a ways but there was nowhere to save even though I had to quit, so I put it away and never got my own copy. I'm loving this version though. It you hate quick time events though this is not for you. I play lots of rhythm games so I know my X, /\, [], O inside out and eat them up.
@usfslacker:
db9 is right. It's not a DS - the battery won't die if you put it to sleep overnight. Actually on a PSP sleep is about as good as off and should last at least a week. Playtime I'm not sure of because my battery is 3 years old and starting go go bad on me (as all 3 year old Li-Ion batteries do...) but I can get at least 3-4 hours of playtime from this game with it on one charge. Kind of weak, but it's usually about 15 min between save points and even if the battery dies it just goes to sleep and holds on to where I was until I get it to a charger.
Unskippable cutscenes are really bad. It's cool the first time, but not the next 50. Alternatively, skipping cutscenes with a simple button press isn't the greatest either. I accidently skipped a climactic Halo 3 cutscene and had no way of seeing it again without restarting the level.
@liquid_kore: That's the best option. Easily skip cutscenes, whilst making it very hard to do accidentally. Still, all cutscenes should be skippable after the first viewing.
I recently started playing Elite Beat Agents again, and had been stuck on the last song on Hard mode. Without easy cutscene skipping AND the DS sleep mode, I would have been too frustrated to beat it.
"The Thumbstick: There are a number of big monster, quick time event kills in which you have to do timed swirls with the thumbstick and often it just doesn't register. There's nothing as annoying as failing in a boss battle or creature fight because of the hardware."
@Brian Crecente: Come on, Crescente... Don't blame it on the controls :D
This is another of those PSP games that totally justifies owning one. Apart from the PS3 connectivity, a few games get played on the PSP - not because there aren't that many good ones, just the time I have to game on my PSP is limited and I have to spend it playing awesome quality titles like this. Little GoW on da PSP. Shit is baaaaallin.
I downloaded the demo and my hands hurt from playing. Other than that, the game was simply amazing. The God of War series rocks.
@7ucky: the thumbstick IS annoying as hell on quicktime events. Especially since you take damage if you unsuccessfully time it.
I've never played any of the other God of War games, to my shame, but I've been playing this on my housemates PSP and at times he's had to order me to give it back, it's just a ridiculous amount of fun, and just gobsmacking to be playing it on a PSP.
This sounds amazing but...only 5 hours of the main storyline? ):
Damn. i just went and picked up a DS month or two back, and i already had to jump on the PSP bandwagon. This one, MGS: PO+, Silent Hill, Crisis Core, there's a lotta games i want out/coming soon.