Chains of Olympus is a great action game that PSP owners should definitely pick up.
The story in CoO is about what you would expect from the God of War series, CoO being a prequel. At this time, Kratos is doing the gods' bidding, and starts the game off as a general of Greek forces in Attica defending the city from a Persian attack. Despite being somewhat confusing (unless you've recently played GoW1), the main thing to know is that Kratos is pissed off and wants to kill things. With some touching moments and tough choices ahead for Kratos, CoO's storyline is very solid.
The core fighting mechanics are pretty much unchanged from Kratos' adventures on the PS2. You have a lot of different attacks and magic to throw at your enemy, and the battling is often and hectic. There are much fewer magical attacks to be learned and only one alternate weapon, which is the main segment of CoO that is stripped down from the console versions. The system is tried and true however, and the boss and miniboss fights are fast and awesome. There is still some bad hit detection, which is a bit of an annoyance, but not much worse than in the first two games. The only new problem I encountered was getting thrown through walls to my death, which was fairly annoying the two times it happened. There are less platforming segments than there were in the first two titles, which means less variation in the gameplay. The sex minigame is back, but to me, it's starting to get a bit old. After that, CoO really adds nothing to the series, which is a bit disappointing. The difficulty is still about the same; very easy on the lower ones, but it picks up after that, if you want to keep playing through it. The challenges are a bit fun to do, but there are only five, and not really good enough to keep my interest. CoO is also much too short, and can easily be beaten in around 5 hours even when not skipping cutscenes. But with many great battles to be had, CoO still has pretty much all that you would expect from the series.
The soundtrack in CoO is great like the previous two installments. The musical score certainly fits the environments very well and adds an epic flair to the fights. The monster's bellows and attacks all have their usually-good rings to them as well. The voice-acting is still outstanding for both the narrator and the characters.
Visually, CoO is far and away one of, if not the best on the PSP. While a little lacking in detail compared to the PS2 games, the environments look outstanding the character and monster models are very detailed and nice. The environments are huge for a PSP game, and the textures and shading detail on them is next to none on the system. Artistically, it's also very appealing. From the city of Attica to the underworld of Hades, the environments are nicely mixed up, and gorgeous in their own rights. The atmosphere truly feels like Greek mythology, and some areas are very intimidating. During battle, the PSP is surprisingly able to hold together the beautiful environments with many enemies moving on-screen at one time, rarely having even the smallest stumble with the framerate. The attacks are beautiful, both from Kratos and his foes. In every way, CoO is a beautiful PSP title, probably the best-looking game the PSP boasts.
With the excellent fighting mechanics that GoW fans would expect, along with the badass Kratos and his great story, Chains of Olympus is pretty much exactly what fans of the series would want and expect. While the game adds nothing to the series and loses some things in the conversion from console to handheld, it is still a great handheld title and shows that GoW is great on the go. One of the best titles on the system, Chains of Olympus is a must-own for PSP owners.