God of War Collection: Volume 2 (PS3)

Chains of Olympus is a prequel to the original God of War in which Kratos defeats Ares and takes his title. In Chains of Olympus Kratos is simply a servant to the Gods and his sole purpose is to destroy the enemies of Olympus. The events in this game lead Kratos to a reunion with his daughter. The events in Ghost of Sparta take place after kratos has defeated Ares. In this game Kratos is on a quest to find his mother and brother and to learn more about his origins.

My biggest concern with this collection was that the two games would look and play like straight PSP to PS3 ports but with sharper graphics. But thankfully it is very easy to forget that these were PSP titles when playing them on PS3. This is classic God of War with dynamic, brutal combat, exploration and massive boss battles requiring context-sensitive actions. The games are no where near as pretty as GOW3 but easily as good looking as the games in the first collection. Kratos and the monsters he fights actually look better in Ghost of Sparta than they do in the games in the first collection. And it is so much easier to control Kratos with a Dualshock 3 than with the PSP controls. Gamers familiar with the GOW titles on PS2 and PS3 will be able to pick up and play immediately. Chains of Olympus is a very good game but it is obvious ReadyatDawn studios were getting used to the PSP hardware. Ghost of Sparta is more polished with more content, better gameplay and more epic boss battles.

The most important aspect of any GOW game is its combat and that means weapons and the enemies to use them on. In Chains of Olympus the Blades of Chaos are Kratos' default weapons but he eventually picks up the Gauntlet of Zeus. The Efreet is a magical attack in which a flaming demon is summoned to pummel the earth with its fists. Bosses in this game include the Basilisk, Charon and Persephone. In Ghost of Sparta Kratos wields the Blades of Athena but eventually picks up the Arms of Sparta (spear and shield). The Eye of Atlantis is a magical attack in which electrical energy is fired at enemies. Bosses in this game include Kratos' mother (not a pretty sight) and his brother. The final boss battle is against Thanatos - the daemonic personification of death.

My television is not 3D enabled so I am not able to comment on those visuals. In summary this collection is everything a God of War fan could want and the PSP titles have been masterfully ported to the PS3. Ghost of Sparta is the better game of the two but no God of War fan should be without this collection.

Well, seeing as when I reviewed both of these games on PSP originally I gave them both 5 stars for being head and shoulders above any other action games available on handhelds it would follow that of course this PS3 upgraded collection of both is a 5 star no brainer, right? Believe me, these games are still fantastic, but on a big screen, stacked up against their home console predecessors? Sadly you can see the limitations they were built under a lot more clearly than you could on a PSP screen... but damn are these still some good gaming.

Both games are obviously prequels to the main God of War games, with Chains of Olympus being a prequel to the first game and Ghost of Sparta a prequel to the second. Chains of Olympus follows Kratos' quest to the underworld to find the missing sun God, Helios, at the behest of Goddess Athena as Kratos' nightmares about his bloody past torment him. Ghost of Sparta meanwhile follows Kratos on a journey to find out the truth behind what happened to his long-thought-dead brother, who is apparently still alive. I don't think Kratos has any nightmares in that one, but there are a lot of flashbacks. The plots in both games are pretty decent, but of course are little more than set up for lots of violence. This isn't the place to come for character development or intricately layered story telling as really... the plots in any God of War title don't need to be about anything other than Kratos' being very very angry all the time and pulling various living creatures and the occasional monster apart with his bare hands. The stories are fun enough and well put together though, I'll give them that.

The gameplay is fast, intuitive and smooth to control as ever, with high impact, rewarding combat and perhaps a bit less focus on the puzzles and platforming elements compared to the main GoW games in both games. The gameplay is more or less identical to the main series, just on a somewhat smaller scale for obvious reasons. One really stand out thing I noticed though is that these games are actually considerably easier with a Dualshock controller than they were on PSP, as the significantly easier control set up (Most especially with regard to dodging) makes the majority of both titles a walk over. I actually had to restart Chains on the highest difficulty I could access because it was so easy, and even then the biggest challenge was in the fairly strict timing needed for the QTE segments. Ghost of Sparta proves a bit harder, but really, neither title is anywhere close to the kind of crushing difficulty you'd get in the hardest difficulty in God of War 3. Challenge issues aside, the games are certainly still great fun to play, don't get me wrong, but they are a notable step down on numerous fronts from the God of War releases we've already seen on PS3 to date and you'll breeze through both titles fairly quickly. Both games have bonuses to unlock and challenges to try (That ARE harder than the main games it must be said), but between those and the trophies I'd say the most you could expect to get out of this package as a whole is probably around 15 hours or so of gaming... which isn't so bad I guess for a lower retail priced collection like this, but still...

Visually, both games obviously show their handheld beginnings, with Chains of Olympus in particular looking quite sparse and empty a lot of the time... However, the updated visuals really do work wonders with both games, most especially in the case of Ghost of Sparta, which now looks comparable visually to God of War 2 in the previous GoW collection and boasts some mighty impressive visual set pieces and texture work for a game ported from a handheld. Despite the relatively minor shortcomings on Chains of Olympus' part on the visual front, both games do look great, with ultra sharp, clean visuals and a completely unbroken 60fps frame rate from beginning to end of both titles. Couple this with the usual high standard soundtrack work and hilariously OTT voice work you get in this series and you have a technically impressive package that may not stack up well against other PS3 titles, but taken for what it is is a lot more impressive than you may be expecting.

So, yeah, both of these games are still really really great fun to play... but there's no getting away from the fact that on a big screen, they're clearly watered down spinoffs of the main God of War trilogy. I'd still strongly recommend this collection of course, but would advise that anyone buying it keep their expectations realistic and remember that these are handheld games with some graphical upgrades... don't go expecting God of War 3 levels of scale or design.

Ok i have had all 3 GOW titles on ps3 when they were uber cheap 2 years ago but didn't open them & I'm glad i didn't... the first title chain of olympus is a prequel to GOW 1, this game really gives a nice introduction in the GOW universe, i have so far only played 5 hours on the first title and love it! although i will say that some of the enemies are cheap! like really cheap! not only this but at times the game also then feels too easy...it just never gets the balance of difficulty right, which in turn will require you to build up your strategy again which is very time consuming. I will also say these games do NOT feel like psp titles on the ps3, they look really developed & the graphics will amaze you that this came from a psp in the first place!!!

This is also the first titles in the GOW saga (maybe more to come who knows) that display in 3D!!!! & my god does it look good! I am privileged to have a 3d set (Stereoscopic Active 3D) and i am glad! after not getting much impressive 3D action with titles such as socom, Motorstorm etc since GT5, this game put my 3D worries to rest, it actually makes the depth really really deep when in eerie caves & also some of the boss fights are "head on" which really does the 3D even more justice as it gives the feeling the attacks are coming out of your TV screen! i will say if you have a 3D set or looking to invest soon hold off playing till then! SERIOUSLY

I rate this game 4* for fun due to some of the enemies being cheap as said before but overall from just the 1st title Chains of olympus, this game really deserves to be in your collection! also word of advice i would play COL 1st then 1, 2 then GOS then 3 if you haven't yet tackled the others!