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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)	Sony Computer Entertainment
Director(s)	Ru Weerasuriya
Writer(s)	Marianne Krawczyk Ru Weerasuriya Cory Barlog
Series	God of War
Engine	Proprietary "Ready At Dawn Engine" 2.0
Platform(s)	PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3 (God of War: Origins Collection)
Release	PlayStation Portable God of War: Origins Collection
Genre(s)	Hack and slash, action-adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player

God of War: Chains of Olympus is a third person action-adventure video game developed by Ready at Dawn and SCE Santa Monica Studio. Published by Sony Computer Entertainment, it was first released for the PlayStation Portable handheld video game console on March 4, 2008. The game is the fourth installment in the God of War series and a prequel to the original God of War. The game is the first installment released on the platform, and Ready at Dawn's second project. With over 3.2 million copies sold worldwide as of June 2012, Chains of Olympus, along with God of War: Ghost of Sparta, were remastered and released on September 13, 2011 as part of the God of War: Origins Collection for the PlayStation 3 video game console.

Protagonist Kratos is a Spartan warrior in the service of the Olympian Gods. Guided by the goddess Athena, Kratos is instructed to find the Sun God Helios, who is missing. Helios' absence hides the Sun, allowing the Dream God Morpheus, to force the remaining gods to slumber. The Queen of the Underworld, Persephone, allies with Morpheus and enlists the aid of the Titan Atlas to use Helios' power to destroy the Pillar of the World, and as a result, Olympus. God of War: Chains of Olympus is chronologically the second chapter in the series, and forms part of a saga, with vengeance as a central theme.

Debuting at fifth place on the North American charts, Chains of Olympus achieved the highest composite score for a PlayStation Portable title. 1UP.com stated that the game is "a technical showpiece for Sony, and arguably the best-looking game on the system." The game has won various awards, including Best PSP Action Game, Best Graphics Technology, and Best Use of Sound. In September 2010, GamePro named Chains of Olympus the best PSP game.

Gameplay

God of War: Chains of Olympus features the same gameplay mechanics as previous installments in the series. A third-person, single-player, fixed camera game, the player controls the character Kratos in a combination of combat, both normal and quick-time, with platforming and puzzle game elements. The player typically has to navigate Kratos through a long series of tests, trials and mazes to achieve goals.

Kratos' main weapons are the "Blades of Chaos," a pair of double-chained blades, with additional weapons, the "Sun Shield" and "Gauntlet of Zeus," acquired throughout the game. A relic called Triton's Lance is also available (allows Kratos to breathe underwater). Magic is also used, with new abilities including the use of an "Efreet", the "Light of Dawn", and "Charon's Wrath", all of which are obtained from allies and opponents in the game. Combat includes a quick-time feature, which is initiated when the player has weakened a stronger foe and an icon appears above them (corresponding to the circle button on the controller). The player then presses the corresponding button commands appearing on screen, with success ending the battle, and failure usually resulting in damage. 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.

As with other installments, chests containing orbs can be found during the game. Each chest is marked with a corresponding color: green, blue, and red. Green Orbs replenish health, blue orbs replenish magic, and red orbs provide experience for upgrading weapons and magic (e.g. new and more powerful attacks). Health and Magic increases – Gorgon Eyes and Phoenix Feathers respectively – can be found in plain, non-colored chests. Five of each are required to increase the Health and Magic bars respectively. Red orbs may also be collected by killing foes and destroying certain inanimate objects.

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. Completing each difficulty level unlocks bonus content. The sex mini-game first used in God of War also returns (an encounter with two women).

Plot

Setting

As with other games in the God of War franchise, the God of War: Chains of Olympus is set in an alternate version of ancient Greece populated by the gods, monsters and other beings prevalent in greek mythology. Initially set in the ancient city of Attica, the story moves to the Underworld as protagonist Kratos attempts to locate missing Sun God Helios and determine the motives of the Dream God Morpheus.

Characters

The principal character is Kratos, a former Captain of Sparta's Army, and once a servant to the God of War, Ares. He now serves the other Olympian Gods and wishes to be free of the nightmares that haunt him. All other characters appear in a supporting role, including Athena, goddess of Wisdom, and Kratos' mentor and ally; Eos, goddess of Dawn and the sister of Helios; Persephone, the Queen of the Underworld and main antagonist; and Atlas, a four-armed Titan imprisoned in Tartarus after the Great War. Kratos' deceased daughter Calliope briefly reunites with her father in the Fields of Elysium. Linda Hunt continues in her role as the Narrator.

Story

During Kratos' ten years of service to the Olympian Gods, he is sent to the city of Attica to help defend it from the invading Persian army. 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. As he fights his way through the city of Marathon, the Spartan witnesses the black fog of the Olympian Morpheus cover the land. He also hears a haunting flute melody which he eventually recognizes as a melody 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. Eventually locating Eos (the sister of Helios), the goddess advises that the Titan Atlas has abducted her brother. Also learning of the Primordial Fires, Kratos retrieves them and awakens 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, the Spartan returns and destroys the ferryman.

After 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 he 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 and then battles Persephone to the death. Although 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 loses consciousness from the exertion and plummets to the ground. He is saved, however, by Athena and Helios, who then return to Olympus.

Development

Ready At Dawn pitched the idea of a God of War game for the PlayStation Portable to SCEA's Santa Monica Studios. In February 2007, Ready At Dawn posted a teaser for an upcoming handheld God of War title (featured "PSP" in the Omega symbol with the words "Coming Soon" in the God of War font). An editor from 1UP also obtained an early copy of God of War II and posted the game's instruction manual (featuring a one-page teaser with "Coming 2007") on the internet. 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." An initial teaser trailer for Chains of Olympus was released on April 25, 2007 coinciding with the announcement of a UMD demo. The trailer depicts Kratos in the city of Attica, with a narrative provided by voice actress Linda Hunt.

God of War: Chains of Olympus uses a proprietary, in-house engine referred to as the Ready at Dawn engine (the work expanded on the engine created for Daxter and included a fluid and cloth simulator). The camera system was modified to cater to the fixed cinematic camera for God of War gameplay, and the lighting system was reworked to aid in presenting realistic graphics. The game was originally designed for the PlayStation Portable system's restricted 222 MHz processor. Ready at Dawn repeatedly contacted Sony regarding increasing the clock speed of the PSP on account of the difference to the game and had actually developed a version of the game with the improved speed. During game 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. The battery life, however, is noticeably decreased due to the higher clock speed required to operate the game. 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.

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 battles a number of Persian soldiers and a giant Basilisk. 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. 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. The game was scheduled to be released during the fourth quarter of 2007, but the release date was then rescheduled for March 4, 2008. Due to the delay Ready At Dawn Studios offered a "special edition" version of the demo to pre-order customers, with one Ready at Dawn developer stating that preparation of the special demo disc took up to 40% of the team's production time. 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.

Release

God of War: Chains of Olympus was released on March 4, 2008 in North America, March 28, 2008 in Europe, and April 27, 2008 in Australia. The game was also released in Japan on July 10, 2008 by Capcom. 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. 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.

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.

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. 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. God of War: Origins Collection was also released to download on the PlayStation Store on September 13, 2011 in North America (including full game trials of both games).

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. Ready at Dawn reported shipping 1 million units of Chains of Olympus prior to release, and as of June 2012, it has sold more than 3.2 million copies worldwide, in addition to 711,737 copies as part of the God of War: Origins Collection. Chains of Olympus also gained universal critical acclaim from reviewers 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, and 91 percent at GameRankings based on 81 reviews. GamePro praised the game's "fantastic" graphics and "tight and responsive" controls. IGN's Chris Roper noted that the developer "has done a stellar job of keeping Kratos' move set intact". Matt Leone of 1UP.com claimed Chains of Olympus is "a technical showpiece for Sony, and arguably the best-looking game on the system." GameTrailers praised the replay value: "thank Zeus himself, when you replay the game you can bring your powered-up methods of destruction with you."

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". 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". Chris Roper criticized the length as "relatively short". 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". 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." In September 2010, God of War: Chains of Olympus was listed number one on GamePro's "The 10 Best PSP Games" list.

Awards

In IGN's Best of 2008 Awards, the game received the awards for Best PSP Action Game, Best Graphics Technology, and Best Use of Sound. In GameSpot's Best Games of 2008, the game received the Readers' Choice Award. Diehard GameFAN awarded the game Best PSP Game for 2008. At the 2008 Spike Video Game Awards, the game was nominated for Best Handheld Game.

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. Marino composed roughly thirteen minutes of new music for the game and re-worked other music from the previous titles. Three tracks from the soundtrack are included as bonus tracks on the God of War: Ghost of Sparta soundtrack.

See also

• 2008 in video gaming
• 2011 in video gaming

References

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External links

• Official USA Site
• Official European Site
• God of War: Chains of Olympus at Internet Movie Database
• Template:Dmoz

• 2008 video games
• God of War
• Mythology-based video games
• PlayStation Portable games
• PlayStation 3 games
• Video game prequels
• Video games with stereoscopic 3D graphics