Split-Screen :: The Game-Geek’s Daily Read

by gSathe

Chains of Olympus takes us into badass hero Kratos’ past, and for the most part provides a satisfyingly gory experience, with a story which, while it lacks the length and depth of the games on the PSPs bigger siblings, is still pretty entertaining. When you consider that the action is taking place on a portable, it’s pretty mind blowing.

But even keeping this in mind, it doesn’t quite live up to the other God of War games. For one thing the franchise’s formula isn’t changed whatsoever, which is one of our gripes for the game. Gameplay-wise, nothing much has changed. You still run around and beat the shit out of enemies and then meet up with the occasional boss fight.

The game feels a bit too familiar and at times you do feel like you’ve played the game before. That said, the game is missing some of the features from other God of War games. You won’t find the ability to use your blades on grappling points, the Icarus Wings, Rage of the Gods, rope traversal, rope swinging, a fourth magic, etc. Still one good thing is that the levels load up quickly, you’re almost never waiting for the action, except when you come across a cutscene - which is unskippable. Now it’s God of War, you need those cutscenes and that story, but honestly, how often do we have to see the same scene?

The game is also brutally linear. You’re constantly running from point A to point B, stopping to administer the occasional beatdown. Toward the end, combat gets pretty repetitious, relying really heavily on the mechanic of blocking you into a room and not letting you out until you finished taking down the waves of enemies. It would have been nice to have seen a little experimentation here or there to mix things up.

Altogether, the game feels like a bit less of an adventure and more of a straightforward action game. Another problem is that the puzzle solving sections aren’t really as intricate, as complex as they were on the PS2. Now at least one of my friends will jump with joy when he hears that, but I for one liked the puzzles. Here though, there were bits I just don’t understand and need dumb luck (and a fair share of screaming at the screen) to get past and others that are so simple that you wonder why they even bothered.

Control-wise, the more intricate attack moves are simply lost to the somewhat ‘floaty’ control nub on the PSP. Some things, like accidentally setting off magic spells, can be upsetting. It’s not a very big gripe actually, and the automatic camera simplifies things a bit, but using the shoulder buttons on the PSP when you’ve already got your fingers occupied near the bottom? I don’t know. I do have short fingers however, so maybe others will find it easier.

Still, for all the cons, that it’s short, and has somewhat awkward controls, it’s a God of War game, it’s good fun, there’s enough stomping to keep anyone happy and it’ll keep me smiling till GoW 3 comes around.