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God Of
War: Ghost of Sparta
By Oliver Von
Trapp III
Like a bus packed with serial killers on the way
to a Wiltshire product launch, welcome the blood thirsty,
violence-em-up, God of War: Ghost of Sparta. The brutal spectacle lands
on psp for the 2nd time. This time as last - realised on the diminutive
and often neglected Sony portable by hot ticket developers - ready at
dawn. These guys and gals setup a picture of the world - all storms,
90's angst and brooding gods, then hands you a bloody paintbrush to
embellish your own distinctive art style.
Though the only palette you ever get to sample is
that of dishing out pain or even pain with a tinge of revenge. That is
the world. Even loved ones can't escape Kratos' wrath. As an
example - not long after slaying your mother reanimated as a
slavering were-baboon, Thera, a nice enough God, asks you a favor and
for no good reason I could fathom, you must attack her. Hmm...
This after a cut scene where Kratos - ever angsty
- delivers more lines in a frustrated yell. The term petulant child
springs to mind when describing the anti hero here. I'm yet to unlock
the scene where he picks up a carton of milk from a healthfood store,
“THREE DOLLARS SEVENTY FIVE!?! DO NOT ANGER ME!!!” then Kratos
eviscarates a customer dithering over Bonsoy and Vitasoy.
Beyond the story and characterisation, which is
squarely aimed at 12 year old boys (despite the MA15 rating) GOW plays
like a good'un. Fighting is brisk and responsive, the developers have
kindly kept camera control to themselves, only offering the best view
of the superb scenery and murdering on offer. I did find blocking to be
the only sore point control wise, one has to be quite a step ahead to
block the dirty shitters trying to prise your arms from your
still-twitching corpse.
When not shouting at people and / or killing them,
Kratos seems to spend his time moving between sections of wonderfully
realised / burning Greek Islands to areas teeming with easy to defeat
skeletons or zombies or whatever else that can be killed - (yes, great
graphics, but the psp screen is really to small to do it all justice) -
to a mini boss, to more scenery to more skeletons to a big boss. Then a
slide along a rope or down a lava chute.
There are a number of difficulty spikes (which
maybe discounts them as being spikes, more corrugations), which I
actually found to be kinda exciting. If only to break the monotony of
spamming buttons on weak sauce enemies between times. Here the combat
system is deep, though it never quite feels like you really need to use
all the moves at your disposal. Except on mini bosses, forcing hours of
dying and “ONE MORE GO YOU DIRTY BASTARDS!” moments. And play
it I did, would and will - maybe...
Y'see, Ghost of Sparta is exactly as I imagined
it. The only things that surprised me was the lightning load times, a
godsend on the psp. The sections where you run between
stoushes being so frequent. The absolutely atrocious script
and voice direction for Kratos (the only way he could be more petulant
would be to hurl his own faeces at the screen). These points were all
real surprises. Absolutely everything else was not, tight, linear
gameplay. Its like the God of War series is video gaming's answer to
Micheal Bay movies.
This for me was the central rub of the whole game:
- cutting edge tech, lightning load speeds, beautiful to look at (in a
Cradle of Filth way), some great, satisfying combat. But all couched in
a doggedly linear, nothing new but super polished action and some
typical videogame story dross which makes Altered Beast seem like
genius. Ready At Dawn even has the tried and tested blue smoke of
cannot pass - circa 1992. Which is hardly a step forward in game
mechanics. I should have suggested to Zeus and Co. that they just chuck
Kratos into a pit of blue smoky light and be done with it.
This is what holds Ghost of Sparta back is that it
is more of the same. The focus groups that make Activision's COD a
multimillion seller feel at work here. If you've never played a God of
War then this will impress as a game. Or if you are 12. Or if you only
ever played Altered Beast on Megadrive.
But I can't help but be impressed, as it does
look, sound and for the most part play wonderfully. But is that enough?
I want more. I wanted to explore the world that was so lovingly
created. All I got to do was be a violence artist. And I hate to say
it, but maybe games need more than being able to stab people in the
face time after time.
Game: God Of War:
Ghost Of Sparta
System: Playstation Portable
Developer: Ready At Dawn Studios
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Rating: 80%
(Ratings
Key/Explanation)
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