Right now, it's not difficult to imagine that Sony are locked in talks with developers Ready at Dawn to try to convince them to continue making games for their PSP console. Ready at Dawn, made up primarily of ex-Blizzard and Naughty Dog staff, previously displayed their prowess with Sony's handheld with the impressive 'Daxter'. And now, with 'God of War: Chains of Olympus', they have proven themselves as some of the most skilled and imaginative PSP developers in business, despite recently announcing that they were leaving PSP development.
Set ten years before the events of the Playstation 2 classic 'God of War: Chains of Olympus' sees anti-hero Kratos tasked with another seeming impossible mission from the ancient Greek gods. Opening in Attica where you must help drive back the invading Persian army, with the obligatory big boss battle as you take on a massive city destroying basilisk, things start of in a familiar manner.
Following that battle a meeting with the Goddess Athena sets the scene for the rest of the game, leaving Kratos with the epic task of saving ancient Greece from the God of Dreams Morpheus and the shadowy figures who govern his actions. The story and tone fit in nicely with game's already rich back-story and there's the same free-flowing hack-and-slash gameplay that has made the series so popular, with few, if any, concessions made to shrink the game down to handheld size.
The combat is as fast and frenetic as ever thanks to a well thought out and implemented control scheme. All too often PSP ports of PS2 games have suffered because of the lack of a second thumb-stick on the handheld console, Syphon Filter for example, but Ready at Dawn have come up with a set-up that feels both intuitive and natural.
Mimicking the PS2's set-up, the only difference in the controls comes with the evade/roll move, which was mapped on the second analogue stick in the original but now involves holding down both shoulder buttons while moving the controller. At first this seems awkward and fiddly, but soon becomes second-nature and by the end of the opening level it's easy to appreciate how much thought has gone into the control scheme.
Visually the game is as impressive a spectacle as the two previous games were on the PS2, which is no mean feat considering it's been shrunk down to fit Sony's handheld. The cinematic flair that marks the epic battles of the series has been translated faithfully, while the graphics are as good as anything seen on the PSP. The backgrounds and amount of on-screen action push the console without ever hinting at a drop in the frame-rate, all of which is accomplished with no loading times. Indeed, at times it seems a shame that such a spectacular looking game is on such small a screen, although the rumoured PS2 conversion of 'Chains of Olympus' may remedy that.
The gameplay is brought across intact, as most of your time is spent involved in combat, with the occasional puzzle and boss battle to break up the gameplay. All the combat combos and tricks you've learned from previous iterations of the series translate to 'Chains of Olympus', and for the most part the game sticks to a tried-and-tested formula. There is a degree of linearity throughout, with little room left for exploration, aside from the odd hidden room, but the game moves with such a momentum and sense of inertia that this is never really a problem.
Clocking in at roughly seven to eight hours on play-through time, 'Chains of Olympus' is well tailored to the handheld format, with more checkpoints and save points for gamers on the move, delivering the game in bite size chunks that don't demand as much concentration or time commitment as its bigger console brothers.
All things considered, 'Chains of Olympus' is a triumph for the PSP and successfully delivers a full console experience on a handheld with very few concessions. It's just a shame that the development team may not have a chance to reprise their success.
SOURCE: From a game website which I don't remember now!
