Though it doesn't stand up to its console brethren, Chains of Olympus does a great job of bringing Kratos to the PSP.
It's easy to forgive a lot of the slight gripes you can have with Chains of Olympus in the light of it being a PSP game. It retains the core gameplay of God of War, which is brought over onto the small screen perfectly. However, it focuses on this too much, it gives you a combat-heavy experience (especially in the second half where all pretence of other gameplay is thrown out the window), and this is a good thing in many regards. God of War's combat is excellent; it can get button mashy at times, but the need to focus on attack windows and avoiding damage--twined with challenging battles--keep the combat satisfying throughout and relatively tactical. The combat is not what makes the series so special though, it is the true action adventure feel of the game. The melding of the epic scale of the levels, the brutal combat, the creative and challenging puzzles, the story, and the platforming make it a complete experience which makes it the quintessential action adventure series. Whereas many games that are supposedly action adventure are really just action games with some cutscenes, God of War focuses on the adventure just as much as the action and truly delivers in both categories. Chains of Olympus is definitely still an adventure, it retains the sense of grandeur the series has become known for, things are big and impressive, it's easy to be awe-struck by the scale of things and the famous cinematic fixed camera does a great job of show piecing the impressive scale of the game. Unfortunately, this and an entertaining (though by no means great) story are the extent of the adventure. Though there is some light puzzle-solving early on and a few bosses sprinkled around, the focus on these definitely feels toned down. Couple this with a campaign that you can finish, with finding every collectible and maxing out all your weapons and magic, in under 6 hours and the feel of the complete action adventure package is lessened.
Chains of Olympus is first and foremost a truly excellent action title for the PSP, and this is great. It will give God of War fans a great time from start to finish and is a great introduction to the series for PSP owners. However, its focus on combat and action stop it from reaching the heights of its superb predecessors. God of War 2 in particular had memorable and challenging boss battles, and a good number of them. The boss battles in Chains are by no means bad, some of them look great and all of them are fun, but there aren't nearly enough of them and they are not very challenging. This means that they aren't that memorable and are a missed opportunity in many ways, and reinforces the slightly stripped-down vibe. The boss battles in the game show that the PSP is capable of some impressive stuff, they just need to be a touch harder and more numerous to be as satisfying as the offering in God of War 2. As well as these incredible boss battles, both God of War games mixed in superb puzzle design, a feature which really helped the series to stand out. These puzzles made the games feel like an ultraviolent Zelda game in places and were a truly great addition to the series, once again adding to the complete package feel. There are a few puzzles in Chains of Olympus, but they are usually your simple block pushing puzzles, and even when they are a bit more imaginative than that, they are still infrequent and easy. The puzzles usually found in God of War are often taxing (in a good way), complicated puzzles that require a lot of working out and are satisfying to solve. The puzzles in Chains (the few that can be called puzzles) are really quite simple even though creating the usual God of War-like puzzles would hardly have taxed the PSP, and it's just disappointing to see them pushed to the side in favour of pure action. In fact, the second half of the game seems to forsake puzzles almost completely, and is noticeably weaker for that.
Despite its shortcomings when put into the context of the series, Chains of Olympus has numerous impressive strengths that are important to elaborate on for those new to the series. The setting of the game is a prequel of sorts to the original God of War; however, knowledge of the events of God of War 1 may be quite useful here. The immediate action of God of War 1 took place after Chains, but much of the story in the original is the slow unveiling of past events, events that took place before Chains of Olympus. Chains doesn't do a great job of explaining these events, and therefore previous knowledge of the franchise, though not needed, is useful. The story itself in Chains of Olympus is pretty simple; you are Kratos, a mortal man plagued with the nightmares from his past. Kratos is promised by the Gods of Olympus that they will save him from his nightmares and forgive him his sins if he serves them. This servitude takes the form of doing some acts God's wouldn't get away with but it mostly just gives you an excuse to visit a variety of areas and brutally murder many mythical beasts. It's a lot of fun, and while the story is, as previously mentioned, not great, it is reasonably well told and gives you more than enough reason to see a new breathtaking environment.
The gameplay is the real strength here though (despite its relatively light take on the God of War formula); the main moment-to-moment gameplay takes the form of Kratos eviscerating numerous foes with his trusty blades of Chaos. Blades attached to his body by long chains that enable him to swing these around like a madman, ensuring damage can be dealt out in a large radius. Attacking is as simple as pressing square for a weak (but fast) attack and triangle for a strong (but slower) attack. These blades can be levelled up to unlock new combos that add another slight level of sophistication to the combat. As well as your blades, you have magic, and the amount of magic you can do is determined by a mana meter that can be replenished by dispatching certain enemies or opening certain chests. During the course of the game you unlock new magic attacks and can level up your blades and magic by collecting red orbs, which you gain from doing most things. As well as the offensive, there is the defensive, you are able to evade attacks with a well timed roll and can block (and parry when this skill is unlocked).
Putting God of War onto the PSP meant that some control sacrifices had to be made, the series always had pretty responsive controls, and there is no change here. Spinning the blades around feels as good as ever; however, certain moves in God of War 1 and 2 on the PS2 involved a second thumb stick, something the PSP lacks. On the PS2 God of Wars you move with the left stick and evade with the right stick (you roll in the direction pushed). This worked excellently and was a really great feature, giving you a certain degree of control over Kratos that improves the fluidity of the combat. All in all, it just feels great and is intuitive. Rolling isn't quite as intuitive on the PSP, however, but by mapping it to other buttons; they did find a way to get it to work almost as well. Though this doesn't replace the feeling of playing God of War on a proper controller, the recent PS3 port of the game brings back the original rolling controls and therefore has no issue in this regard. It is also a game which surprisingly benefits from a big screen, so the PS3 version is recommended. Chains of Olympus is a great-looking game for the PSP, but the enormity of some of the games landscapes and enemies lends itself really well to a larger screen. On top of that, the strong art design of God of War coupled with a slight HD upgrade mean that you won't be stuck playing an old and ugly-looking game on your fancy HD console.
One disappointing omission from Chains of Olympus, present in God of War 1 and 2 (and later included in 3), is the rage meter. In the console games, a meter would build up in combat; when full, the player could push in both sticks and unleash Kratos' rage, and he is a very angry man. This made your attacks way more powerful and could turn the tide of even the toughest battle. Using it at the right time was a great tactical consideration which brought a lot to the core gameplay. Although it wasn't a huge inclusion and the game still plays excellently without it, it was still a very good feature. It is obvious why it isn't in there, the button set-up doesn't exist on the PSP, but they managed to find a way round the evading issue, which makes simply ignoring the rage meter slightly disappointing.
It's very easy to get caught up in how Chains of Olympus isn't as good as its console brethren, even though it could have been even on the system it's on, and how it in many ways feels like a stripped-down God of War. However, when thinking this way it's easy to forget that Chains is an excellent game that there is nothing like on the PSP. It's a great way to get into the series and a legitimately great action game. It's also an awesome God of War game but ultimately brings nothing to the series. God of War fans will have played this all before, and it would be nice if it gave something to the series, rather than taking things away. If you don't like God of War, there is nothing in this game that will change your mind, and if you have had your God of War fill on the PS2 then this isn't particularly worth checking out. This game only becomes a must buy when you have no access to the other games; in that case it is an essential purchase. If you love God of War, you will have a grand time with this great instalment in the fantastic franchise. It's short and scaled down, but that will only disappoint people that have a history with the series. In spite of this, it does a genuinely superb job of translating God of War to the PSP and is an exciting and challenging game that provides pure brutal fun from beginning to end.