The story of God of War: Chains of Olympus takes place some 10 years before the first God of War (originally released for the PS2). Strange thing: this fact is not immediately apparent and is, in fact, not made definitively apparent anywhere in the game. The game begins without context. The box explains nothing. The so called "manual" contains nothing but a few pages describing basic play mechanics. I finally found the answer to my questions about God of War chronology at wikipedia. It seems a strange, if ultimately irrelevant, oversight given how story driven the game series has been. Oh well, as it turns out, I really don't care so much about back story when gameplay is this freakin' awesome.

Clocking out after 6 hours of gameplay (on easy), Chains of Olympus is a fantastic, but short, game.

For those not in the know: God of War is an action adventure game with a strong focus on combat and some mild environmental puzzles. In an age where the ancient Greek gods are still around and meddling, you play the fearsome warrior, Kratos, also known as the "Ghost of Sparta". He's an angry angry man with magical blades attached to his arms via magical chains. But then, you'd be angry too if the god of war (Ares) had you fight and fight on his behalf, and then when the nightmares came, offered you no relief. The nightmares suffered by Kratos are explained in the first God of War which takes place ten years hence. Whilst conquering some countryside hamlet, in one of his long running rages, Kratos unknowingly kills his own wife and child, realizing his error only once the deed is done. Everything he's done since has been an effort to redeem himself, or failing that, to at least get rid of the nightmares. How's this for a spoiler: nothing works. Ever. Sucks to be Kratos.

No seriously, he totally gets the short end of every stick.

So, while the current chronological context of the story is not communicated particularly well, the telling of the "current" story is very nicely done via a combination of real time rendering and the pre-rendered cut scenes. The story in Chains of Olympus has to do with someone stealing the sun from the sky, Morpheus putting the gods to sleep, and some other business about Titans. Oh, and the end of all life as we know it. As per usual, the gods promise to be nice to Kratos if he saves the world. And so off you go.

They lie, of course, but it makes for a helluva fun time.

Chains is a shortish game. On easy, I beat it in six hours. And I su-uck. On normal or hard, it would probably take me another 3 or 4 hours as I would spend much of my time selecting "Restart from last Checkpoint". Which is to say: I didn't die much on easy, so I pretty much breezed through the game. I may have missed a couple of secret rooms, but only a couple. So yeah, it is short, but those six hours were far and away the best six hours I've ever spent on my PSP. Period. Hands down. Without compare. They were so good, in fact, that I'll probably do them again.

And this is all despite the fact that it's on a PSP (not my first choice for 3D action adventure). Chains of Olympus looks and plays great. It looks as good as God of War ever has: fantastic. The controls are tight and responsive. And some way, somehow, that tiny little PSP with its dinky little speakers and that tiny little screen manages convey the visceral feel of laying down the smack upon monsters that deserve to die.

If you're willing to shell out $7 per hour for your entertainment (plus the cost of a PSP), then I recommend that you buy this game at your earliest convenience. If you're a cheapskate, find a store that will rent it to you.