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God of War: Chains of Olympus

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God of War: Chains of Olympus
North American box art
Developer(s)Ready at Dawn
SCE Santa Monica Studio
Publisher(s)PlayStation Portable
Sony Computer Entertainment
God of War: Origins Collection
Sony Computer Entertainment
Director(s)Ru Weerasuriya
Writer(s)Marianne Krawczyk
Ru Weeerasuriya
Cory Barlog
SeriesGod of War
EngineProprietary "Ready At Dawn Engine" 2.0[1]
Platform(s)PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3 (as part of God of War: Origins Collection)
Release
March 4, 2008
  • PlayStation Portable PlayStation Network God of War: Origins Collection
Genre(s)Hack and slash, action-adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

God of War: Chains of Olympus is an action-adventure game developed by Ready at Dawn and SCE Santa Monica Studio; and released by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation Portable handheld video game console. It is the fourth game in the God of War series and the first game release for the platform. The game was released in North America and Europe in March 2008, in Australia in April 2008, and in Japan in July 2008.

Loosely based on Greek mythology, God of War: Chains of Olympus is the first chapter in the series, and forms part of a saga, with vengeance as a central theme. The player takes on the role of the protagonist Kratos, a servant of the Olympian Gods, who opposes the goddess Persephone, who allies with the god Morpheus and Titan Atlas, in her attempt to destroy the world and Mount Olympus.

Upon its release, Chains of Olympus achieved the highest composite score for a PlayStation Portable title on both Metacritic and GameRankings and received critical acclaim by critics — with much praise to its technical achievements, gameplay and graphics; while garnered criticism for its short length. It was re-released under Sony's Greatest Hits label and became available for download from the PlayStation Store the following year in North America. A remastered version of Chains of Olympus, alongside with Ghost of Sparta, was released for the PlayStation 3 in North America and the PAL regions in September 2011 as part of the God of War: Origins Collection, with features including up-scaled graphics with anti-aliasing, stereoscopic 3D, DualShock 3 vibration function and trophy support.

Gameplay

A screenshot of the shores of Attica, showing Kratos in battle with Persian soldiers. Chains of Olympus uses the full 333 MHz processor on the PSP, allowing the game's visuals to be more realistic.[2]

God of War: Chains of Olympus features the same gameplay mechanics as other installments in the series. A third-person camera game, the player controls the character Kratos in a combination of combat, both normal and quick-time, platforming and puzzle game elements. The player typically has to navigate Kratos through a long series of tests, trials and mazes to reach goals.[3][4] Kratos' main weapons are a pair of double-chained "Blades of Chaos", with newer weapons the "Sun Shield" and "Gauntlet of Zeus" aquired throughout the game.[3][4][5] Magic is also used, with new abilities include the use of an "Efreet", the "Light of Dawn", and "Charon's Wrath".[4]

Health and Magic upgrades - Gorgon Eyes and Phoenix Feathers respectively - are found throughout the game in uncolored chests, in addition to normal Health and magic-giving chests.[4][3] A certain number of each are needed to upgrade the Health and Magic bars respectively. Other chests found in the game, containing orbs, are marked with a corresponding color for the orbs — green, blue, and red. Green Orbs replenish health; blue orbs replenish magic; and red orbs provide experience.[3] Red orbs may also be collected by killing foes and destroying certain inanimate objects.[5][3] Combat includes a quick-time feature, which is initiated when the player has weakened a stronger foe and an icon appears above them. The player then presses the corresponding button commands appearing on screen, with success ending the battle, and failure usually resulting in damage.[3] A "grab" maneuver is also available for use on minor foes that yields a higher proportion of experience points in the form of red orbs.[4]

Completing the game unlocks the "Challenge of Hades", which pits players to complete a series of trials. As certain conditions are met, bonus costumes, behind-the-scenes videos and art galleries may be unlocked as a reward.[6]

Plot

Main article: List of God of War characters

During Kratos' ten years of service to the Olympian Gods, he is sent to the city of Attica to help defend the city from the invading Persian army.[3] After successfully killing the Persian King, decimating his army and their pet monster the basilisk, Kratos observes the sun fall from the sky plunging the world into darkness. Kratos fights his way through the city of Marathon and witnesses the black fog of the Olympian Morpheus which now covers the land in darkness. Kratos also hears a haunting flute melody which he eventually recognizes as a song once played by his now deceased daughter Calliope. Finding the Temple of Helios, Kratos is tasked by the goddess Athena to find the missing sun god as in the absence of light, Morpheus has caused the remaining gods to fall into a deep slumber. Kratos eventually locates Eos (the sister of Helios) who advises that the Titan Atlas, has abducted her brother. Kratos retrieves the Primordial Fires needed to awaken the fire steeds of Helios, who take the Spartan to the Underworld, where he has two encounters with Charon at the River Styx. Although Charon initially defeats Kratos and banishes him to Tartarus, Kratos returns and destroys Charon.[4]

Eventually locating the Temple of Persephone and confronting the Queen of the Underworld, Kratos is given a choice: renounce his power and be with his deceased daughter (at a cost to mankind) or proceed with his mission. Kratos sacrifices his weapons and power to be reunited with his daughter, but discovers Persephone is bitter at being betrayed by Zeus and being forced to remain in the underworld with her husband Hades. While Kratos was distracted by his reunion with Calliope, Persephone's ally Atlas was using the power of the kidnapped Helios to destroy the Pillar of the World which would also end Olympus. Choosing to abandon Calliope forever, Kratos takes back his power and binds Atlas to the Pillar of the World he sought to destroy forcing the Titan to now hold the weight of the world on his shoulders. Kratos battles Persephone to the death. Although Kratos is victorious, he is warned by a dying Persephone that his suffering will never end. Atlas also warns Kratos that he will eventually regret helping the gods and that they will meet again. Riding Helios' chariot back into the sky and seeing the return of the sun, Kratos then loses consciousness from the exertion and plummets to the ground. Kratos, however, is saved by Athena and Helios, who then return to Olympus.[4]

Development

File:GOW2 PAL backpage CoO teaser.jpg
The European instruction manual of God of War II with a one-page teaser for Chains of Olympus.

Ready At Dawn pitched the idea of a God of War game for the PlayStation Portable to SCEA's Santa Monica Studios.[7] In February 2007, Ready At Dawn posted a teaser for an upcoming handheld title with the words "Coming Soon" using the font from God of War.[8] An editor from 1UP also obtained an early copy of God of War II and posted the game's instruction manual with a one-page teaser for Chains of Olympus that was "Coming 2007".[9][dead link][10] On March 13, 2007 God of War II was launched at the Metreon, with game director Cory Barlog officially confirmed the existence of Chains of Olympus in development: "It is its own story that connects to the overall story. God of War, God of War II, and then if all the stars align God of War III will be the telling of a trilogy. This PSP story will be a further fleshing out."[11] An initial teaser trailer for Chains of Olympus was released on April 25, 2007 coinciding with the announcement of a UMD demo.[12] The trailer depicts Kratos in the city of Attica, with a narrative provided by voice actress Linda Hunt.[13]

God of War: Chains of Olympus uses a proprietary, in-house engine referred to as the Ready at Dawn engine. Their work has expanded on the engine they had created for Daxter while additionally including a fluid and cloth simulator.[14] The camera system was modified to cater to the fixed cinematic camera for God of War gameplay,[14] and the lighting system was reworked to aid in presenting realistic graphics.[15] The game was originally designed for the PlayStation Portable system's restricted 222 MHz processor. Ready at Dawn had repeatedly asked Sony about increasing the clock speed of the PSP because of the difference it made to the game and had actually developed a version of the game with the improved speed.[2] During the middle of game's development, Sony released a new firmware upgrade that allowed games to use the full 333 MHz processor on the system. Improvements with the faster processor allowed for more realistic blood effects, lighting effects and shadows as well as improved enemy intelligence. However, the battery life is noticeably decreased due to the higher clock speed required to operate the game.[2][16] After the game's completion, director Ru Weerasuriya stated multi-player options, other puzzles, characters and dialogue had to be removed due to time constraints.[14]

The demo disc, officially titled God of War: Chains of Olympus – Special Edition: Battle of Attica, was released on September 27, 2007. In the demo, Kratos faces off against a number of Persian soldiers and a giant Basilisk, who is the first boss Kratos has to battle. The demo progresses through the city of Attica as Kratos chases down the Basilisk, ending with Kratos fighting the Persian King. The disc also included a developer video that commentated on a play and a lanyard in the shape of the Greek letter Omega.[17] Since the UMD demo's release, a downloadable version of the demo was made available through the PlayStation Store in North American and European regions.[18] The game was scheduled to be released during the fourth quarter of 2007,[19] but the release date was pushed back to March 4, 2008.[20] Because of the delay, Ready At Dawn Studios instead offered a "special edition" version of the demo to pre-order customers,[20] with one Ready at Dawn developer stating that preparation of the special demo disc took up to 40% of the team's production time.[15] Shortly after the release of the demo, the company also offered pre-order customers a song on disc titled, "Battle of Attica". Composer Gerard Marino has stated that this was the first cue written for the game basing it on concept art and screenshots of the game.[21]

Versions and merchandise

File:God of War PSP Bundle.jpg
The Chains of Olympus bundle pack.

God of War: Chains of Olympus was released on March 4, 2008 in North America,[22] March 28, 2008 in Europe, and April 27, 2008 in Australia.[23] The game was also released in Japan on July 10, 2008 by Capcom.[23] The game was re-released in Europe on October 17, 2008 as part of Sony's Platinum range; and in Japan and North America in April 2009, under Capcom's Best Price and Sony's Greatest Hits labels respectively.[23] It became available for download from the PlayStation Store on September 30, 2009 in North America, October 1, 2009 in Europe, and November 11, 2010 in Japan.[23]

On June 3, 2008, Sony released a limited-edition bundle pack for God of War: Chains of Olympus, which was only available in North America. The pack included the game, a UMD of the 2007 film Superbad, a voucher for the PSP title Syphon Filter: Combat Ops and a red God of War edition of the console imprinted with an image of Kratos' face on the rear.[24]

Together with God of War: Ghost of Sparta, the game was released for the PlayStation 3 as part of the God of War: Origins Collection (called God of War Collection – Volume II in Europe) on September 13, 2011 in North America, September 16, 2011 in Europe, September 29, 2011 in Australia, and October 6, 2011 in Japan.[25] The collection is a remastered port of both games to the PS3 hardware, with features including high-definition resolution, stereoscopic 3D, anti-aliased graphics locked in at 60 frames per second, DualShock 3 vibration function and trophies.[26]

Soundtrack

God of War: Chains of Olympus - Original Soundtrack from the Video Game was composed by Gerard K. Marino but to date has not been commercially released.[27]

Reception

God of War: Chains of Olympus was a commercial success, debuting at fifth place in the North American charts, with 340,500 copies sold in the first month.[38] Ready at Dawn reported shipping 1 million units of Chains of Olympus prior to release.[39] Chains of Olympus also gained critical acclaim from critics, and achieved the highest composite score for a PlayStation Portable title, holding an average score of 91 out of 100 at Metacritic based on 79 reviews,[28] and 91 percent at GameRankings based on 81 reviews.[29] GamePro praised the game's "fantastic" graphics and "tight and responsive" controls.[30] IGN's Chris Roper wrote that the developers "has done a stellar job of keeping Kratos' move set intact".[31] Matt Leone of 1UP.com went as far as to say that Chains of Olympus is "a technical showpiece for Sony, and arguably the best-looking game on the system."[33] GameTrailers praised its replay value, stating that "thank Zeus himself, when you replay the game you can bring your powered-up methods of destruction with you."[35]

Chains of Olympus has been also subject to criticism. G4's Jonathan Hunt said that game "occasionally suffers from screen tearing and framerate drops", while noted that some of the puzzles "are so maddeningly difficult to solve".[32] GamePro criticized the game's relative lack of variety in enemies and the fact that "You still have to lug boxes around to solve environmental puzzles".[30] Chris Roper criticized the length as "relatively short".[31] GameSpot's Aaron Thomas agreed that the game can "easily be beaten in less than seven hours" and also claimed that it "could have used more puzzles, platforming segments, and bosses".[36] Kristan Reed of EuroGamer wrote that "Ready At Dawn, for whatever reason, had to cut co-op play, multiplayer, some of the puzzles, dialogue and characters, is a shame."[37]

In IGN's Best of 2008 Awards, the game received the awards for Best PSP Action Game,[40] Best Graphics Technology,[41] and Best Use of Sound.[42] In GameSpot's Best Games of 2008, the game received the Readers' Choice Award.[43] Diehard GameFAN awarded the game Best PSP Game for 2008.[44] In September 2010, God of War: Chains of Olympus was listed number one on GamePro's "The 10 Best PSP Games" list.[45]

References

  1. ^ Marc Nix. "The Future of PSP -- Ready At Dawn". IGN. Retrieved 2007-10-02.
  2. ^ a b c Matt Leone (2007-12-10). "1UP Previews: God of War PSP". 1UP. Retrieved 2008-03-27. "We had 222, and we went, 'We found this 333 mode -- we can overclock the processor, it's all supported, everything's nice, it doesn't break down the PSP at all...this is what the game could be'," says Ready At Dawn programming director Garret Foster. "And we just kept asking and asking and asking, actually crying, begging on knees, to try to get it." So when the PSP 3.50 firmware came around in late May and opened up the option for developers to run games at 333MHz, it was a big win for the team. "That was kind of the -- I hate to say it -- icing on the cake," says Foster.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g God of War: Chains of Olympus (Instruction manual). Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. March 28, 2008. UCES-00842/P.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Mark Ryan Sallee. "God of War: Chains of Olympus Guide/Walkthrough". IGN. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
  5. ^ a b Mark Ryan Sallee. "God of War: Chains of Olympus Guide/Basics". IGN. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
  6. ^ Mark Ryan Sallee. "God of War: Chains of Olympus Guide/Secrets". IGN. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
  7. ^ Matt Leone. "Previews: God of War PSP (Page 5 of 6)". 1UP.com.
  8. ^ James Ransom-Wiley (2007-02-16). "God of War font used to tease 'unannounced psp title'". Joystiq. Retrieved 2008-03-06.
  9. ^ "God of War II...YES PLEASE!!". 1UP.com. 2007-03-02. Retrieved 2008-03-06. [dead link]
  10. ^ James Ransom-Wiley. "God of War PSP revealed on back of God of War II booklet". Joystiq.
  11. ^ Matt Leone (2007-03-13). "God of War II launch event/PSP coming out party? Liveblog!". 1UP.com. Retrieved 2008-03-06.
  12. ^ Andrew Yoon. "God of War: Chains of Olympus - first trailer & UMD demo". PSP Fanboy. Retrieved 2007-10-02.
  13. ^ Andrew Yoon. "Chains of Olympus will "change the course of the GoW mythology"". PSP Fanboy. Retrieved 2007-10-02.
  14. ^ a b c "INTERVIEW: Taking God of War to PSP". Next-Gen. 2008-03-04. Retrieved 2008-03-08.
  15. ^ a b "GDC08: God of War developer goes behind-the-scenes". PSP Fanboy. 2008-02-20. Retrieved 2008-03-15.
  16. ^ 222Mhz vs 333 MHz Chains of Olympus. GameVideos. 2007-12-11. Retrieved 2008-03-08.
  17. ^ GameTrailers. "God of War (PSP) Developer Walkthrough". GameTrailers. Retrieved 2007-10-02.
  18. ^ Crecente, Brian (2008-03-09). "Download the God of War: Chains of Olympus Demo". Kotaku. Retrieved 2012-03-13.
  19. ^ Carlos Bergfeld (2007-09-07). "God of War: Chains of Olympus Delayed, Dated". Shacknews. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
  20. ^ a b GameSpot. "Chains of Olympus breaking March 4". GameSpot.
  21. ^ "God of War team offers "Battle of Attica" music". PSP Vault. 2007-10-06. Retrieved 2007-10-17.
  22. ^ IGN. "God of War: Chains of Olympus". IGN. Retrieved 2007-10-02.
  23. ^ a b c d "God of War: Chains of Olympus Related Games". GameSpot. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
  24. ^ "God of War PSP Pack Now Available". IGN. 6-3-2008. Retrieved 2009-11-5. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  25. ^ "God of War Collection Volume II Related Games". GameSpot. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
  26. ^ Turndorf, Marc (2011-06-07). "God of War: Origins Collection Coming in 3D, Watch the Trailer". SCEA. Retrieved 2011-06-09.
  27. ^ "God of War: Chains of Olympus - Credits". allgame. Retrieved 2010-11-05.
  28. ^ a b "God of War: Chains of Olympus (psp: 2008): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-05-29.
  29. ^ a b "God of War: Chains of Olympus Reviews". Game Rankings. Retrieved 2008-05-29.
  30. ^ a b c "Review: God of War: Chains of Olympus for PSP on GamePro.com". GamePro. 2008-02-20. Archived from the original on 2008-02-25. Retrieved 2008-02-21.
  31. ^ a b c Roper, Chris (2008-02-18). "IGN: God of War: Chains of Olympus Review". IGN. Retrieved 2008-02-21.
  32. ^ a b Hunt, Jonathan (2008-02-26). "God of War: Chains of Olympus". G4. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
  33. ^ a b Leone, Matt (2008-02-19). "Reviews: God of War PSP". 1UP.com. Retrieved 2008-02-21.
  34. ^ Ashcraft, Brian (2009-02-10). "Famitsu's Best PSP Games of 2008". Kotaku. Retrieved 2012-03-13.
  35. ^ a b "God of War: Chains of Olympus". GameTrailers. Mar 3, 2008. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
  36. ^ a b Thomas, Aaron (2008-03-05). "God of War: Chains of Olympus Review". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
  37. ^ a b Reed, Kristan (11 March, 2008). "God of War: Chains of Olympus Review". EuroGamer. Retrieved 2012-02-13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  38. ^ Kyle Orland (2008-04-17). "March NPD: Wii, Smash Bros. on top, software sales surge". Joystiq. Retrieved 2008-04-18.
  39. ^ "God of War: Chains of Olympus". Ready at Dawn. Retrieved 2009-07-30.
  40. ^ "IGN Best of 2008: Best Action Game (PSP)". IGN. 2008. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
  41. ^ "IGN Best of 2008: Best Graphics Technology (PSP)". IGN. 2008. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
  42. ^ "IGN Best of 2008: Best Use of Sound (PSP)". IGN. 2008. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
  43. ^ "GameSpot's Best Games of 2008 - Best PSP Games". GameSpot. 2008. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
  44. ^ "Dieheard GameFAN's 2008 Gaming Awards". GameFan. 2009-01-07. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
  45. ^ Noble, McKinley (2010-09-23). "The 10 Best PSP Games". GamePro. Archived from the original on 2010-10-01. Retrieved 2010-09-28.
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