God of War: Chains of Olympus (PlayStation Portable) Review
God of War at its best?
~by tankMage (August 2025)
Score: 90/100 (Excellent)
A few years back, I played the first God of War and its sequel. I’ll be honest, while I love the first game, I did not like the sequel as much and I liked what I saw of later games even less. It was really great to see God of War: Chains of Olympus take the series back to its roots with a nicely executed prequel. Though short, Chains of Olympus captures the hard hitting combat that makes the franchise so much fun. It also has some really awesome scenes that show off the PlayStation Portable’s capabilities.
While this prequel does a great job in the graphics and gameplay departments, the story is shaky. It’s also very short as I said earlier and it seems like the devs had to cut some content. This also explains some of the gaps in the plot, which are glossed over in cutscenes. Even with its flaws, Chains of Olympus is an excellent game, especially for a handheld. It’s a must-play for God of War fans and a great choice for anyone who loves action.
I’M KRATOS AND I CAN’T STOP SHOUTING!!
I have a love/hate relationship with the story of the God of War series. On one hand, I really enjoy the ancient Greek setting and mythology. The creators of this series did a beautiful job bringing Greek mythology to life, even with all the liberties they took with the source material. Kratos is also the sort of ultra tough guy hero that you don’t see much in more recent games, which makes it a lot more believeable when he does wild things like tearing the head off of a gorgon or climbing up a cyclops to stab it in the eye. Then there’s the many problems with the plot and the way Kratos is presented that irritate me.
For example Kratos can’t just speak like a normal person, he always sounds like he’s yelling, but at different volume levels. When he’s mad he yells loudly, when he’s talking he yells softly. It makes him come off as a complete moron. Sure, yelling can make you seem tough, but really scary guys don’t need to yell in order to intimidate someone. Kratos is also very derivative. If you know your Greek mythology, you’ll likely find a huge amount of overlap between Kratos and Hercules. These issues are ever present in the series as far as I know (haven’t played the newer games, so I can’t comment on them) and they plague this game.
Chains of Olympus has a few issues that are specific to it. Fairly early on we learn that Helios has fallen from the sky and Morpheus is using the lack of daylight to spread his influence. The gods of Olympus are all falling asleep and nightmare monsters stalk the world of man. This is a cool plot and I was really excited by it. Then Morpheus suddenly stops being a factor and Kratos starts doing the normal Kratos stuff he’s does in the first two games.
The last few acts are a major disappointment as far as I’m concerned, because the initial premise was supplanted with a really tired story arc involving Persephone. There’s even stuff in the story that undermines the more dramatic aspects of the first game. I’m not sure why they flubbed the story so badly, but I did notice that there were like four or five writers, which is likely part of the problem. You only need one or maybe two good writers to create a good story, any more than that and you end up with garbled nonsense like Chains of Olympus.
God of Action
While the story is a major disappointment, the gameplay is superb. Kratos is back with his Blades of Chaos and their brutal combo attacks. He also gets a close range, single target weapon that’s tons of fun to use despite being a bit on the goofy side. Spoiler: It’s a comically oversized fist. Of course, no God of War game is complete without plenty of undead warriors, cyclopses, and minotaurs to fight. There’s also a few good boss fights, but I will say they could have added a few more, because this game feels a bit light in the boss department.
Kratos also learns magic spells just like in the other games. Most of them are fairly standard for the series, but he does get one that’s like a magical shotgun near the end of the game and it’s tons of fun to blast monsters with it.
My only criticism is that all of his abilities and weapons max out at fairly low levels compared to the console games. If you’re good at finding Gorgon Eyes and Phoenix Feathers you can upgrade every weapon/spell well before the end of the game. That said, I suppose they didn’t have much of a choice aside from possibly reducing the number of Red Orbs it takes to upgrade stuff seeing as how the game is so short.
I won’t complain about the overall play time of Chains of Olympus, because I don’t mind short games, but I will say that it feels like some content was cut and elements of the game were adjusted as a consequence of the cuts. There’s even evidence of cut content in the game’s art gallery according to the wiki. I’m not sure why Sony would have rushed this game, because God of War was a huge hit, so maybe this game had a troubled development process or something.
Even with the problems I mentioned above, there’s still a lot of fun to be had. Combat is just as hard hitting as that of the console games and there are some fairly interesting puzzles. Chains of Olympus also has some truly impressive area design, but I don’t want to go into detail for fear of spoiling anything.
Attack of the Flying Goat-Men
The controls are very good and Chains of Olympus still uses the same menu systems as the console games. However, there are a few quirks with the UI. First off, there seem to be problems with the terrain mesh in places, particularly around steps, that cause Kratos to get hung up a bit. It’s not a huge issue, but it’s there. It also leads to some hilarious enemy behavior. I’ve seen the goat-men and undead sometimes fly through the air like Super Man when trying to go over steps and uneven terrain, which had me laughing.
Interaction points can also be finicky. You have to stand in just the right spot to activate many objects. It’s a nuisance, but it’s not the end of the world. I think the console games had a similar issue, so I suppose Chains of Olympus is just carrying on the tradition.
Ancient Greece Comes to Life
Chains of Olympus earns a gold medal for its graphics. One of the things I love about this series is how it brought the mythology of Ancient Greece to life. I’m not exaggerating by saying this is the best looking PSP game I’ve played so far. Some of the environments are awesome looking. Sure, I know the graphics are nearly two decades old, but the way they present the game world and its overall art style is gorgeous. If anything, Chains of Olympus puts some (emphasis on “some”, don’t get your underwear in a twist) modern games to shame.
That said, some of the cutscenes were done kind of lazily with still scenes that felt like a PowerPoint presentation. This is a common problem and I won’t drag this title too much for it. At least this game’s strong moments more than make up for its weak ones.
Top Notch Voice Acting and Music
I know I complained about Kratos yelling all the time, but I will also say that the voice acting is great. The yelling thing is something I’ll blame on the director and not the voice actor, who is just about perfect at what he does. The rest of the cast is also excellent. It’s astounding that a handheld in an era where voice acting was still a little iffy boasts such quality.
The music is also great. It’s a lot of the mystical “aaaaahhh oooohhh aaaahhh oooooooh” kind of music you hear in films and games set in ancient times, but it’s done well and there are some really hard hitting tracks. The sound work is great in general, plus it makes Chains of Olympus sound like a God of War game as well as look like one.
Yet another rushed/incomplete title.
I’ve reviewed so many games I’ve lost count and I find myself saying “parts of this game feel unfinished” all too often. People often blame budgets, but sometimes devs just can’t get their acts together. Games that were in development hell for years and years only to turn out middling after costing a fortune to create are evidence of this truth. God of War: Chains of Olympus has that unfinished feeling. At the same time, it’s still a great game and it’s legendary by the standards of handhelds, which were often shovelware depositories.
Chains of Olympus isn’t an essential God of War title, but it’s worth playing if you’re a fan of the series and you want more. It’s also excellent as a hack ‘n slash action title, just don’t expect much from the story. For whatever reason, be it budget issues or dev drama, Chains of Olympus isn’t all it could have been. Considering how good it is, a fully realized version of the game would have been amazing. At any rate, this title sets a high bar for the sequel, which I’ll hopefully get to in the near future.
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