E3 07 Hands On: God of War "Chains of Olympus" (PSP)

Written by Dan Zuccarelli

Tuesday, 17 July 2007 09:38

While I was playing the demo for the upcoming PSP God of War game I kept coming back to the same thought... I can't believe this is running on PSP hardware! The graphics look just like the PS2 game and there were no slow-downs or hiccups to break up the action.

God of War: Chains of Olympus is the first PSP game I've played where I really felt like the limits of what the PSP can do were being pushed. That isn't to say it's the best PSP game I've played, just that is seems to push the hardware the most. Though I'd be lying if I said this wasn't one of the top of the crop as far as the portable platform goes.

I've never hidden my love for the God of War games, so it's of little surprise that I'm looking forward with great anticipation to the handheld prequel. I completely get the argument that it's really just a button masher with some mini-game type things thrown in. It's just that I don't care. The storyline is f'ing awesome and Kratos just kicks all manner of ass as far as I'm concerned. The fact that he's so over the top just adds to it.

Now if you didn't like or weren't interested in God of War for the PS2 then you're not going to find a single thing here to change your mind, plain and simple. But for the Kratos fans out there, this game is gonna be like mana from heaven. With having to wait a few years still for the conclusion to the blockbuster home console trilogy, Chains of Olympus will give us something to sink our teeth into until the proper sequel is released.

The demo played very much like the demo for God of War II played, in the sense that it included high action with some built in tutorial stuff to get us accustomed to the PSP as a platform. The whole thing took place on "The Shores of Attica" and was mainly just Kratos taking out hordes of enemies. About halfway though we had a small taste of a boss battle, a which included the now standard GoW mini-game aspect. This boss battle was exceptionally easy and I'm really hoping the difficulty was either set on easy or it was just dialed way down for E3 (either is possible).

The demo really doesn't include any story elements, but from what I understand so far the game takes place after Kratos becomes Aries puppet but before he rebels in the beginning of the first game.

Sadly the demo isn't going to enter the wild until the fall, but I'm looking forward to playing through it again and this is one we'll be keeping an eye on as we move closer to a ship date. Looks like I'll have something to play in my Vader-themed PSP!