God of War: Chains of Olympus, also fondly known as GOW Lite, is the third of the award-winning franchise and the first to make it onto the PSP. It must be said that since its very first title, God of War has always been described as a franchise with an epic feel; and due to that, GOW Lite itself has been eagerly awaited by fans far and wide as one of the definite must-get games of the year. Just a word of warning, though, you don’t call this title LITE for nothing…

A Dude With An Attitude

GOW Lite is a prequel, and takes place some 10 years before the first title of the franchise. Basically, it tells the story of legendary warrior Kratos, a servant of the gods serving time for a hideous crime he has committed some time ago. In this game, Kratos is sent off by the Gods to investigate a black mist that is sapping the light out of the world, and to stop it from spreading to the rest of Earth. Unknowingly, Kratos’ journey will soon bring him to the very depth of Hell…

Frankly, the story isn’t amazing by any standard but this is an action game after all, so I’m just glad there’s some kind of plot involved. But one thing’s for sure, if you like stuff from the ancient mythology like Athena and Zeus and Temple of the Gods, you’ll relate more to GOW Lite’s plot than most others. If you don’t, however, the cutscenes will be more like “blah blah blah… kill bad guy… blah blah blah”. For the latter, you’re going to wish you have a button to skip the scenes (which you don’t).

Character-wise, the protagonist Kratos is one of the most angst-ridden muscle dudes you will ever find in gaming history. Let’s face it, this guy has serious issues. He would sooner rip you apart like some oversized marshmallows, than spend a moment trying to engage in a civilized conversation. This is a guy that stakes dragons and sends mythical creatures into extinction just for fun, and he’s so moody and angry all the time that makes me just want to say “hey, take a chill pill dude”. If you are into tormented hero with the temper the length of a matchstick, you’ll love this guy. If not, you’ll just be wondering why the gods didn’t send him into a divine mental institution.

Hack, Slash and Bash

For fear of offending GOW fans everywhere, I must say the battle system of GOW Lite is pretty monotonous… even for a modern action title. It works well if you are into button-mashing but if you are looking for something more, you certainly won’t find the depth of style or guile of Devil May Cry or even Onimusha here.

In a nutshell, the fighting in GOW Lite goes this way: you have one heavy attack and one light attack. Simply by combining the two, you can come out with some nice-looking moves that let you kick ass like the mighty warrior god that Kratos is. And trust me, you’ll be doing a lot of it to combat hordes and hordes of enemies throughout the game.

The developer attempts to add “depth” to gameplay by incorporating stuff like magic, roll, block and combos; executed by pressing L or R or a combination of the two. But because so many actions are reliance on the L and R buttons, the chance of pressing the wrong buttons at a crucial time is very real. For this reason alone, you will find yourself smashing wildly at the attack buttons until it’s absolutely necessary to use a spell. This is perhaps the limitation of the PSP but seriously, who wants to use a move consisting of L + R + directional nub? Come on!

Another aspect of the battles in GOW Lite is the “Quick Time Events” (QTE) - which basically means pressing a sequence of buttons that the game prompts you to during certain scenes or fights. The successful execution of the button sequences usually results in the implementation of certain moves. Frankly, some of the QTEs can be mighty impressive and the concept itself works, however, it’s one of those things that you feel you’ve done in other games before… especially if you’ve played the previous GOW installments or a game named Fahrenheit on the PS2. So it’s full mark for the satisfaction of executing a QTE, and zero for innovations. Very mixed feelings here.

Second to One

The developers have obviously spent much of their efforts on GOW Lite’s graphics because this title looks absolutely gorgeous. If you played the previous installments, you’ll be quite amazed how close the graphical standards are, even if they are on different consoles. Obviously, you can’t really compare this to Crisis Core (which remains the champion of graphical breakthroughs on the PSP); but you will love the graphical delights GOW Lite has in stored for you. As for sound, it’s really quite forgettable ‘cos I couldn’t remember a frigging thing in that department.

An Adventure of Epic Proportion… for 6 Hours

For a franchise that prides itself in terms of epic-ness, GOW Lite quite literally falls flat on its face. I’m guessing any casual gamer could easily finish this game in about 5-6 hours, giving you the feeling “what? It’s over?” just when you thought you have finally mastered all of Kratos’ spells and moves. Even if you replay the game on a new level of difficulty, you’ll going to finish this game real soon again… what’s with the pathetic number of bosses in this game.

Perhaps there’s so much focus on the graphical aspects of this game that space is running out on the UMD, perhaps the developer is just trying to redefine the word LITE. Whatever the case, those who wanted more for their hard-earned cash, or those who have played the previous GOW franchise, are going to be quite disappointed here. I guarantee you.

Not Quite There

The developer, Ready at Dawn, must be commended for trying to bring an epic franchise like God of War from the home consoles to the PSP. The key word here is “trying”, because what PSP gamers eventually have is a dumb-down, less epic version of the franchise. It helps if you have yet to play the previous installments, but how many gamers have NOT played GOW or GOW2, I wonder.

Make no mistake. As an action game, this title is great if you like button-masher with some elements of puzzle solving. The difficulty level is quite low (except for the boss fights), which can be a good thing seeing how this game may appeal to casual gamers. However, this being a GOW franchise, I suspect many might be disappointed. The game ends too quickly and too abruptly; the controls are a bit too crazy due to the limitations of the PSP; there’s no real new stuff to do compared to the previous GOW titles; and the game doesn’t shed much light into Kratos’ background being a prequel and all.

Judging this as a game that was expected by many to take PSP to new heights, PSPHyper can only give God of War: Chains of Olympus a pretty average 3 out of 5. Rent it if you must. Buy it if you are a fan.

Posted in PSP, Reviews on Monday, April 28th, 2008 at 11:10 am |
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