God of War: Chains of Olympus

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God of War: Chains of Olympus
Writer(s)
Composer(s)
Gerard K. Marino
SeriesGod of War
Platform(s)PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3
Release
  • NA: March 4, 2008
  • AU: March 27, 2008
  • EU: March 28, 2008
Genre(s)Action-adventure, hack and slash
Mode(s)Single-player

God of War: Chains of Olympus is an

Titan Atlas, Morpheus and the Queen of the Underworld Persephone intend to destroy the Pillar of the World and in turn Olympus
.

The gameplay is similar to the previous installments, with a focus on

controller
; Ready at Dawn's solutions for the controls were praised by critics.

Chains of Olympus was acclaimed by critics, becoming the highest-rated PSP title on

God of War Saga
released on August 28, 2012, also for PlayStation 3.

Gameplay

Further information:
Common gameplay elements in the God of War series

God of War: Chains of Olympus is a

harpies, minotaurs, hoplites, and sphinxes. Morpheus beasts, shades, banshees, fire guards, fire sentries, hyperion guards, and death knights were created specifically for the game. Platforming elements require the player to climb walls, jump across chasms, swing on ropes, and balance across beams to proceed through sections of the game. Some puzzles are simple, such as moving a box so that the player can use it as a jumping-off point to access a pathway unreachable with normal jumping, but others are more complex, such as finding several items across different areas of the game to unlock one door.[4][5]

Combat

Kratos' main weapon is the Blades of Chaos: a pair of

Charon's Wrath, giving him a variety of ways to attack and kill enemies. He acquires the relic Triton's Lance—similar to Poseidon's Trident in God of War— which allows him to breathe underwater; a necessary ability as parts of the game require long periods of time there.[4][6]

The challenge mode in this game is called the Challenge of Hades (five trials), and requires players to complete a series of specific tasks (e.g., Burn 50 soldiers with the Efreet). It is unlocked by completing the game. The player may

unlock bonus costumes for Kratos, behind-the-scenes videos, and concept art of the characters and environments, as rewards. Completion of each of the game's difficulty levels unlocks additional rewards.[7]

Synopsis

Setting

As with the previous games in the

Titans, and other beings of Greek mythology. With the exception of flashbacks, the events are set between those of the games Ascension (2013) and God of War (2005). Several locations are explored, including the real-world locations of the ancient cities of Attica and Marathon, the latter including fictional settings of the Temple of Helios and the Caves of Olympus, and several other fictional locations, including the Underworld, which features scenes at the River Styx, Tartarus, the Fields of Elysium, and the Temple of Persephone
.

Attica is a war-torn city under assault by the

Hyperion
is chained. The Fields of Elysium are home to deserving souls that roam peacefully and are overlooked by the Temple of Persephone.

Characters

Main article: Characters of God of War

The protagonist of the game is

Persian King (Fred Tatasciore), leader of the Persian forces attacking Attica.[8] The Dream God Morpheus is an unseen character that affects the plot.[4]

Plot

Kratos battles the basilisk in the city of Attica.[4]

During Kratos' ten years of service to the Olympian gods, he is sent to the city of Attica to help defend it from the invading Persian army. After successfully killing the Persian King, decimating his army, and slaying their pet basilisk, Kratos observes the Sun fall from the sky, plunging the world into darkness. As he fights his way through the city of Marathon, the Spartan witnesses the black fog of the Olympian Morpheus covering the land. He hears a haunting flute melody, which he recognizes as a melody once played by his deceased daughter Calliope. Finding the Temple of Helios, Kratos learns from Athena that Morpheus has caused many of the gods to fall into a deep slumber due to the absence of light. Before she succumbs to slumber, Athena tasks Kratos to find Helios, return him to the sky, and break Morpheus’ grasp on the world. The Spartan eventually locates Helios' sister, Eos, who tells Kratos that the Titan Atlas has abducted her brother. Eos advises Kratos to seek the Primordial Fires, which he uses to awaken the fire steeds of Helios. The steeds take the Spartan to the Underworld, where he has two encounters with Charon at the River Styx. Although Charon initially defeats Kratos and banishes him to Tartarus, the Spartan returns with the Gauntlet of Zeus and destroys the ferryman.[4]

After locating the Temple of Persephone and confronting the Queen of the Underworld, Kratos is given a choice: renounce his power and be with his deceased daughter (at a cost to mankind) or proceed with his mission. Kratos sacrifices his weapons and power to be reunited with his daughter but discovers that Persephone is embittered by Zeus' betrayal and her imprisonment in the Underworld with her husband Hades. While he was distracted by his reunion with Calliope, Persephone's ally Atlas was using the power of the kidnapped Helios to destroy the Pillar of the World, which would also end Olympus. As the resulting destruction of the Pillar will also cause the souls of the Underworld, including Calliope, to be lost, Kratos abandons his daughter forever in order to save her life. Taking back his power, Kratos battles Persephone and Atlas, binding the Titan to the Pillar before slaying the goddess. Although victorious, he is warned by a dying Persephone that his suffering will never end. Atlas, forced to hold the weight of the world on his shoulders for eternity, also warns Kratos that he will eventually regret helping the gods and that he and Atlas will meet again.[N 1] Kratos then rides the Sun Chariot back to the mortal world and into the sky as Morpheus retreats.[4]

In a post-credits scene, Kratos is still riding Helios' chariot back into the sky and after seeing the return of the Sun, Kratos loses consciousness from the exertion and plummets to the ground. At the last moment, Kratos is saved by Athena and Helios, and Athena tells Helios that "He will live."[4]

Development

Game developer

1UP obtained an early copy of God of War II and posted the game's instruction manual, featuring a one-page teaser with "PSP" in the Omega symbol and stating "Coming 2007".[11] On March 12, 2007, God of War II was launched at the Metreon: God of War II Game Director Cory Barlog officially confirmed the development of Chains of Olympus, stating "It is its own story that connects to the overall story. God of War, God of War II, and then if all the stars align God of War III will be the telling of a trilogy. This PSP story will be a further fleshing out."[12] An initial trailer for Chains of Olympus was released on April 25, 2007, coinciding with the announcement of a demo on UMD—the optical disc medium for the PSP.[13] The trailer is narrated by voice actress Linda Hunt.[14]

God of War: Chains of Olympus uses a proprietary, in-house engine referred to as the Ready at Dawn engine, which expanded on the engine created for their previous game,

clock speed of the PSP on account of the difference to the game and had developed a version of the game with higher speed.[18] Sony released a firmware upgrade that allowed games to use the full 333 MHz processor. The faster processor allowed for more realistic blood effects, lighting effects, and shadows as well as improved enemy intelligence. The upgrade, however, noticeably decreased battery life.[18][19] After the game's completion, Game Director Ru Weerasuriya stated multiplayer options and other puzzles, characters, and dialogue had to be removed due to time constraints.[15]

Audio

Two of the voice actors returned from the previous installments to reprise their roles, which were Terrence C. Carson and Linda Hunt, who voiced Kratos and the narrator respectively. Erin Torpey adopted the dual roles of Athena and Eos. Fred Tatasciore, who voiced different characters in previous installments, returned, and in this game, voiced both Atlas and the Persian King.

Brian Kimmet, Don Luce, and Andrew Wheeler provided the voices of several minor characters and Keythe Farley was the Voice Director.[8]

The soundtrack was composed by

screenshots.[20] Marino composed roughly thirteen minutes of music for the game and re-worked other music from the previous titles. Three tracks from the soundtrack are included as bonus tracks on the God of War: Ghost of Sparta soundtrack.[21]

Release

The

Persian King. The disc also included a developer video and a lanyard in the shape of the Greek letter Omega.[22] Following the demo's release, a downloadable version was made available through the PlayStation Store in North American and European regions.[23] Due to the delay of the game, Ready at Dawn offered a "special edition" version of the demo to pre-order customers,[24] with one Ready at Dawn developer stating that preparation of the special demo disc took up to 40% of the team's production time.[17]

God of War: Chains of Olympus was originally scheduled to be released during the fourth quarter of 2007,

Syphon Filter: Combat Ops, and a red edition of the console imprinted with an image of Kratos' face on the rear.[29] As of June 2012, Chains of Olympus has sold more than 3.2 million copies worldwide.[30]

Together with

God of War Saga under Sony's line of PlayStation Collections for the PlayStation 3 in North America.[34]

Reception

God of War: Chains of Olympus received "universal acclaim", according to

G4's Jonathan Hunt said that it "occasionally suffers from screen tearing and framerate drops."[37]

Several reviewers praised Ready at Dawn's solution for the controls and gameplay. Because the PlayStation 2 (PS2) controller has two analog sticks and the PSP only has one, GamePro stated "the lack of a second analog stick could have been problematic but it's not."[38] Modojo.com similarly stated that despite the lack of a second analog stick, "Kratos handles superbly on the PSP" and that the weapon and magic attacks are "mapped out perfectly around the PSP's control set-up."[42] IGN's Chris Roper even claimed the control scheme "works better than on the PS2." Roper further claimed that Ready at Dawn "has done a stellar job of keeping Kratos' move set intact," stating that "combat is extremely responsive."[41] Matt Leone of 1UP similarly praised developers solution for the control scheme as well as the game's "fantastic" pacing.[3] However, GamePro criticized the relative lack of variety in enemies.[38] The puzzles were criticized, and G4 claimed that some "are so maddeningly difficult to solve",[37] while GameSpot's Aaron Thomas noted the lack of puzzles, claiming that it "could have used more".[39] GamePro also criticized the fact that "You still have to lug boxes around to solve environmental puzzles".[38] Kristan Reed of Eurogamer also criticized Ready at Dawn for cutting some puzzles, as well as cutting co-op play, multiplayer, dialogue, and characters.[36]

GameSpot[39] and IGN[41] criticized the short length and minimal boss fights, although GamePro stated that it has "the same epic feel" as the previous installments and claimed that if it was the only God of War title, "it would still stand on its own merits."[38] GameTrailers went on to praise the replay value for being able to "bring your powered-up methods of destruction with you."[40]

Awards and accolades

In IGN's Best of 2008 Awards, Chains of Olympus received the awards for "Best PSP Action Game",[43] "Best Graphics Technology",[44] and "Best Use of Sound".[45] In GameSpot's Best Games of 2008, it received the "Readers' Choice Award".[46] Diehard GameFAN awarded it "Best PSP Game" for 2008.[47] At the 2008 Spike Video Game Awards, it was a nominee for "Best Handheld Game".[48] It was Metacritic's 2008 "PSP Game of the Year".[35] During the 12th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards in 2009, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences awarded Chains of Olympus with "Hand-Held Game of the Year", along with receiving a nomination for "Adventure Game of the Year".[49] In September 2010, GamePro named God of War: Chains of Olympus the best PSP game.[50]

References

  1. ^ As depicted in God of War II.
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Further reading

  • Sony Computer Entertainment
    .

External links

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