God of War: Ghost of Sparta

FUCKING AMAZING!

God of War: Ghost of Sparta is the best prequel entry in the series that, even though it is smaller in scale due to being a PlayStation Portable title, manages to provide a mainline entry-quality experience and leaves a long-term mark on the series itself.

Ghost of Sparta is a portable device entry, so obviously visuals did not quite age, but it does still look on par with God of War II visuals, and for PlayStation Portable, that was rather impressive. Art style makes character and enemy models look great; the environment is varied enough to not get boring.

Gameplay didn't change much and is comparable to God of War II; weapon variety is limited, with more variety being given to magic abilities, some of which are rather OP. Blades of Athena feel great to use; abilities are unchanged, and the new weapon finally gave Kratos iconic Spartan weaponry—spear and shield. It's quite a great addition and is on par with the blades in terms of their reliance in combat, with its throwing spear capabilities being cleverly used in some puzzles. Have to give credit to this weapon since it is laying some groundwork for GOW Ragnarok. Set pieces are present; some of them are memorable, but it's not on the same scale as mainline entries. Challenges in the option menu and the arena provide some more playtime and are fun to get play; additionally, they provide some extra content like skins, artwork, and finally a unique new playable character to mess around with in said arena, one you should experience finding it out by yourself.

Narrative is surprisingly the highlight of Ghost of Sparta; it explores the past of Kratos and addresses some of the questions that concern his family tree, properly explaining and showing the origins of the character's iconic face scar and tattoos. It was rather fun finally seeing Sparta in person, but it didn't explore it as much as I hoped. Narrative tone is rather brutal, showing the horrible fates of our protagonists mother and brother—Deimos, whose backstory and character make up the main motivation of Ghost of Sparta. It was rather interesting to learn about Deimos; his interactions with Kratos are quite memorable, but sadly not abundant enough, mostly focusing on it by the game's ending, which definitely should have been explored more. The mechanic at the ending's boss fight is quite obviously the groundwork of Atreus gameplay in GOW 2018, which I must again give this game some credit for. Honestly, I believe Ghost of Sparta should have been a AAA spin-off instead of Ascension. Given time and budget, it could have come close to the mainline entries.

To sum up, Ghost of Sparta is a pretty enjoyable but short experience that manages to tell an interesting story and provide a console-like experience on a portable device. I recommend giving it a try since Ragnarok references it quite a bit.

The second game from the PSP is another great experience that follows the success from the franchise, the greatest downside are enemies that need a specific skill to deal damage, but this is balanced on one of the main characters of the series being playable.

Nice story only

God Of War on the goo, solid story, solid gameplay, solid graphics (for psp standards) worth a try 🤙🏽

- Gameplay: 7
- Story: 8
- Characters: 7
- Sounds: 8
- Graphics: 6
- Animation: 7
- Level Design: 7
- My Opinion: 8.5
- Device Played On: PlayStation 3
- Date: Sep/2022

Total Rate: 7.3