Great refinement of classic formula *spoilers*
The story of GoS is, to my surprise, really intriguing. As Kratos is about to ascend to become the new god of war, he learned from an unlikely source that his young brother, Deimos, is not dead like the gods told him. With almost his entire family gone, Kratos set out to look for Deimos, and his last bond with the mortal world. And along the way he happens to have angered a bunch of people, gods and mortals alike. The story itself shows many deep insights of Kratos that we never saw before, such as the caring relationship with his young brother, and his passion with his own people from Sparta. At one point you even get to see Kratos praising a dying spartan for being a true warrior who "stands tall even in death". It is because of these finer details of his personality, not just his power and determination, that makes Kratos a god truly hailed by his people. The game does reach a tragic end, however, and provides great connection between the first God of War game and the second one.
If you played GoW games before, then this is all very familiar to you. You get two weapons, one being the good ol chain blades - Blades of Athena, the other being a traditional spartan weapon set composed of a spear and a shield, which are acquired later in the game. The chain blades are still as bad ass as you can possibly imagine, slicing through hordes of enemies at your discretion. The spear and shield, named Arms of Sparta, however, are more of a tactical support weapon. You can move slowly while blocking with your shield, and the spear can be thrown to kill enemies at distance, but overall the weapon's range and speed are inferior to the chain blades. There are also three different magics you can get as the game goes: Eye of Atlantis (works much like Rage of Chronos from GoW 2), Scourge of Erinys (creates a vortex that sucks enemies in) and Horn of Boreas (summons a storm of freezing wind around you to freeze your enemies). The magics are not as good as in other GoW games but they do nicely to supplement your game play, which revolves mainly around using the chain blades.
There are a few new things added to the game. First, you can do a "combat rush" where you simply run forward and grab whatever enemy that comes in your way, after that, depends on the enemy, you can pummel them on the ground, throw them into another enemy, or pull of some brutal finishing moves that'll put Manhunt in shame. In the middle of your rush you can also change your stance and pull off some non-grappling attacks. Another big addition in this game is an ability called Thera's Bane. Basically it allows you to light your blades on fire with the volcanic power of one of the Titans and deal additional damage to your targets. On top of that, your attacks will also trigger the release of a "fire seed" on your enemies' bodies, which will detonate after a few seconds, dealing damage and stun your enemies. This can be incredibly useful as you can keep the crowd under careful control while you slice and dice them one by one into monster sashimi. But this game is absolutely no push-over, a lot of the enemies you run into will test your skills - especially those pesky Keres Wraith...if you don't know what they are, trust me, when you fight them they'll make you shout more profanities than GTA.
The content of the game has also been improved, with the game much longer, 5 major boss encounters and many mini-boss fights, 6 bonus costumes (that are actually good looking and useful at the same time, for the most part), 2 sets of challenge modes, a combat arena for free gore fest, many artifacts that can be used on second play through...all of which will keep you busy for hours after hours. There is also a mode called Temple of Zeus, where you use the red orbs you earned in your normal game play to "buy" new things such as monsters for combat arena, costumes, and numerous bonus original art and video footage that can be viewed at your leisure.
If you played Chains of Olympus, then you know the game looked really good. And if you think back then it looked good, taking a look at Ghost of Sparta will literally make your jaws drop. This game, is by far, the single most glorious-looking PSP game to date. The game looks absolutely epic, one moment you could be digging your way through a volcano flowing with lava, after a few minutes you might be on top of a snowy mountain treading lightly on a cliff edge. The voice acting is also top of the class, with Kratos, Athena, and the numerous characters...you can feel their emotion from just their speeches. Combat is extremely fluent, with next to no loading time at all in the entire game. All the spells you cast look beautiful, though sometimes the looks does not really scale with the damage these spells do. The chain blades dances on the flesh of your enemies when you swing them as they shine brightly, and when you slam them onto the ground, you will see sparks flying up (instead of a simple flash like in Chains of Olympus), just like in the PS2 GoW games. And when you light up your blade with Thera's Bane, each swing of your blades will bring fourth a raging storm of savage flame that burns through your enemies without mercy. The finishing moves are as ruthless as ever, with Kratos tearing people apart, stomping his blade into a cyclops' eye...it really does this game no justice for me to talk about it, you have to see it yourself to believe how brilliant and magnificent Ghost of Sparta looks.
God of War Ghost of Sparta is a master piece. Maybe it does not do anything new, but it stayed true to its series and refined a classic formula to near perfection. The game is a brilliant piece of work that's worthy of purchase so if you have not gotten it yet, get your money ready and with all my heart I say: you will not regret it.