God of War: Chains of Olympus Review (9.4/10)

March 8th, 2008 at 10:37 pm

Dear friends, it is my absolute pleasure to write a review of this awesome game. As you might know, Chains of Olympus was one of the most anticipated PSP games of this year. Some of us was lucky enough to get our hands on the demo version of this game. For those of us, who did not get their chance to see it in action stop reading the review, run to your nearest Gamestop (ordering online will take too much time to deliver) and buy your copy.

To be honest with you, I have not played neither God of War, nor God of War II (I will definitely do that very soon). However, from what I have been reading online, Chains of Olympus is as great as the previous games, gameplay vise, graphics vise and sound vise. The only complain I have ever heard was the length of the gameplay, which I will talk about soon.

The Story (9/10)

Set ten years before the original God of War game, Chains of Olympus begins with the Gods sending Kratos to the city of Attica to help defend the city from the invading Persian army. After spotting a basilisk climbing over the city walls, Kratos gives chase through the city. While chasing the basilisk, Kratos confronts the Persian King inside the city and kills him. After defeating the basilisk he spots an object in the sky crashing towards Earth. On his way to the crash site, Kratos fights through the city of Marathon and encounters a deadly fog that Morpheus has sent into the city.

Eventually he makes his way to the crash site and discovers both the Sun Chariot and Temple of Helios. He encounters a statue of Athena who tells him that Helios has disappeared and Morpheus has used his absence to cause the Gods to fall “into a deep slumber.” Athena wants Kratos to retrieve Helios to he can release Morpheus’ grasp on the other Gods. While fighting inside of the Temple of Helios, he comes upon a statue of Eos. Using the statue to communicate with Kratos, Eos tells him that the Titan Atlas has kidnapped her brother Helios. Kratos fights his way down to the caves of Olympus, meeting up with the real Eos who tells Kratos that she will guarantee his release if he will help her save Helios; Kratos does not believe her as he has been lied to by the Gods before. However he reluctantly agrees to help save Helios.

After restoring the fire steeds, the horses lead Kratos into Hades, the underworld. He faces off against Charon on his boat on the river Styx. Charon knocks Kratos unconscious and throws him into Tartarus where the Titans were being held. While attempting to escape Tartarus, Kratos comes upon the area where the Titans are located only to find that the spot where Atlas should be is empty. This supports Eos’ story that Atlas had taken Helios away. Kratos is eventually able to climb back out of Tartarus and finally defeats Charon. He takes the boat and follows the sunlight of Helios down river Styx eventually coming upon the Template of Persephone. He sees Calliope on the shorelines of the temple and gives chase only to lose track of Calliope and instead meets with Persephone.

Persephone tells Kratos that Calliope is in the fields of Elysium and that the only way to see her again is for Kratos to “release” all of his evils by becoming mortal and giving up his powers given to him by the Gods. After agreeing so he could be with his daughter, Persephone reveals to Kratos her true plans and what she has done.

Bitter at being betrayed by Zeus and being tricked by Hades, Persephone was the one who had freed Atlas. While Kratos was disarming himself Atlas was slowly carrying out her plan to destroy the pillar that held the world and Olympus atop of Hades. Persephone plans to kill everyone, including herself, to free herself from her situation. Kratos realizes now that if he stays with his daughter it would mean the end of the world for everyone including Calliope and himself. Eventually he makes the hard sacrifice of not being able to see his daughter in order to regain his power.

Kratos has a final battle against Persphone atop the pillar that holds the world. After chaining Atlas to the pillar, he is able to defeat Persephone and prevent her plans from coming to fruition.

(As a side note, these Persians remind me of the hit movie 300. Did you watch it by any chance? If you did not, I would definitely recommend you to get your hands on a HD version, preferably 1080p, the movie is glorious).

The Gameplay (9/10)

When I first started playing the game, I realized how smooth and easy the gameplay was. if you are asking for the learning curve, try 2 minutes. If you are familiar with the Prince of the Persia series, you will feel like home. Chains of Olympus has a similar feel about the fluidity of play, and epic scale of the level design.

There are 4 difficulty levels. These are (from easy to hard); Mortal, Hero, Spartan, God. At the beginning the God difficulty is not available. You have to finish the game at the Spartan difficulty to enable the God difficulty. I would recommend Hero difficulty, when you first start playing.

The controls are pretty straightforward, you would get used to them in no time. There are couple combo moves you can make, take a look at the moves part of the game. There are 3 weapon types to use in the game (well 2 actually, The Sun Shield is a defensive weapon). These are;

The Blades of Chaos - The blades given to Kratos by The gods, the God of War, when Kratos gave his life in exchange for a victory over the eastern barbarians. The classic blades are still in the game, although their combos are a mix of God of War and God of War II’s with some new ones.

The Gauntlet of Zeus - A magical glove worn by no other than Zeus himself, the Gauntlet is a brand new weapon in the God of War franchise. It serves as a high powered boxing glove, allowing Kratos to unleash devastating punches on opponents, as well as lifting them in the air with brutal uppercuts.

The Sun Shield - Acquired in the temple of Helios, the sun shield forms a small magical shield whenever Kratos successfully parries an attack, stunning enemies within a radius briefly. A certain combo allows Kratos to attack immediately after using the Sun Shield. This is a defensive weapon.

There are also magic you can use to help you wreck havoc on your enemies. These are;

Efreet Magic - Used by the Persian King and acquired by defeating him. This is a block-breaking blow by a giant fiery Efreet which comes out of you and slams its fist at the ground causing a blow the size of Poseidon Rage, knocking out any enemy nearby. By leveling up this ability, Kratos gains the ability to extend the spell through rapid button input, extend the attack to numerous fist slams, and at the maximum level you end the attack with a blast radius fire blast similar to the first attack in this move.

Light of Dawn - Acquired by solving a parrying puzzle similar to the fireball puzzle in God of War II after you acquire the Golden Fleece. It is a ball of light which can target 1 enemy at a time. Level 2 allows your to rapidly fire, and Level 3 lets you charge this attack.

Charon’s Wrath - Obtained after defeating Charon and stealing his mask. Kratos will put the mask on and send a large blast, that stops smaller enemies from moving while inflicting damage.

My only complain about the gameplay is the length of the game. I would have really liked a longer version of the story. It is being said that campaign takes about 5 hours of play to finish (although I have to accept it took me 8 hours to finish it (in Hero difficulty that is), those bastard monsters…). That is the only reason for giving 8 for its gameplay score. Chains of Olympus would have taken 10 if its story was a big more intense and longer.

The Graphics (10/10)

There is no argument that this is the best graphics I have ever seen in any 3D game on PSP (I would like to personally kiss the graphic team, amazing job guys!!!). Game is very smooth, with lots of animations, tons of enemies and amazing backdrops. Visual effects are also very impressive, I can almost taste the blood that comes out of my enemies as I hack them. Chains of Olympus is definitely an impressive PSP experience. Perhaps Sony should use this on their demo real.

Sound (9/10)

Man, what can I say, the voice of Kratos is what I hear when I close my eyes. It is absolutely delightful to hear the weapon clashing, screaming monsters, and ahhh the sound of killing. The only criticism I can make about the sound effects of the game is about the environment. I would have liked to get some effects from the environment, like an on going fire or other background effects, but perhaps that is a limitation of the PSP hardware. After all, I remember very well the days of early Sound Blaster in PC, where it could not play more than couple sounds simultaneously.

The Music (10/10)

Game music is masterfully composed by Gerard Marino, and believe me it is as good as it gets on the PSP, with an amazing orchestra. It reminds me of epic movies such as the Lord of the Rings. You can feel the game rhythm getting into you and start boiling your blood. I would definitely recommend using headphones and crank up the volume to fully enjoy and get into the game atmosphere (playing the game in the dark is also highly recommended).

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

I know it is kind of hard to swallow a sequel/prequel game as a top pick, however as I have been saying all along, PSP did not see anything like this. The bottom line, you should buy God of War: Chains of Olympus. This is “the best” and most fun game, I have ever played on my PSP (and believe me, I have played *every PSP game ever released). If you read all the way to here, you should stop, and play Chains of Olympus…

If you are stuck or too lazy to play all the levels of the game, head out to our Save Games, and download the level you would like to play. 

Last but not least, I would like to thank Wikipedia for the story of the game, as well as gameplay explanation.

Posted by Bolkar

 

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