Lord Kratos is back with a bang! The angered son of Zeus has his 5th adventure on consoles and 2nd on the PSP.
The game play is solid and immersive.
Sound, background music and voice acting all are top notch.
The story of the game takes place somewhere between the events of God of War I and God of War II; and is told in the trademark fashion of the franchise (i.e. revealing thread by thread leading to a spectacular climax)
Graphics 10/10
Graphics of the game are simply superb.
Impressively well designed areas, attention to minute details and authentic looking drawings all are the hallmarks of God of War series and Ghost of Sparta lives up to 'the reputation'.
Characters right from Kratos to the hordes of minions and the gigantic bosses look fluid and convincing even on the small PSP screen.
Honestly, there aren't many games that would look even comparable to this one on your PSP.
Need I say more?
Sound 8/10
Don't get me wrong here; in-game sounds are great but due to their heavy similarity with other games of the series you don't really get anything refreshing in this department and I think Ready at Dawn studios could have done a bit better on this front.
However, as I said before game sounds are borrowed from the earlier games of the series therefore you can expect them to be well.. just Great!
Story 9/10
Story of the game throws some more light on the past life of Kratos, giving you insight to his human side and does its bit in explaining his rage and hatred towards Olympians.
It is told beautifully through cut-scenes and some pre-decided battle sequences.
Climax is the high point of the story of Ghost of Sparta.
Game Play 9/10
Game plays almost exactly like previous games, but I personally believe that it is very hard to improve a combat system as evolved as this franchise has and that too with limited resources of PSP therefore 9/10
All orbs, artifacts and power ups are there. There is a slight addition in grapple system which is nice and satisfying. Mini games have been made easy by exclusion of analog stick movements for most parts.
There is one new weapon- Arms of Sparta consisting of a Spear and shield which is used effectively by Kratos at certain points in the game.
Magic spells are all new but are just tweaked or rehashed versions of the spells you have already seen in the franchise.
Trademark sex mini game is also there and Kratos gets to handle more women than he has handled in all the previous games combined together and is as enjoyable as others have been.
Infact after playing this one I would personally love to test the prowess of LORD KRATOS (ah! If wishes were horses).
Replay Value 7/10
Once you beat the game on any of the three difficulty levels available to you at the start, God Mode is unlocked which is really really hard and God of War hard-cores would love it. Then there are other un-lockable sections:-
(1) Arena: where you face off against enemies on your own terms.
(2) Challenge of Gods: where you have to complete a task under given parameters, which are fun to say the least.
(3) Temple of Zeus where you sacrifice red orbs to unlock gallery items/videos.
CONCLUSION
Go buy it now! Any God of War fan would recommend it whole heartedly and even those of us who don't really bow before LORD KRATOS can hardly deny that it is one of the best games on PSP.