A fantastic portable take on Sony biggest franchise that just misses a few tricks with story and length.
| Developer | |
| Publisher | |
| Franchise | God of War |
| Genre | Action; Hack ‘n’ Slash |
| PSTV | Yes |
| PSN | EU/NA |
World-building & Story
Chains of Olympus follows Kratos, the Ghost of Sparta, prior to the events of the first God of War while he is still in the servitude of the gods. Prompted by a catastrophic event that takes place within their very own lands, Kratos is dispatched to uncover the mystery and ends up discovering some truths that hit a little too close to home.
While playing the prior games isn’t necessarily required to understand what’s happening here, I would at least recommend playing the first game before this despite Chains of Olympus being a prequel. There’s one event that permeates every aspect of this series which isn’t fully explained here and in general Kratos is less fleshed out and his objectives aren’t as clear, meaning the game is better played as a supplementary piece.
In general character development isn’t handled as well here – as mentioned previously Kratos isn’t as strong a lead, with the game attempting to tug on your emotional heartstrings in a way that doesn’t quite hit the mark. Other characters suffer too – the main enemy appears far too late in the day and isn’t anything like the foreboding presence that Ares was in God of War, which isn’t a deal breaker but is certainly disappointing given the series has managed this aspect well in the past.
The actual plot involves the sun God Helios falling from the sky and the darkness of Morpheus spreading through the lands. Tasked by Athena with finding Helios, Kratos’ journey takes him through both real world locations and the fictional underworld that’s quite fascinating – the problem is that the plot loses itself rapidly once it gets into the storytelling involving Calliope’s, Kratos’ daughter. As the game is short it feels like there isn’t time to fully explore both aspects and as a result neither are really developed well enough – even though I have to commend Ready at Dawn for trying hard to humanise Kratos.
Still, the world-building here is as good as ever – ancient Olympian cities are represented in all their glory while the underworld is as blood-drenched and horrifying as it was in the first game. The gory violence returns too and helps you feel like you’re really in this brutal, mythical world that’s every bit as impressive as any film or other media of this kind.
Presentation & Sound
Often included on lists of the best looking PSP games and for good reason, Chains of Olympus is a visual tour-de-force that highlights incredibly well what the handheld is capable of that still shines bright even among Vita-native titles. It sets a high bar which is only really bettered by Ready at Dawn’s own effort a few years later.
This is the God of War you’ll remember if you’ve played the PS2 entries – everything is here from the large-scale setpieces (such as the opening Siege of Attica which has you defending the war-torn city from Persian invasion) to the twisting temples and puzzles that break the action up. Moment-to-moment the game looks spectacular and runs at an incredibly solid clip too, meaning visual fidelity doesn’t come at the expense of performance.
Half the achievement is in the modelling which is gorgeous – Kratos stomps around the screen flailing his blades of chaos and all of the attack animations are fully in tact here meaning you’ll bathe the screen in orange light while chopping up foes. Speaking of enemies, you’ll get the full gambit here from lumbering colossus’ to slithering medusa each of which have unique attack animations and movements suggesting a formidable threat when you first encounter them (although it is disappointing that a lot is re-used from the first God of War).
The other half of the achievement is the environments – they’re breathtaking and even better considering the hardware they’re running on. You’ll regularly be given huge vista views that stretch off far into the distance, but you’ll get just as much detail in the statues and corridors of an ancient temple too. Variety is decent with stone columns and pillars being the main choice, but the crimson tones of the underworld and green fields in Temple of Persephone mix things up well enough.
The only disappointments come from environmental objects repeated a little too often in indoor areas (you’ll be smashing the same vases over and over and over) and the occasional graphical glitch – these were rare, but just enough to be noticeable. Still, even with these issues Chains of Olympus still is almost unrivalled in terms of PSP presentation and absolutely a game that shines just as bright on Vita.
Sound is decent – Kratos still shouts his way through most of the voice acting, but otherwise the performances here are pretty solid. Interestingly the music has taken a turn to being more ambient and atmospheric reminiscent of Prince of Persia or Tomb Raider, but the series’ loud and epic tunes are still here during set-piece moments.
Soundtrack highlight – Calliope
Gameplay & Content
A perfect portable translation of God of War’s trademark bombastic hack ‘n’ slash Gameplay, Chains of Olympus remains fully enjoyable throughout its brief campaign.
Things will start in familiar fashion if you’ve played this franchise before, although if you haven’t it’s still easy to get to grips with things. You control Kratos, a warrior in service of the Greek Gods who wields a number of weapons (but most famously his extending blades of chaos) and is often tasked with ploughing through hordes of enemies and killing them in brutal ways. Along the way there’s minor puzzles and other elements, but combat makes up the bulk of the package.
Kratos is a nimble warrior and he’s incredibly fun to control – light attacks are chained together with the square button and you can throw in heavier attacks with triangle and throws with circle. Combined with aerial manoeuvres he’ll quickly become a veritable killing machine (highlighted by QTE execution events for bigger monsters) – the only issue here is that the dodge move is bound to the triggers and x, which is cumbersome to use in practice (especially if you’ve come from using the second analogue stick).
Later in the game you’ll be given extra weapons which are used to pull off more advanced things – for example the sun shield brings with it a big focus on parrying (guarding at the right time), which gives you a brief window to launch strong attacks and will even reflect projectiles if done properly. A second weapon becomes available in a set of gauntlets which mix things up nicely too and switching between them is a thrill, while using magic is always visually spectacular and a lot of fun.
You’ll need to use all the abilities available to you too as the enemies are no slouches. Medusa can petrify you with their gaze for example, while gargoyles will overwhelm you with their sheer numbers – and you’ll be up against increasing numbers of these in all different combinations, requiring you to hone attacking when you get chance and dodging out the way the rest of the time. You’ll nearly always be in a gated arena too meaning there’s no running away once you’re in, which can be slightly frustrating if there were insufficient health chests in the run up to the fight – the most disappointing aspect is just that so much is reused from the first game.
The combat culminates in boss battles against highly skilled foes that require solid pattern recognition and skill to beat and these are probably Chains of Olympus’ highlight – the final boss in particular is spectacular and took me more than a few attempts to best but felt so satisfying to finally take down, easily ranking among the best final bosses I’ve ever fought (such as The Boss from Metal Gear Solid 3).
Aside from fighting, there is just as large a focus on puzzles as ever – although it feels like there’s more due to the game’s shorter length. They’re generally pretty good – not exactly head-scratchers that will stump you for ages, but needing enough thought to make them a little bit of a challenge. The larger focus on puzzles also means more indoor temples and areas to explore, which actually fits the tone pretty well despite not being quite as spectacular to look at.
Gameplay is mixed up by various other elements – there’s swimming sections, minor platforming and the patented set-piece moments such as the Siege of Attica where you’ll run through a burning city fighting off the Persian threat. It’s everything I’d expect from a God of War title except in portable format and is absolutely worth playing if you’re a fan of the series.
The main area it falters in is content – you’ll be done with the main story in less than five hours and other than a few challenges and harder difficulty there’s not much else to do. It’s a reasonable price on PSN to get this on your Vita, but I couldn’t help coming away wishing for more – what is here is so good, there’s just not quite enough of it.
Conclusion
A PSP graphical powerhouse, Chains of Olympus provides everything you could want from a portable God of War – the combat is fully in tact, it changes the pace up with greater puzzle elements and it looks absolutely spectacular, providing a nice extra chapter to flesh out Kratos’ backstory. Sadly the plot flits around a little too much and there’s not as much here to do as I’d like, but that shouldn’t stop you playing this stand-out hack ‘n’ slash adventure that still shines bright as among the best available on handhelds.
8.5/10
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