God Of War: Chains Of Olympus comes damn close to
recreating the experience of playing an action game on your couch. But part of
the problem with simulating the console experience on a handheld is holding up
the comparison all the way. God Of War II was a shot of slick, blockbuster goodness
mainlined into players' bloodstreams like a videogame speedball. God Of War:
Chains Of Olympus
feels like a mere taste.
Everything is scaled back a hair. The variety of
beasties, vastness of the temples, and epic scope of the story are all dialed
down. It isn't like Kratos is stuck killing rats out behind his neighborhood
gyro shack: The ghost of Sparta is tasked with the suitably Herculean task of
returning the sun to the sky. The guy even goes toe-to-toe with Charon, the
ferryman on the river Styx. But at this point, excursions to the underworld are
like trips to Trader Joe's for Kratos. No biggie. Just don't forget the
Two-Buck Chuck.
