God of War Anthology Pt. 2

God of War: Chains of Olympus
Developer(s) Ready at Dawn, SCE Santa Monica Studio
Publisher(s) Sony Computer Entertainment [JP], Capcom
Platform(s) PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3 (God of War: Origins Collection and Saga)
Release date(s) March 4, 2008, September 13, 2011 (Origins Collection), August 28, 2012 (Saga)

God of War: Ghost of Sparta
Developer(s) Ready at Dawn, SCE Santa Monica Studio
Publisher(s) Sony Computer Entertainment
Platform(s) PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3 (God of War: Origins Collection and Saga)
Release date(s) November 2, 2010, September 13, 2011 (Origins Collection), August 28, 2012 (Saga)
Genre(s) Action, Adventure, Hack and Slash

For ten years, Kratos has served the gods. What were some of the tasks during those ten years? What challenges did he face? What enemies has he fought?

In 2008, Sony Santa Monica and Ready at Dawn gave God of War fans the backstory behind the tortured soul of Kratos. God of War: Chains of Olympus was released for the Playstation Portable (PSP) on March 4, 2008. The fourth installment in the series is set before the first God of War game and second chronologically. In this prequel, Kratos is guided by the goddess Athena, who instructs him to find the Sun God Helios, as the Dream God Morpheus has caused many of the gods to slumber in Helios’ absence. With the power of the sun God sealed away, Morpheus and Persephone, the Queen of the Underworld, with the aid of the Titan Atlas, intend to destroy the Pillar of the World and in turn Olympus. Kratos, however, subdues Atlas by chaining him to the Pillar, kills Persephone in battle, and saves Helios, who returns the sun to the sky and forces Morpheus to retreat. The game is a separate adventure for Kratos but it does tie in with the main series arc. In God of War 2, Atlas blamed Kratos for his current predicament. This is explained in Chains of Olympus as Kratos is the one who chained Atlas after the Titan had destroyed the Pillar of the World, forcing him to forever support the world upon his shoulders. Another tie-in involves Persephone, the Queen of the Underworld and Hades’ wife. When Kratos fights his way through the Underworld to Hades’ palace in God of War 3, the God of the Underworld reminded Kratos that Persephone’s death was brought by his hand.

Following the success of Chains of Olympus, Ready at Dawn set to work on a follow up title for the PSP. On November 2, 2010, God of War: Ghost of Sparta was released. It is the sixth game in the series and fourth chronologically. Haunted by his mortal past, Kratos, the new God of War, decides to investigate his origins. He travels to Atlantis where he finds his mother Callisto who tells him that his brother Deimos is still alive and in the Realm of Death. If you recall the bonus content that becomes available after completing the first God of War game, you get a sneak peek at the story of Deimos’s abduction. That story gets answered in Ghost of Sparta as Kratos sets out the rescue his brother from the God of Death, Thanatos. Along the way he runs into other familiar figures in mythology and folklore including the sea monster Scylla and King Midas with his golden touch. Enemies from previous installments such as the undead legionnaires, satyrs, Cyclops and harpies remain present in Chains of Olympus and Ghosts of Sparta along with a host of monsters inspired by Greek mythology including geryons, automatons, Boreas beasts, and Triton warriors that were created specifically for the games.

As always Kratos acquires other weapons to aid him in his fight against the gods. For Chain of Olympus, he gets the Sun Shield and Gauntlet of Zeus which offer alternative combat options. Kratos also learns magical abilities, including the Efreet, the Light of Dawn, and Charon’s Wrath, giving him a variety of ways to attack and kill enemies. In Ghost of Sparta, he gets to use his weapon from his days in the Spartan army—the Arms of Sparta—a spear and shield offering alternative combat options (e.g., Kratos can use the shield for defense and the spear for offense). Kratos gains a special ability, Thera’s Bane, that infuses his blades with fire, and is similar to the Rage ability in previous games, providing increased attack damage that is strong enough to pierce through enemy armor. As with the Items in God of War III, this ability automatically replenishes itself (represented by the Fire meter), allowing further usage. Both the Arms of Sparta and Thera’s Bane are used to overcome environmental obstacles (e.g., certain doors require the use of Thera’s Bane to open). Kratos learns to use up to three magical abilities, including the Eye of Atlantis, Scourge of Erinys, and the Horn of Boreas. As with the previous titles in the series, the Gods of Olympus like to put Kratos to the test with the Challenge of the Gods bonus content. This premise plays out in the PSP ports with the Challenge of Hades for Chains of Olympus and the Challenge of Zeus for Ghost of Sparta which—just in the PS2 titles—are unlocked once you complete the game.

The graphics are just as up to snuff as their PS2 counterparts. It was amazing seeing just how much detailing went into the characters and environment smoothly without any hiccups. But the graphical impressiveness was close to being less than impressive. God of War: Chains of Olympus was originally designed for the PlayStation Portable’s restricted 222 megahertz (MHz) processor, however, this hampered Ready at Dawn’s development. Ready at Dawn repeatedly contacted Sony regarding increasing the clock speed of the PSP on account of the difference to the game and had developed a version of the game with higher speed. 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 decreases battery life. The camera system was modified to cater to the fixed cinematic camera for God of War gameplay, and the lighting system was reworked to aid in presenting realistic graphics. 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.

With the upgrade, Ready at Dawn had little trouble developing Ghost of Sparta. Ready At Dawn utilized “state-of-the-art visual technologies” that allowed “higher quality environments and characters.” Ghost of Sparta apparently offers “over 25% more gameplay” than its PSP predecessor, Chains of Olympus, while adding more enemies on screen and a greater number of boss encounters. Development of Ghost of Sparta took 23 months to complete. At Comic-Con 2010, Game Director Dana Jan (previously Lead Level Designer of Chains of Olympus) noted that when development began in 2008, the goal was to make the game “bigger” than Chains of Olympus, which had apparently “pushed” the PSP to its functional limits. Jan stated that Ghost of Sparta has taken the PSP to its “absolute capacity”, with one additional feature being more on-screen foes. It should be noted that a similar developmental undertaking was also used in the development of God of War II for the PS2. The sequel was bigger, had more boss battles and pushed the graphical limits of the PS2. Clearly, Ready at Dawn followed Santa Monica Studios example of creating a successful sequel.

Despite being smaller in size, God of War: Chains of Olympus and God of War: Ghost of Sparta have both gone on to achieve numerous awards. In IGN’s Best of 2008 Awards, Chains of Olympus received the awards for “Best PSP Action Game”, “Best Graphics Technology”, and “Best Use of Sound”. In GameSpot’s Best Games of 2008, it received the “Readers’ Choice Award”. Diehard GameFAN awarded it “Best PSP Game” for 2008. At the 2008 Spike Video Game Awards, it was nominated for “Best Handheld Game”. It was Metacritic’s 2008 “PSP Game of the Year”. In September 2010, GamePro named God of War: Chains of Olympus the best PSP game. At E3 2010, Ghost of Sparta received nine awards, including “Best Handheld Game”, “Best PSP Game”, and “PSP Game of Show” from several media outlets, as well as three nominations. PlayStation: The Official Magazine awarded it the “Gold Award”. Kotaku awarded it “Editor’s Choice”, stating “God of War: Ghost of Sparta is a palm-sized epic video game.” At the 2010 Spike Video Game Awards, it received “Best Handheld Game”. At the 2011 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Video Game Awards, Ghost of Sparta was nominated for the “Handheld” award.

The PSP God of War titles served to flesh out the story of Kratos and the Olympian Gods further with Chains of Olympus giving a look at Kratos’ story before the first game and Ghost of Sparta filling the gap between the first and second main story titles. But Kratos story doesn’t end here. All the betrayal, all the deceit, all the deception will be repayed with vengeance…and blood.

The end begins…

God of War: Chains of Olympus cutscenes

God of War: Ghost of Sparta cutscenes