Rezzolution

Taking control of Kratos and his Blades of Athena in both God of War and God of War 2 on the Playstation 2 was one of the most amazing experiences I had with that console. I couldn’t help but feel like the ultimate badass as I tore your way through mythological creatures, clever puzzles, and Greek gods. With God of War: Chains of Olympus, Ready at Dawn tries to bring that same incredible experience to the PSP, and for the most part they succeed.

Chains of Olympus takes place before the events of the original God of War where Kratos is paying off his debt to the gods after being saved by Aries. The story starts out in the city of Attica where the Persian army has unleashed a monstrous Basilisk upon the city. Your goal is to defend the city and ultimately take down the Basilisk threat. This opening sequence gives the game a great first impression and shows that the PSP is capable of giving these epic boss battles that the console versions were so highly praised for. Once finished in Attica, the gods give you one more task which I don’t want to go into too much detail about, but let me assure you, the story will keep you intrigued for the entire ride.

The first thing you will notice when picking up the PSP and trying to control Kratos is that it controls almost exactly how you would expect. All of the controls are pretty much the same as the console versions except the PSP lacks a right analog stick, so in order to evade attacks you must hold down both the left and right shoulder buttons and press the analog stick in the direction you want to move. This works well for the most part though it does take some getting used to. Another thing you might notice is that Kratos’ attacks and combos are exactly the same. This is mostly a good thing, but it seems a little weak that they wouldn’t even give him a few new moves.

As for the amount of combat in the game, there’s a whole lot of it. Almost the whole game is focused around combat with barely any puzzles to be found. This is a little disappointing because the puzzles in God of War and God of War 2 were a great change in pace from the high intensity combat, but it does make sense because they probably assumed that people would want to play it in short bursts given that it is a handheld game. Thankfully though, the combat feels great just like the console versions. The attacks and combos look and feel quick and fluid just as you would want. The magic at Kratos’ disposal feels great as well. You’ll get new spells that you haven’t seen before, though they do act much like some you’ve seen in the past. And of top of all of that there is a new weapon you receive later in the game that makes you feel like even more of a badass than the Blades of Athena. Here’s to hoping it comes back for God of War 3. The puzzles on the other hand, are extremely disappointing. In the very rare case that you do run into one of them, you will find that it’s extremely simple and only takes a few moments to solve, giving you the impression that they didn’t put much time or effort into them.

The enemies you will be fighting in Chains of Olympus will be very familiar if you played through the first two titles. You’ll see undead wearing Spartan armor, giant Minotaur, sirens, and the like. But you’ll also see some new foes that I don’t want to mention here because I think they’re pretty neat to see for yourself. The best part about all of this is they all look fantastic. The games graphics look amazing coming close in comparison to the original God of War. It’s pretty amazing seeing these types of graphics on a handheld because they’re without a doubt the best on the system. And as is to be expected, game sounds just as good as it looks. Both Kratos and the narrator have the same voice actors as the console versions and deliver astounding performances on par with their earlier ones.

My biggest complaint with the game is its length. The story will take you around 5-6 hours to complete, which is pretty short even for a handheld game. This takes away from the overall experience because it makes it feel less epic in scale and doesn’t give you as much of a feeling of accomplishment once finished. But if you’re really craving more Chains of Olympus action, it’s filled with the standard bonus content you would expect such as the challenge of Hades which is very similar to challenge of the gods from the original games, as well as various unlockable movies and costumes which you can get by playing through the story mode again on harder difficulties giving you a little more incentive to go back and do it all over again.

Even though God of War: Chains of Olympus is short, it is action packed and one hell of a game. If you’re not a huge God of War fan, but you are looking for a reason to turn on your PSP, you might want to consider renting this one, but if you’re a huge God of War fan just aching for that next piece of Kratos goriness, the $40 price tag probably won’t bother you and this will definitely wet your appetite heling hold you over until the inevitable release of God of War 3. 

            When thinking about war, what usually comes to mind is soldiers getting down and dirty on the front lines fighting for their country. But what about fighting for themselves? Battlefield: Bad Company explores this idea by putting you in the shoes of a soldier accompanied by his three other squad members as they fight for wealth and freedom. But it doesn’t just do that. It does it with big, big explosions.

            The newest installment in the Battlefield franchise drops you head first into the action by putting you into the shoes of a young soldier named Preston Marlowe who just joined Bad Company. Bad Company is a battalion of soldiers that are usually making up for their wrong doings in the past by serving the army instead of heading off to jail. Preston’s squad consists of himself, his tough as nails squad leader Redford, the greedy explosives expert Haggard, and the cautious tech guy Sweetwater. Each of these characters has their own distinct personalities with some great voice acting that give the serious scenarios you are put in some well appreciated comic relief.

            Your squad starts out doing straight forward missions against the Russians assigned to you by your superiors, but things quickly head in a vastly different direction. You run into some soldiers that you don’t recognize and after killing them, you realize that they’re a rumored mercenary army with no shortage of gold. Greed soon sets in and your squad goes AWOL on their personal mission to find the trucks carrying the gold for their own gain.

            Battlefield: Bad Company is the first game to use the new Frostbite engine, and it shows. Almost every wall in the environment is capable of blowing up in glorious fashion. This makes you think about cover a bit differently. If you see someone in a window with his head barely poking out, instead of taking careful aim and getting a headshot, you have the option of flipping up your grenade launcher sight and blasting half of the building to pieces along with your foe. And on top of all this, it all looks and sounds terrific.

            Throughout the campaign, you’ll also run into some tougher enemies such as tanks, helicopters, and boats, but you need not worry because you’ll find some pretty handy gadgets to help take these down such as rocket launchers, C4, and even a laser designator to call in a user controlled air strike. The pace at which you’re introduced to these new gadgets feels just about right giving you something new to play with every so often.

But even with all of these glorious explosions, there are a few key things that bring the experience down a few notches. My main gripe is the fact that they omit a cooperative campaign. It seems with all of the camaraderie between the four main characters, that’s exactly how the campaign is meant to be played, yet there’s no coop to be found. Another thing that struck me as a bit odd was that there isn’t really a death penalty. When you die, you just spawn at your last checkpoint with all of the enemies you previously killed still dead. So you can just run into a warzone guns blazing, kill a couple dudes, then die knowing that you’ll spawn with full health 30 yards away from where you died. And if that didn’t make the game seem easy enough, dying is something that will rarely occur due to the games way of managing your health. Very early in the game you are introduced to your handy adrenaline filled syringe that if your health gets low, you can quickly jam into your chest and be back to full health. This wouldn’t be such a big deal because it’s a pretty nice change from the now standard regenerating health system seen in most games, but the syringe recharges so quick that you’ll rarely need to use it when it’s not ready. Both the lack of death penalty and adrenaline syringe really bring down both the difficulty and believability of the game.

            But thankfully, they didn’t forget to include a very satisfying online experience. All of the great explosions, guns, and gold carry over to the online play with grace. The online mode is called Gold Rush, in which you are either an attacker or a defender. The attacker’s goal is to blow up the defender’s two gold crates, and the defenders goal is obviously to defend those crates. If the attackers blow up the two crates, then two more crates spawn in a different location and the attackers must then blow up those followed by one more pair. Once the attackers blow up the first two crates, reinforcements are sent and same with the second pair. But if the defenders manage to defend their crates, the attacker’s respawn meter will deplete giving the defenders the victory. This all feels just right with the player cap at 24 which makes the battles seem pretty large in scale.

            The online multiplayer also brings in the same sort of ranking up and weapon acquisition that games like Call of Duty 4 have. As you rank up, you will gain credits to spend on a slew of unlockables such as new guns, gadgets, and health rechargers that will give you the edge in battle. This progressive system has proved successful in the past for keeping players coming back and this is no exception.

Where Bad Company really shines is in the over the top nature of everything along with the great online multiplayer. While it does have some minor flaws, Battlefield: Bad Company is a game I’d recommend to anyone looking for a great first person shooter experience with massive, glorious explosions.