I was finally able to fire up that God of War: Chains of Olympus demo yesterday, and boy was that one heck of a treat for any PSP owner. I went into the demo expecting more bland, more of the same, more of what I have come to expect from my PSP. I don’t think of it so much as a gaming platform as much as I think of it as a technology stepping stone: Sony’s way of entering the handheld market. I think they focus too much on making it a handheld PS2 than they do a practical gaming machine for ‘on the go’ type use. Most of the game on the system I would rather play in front of my TV rather than between classes or driving somewhere. But I suppose thats beside the point. Onto the game.
From the moment it was booted up it was nonstop action. It was very similar to the PS2 counterparts in almost every conceivable way, and I say this as a compliment. I was surprised how well they were able to get this game to look on the little hand held with only minimal slowdown (which I only noticed when the game was loading something from the memory stick). It looks and played just like it did on the console except now you can take it with you. The PSP has been crying out for a game that plays smoothly: something that doesn’t require dual analog sticks or a better frame rate. The game was also filled with the cinematic action that has come to be expected from the God of War franchise. Sequences where you are fighting a giant monster and right before you finish it does it get eaten by a bigger monster that you now have to defeat. One thing I am not too fond of, however are the mash this button sequences where when you are finishing a boss it will show the circle on the screen and you need to hit it before it disappears, followed by another random cross or triangle. To me this has never really added to the game as much as it does the frustration. But this is a mild complaint. Overall I simply can’t wait for this game to come out and it will be one of the best games to have come out in the past few months, but were there really any good releases lately? Let us know in the forums what you thought of the demo!
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